Hi Everyone! My Bose Soundlink Air "Airplay" system arrived this morning, its all set up and working so here are my thoughts on the system.
The Bose Soundlink Air looks like a small boombox, it stands around 17 centimetres high and is around 20 centimetres from left to right. The front contains the steel mesh speaker grill and the rest is hard shiny plastic. The system is portable so can be moved from room to room, it is powered by either by the supplied AC adapter or the optional rechargeable battery pack. The Soundlink Air can connect to a variety of sources through its Line-in jack but the main way to connect to other devices is through a Wi-Fi network, from here you have total control of the System via the supplied Remote Controller and I'll illustrate this shortly. There are 2 ways to get the Soundlink Air connected to your Wi-Fi network, the first involves connecting the system via the supplied USB cable to your computer, opening your browser and downloading a piece of software, the software is then run and you follow a series of instructions to have the system connect to your network. The "Alternate" setup method involves joining the built-in Wi-Fi network of the Soundlink Air, opening a browser on your computer or mobile device and setting up the system from the displayed HTML Interface, I chose this method. Once the Soundlink Air is connected to your Wi-Fi network you're ready to start streaming your music/audio content, you use iTunes to do this or an Airplay device manager such as Airfoil for Windows or Mac, of course you can use the "Airplay" button in the "Music" App on your IOS device to start the streaming process. Once audio is streaming to the Soundlink air you can manipulate what's being played with the supplied remote controller, you can play/pause/stop or turn the Soundlink to "Standby", skip between tracks and so on. The remote controller has all the buttons detented so they won't be knocked or pressed by accident. The Soundlink Air itself only contains 3 controls, the volume up/down buttons which are touch buttons and the Reset button on the bottom which is used to reset the system or to join the Wi-Fi network of the Soundlink Air, you can join this network either to set up the system to join your home network or for streaming directly from your mobile device etc to the Soundlink Air when out of range of your home network. The touch volume up and down buttons can be used without problem if you have no vision as they're indented into the right hand side of the system. For a portable system the Soundlink Air exhibits very nice audio characteristics but what else would you expect from bose? The price is fairly competitive when compared to other "Airplay" speaker systems on the market and most of these don't sound as good and there are certainly very few portable systems around, the price of the Soundlink Air is around $450 excluding the rechargeable battery. A recessed handle in the back of the system allows for easy moving from room to room, the handle also acts as a passive radiator for low frequency sounds. I have no hesitation in recommending this system particularly if you're looking for something portable which can be moved around the house and requires no connection to any of your devices. A Bluetooth version of the Soundlink is also available. ********** Dane Trethowan Skype: grtdane12 Phone US (213) 438-9741 Phone U.K. 01245 79 0598 Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 Mobile: +61400494862 Fax +61397437954 ********** Dane Trethowan Skype: grtdane12 Phone US (213) 438-9741 Phone U.K. 01245 79 0598 Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 Mobile: +61400494862 Fax +61397437954 To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org
