The Bose has a generally warm and tight sound that is particularly good at hiding the sins of poorly recorded (or ripped) music. (Bose reps told us that because they want to include the preset theme across whatever services they add, it requires some custom programming that makes the development process more complicated). While Bose hasn't specifically stated it will integrate Spotify, it has said that it's working on adding all major music services, so presumably both Spotify and Ogg support are forthcoming. Two additional file formats we'd like to see supported are WAV and Ogg Vorbis, the format that Spotify is encoded in. Like Sonos, the system doesn't tell you tell you which format your music is in, and if it encounters a file type it can't play, the player can simply halt without a warning message (Bose engineers told us this happened because we were playing files from a networked server). Unlike with Samsung and Sonos devices, there is no 'play from my device' feature unless you set up a DLNA server on it (via Windows Media Player, for example).

The speaker supports DLNA playback from remote devices as well of the file formats MP3, WMA, AAC and Apple Lossless - FLAC support is on the way. While the number of supported music services is skimpy right now, iPhone users have the benefit of using AirPlay for native apps instead (in other words, you can play Spotify via AirPlay if you want). In addition to Pandora and Internet radio, the company has said it plans to add IHeartRadio and Deezer in the second half of 2014. Unlike other streaming newcomers like the Samsung Shape and Phorus, the Bose lacks Bluetooth capability, but to balance this out it does add Apple AirPlay. To get your music up and running, you simply press one of the preset buttons that's on the speaker or the included remote, or within one of the apps. You can also link one of the presets to the music library on your PC or a specific playlist. Using the apps, you can drag and drop specific Pandora or Internet radio stations onto a number to set it as a preset. Each number corresponds to a preset in the app. As noted, Bose's simplicity theme revolves around the use of 'presets' all the new speakers and apps (Android and iOS devices, as well as Macs and Windows PCs are supported at launch) are equipped with buttons numbered 1 through 6.

Bose soundtouch wifi vs bluetooth