It’s great that everyone has a bluetooth speaker for weekends away, but there is a very real problem about having one as your primary home entertainment system. Here’s why.

Remember back in the early 2000s when everyone bought themselves an iPod docking Bose speaker?

Adorable.

That was back in the day when people actually used iPods for anything other than exercise. How many of you have one of those docking speakers in a drawer or stationed in a room with that same old iPod (and playlist) slotted in? We have one at our holiday house, I think. That thing is so old it can’t even charge anymore – it shuts off if you pull it out of the dock.

Now we have iPhones (or *cough* others…) and even the ‘late adopters’ have realised that one device is better than two. So they ‘download’ music onto their phones and pat themselves on the back when they link their phone to a bluetooth speaker. So progressive. If only they knew they’re behind the game – again – on so many fronts.

• When your phone rings or if you leave the room, your bluetooth music stops.
• When you listen to a WhatsApp message, your bluetooth music stops.
• When you’re listening to bluetooth music, your phone urgently needs a power cable before it runs dry.

As I said – on holiday or weekends away, a bluetooth speaker is great. But it doesn’t work at home.

What I suggest you do:

1. You urgently need to raise your game and discover streaming music. Whether it’s Deezer or TuneIn Radio (I use that to listen to BBC World Service and Monocle Radio) or Spotify – if you’re not streaming music you are radically behind the curve and will end up alone and sad.
2. You need to get proper internet at home, either fibre (here) or something else that’s fast and uncapped (or very big – mine’s a 100MB line with 500GB a month).
3. When you’re tired asking everyone for wifi passwords, you might even (God forbid) increase your phone data plan. My data plan from Vodacom costs just over a grand a and gives me 30 gigs a month. I never worry about overspending and I never have to scrounge around for wi-fi – even using my laptop in public it’s easier using my phone hotspot.
4. Get yourself a wi-fi speaker. I highly recommend the Bose SoundTouch range, which outperforms any others on so many levels (read here).
5. The SoundTouch range streams music from an app on your phone (via Deezer, TuneIn and others), whilst also allowing bluetooth and cable AUX IN connections.
6. It can also stream on its own, via 6 preset buttons – so you don’t even need your phone.
7. The Bose SoundTouch range let’s you start off with one speaker and build up over time, adding new speakers (wirelessly linked) around your home (read here).
8. We’re giving a 7,5% discount on new SoundTouch speakers from Bose – read up about that here.
9. It’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in your life – see below.

This is where we are now, guys. This is where you need to be, realistically.

The 7,5% discount on the Bose SoundTouch range of speakers is from Sound Systems Cape, the official home of Bose in Cape Town. This is available to all 2oceansvibe readers. Simply click HERE for the voucher, and show it when you visit their store. You can print it out or just take a picture on your phone.

Do yourself a favour and just take a look (and listen) at what these things can do. When you’re ready to have music in your home, I cannot recommend a better system – even if it is just the Bose SoundTouch 10 to get you started 😉

Don’t forget that voucher when you head through to Sound Systems Cape.