Bose Smart Sound Bar for TV, Bluetooth Surround Sound Speaker System, Black

We had a large sound receiver with surround speakers for years. Way too complicated. As we've gotten a little bit older and our hearing isnt quite as good as it was, we've noticed we are struggling to hear voices with these sound systems we've had. We chose to try Bose and got the Bose Smart soundbar. It's Great! Great sound, great voice clarity. Very, very easy to use. We just added a Bose base module and wireless surround speakers, too. Wonderful sound. Bose is expensive but after the receivers we've had in the past years, Bose is worth it. Such amazing sound in a smaller package.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] The Bose Smart Soundbar did raise the bar in sound quality and overall performance. Having watched movies and listened to music with this product for weeks now, my expectations in terms of sound quality and build were honestly exceeded. The sound it produces are rich, detailed, crisp and truly immersive. The sound particularly when watching movies fills the room, enhancing the experience. The soundbar is also beautifully built - sleek and modern, it fits perfectly with my home setup and feels very premium. It's sturdy and solid. That said, I had issue connecting the soundbar to the Bose app. After countless, trials, I have given up trying to connect the soundbar to the Bose app. There are no display units on this soundbar, this makes it difficult to understand where you are with the controls example the volume, mode etc. Overall, I am incredibly happy with the performance as it has proven to be a great addition to my home entertainment system. Highly recommend!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Setting up the Smart Soundbar Our TV is on a stand with a column that hides most of the cables. So that I could use our original Bose TV Soundbar I purchased brackets that enables mounting above or below a TV. Wall mounting wasn't an option for me. One change I had to make for the Smart Soundbar was to lower the mounting so that I could get a clear gap (over 4”) between the top of the soundbar and the bottom of the TV to accommodate the upward firing speakers. The Bose Wave Soundtouch has been relegated to the bottom of the stack. There's no room for it on the shelf below the TV. Our older TV (still with great high definition pictures) does not have HDMI with ARC but it does have HDMI-CEC. So I use the optical connector for the audio but with an HDMI connection as well. That way my TV still controls the Soundbar and pressing the on/off button on the Soundbar remote takes the TV in/out of Standby. The Panasonic TV, when it detects a Soundbar, adds an extra line to the menu shown above - this allows the selection of ‘Home Cinema' which mutes the TV sound sending control signals via the HDMI connection. The on screen message seen when changing the volume becomes ‘Home Cinema Volume'. Soundbar in use: The Bose App is easy to use and really helped with setting up the Smart Soundbar, it provides access to controls not on the supplied remote. One control I'd like to see on the remote is a button to quickly turn the AI Dialogue Mode on or off - music sounds better with it turned off. We bought our original Bose TV Soundbar because we realised we were turning the TV volume up to compensate for our perception of poor audio quality for dialogue. The TV Soundbar made a real difference. But now four years on and into our 70s we're back to needing a boost. The Smart Soundbar has solved it. Volume levels are turned back down and the AI Dialogue Mode makes speech crystal clear. Our neighbours will be ecstatic! I've been listening to audio streamed from my iPhone - Adele is really clear, Texas (Sharleen Spiteri - “I don't want a lover”) sounds amazing, it really does Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox justice. I played one of my Christmas presents (Everything But The Girl - Fuse) and it sounded really good. Samuel Barber (Adagio for Strings) the violins really soared - ethereal. Led Zeppelin, the Stones and the Who? - I've not enjoyed them this much since I used to watch them live. But perhaps that's why I now need dialogue enhancement when watching TV? I initially connected my iPhone via Bluetooth but then switched to using AirPlay - so much easier - a nice touch. The festive season has been a good time for exploring the Smart Soundbar's potential as our apartment neighbours have all been away! Movies were a hit with great sound - clear effects and speech - Bose Truespace Technology enhances the experience and we were joined by Mariah Carey and The Pogues - singing along with us whilst we cooked on Christmas Day. Overall I'm impressed with the sound quality, the Smart Soundbar performs very well with our TV and I'm sure it will be better still when paired with a TV that supports eARC - so we get the full benefit of Dolby Atmos. As an audio speaker connected to my iPhone - streaming from my music library, the Smart Soundbar sounds great and is easy to use. I'm very pleased with my upgrade!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Straight out of the box the initial impression was that the soundbar looked good, sleek and felt well made. Set up. The set up video was very easy to follow and the bar was amazingly quick and easy to set up. Connected to our 43” Samsung TV's HDMI (Audio Return Channel - ARC) with the supplied HDMI cable. Due to its sleek design it sits snugly below the TV, making sure the upward facing speaker was not obstructed. The Bose app had to be downloaded from the App Store and whilst not flashy it was easy to navigate, register the soundbar and go through the set up process. It also has helpful links to support pages should you require them. Connected easily to our home Wi-fi and then to the Alexa app by means of enabling the Bose Soundbar skill. The Voice4video facility was easy to set up and use. It could be especially useful if you misplace the remote, allowing you to change channels or media source. The Blu-tooth picked up my iPhone and iPad easily allowing easy streaming of music. In short this was as close to a ‘plug and play' soundbar that you could wish for, with set up taking minutes. Usage. One reason I was looking forward to using this soundbar was the AI Dialogue mode. I often find it difficult to pick out dialogue when watching TV. We don't have the room for a surround sound system so I wondered if engaging the AI Dialogue mode might detract from the overall experience. With it being the festive season we have watched many genres of film and drama, I am glad to say that dialogue is a lot clearer with this enhancement and it doesn't detract from the overall experience, you can still hear feint footsteps in the background, the rain falling, bangs and crashes with all the depth needed whilst hearing every word whispered or shouted. Love it. I use the speaker a lot to stream music from my own library and radio stations and have used the Alexa app to link the soundbar to other blu-tooth speakers I have to have music in multiple rooms. Due to not wanting numerous handsets I was happy to be able to link the soundbar to my Virgin Media handset, meaning that due to the ARC connection the soundbar becomes active once the TV produces audio. There were a couple of early niggles with the TV not recognising the sound bar when the TV/cable box was initially turned on and when switching between streaming music and turning the TV/cable box on, resulting in 10-15 seconds of integrated TV sound before the soundbar kicked in. Overall we are very impressed and happy with the Bose smart soundbar.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] A few months ago Bose reached out to me as an existing customer and offered me a mystery product for review which turned out to be the Bose Smart Soundbar. I have owned many sets of Bose headphones and a single TV soudbar, the Bose TV speaker, that I bought in 2022. It was the cheapest soundbar in their range and delivered a decent experience that left me quite content. The Smart Soundbar on review costs twice as much as the TV Speaker and half as much as the Smart Ultra Soundbar, making it the very definition of mid-range. Installation was easy as I reused the HDMI and power cables but even so that would have only taken a moment. Connecting the My Bose app was tricky as the Smart Soundbar seemed to have difficulty with my Wi-Fi. Part of the issue is that the Smart Soundbar has no control buttons or any visual indication for volume and you have to rely on an amber light to tell you that you are in set-up mode. Once we got past that point the firmware updated itself and the connection has been rock solid, allowing full use of the app to change settings and make adjustments. My demands on the Smart Soundbar are very light and I mainly want clear dialogue when I watch TV and movies, along with music that is clear and accurate. I am less interested in Michael Bay Crash Boom sound effects. One minor annoyance (that might be an issue with my LG TV) is that every few days the connection to the speaker will reset and I am suddenly listeing to the internal TV speaker. This only happens when I turn the TV on and not when the TV is in use. The difference in audio quality is so plain that I immediately know what has happened and use the remote to switch the connection. I am aware I am using the Smart soundbar in an incorrect manner as it is tucked away under the TV within the TV stand when it should be in the open air. I tweaked the audio settings in the app slightly and am happy with the results. In my photos the one with single soundbar shows the new Smart Soundbar. In the second photo you see the old TV Speaker added on top of the TV stand.