Smart Dolby Atmos Soundbar, All-in-One Soundbar for TV, A.I. Dialogue Mode, Voice Control and Amazon Alexa Built-in, Supports Bluetooth/AirPlay/Spotify Connect/Chromecast, Black

I must preface this review by saying that I am using this soundbar for music only and in a far from ideal room setup. I purchased the Bose Smart Soundbar to upgrade the sound from my Sony PS-LX310BT Bluetooth Turntable which I purchased in July 2023. Up to this point I was using the Bose TV Speaker, coupled with the Bose Bass Module 5 for sound. It worked out fine but the TV Speaker is a base model with few features and settings and is made primarily to...well... enhance tv sound. As soon as I connected the Bose Smart Soundbar via Bluetooth (quite effortlessly) and played a record I knew that this was game changer for me. The sound coming from my turntable is clear, bassy, and defined. I'm hearing instrumentation that I had not noticed earlier. Then the CD sound, connected via Digital Coaxial Cable to Optical Toslink by a DAC blew me away. Crystal clear. I wasn't originally thrilled with the idea of having to use my phone to operate a stereo speaker but after downloading the Bose App everything works seamlessly. Plus there is a provided remote so as not to rely on your phone 100%. Once I made speaker settings on the app that I was happy with, the soundbar keeps it all in memory so it can be as "set it and forget it" as you want it to be. I have the Bose Bass Module 5 connected via a 3.5mm cable and it provides more than enough bass. My listening room is small, 10' x 10'. The Bose Smart Soundbar sits 80" high from the floor, atop a shelf system so the sound is coming from overhead. Not great placement but this speaker can handle it. The soundbar speakers located on the top of the unit are turned up higher and the sound bounces off the ceiling, if that makes sense, and this setting really provides room-filling (and beyond) sound. Another great feature is the auto-on/off where the speaker will turn itself on when it senses a Bluetooth signal All I do is push one "on" button on the turntable and the speaker connects within two seconds. So my Bose TV Speaker is serving it's next life connected to the bedroom tv and doing a fine job delivering great TV sound, replacing an old Vizio sound bar that had ongoing connectivity issues. The Bose Smart Soundbar along with it's Base Module buddy are now pumping out tunes and I can say that it was money well spent. I highly recommend.

I’m not sure why people say it’s difficult to set up, it was extremely easy. You plug it in, download the Bose app, if you don’t pretty have it, and follow the prompts. My TV even told me I needed to switch the HDMI cable for it to one that was compatible. Sound is phenomenal and volume works great right through TV remote. It comes with its own, which will come him handy for music when the TV is off, but you can also control the bar from the app or voice with Alexa. Absolutely love it!

Initial setup was a little frustrating due to lack of clear instructions to get settings done. will need to download and app. The sound is actually great, and it really doesnt need a sub if you dont have carpet in the room. Atmos works fine contrary to other reviewers. The material you are watching, as well as your tv have to be atmos enabled and content watching must include. if not, just like anything else, it doesnt play in atmos! I have a 2k receiver to my home theatre that will not play thx/dts:x, imax, or atmos unless content being played is encoded as such. that is a/the user error on their part. Next, the functions-there isnt a display to tell you what mode you are in, ie-bluetooth/tv/etc. you just have to guess or use the app. someone said they had a red light, well, change your input and a different color comes on, just like 80% of all other soundbars. some people will leave a bad review due to their ignorance or ability to research. I replaced a kllipsch 5:1 soundbar/sub combo with this. this is much more clear and the tone for general tv/movies is better than the klipsch. sound is warmer. I did tune in app to how i prefer which was not a problem. would be 5 stars if not for 1 thing the 1 thing-initial set up to app is on network and not bluetooth. this took a few times and a bit of frustration to get to work and connect to the app. then firmware up[date removed connection and had to do all over again. i actually was getting angry due to the time it took to connect and how many attempts it took. would i buy again, yes, sound is great, much better than most and does actually work when you have correct format media playing.

Great item great sound and easy installation.

Bought this, a matching subwoofer, and two rear surround speakers hoping it would work as well as my old Bose entertainment system. I must say that I am deeply disappointed in the quality of the sound and the connectivity issues. Right out of the box, the remote control was half disassembled (the face fell right off). After six months, I'd have to power it down, disconnect, and reconnect it just to get the HDMI-ARC to work. Then, right immediately after 12 months, it stopped working completely. Now it is stuck in firmware update mode. Went to the Bose website and no luck there. Tried everything I found online about how to reset, update firmware, reset network, etc. Found out that it had turned itself into a useless brick. There is no support for this either. I've been stuck on hold from Bose for over 20 minutes as if my time does not matter. Ease of Installation: 1 star because the ports in the back are just too close to the wall. Modify or get different mounts. Sound Quality: 2 stars because the sound quality of the soundbar itself is nothing to write home about Connectivity: 0 stars because it does not stay connected using HDMI-ARC (and yes, I have the right cables) Quality: 0 stars because it is again, a brick. Overall rating: 0 stars because it has been a complete waste of my time, effort, and money. It is, after all, just a brick.

Extremely useful particularly for areas where you don't want to use wires and r separate systems or speakers. This thing is strong, powerful and provides a very high quality stereo surround sound listening experience for under $500. In my personal audiophile experience, this thing sounds and works perfectly, isn't expensive all provides everything I could ask for and more. No, I do not and have not ever worked with Amazon, Bose or any of their associates that I am aware of!

Great sound, simple setup and contrary to what some other reviewers have written, you can actually use this with a non-Bose subwoofer if you use a cable connection and it works just fine with my old Sony sub. Alexa is a nice bonus. The HDMI ARC port on my LG OLED TV apparently has failed which resulted in my old amplifier/speaker setup no longer working, which is the reason I ordered this. The HDMI connection didn't work with the Bose soundbar either, but the optical connection works fine.

I bought this soundbar because my wife has a hard time hearing dialogue on many TV shows. This model of Bose soundbar advertised a mode for clarifying dialogue, and that's why I bought it. In fact it DOES clarify dialogue quite significantly, and if that was the only thing I was rating it on, I'd have given it 5 stars. Unfortunately, this soundbar was difficult to set up, and not particularly intuitive to operate once it is set up. There is no user manual included with the product, just a link to download an app for mobile devices. The app is used for both setting up the product as well as operating it once it's set up. For starters, until I got the app I wasn't aware that the TV I intended to connect the soundbar to needed to have an ARC or eARC HDMI connection, OR an optical cable jack. Fortunately, mine had both. Once I had the electric power cord plugged into the soundbar's power jack and a wall outlet, and the HDMI cable connected to the soundbar's HDMI jack and the TV's ARC jack, then made sure the soundbar was connected to my wi-fi, and it's Bluetooth paired with my tablet, I turned on the TV to hear what the soundbar sounded like. I got nothing. Then it occurred to me that I didn't even know if the power to the soundbar was on, since there isn't a pilot light (a light to indicate power is ON) on the soundbar. Eventually I discovered that you need to look at the Bose app to see if the power is on or not. I ended up spending almost two hours trying, unsuccessfully, to get the TV's audio to play through the soundbar, at which point I wondered if it worked at all. I connected my tablet, via Bluetooth, to the soundbar and was able to get it to play music from an internet source, so I knew the soundbar's speakers and sound amplifier were working properly--just not from the TV. I disconnected the HDMI cable from the TV to the soundbar and replaced it with the optical cable that came with the soundbar. Still no sound from the TV to the soundbar. The app said if there was no sound, I might have to try different "CEC" settings, which are available on the app. I tried all 7 of those--again with no success. At that point I gave up, figuring I'd call the Bose help line the next day. The next morning I decided to look at the TV's menu to see if I was missing something. Turned out I was. I have an LG OLED TV, and on that model, in the menus system, you need to go to Audio Settings, deselect Internal Speakers and select ARC/optical audio output. I did that, but still no sound from the soundbar. Then I saw one more setting under Audio Settings on the TV--one that said SIMPLINK. It had two options, ON and OFF. It was set to OFF, and when I selected ON, I finally got sound from the soundbar! End of story, right? It should've been, but I've had the soundbar for less than a week, and have had numerous issues with it. Mind you, when it's on and in use with the TV, it works fine. What the app, nor any other source of information for the soundbar, doesn't tell you is that when you use your TV's remote to turn the TV on or off, it automatically also simultaneously turns the soundbar on or off. Also, if you use the soundbar's included remote to turn the soundbar on or off, it also turns the TV on or off. That would be okay if you always want the TV on when you use the soundbar, but if you, say, want to use the soundbar to listen to internet music, or music from your computer's music library, you don't want the TV on. Once both the TV and the soundbar are powered on, you can't use either the TV's or the soundbar's remote to turn off just the TV--you have to open the Bose app and select Bluetooth as the desired input first. This isn't mentioned anywhere in the app--I just learned it by experience. Another issue: sometimes when I turn on the TV, I get no sound from the soundbar, even though all the settings on both the TV and the soundbar are correct. The solution, I found, is to turn the TV off for 30 seconds or so, then turn it back on, at which time the soundbar usually starts working correctly. Another issue: When you turn on the TV, it sometimes takes almost a minute before sound starts coming through the soundbar. To be fair, it might be that there's a partial incompatibility between my TV and the soundbar, and that's what causes some of the issues I've experienced. As for the sound from the soundbar: Like I mentioned at the top of this review, the device does, indeed, significantly increase how well you can hear the dialogue in TV shows when you chose the AI dialogue optimization mode. As for music (via Bluetooth from computers/internet), the sound at normal listening volumes is mediocre at best, with the most notable issue being lack of bass response. At higher volume levels the sound becomes better. But that's for my ears--maybe other users of this device will experience better results, since everyone has different listening preferences.