So I Bought the Bose Smart Soundbar
I bought a really nice Bose speaker.
Bose Smart Soundbar with Dolby Atmos, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, Black
Up until now, I had been using the Bose Solo5.
I had absolutely no complaints, it wasn't broken, and I had zero intention of replacing it.
But then I happened to check its Amazon page and realized I had bought it back in 2018 — I'd been using it for 8 years already.
So I figured, why not, and went ahead with an upgrade.
This is usually the part where I'd write up a review with the good and the not-so-good points of the speaker.
But compared to the Solo5, the difference in sound quality and spatial feel was way beyond what I expected.
Honestly, I was pretty blown away.
That said, I learned that you can't really experience the true power of Dolby Atmos with this soundbar alone.
So I ended up impulse-buying a subwoofer and surround speakers as well. Absolutely reckless.
BOSE SURROUND SPEAKERS Wireless Rear Speakers, Black
So this time, I'll be writing a review based on the full setup with everything installed.
Here's the final setup I ended up with:
Fire TV Stick 4K Max - (HDMI) - FPD Tuner-less TV - (HDMI eARC) - [Bose Smart Soundbar]
For various reasons, I'm currently using the Fire TV Stick as my main way of watching videos and playing music.
The Good
The sound is just incredible
Seriously, mind-blowing.
Let me go through the points that really stood out when comparing it to the Solo5.
The first surprise was that, before adding the subwoofer, the bass actually felt cleaner and more refined.
I was used to the slightly thumpy bass of the Solo5, so at first I thought "hmm, this doesn't feel very Bose-like" — but the result was that it became much easier to listen to.
The clarity of dialogue and vocals changed dramatically once I tweaked the balance in the app.
Before and after the adjustment, it was like listening to a completely different device.
As for the spatial spread — left, right, and height — there's no comparison with the Solo5. It's on a completely different level.
I could already feel some instrument separation from the soundbar alone, but once I added the surround speakers, I could clearly pick out individual sounds.
And when you connect the subwoofer and surround speakers, it's just absurd — surround sound that makes you feel like you're in a small studio, and bass that literally shakes the room.
Overall, the 3D audio — the feeling of different sounds hitting your ears from all 360 degrees — is just wonderful.
Dolby Atmos in particular is insane. There aren't that many Atmos-compatible tracks out there, but the immersion on the ones that are supported is off the charts.
Of course, non-Atmos tracks are also handled nicely by Bose's built-in AI, which seems to distribute the sound reasonably well.
As for movies, I haven't actually watched any yet, so I'll have to pass on commenting on that.
Sound tuning is easy via the app
Being able to intuitively adjust height, left/right/center distribution, and the balance between the surround speakers and subwoofer is really nice.
By the way, I asked Gemini to come up with initial balance values by saying "tell me the recommended balance for this setup." What a time to be alive.
The Not-So-Good
The setup is a bit of a mess
It's really complicated. I managed to sort it out by bouncing ideas off Gemini, making sure Dolby Atmos would be reflected stably with my particular setup.
The behavior when waking the smart TV from sleep is often flaky.
I originally had a SANWA DIRECT HDMI switch in the chain, but stability was pretty bad with it, and plugging directly seemed to improve things somewhat.
The connection process is also a bit rough
You need to connect the soundbar, subwoofer, and surround speakers together.
The Bose app is poorly designed, and the manual isn't very helpful either.
This has been true for a long time — Bose's hardware is high quality, but their software and documentation are sloppy. Classic Bose.
I managed to connect the surround speakers wirelessly after some struggle, but couldn't get the subwoofer to connect wirelessly and ended up using a wired connection.
Since the subwoofer is usually placed close to the main speaker anyway, it's not really a big deal, but still — that's not really the point, is it?
Dolby Atmos doesn't output when using the smart TV directly
No idea why.
The TV model listed above should support Dolby Atmos, and I've tried all the audio output settings on the TV side, but couldn't resolve it.
That said, Dolby Atmos is being output just fine when going through the Fire TV Stick, so I'm not running into any practical issues personally.
Still, if you're the kind of person who wants to watch videos directly through smart TV apps, you might run into the same issue with a similar setup — just something to be aware of.
There aren't that many Dolby Atmos-compatible platforms and tracks
Among the major platforms, only Amazon Music and Apple Music currently support Dolby Atmos.
YouTube Music and Spotify don't support it — and obviously, neither does YouTube.
Movies generally do support it, but since I haven't watched any yet, I won't go into that here.
The surround speakers aren't that great on their own
The units are physically small, so the sound quality is just okay and the max volume isn't that high either.
That said, their contribution to the overall system is significant. With or without them, the sense of spatial audio is completely different. So I'd say "mediocre on their own, but doing their job as part of the system."
My environment is a living room of about 8 jo (roughly 13 m²), and for this size, they're totally fine.
On the other hand, I imagine they'd feel underpowered in a larger living room.
The subwoofer, on the other hand, is pretty big, and I have zero complaints about its quality — it's really good.
If I add up what I actually paid:
56,800 yen (Smart Soundbar, new) + 44,280 yen (Bass Module 500, used) + 36,800 yen (SURROUND SPEAKERS, used) = 137,880 yen, all purchased on Amazon.
For reference, the soundbar I bought is the mid-tier model. There's a higher-end model above it called the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar.
Checking just now, it's not available new on Amazon — used listings go for 118,000 yen, and the official site has it for 132,000 yen.
So you're looking at just a few thousand yen difference between the Ultra soundbar alone versus the mid-tier model plus a subwoofer and surround speakers.
Of course, the Ultra soundbar on its own probably has better sound quality as a single unit, but personally, considering the difference in 3D audio immersion and bass impact, I think the latter setup offers more satisfaction.
That said, it really comes down to personal preference and your environment.
By the way, there's also a budget model called the Bose TV Speaker.
It's 31,600 yen new on Amazon, so it's more accessible than the models above.
Just note that it doesn't support Dolby Atmos.
So, that's the gist of it.
Sure, going all the way with a subwoofer and surround speakers is a bit of an indulgence, but personally I'm beyond thrilled and absolutely glad I bought it all.
That said, it's definitely not cheap, so starting with just the soundbar is a totally reasonable choice.
Even the soundbar alone should be more than enough to be impressed if you're coming from a Solo5.
And if you end up wanting more, you can always add the subwoofer and surround speakers later — that kind of gradual approach is honestly my recommendation.
I hope this is useful for anyone interested in audio.