As a company with longstanding reputations for audio excellence, including nearly dominating the field of noise-cancelling headphones for a long time, Bose maintains a somewhat mysterious reputation. It’s well-known that this privately owned and publicly reticent corporation doesn’t like to publish technical specifications, from its unannounced CEO changes to its reluctance to provide technical specifications.

Bose has, until now, refrained from jumping into the lucrative Dolby Atmos market, despite releasing its first soundbar in 2011. The bose smart soundbar 900, launched in January, is the company’s first attempt to produce a soundbar that delivers 3D audio. According to the company, it provides a level of realism that any other speaker can’t match.

In fact, with several of the most popular Dolby Atmos soundbars coming from relatively new audio electronics companies, it’s certainly a bold claim to make. Still, we’re eager to see how one of the most recognizable brands in audio electronics will tackle the inherent challenges and limitations associated with producing immersive cinematic audio from a single linear soundbar.

Features and design

Similar to its predecessor, the Smart Soundbar 700, the Bose Soundbar in Dubai comes with a polished, impact-resistant tempered glass top and rounded corner.

This sparkling surface can be found in black or arctic white, but it will reflect a lot of screen glare and will need regular buffing to stay looking good. Two lozenge-shaped cutouts for two dipoles and up-firing transducers in the glass topper of the Soundbar 900 make it the only visual difference between it and its non-Atmos sibling.

The Sonos Arc has 13 channels of amplification, whereas the Soundbar 900 has nine. You’ll also find four racetrack transducers flanking one center tweeter, along with the height drivers. Side-firing drivers are not present despite the grille’s complete wraparound design. Bose’s PhaseGuide technology uses two additional transducers on either speaker’s side, enabling the company to beam multi-directional sound in multiple directions.

Two physical controls are on the back of the soundbar: a multi-purpose capacitive button and a mute/unmute button for the built-in microphone array, which activates either Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, as appropriate. It is also possible to make and receive intercom calls to other Bose smart devices and Amazon Echo devices, provided that the device has Alexa built-in, in addition to creating and receiving hands-free calls if you have Alexa installed. With Bose’s Voice4Video feature, you will soon be able to control your TV or satellite box from Alexa directly through your voice, uniquely extending Alexa’s capabilities.

A thin LED light bar, which pulsates or changes color according to the soundbar’s status, is also located around the bottom of the soundbar. Approximately 25 code variations are listed in the manual; you will likely have to refer to that key to decode them correctly.

Using the minimal remote, you can access an LED display that provides visual feedback on any changes you make. There are several differences between the Universal Remote that comes with the Soundbar 700 and that included with the Bose Soundbar 900 Price. This remote is only about half the size found on the Soundbar 700 and provides un-illuminated control of source selection, basic playback functions, and six presets of preferred music stations. 

This product is meant to replace the Smart Soundbar 700, designed to fit 50-inch or larger TVs. The Soundbar 900 is a smaller version of the Smart Soundbar 700 and has a very similar look to its predecessor, with rounded corners, a metal grille, and a polished, high-impact tempered glass top.

This sparkling surface comes in black or arctic white and has a sleek look, but it can reflect glare from the screen, so regular buffing is important to maintain its appearance. Only the lozenge-shaped cutouts in the glass topper distinguish the Soundbar 900 from its non-Atmos sibling apart from an extra 6.7cm in length.

A Sonos Arc has eleven amplification channels, while the Soundbar 900 has nine. Also, four racetrack transducers are flanking a center tweeter and a pair of height drivers. There are no side-firing drivers inside the speaker, even though it has a completely wraparound grille. Two different transducers use Bose’s PhaseGuide technology, which the company says beams multi-directional sound to separate areas in your space using the two transducers positioned far left and right.

Besides a capacitive multipurpose ‘action’ button and an unmute/mute button for the integrated microphone array, the soundbar does not include any physical controls. Additionally, users can make hands-free calls to anyone in their contacts list from the onboard Alexa system, including other Bose smart products and Amazon Echo devices. As part of the Voice4Video feature from Bose, users can activate their TV or satellite box by simply speaking to Alexa, which further extends Alexa’s capabilities by enabling them to set it up and turn it off.

Underneath the soundbar’s buttons is a thin LED light band that displays a confusing variety of pulses and colour changes that can indicate the soundbar’s status. In the manual, you’ll find a key listing around 25 variations that can use to decode them.

With the minimal remote, users can see a visual representation of their changes. Compared to the backlit Universal Remote included with the Soundbar 700, this remote has a smaller size and offers less than half of the functionality of the backlit remote. The remote can select sources, playback music, and set up presets for up to six music services or stations you can choose from without lighting. 

The Social Network opening scene in 5.1 on DVD will give us an understanding of how TrueSpace functions. Height drivers reproduce the high-frequency ambient sounds that surround a charmless Mark Zuckerberg about to be dumped, in this instance, like an extension of the far left and right channels.

It feels as if certain noises are emanating from both sides of the listening position, with a noticeable background clatter of glasses and music. As a result of reverberation, the timing of the sounds is distorted, making this ambience sound unnatural. It is clear and crisp when the dialogue is being delivered by the Sonos Arc, whereas when the Sonos Arc provides it, a touch of ambiguity is added to the scene.

Several minutes later, as Zuckerberg runs back to his dorm room, PhaseGuide makes it seem as though particular sounds are coming from the sides of the expansive soundstage as the passing traffic sails convincingly across the wide stage. Adding too much emphasis to certain sounds can also overemphasise others, especially when the sound has sharp transients, such as the click of a bicycle spoke or the clipping of the cap off a beer from out-of-shot, which sounds disproportionately large.

Verdict

In both Dolby Atmos and authoritative content, the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 introduces a somewhat idiosyncratic sonic approach that, while pleasing, is often inconsistent and adds its tonal color and organization.

The speaker has an impressively wide sound field, clear forward projection, and a colourful character that makes the speaker extremely responsive and cinematic to the listener, which is sure to be very pleasing for many listeners. However, we recommend you spend the extra minimal amount of money on the Sonos Arc if you are looking for the ultimate in premium Atmos soundbars, as the Sonos Arc offers height, transparency, musicality and dynamics that are unmatched by any other soundbar.

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