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The idea of a home theater usually conjures up images of plushy couches, floor to ceiling projector screens and standing floor speakers — all worthy investments if you have the time, space and money to transform an extra room in your house into a luxury cinema.
But really, upgrading your home viewing experience can be as simple as swapping out your TV’s speakers with a soundbar: a relatively affordable piece of audio tech that can offer a surround-sound experience without taking up too much room. As 4K TV sets become increasingly slimmer, it’s important to find a soundbar that can pack advanced audio capabilities into a compact frame. And like most audio products, Bose offers some of the best soundbars on the market — without any hefty price tags.
Below are some of the best Bose soundbars to buy this year, with a variety of options depending on your budget and audio preferences:
Most Affordable
Bose TV Soundbar
Bose’s TV speaker is widely regarded as the company’s best small soundbar, recognized for its strong performance with dialogue-centric content like T.V shows and some movies. The no-frills bar doesn’t come with a bunch of audio adjustments, but it does come with a dialogue enhancement feature to provide impressive clarity to vocals, in addition to a bass adjustment feature that’s helpful when listening to music. For only $279, the budget bar doesn’t come with all the advanced features of some of the more expensive options on Bose’s lineup, but it certainly gets the job done for those looking to upgrade their TV’s audio without breaking the bank.
Best Bass
Bose Smart Soundbar 900 with Bass Module
Bose’s new smart speaker set up, which came out in 2021 as an upgrade to their 700 series, promises immersive, crystal clear audio that works for a wide range of content. Not only does it support Dolby Atmos, but its ADAPtiQ feature automatically calibrates audio depending on your room’s specific acoustics. This feature, alongside a subwoofer that adds an extra kick to the bass, makes it the absolute best option for music (not to mention intense action movie scenes). Plus, PhaseGuide technology with discrete satellite speakers allow for premium surround sound to rival some of the most expensive soundbars on the market.
Best Surround Sound
Bose Smart Soundbar 900 Dolby Atmos
The Smart 900 is the best bang for your buck, supporting Dolby Atmos and surround sound, with impressively precise bass and treble adjustments — for less than $1,000. Its headlining feature is its ADAPTiQ room corrector, which automatically adjusts audio based on your TV set’s surroundings, a particularly helpful feature for producing neutral and versatile audio profiles for a wide range of music. Plus, a discrete center channel allows for localized dialogue that can be made even clearer by turning on its dialogue enhancement mode.
Most Versatile
Bose Lifestyle 650 Home Entertainment System
Bose’s lifestyle 650 is another great option for a surround sound device that won’t take up too much space. The 5.1 surround sound system comes with the soundbar, subwoofer, four additional speakers and wireless receivers right out of the box. By using the soundbar exclusively as the center channel, the innovative multi-speaker system literally surrounds you with neutral, well-balanced sound that works just as well for movies as it does for music. Although it doesn’t have a built-in Amazon Alexa, it does have an HDMI and optical audio input for easy connection, in addition to a seamless pairing process with Amazon Echo devices.