Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and Wireless Subwoofer Carry Dolby Atmos, Apple AirPlay, and Google Cast to Dwelling Theater

Bose is aware of a couple of issues about soundbars. It has offered sufficient of them through the years to know what individuals truly need below their TVs, and the brand new Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer arrive with Dolby Atmos assist, Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, and the form of simplified setup that made Bose a family title lengthy earlier than each TV model determined it additionally wanted to promote you “cinema sound” in a plastic bar.

The Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar will promote for $1,099, the wi-fi Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer for $899, and each arrive May fifteenth alongside the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, Bose’s new $299 wi-fi good speaker, which we cowl individually in our associated story you could learn right here.

But this story is de facto about house theater, and Bose is aware of the room has modified. LG, Samsung, Sony, Klipsch, and Sonos are all combating for a similar wall house below your TV. And whereas a standard 5.1 AVR-based system can nonetheless ship higher efficiency for the cash, it additionally brings extra containers, extra setup, and sufficient cable administration to make grown adults think about transferring.

Most individuals purchase soundbars as a result of they need one speaker to do nearly all the things. Maybe two in the event that they add a subwoofer. Maybe 4 if rear channels enter the witness safety program. Bose is betting the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and Subwoofer could make sound high quality matter once more with out turning the lounge into the Big Dig with speaker wire.

Built for Atmos and Bigger Bass

The Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is the anchor for Bose’s new house theater system, and it’s greater than a beauty replace. Bose says that is its first main soundbar redesign in additional than a decade, constructed round a 9 driver array that features six full vary drivers, two of them up firing, 4 entrance dealing with, a devoted middle tweeter, and two proprietary PhaseGuide drivers. At 43.54 inches vast, 2.64 inches tall, and 4.96 inches deep, and weighing 14.8 kilos, it’s sized for bigger TVs with out turning into furnishings. The aim is evident: ship Dolby Atmos playback, wider spatial results, stronger dialogue intelligibility, and extra convincing top from a single enclosure earlier than you begin including extra containers to the room.

The know-how issues as a result of each bit is aimed toward a particular soundbar drawback: restricted width, restricted top, buried dialogue, light-weight bass, and unpredictable room acoustics. PhaseGuide is used to steer sound horizontally so results seem to come back from areas the place there are not any bodily audio system. TrueSpatial processing is designed to make non-Atmos content material sound extra immersive. 

SpeechClarity makes use of adjustable AI-driven speech enhancement to elevate dialogue with out altering your entire combine. CustomTune room calibration makes use of an iOS or Android microphone because the reference level to investigate the room, seating, surfaces, and structure. ClearBass works with Bose’s QuietPort acoustic opening and DSP to cut back the form of low frequency distortion that often exhibits up when compact audio system are requested to do an excessive amount of.

The Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer is the apparent subsequent step if that is going below the principle TV. It measures 11.63 inches vast, 12.88 inches tall, and 11.63 inches deep, weighs 33.7 kilos, and connects wirelessly by way of the Bose app with a acknowledged vary of 30 ft. Bose additionally lists a 3.5 mm wired connection as an choice. Its job will not be sophisticated: take over the demanding low frequency results, add weight, and let the soundbar focus extra on dialogue, spatial cues, mids, and highs. In 5.1.2 or 7.1.4 configurations, the subwoofer additionally works with CustomTune room calibration, which issues as a result of bass and rooms have a protracted historical past of not enjoying properly collectively.

The configuration path is the place Bose is attempting to maintain issues versatile. The Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar can be utilized by itself as a 5.0.2 system. Add the Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer and it turns into 5.1.2. Add two Lifestyle Ultra Speakers as wi-fi surrounds and the system expands to 7.0.4 with out the subwoofer, or 7.1.4 with the subwoofer included. That offers consumers a approach to begin with the bar and construct out the system with out committing to an AVR, speaker wire, stands, banana plugs, and the same old Saturday afternoon descent into cable administration hell. Bose does provide custom-designed stands for the Lifestyle Ultra Wireless Speakers with cable administration.

A couple of sensible particulars matter. The soundbar helps HDMI ARC and eARC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3, Google Cast, Apple AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Alexa, and Alexa Plus within the U.S. It additionally consists of tactile controls, a hidden LED for standing suggestions, an eARC suitable HDMI cable within the field, and non-compulsory equipment together with a wall bracket and distant management. The soundbar and subwoofer each are available Black and White Smoke, with a textured knit cloth grille on the bar and premium glass high design language shared throughout each merchandise.

One factor Bose will not be claiming at launch: twin subwoofer assist. Previous Bose techniques have supported twin bass modules, however that’s not a part of the Lifestyle Ultra system proper now. At the Bose House occasion in NYC final week, Bose additionally didn’t inform me that twin subwoofer assist isn’t coming. So the correct reply is that this: one subwoofer as we speak, no promise of two tomorrow, and no purpose to faux the door has been nailed shut.

What We Heard at Bose House

My embargoed overview can’t be printed till May fifteenth, so we’re restricted to early impressions based mostly on Bose’s managed demonstrations at its townhouse on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Bose arrange the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar system in its full 7.1.4 configuration, then eliminated the rear channels and switched the subwoofer out and in so we might hear how a lot each bit contributed. That issues, as a result of soundbar demos usually conceal the sausage. This one gave us a greater sense of what the bar can do by itself, what the subwoofer provides, and the way the system modifications when the Lifestyle Ultra Speakers are used as surrounds.

The room was additionally related. Bose had the system arrange within the den on one of many higher flooring, not in a large showroom or some acoustically doomed resort house. I don’t know the precise dimensions, nevertheless it felt near my 16 x 13 foot den at house, most likely somewhat deeper, with ceilings that seemed to be at the very least 10 ft excessive. It was nonetheless a typical NYC brownstone, with brick partitions lined in plaster, however the room was properly behaved acoustically. We had been near Broadway within the mid 70s, and you might not hear the road exterior. For Manhattan, that’s mainly science fiction with higher parking guidelines.

The first demo observe was from Dune, particularly the Arrakis rescue sequence involving a spice harvester. The scene gave the Lifestyle Ultra system lots to handle without delay: swirling sand, engine noise, the rating, dialogue, and the motion of the rescue craft overhead because the crew is pulled out earlier than the worm arrives.

No ballerinas or opera singers had been harmed in the course of the rescue. Timothée Chalamet might have had some extent about opera and ballet struggling for mainstream relevance in 2026, however context issues. Arrakis is harmful sufficient with out dragging the humanities neighborhood into the sandstorm.

What stood out nearly instantly was the dimensions of the sound. Wide. Some actual depth. Loads of top, which is the place the upward firing drivers did their job. The Bose additionally dealt with dialogue very properly. I didn’t really feel like I used to be combating to listen to voices by way of the consequences, sand, equipment, and Hans Zimmer doing Hans Zimmer issues with the subtlety of a sandworm at brunch.

Bass impression with the subwoofer engaged was good, though not precisely SVS degree, which is ok as a result of Bose will not be attempting to promote you a fridge with a woofer in it. The rear channels had been more practical than I anticipated. When the plane lifted off and moved overhead, the sound tracked with it, handed above me, and continued behind the listening place in a means that made the 7.1.4 setup really feel genuinely helpful quite than ornamental.

Before I get too deep into the listening impressions, Bose’s SpeechClarity tech deserves its personal point out. It makes use of adjustable AI pushed speech enhancement to isolate and elevate dialogue with out blowing up the remainder of the combination, and that issues in case you watch lots of sports activities, films, or status TV the place everybody whispers like they’re hiding from a tax audit. If your partner doesn’t need to hear you yelling “What did he say?” by way of your entire Stanley Cup Playoffs, flip this on. Yup. Go Sabres. Sorry, Bruins. Better luck subsequent season.

Check again on the fifteenth for our in-depth overview.

For extra info: bose.com

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