Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker Review: Sonos Can Begin Sweating Now

Wi-Fi audio system are having a second proper now. A little bit over a month in the past, there was Sonos’ return to the {hardware} sport with the Play and Era 100 SL audio system, each of that are correct and compelling installments to the Wi-Fi speaker discipline. Denon additionally acquired in on the combination with a brand new trio of sleek-looking Wi-Fi speakers that, on paper, give Sonos a run for its cash.

And now—as if Sonos didn’t have sufficient causes to fret—it’s Bose’s flip to take a shot on the Wi-Fi speaker crown with its $299 Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, and boy does it take a superb one.

Making Sonos sweat

If Sonos is your direct comparability—and it most likely can be, given the options and pricing of the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker—there’s a little bit of the Sonos Play and the Era 100 SL in Bose’s providing. For one, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is wired (there’s no impartial battery) just like the Sonos Era 100, which implies, not like the Sono Play, you’ll probably not be taking this factor with you to the park except you could have some type of generator. That’s okay, although, given the truth that these are Wi-Fi audio system, that means they work greatest when hooked as much as your private home community, not simply streaming music by way of Bluetooth the old style method.

The wired nature additionally offers the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker loads of energy to provide a formidable array of drivers, together with a forward-firing woofer and tweeter, in addition to an up-firing, um… twiddler. That’s, sadly, an actual time period that Bose makes use of to explain the mixture of a tweeter and a midrange driver. Despite the questionable naming, it’s this driver that actually makes this speaker particular. With up-firing sound, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker beneficial properties an actual sense of house and peak, which makes it sound bigger than it’s.

That sense of house is one thing I skilled in my first demo in addition to my testing at residence. I can solely describe Bose’s wired audio system as room-filling, each when it comes to sound tuning and sheer quantity. In my modestly sized house, I not often felt the necessity to push the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker previous half quantity—at 75%, I used to be genuinely fearful about noise complaints.

And no matter quantity, I used to be very proud of the audio high quality. Listening to rock songs like “Any Major Dude Will Tell You” by Steely Dan, I cherished the separation between tracks. Everything has room to breathe; vocals are clear and crisp, and keys are correctly separated from guitars. The low finish is spectacular and tastefully tuned, and is deep and highly effective regardless of the small dimension of the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker. That well-executed low finish is because of Bose’s “CleanBass” expertise, which makes use of the speaker’s woofer and “QuietPort” acoustic opening in addition to the corporate’s personal processing to intensify bass with out distorting audio or sounding too synthetic.

On digital songs like Daft Punk’s “Da Funk,” the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker doesn’t flinch, delivering driving bass and crunchy arpeggiated synths with grit, texture, and readability. In my testing, there wasn’t a style that I felt Bose didn’t do justice to. As good as one Lifestyle Ultra Speaker sounds, including one other one sends the sound high quality hovering. Like the Sonos Play or Sonos Era 100 SL, you may create stereo pairs for higher separation between tracks. Bose despatched two audio system for testing, and after pairing them collectively, it was exhausting to return to only one.

With the assistance of the up-firing drivers, two Lifestyle Ultra Speakers expanded the room-filling sound and doubled the soundstage, as you’ll anticipate. I listened to the aforementioned songs solo and with a stereo pair, and imagine me after I say spending double the cash is value it. It will get even higher in case you’re a fan of spatial music. I in contrast tracks on Spotify that had been purely stereo to their counterparts in Apple Music’s “Made for Spatial Audio” playlist, which comprises songs combined in Dolby Atmos which might be designed to showcase 3D music. The distinction was drastic. A stereo pair of Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speakers crushes spatial sound—sufficient in order that going again to plain previous stereo separation feels missing.

From a sound perspective, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is impeccable, however as everyone knows, Wi-Fi audio system are simply as a lot about software program as they’re {hardware}, and on that entrance, Bose’s touchdown is rather less pristine.

See New Bose Speaker at Amazon

Just a few bugs for Bose

Wi-Fi audio system are nice in principle since they provide higher audio high quality, extra vary, and nice multi-speaker assist, but when there’s one space that they’ll fumble, it’s software program—particularly the apps used to set the audio system up and management them. If you don’t imagine me, simply have a look at Sonos, which rubbed plenty of its clients the mistaken method a few years in the past when an app catastrophe ended up bricking individuals’s complete audio setups at residence.

For that cause, some individuals is perhaps hesitant about Bose’s push for a Wi-Fi-centric system in its Lifestyle line of audio system, and in my expertise, a few of that hesitation could be based. In my testing, I encountered just a few glitches right here and there, and whereas none of them had been sufficient to make me need to ship my items again to the Bose manufacturing facility, they had been a little bit bit annoying.

Hiccups embrace:

• Stereo pairing didn’t work immediately—just one speaker would play at a time. To repair this, I needed to energy cycle the audio system by unplugging them and plugging them again in after 30 seconds.
• Stereo pairing fell out of sync, inflicting one of many audio system to lag behind the opposite. This was additionally mounted by energy biking.
• Audio generally cuts out whereas utilizing AirPlay to play spatial music in Apple Music. I didn’t have this glitch for Spotify.
• There was one app crash throughout setup.
• The play/pause button within the Bose app was unusable at instances—tapping didn’t do something.

This feels like so much when it’s listed out, however the vibrant facet is that plenty of this bugginess was mounted both by energy biking the audio system or by closing out the app and re-opening it. Bose does have a prolonged replace that you simply’ll must obtain earlier than utilizing the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker out of the field, so I assume plenty of the main bugs are mounted by that, however it is best to know stepping into that it’s doubtless not going to be an ideal expertise.

When Bose’s app is working as supposed, organising audio system and controlling them is seamless. The stereo pairing UI is intuitive—all you must do is choose the speaker within the Bose app after which go to “configure” and add a speaker. From there, you may choose which speaker is on the left or proper by taking part in a ping sound after which finalizing if you’re set. You may use a pair of the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speakers as rear audio for the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar. If you need to configure them for a house theater, the Bose app will ask you upfront in the course of the preliminary setup within the app, and you may simply plow forward. (Note: take into account that the Lifestyle lineup is just not backwards suitable with different Bose soundbars, so don’t go anticipating to mash these along with previous gadgets.)

There are choices for EQ within the Bose app if that’s your factor, which helps you to modify bass, treble, and even the peak of sound from the up-firing driver. There’s additionally a supply button for choosing inputs like Bluetooth or your cellphone, and an influence button for turning the audio system off if want be. You can skip tracks and play/pause within the app as effectively, or if bodily controls are extra your factor, there are touch-sensitive inputs on the highest of the speaker for play/pause, quantity, Bluetooth, and turning the onboard microphone on and off. They work high quality, although they’re not my favourite buttons on the planet—they really feel a little bit laggy at instances, particularly the play/pause button.

Ultimately, the Bose app isn’t very advanced, and that’s a superb factor. That simplicity additionally finds its method into the way you play music via the audio system, which I’m a fan of. Unlike Sonos, which tends to attempt to nudge you into utilizing its app for connecting companies and launching music, Bose is a bit more hands-off. To play music on the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, you should utilize a variety of strategies, together with AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Bluetooth. Heck, there’s even an aux in if wires are your factor. Relying on these protocols means you don’t have to go to the Bose app as usually as you may need to go to the Sonos app, and I believe most individuals will want that. I actually do.

Using protocols like Apple’s AirPlay additionally implies that Bose’s audio system are pretty agnostic. I used to be in a position to couple the stereo pair of Lifestyle Ultra Speakers with a Sonos Era 100 SL and play all three on the similar time whereas controlling all of the gadgets via my iPhone 17. If you could have present Wi-Fi audio system that you simply need to hyperlink up with a brand new Bose one, I don’t suppose you’ll encounter many issues.

Also, in case you like utilizing a voice assistant, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker will assist Alexa+, although that’s rolling out in waves in accordance with Bose. I used to be solely ready to make use of the common Alexa in my testing, which is okay by me. My expertise with next-gen voice assistants is that they make every part just a bit extra annoying. Gemini for Home, for instance, makes all of my voice instructions take just a bit bit longer, and if Alexa+ is similar (it most likely can be), I’ll persist with the previous Alexa. And no, you may’t use one other voice assistant on these audio system, sadly.

Overall, I believe the Bose app expertise is okay. Can I assure that Bose received’t blow its app up accidentally sooner or later, as Sonos did? Obviously not. Nor can I promise that it’s going to ever make the Bose app completely seamless. That being stated, the glitches I encountered weren’t sufficient to persuade me that Bose is out of its depth or that investing in a Bose Wi-Fi system could be a foul concept. To me, it appears like some quirks you’d anticipate in a brand new ecosystem of merchandise, although in case you’re fearful about hiccups, you may all the time wait to purchase one and see how issues progress.

Big bucks on Bose?

Obviously, Bose’s Lifestyle Ultra Speaker isn’t low cost, particularly when you think about that the true potential is unlocked if you purchase two of them. At $299 ($349 for the Driftwood Sand colorway), it’s additionally dearer than rivals just like the $220 Sonos Era 100 and the $180 Sonos Era 100 SL (this one doesn’t have voice assistant assist). For an additional $80 to $120 extra, you’re getting an ideal worth, although.

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker brings large sound and is great for spatial audio, and if a Bose soundbar is in your record of issues to purchase, it’ll play properly with that as effectively. An agnostic strategy to software program additionally takes the strain off the value premium. For now, Bose appears to be intent on placing platforms first by way of AirPlay, Spotify Connect, and Google Cast, and I believe that’s the precise alternative.

Yes, there are sure to be hiccups as Bose transitions its app to assist its Lifestyle merchandise, however I can’t say I’m scared off by Bose ironing out some kinks. If you’ve acquired the cash and the zeal for hi-fi audio at residence, Bose is perhaps the decide for you over Sonos.

See New Bose Speaker at Amazon