Bose Smart Soundbar 900 is amazing in its style and offerings.
Bose has managed to maintain something of a mystique despite having a long history of audio excellence.
Including for a considerable amount of time, near-dominance in the field of noise-cancelling headphones.
This privately held and publicly reticent firm has traditionally tended to let its products do the talking.
From CEO changes that go unannounced to its well-known reluctance to divulge technical details.
Bose Smart Soundbar 900: Holistic Reviews
Has resisted the impulse to enter the profitable but competitive Dolby Atmos market up until this point.
But with the release of the Smart Soundbar 900.
The business has taken its time to create a soundbar that is deserving of its claim to be able to give 3D audio.
Claiming that “it produces a layer of realism no other speaker can mimic.”
A bold statement, but given that many of the most well-known Dolby Atmos soundbars are made.
By relatively inexperienced audio electronics manufacturers.
We’re interested to see how a company with such a long history in audio approaches the inherent challenges.
And constraints of producing immersive cinematic sound from a single, linear soundbar.
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Price: Bose Smart Soundbar 900
Award-winning Sonos Arc (£899 / $899 / AU$1499) is the main challenger of the Bose smart Soundbar 900.
Which costs just £849 / $900 / AU$1399 less.
Bose’s available accessories include the diminutive Bose Surround Speakers 700 (£550/ $549/ about AU$1000).
And Bose Bass Module 700 (£800/ $799/ AU$1000).
In contrast, Sonos may be expanded by purchasing two One SL speakers (£358/ $358/ AU$538) and a Sub (£749/ $749/ AU$1499 each).
The feature that both Samsung and LG’s top soundbar packages offer.
Surrounds with integrated height drivers, are not offered by either company, either.
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Characteristics And Design
The Soundbar 900, which replaces the Smart Soundbar 700 (£800/$800/AU$1200), is intended for 50-inch TVs.
Or larger and has a striking look that is remarkably similar to that of its forerunner.
It features rounded corners, a metal grille, and a polished, impact-resistant tempered glass top.
The sleek, dazzling surface, comes in black or arctic white.
Can reflect a lot of screen glare and, of course, needs frequent buffing to stay looking its best.
The only real aesthetic distinction between the Soundbar 900.
And its non-Atmos sister, aside from a length difference of 6.7 cm.
Is a pair of lozenge-shaped cutouts in the glass topper for two dipoles, up-firing transducers?
The Soundbar 900 features nine amplification channels in total, two fewer than the Sonos Arc.
There are two height drivers inside, as well as one centre tweeter and four racetrack transducers on either side.
The grille appears to wrap around fully, yet there are no side-firing drivers.
Instead, two additional transducers are using Bose’s PhaseGuide technology that is pplacedto the far left and right of your room.
According to the business, these transducers will project multi-directional sound to specific regions of your room.
A capacitive multi-purpose “action” button.
And a mute/unmute button for the built-in microphone array is the only physical control on the soundbar’s surface.
These controls are used to activate one of the supported voice assistants, Amazon’s Alexa or Google assistant.
Users may also make and receive intercom calls to other Bose smart goods.
And Amazon Echo devices use the built-in Alexa, as well as make hands-free calls to anyone in your contact list.
Bose’s Voice4Video feature, meanwhile, allows users to activate and manage their TV.
Or satellite box with their voice, significantly enhancing Alexa’s functionality.
Sound: Bose Smart Soundbar 900
We start our testing with the 5.1 DVD opening sequence of The Social Network to get a sense of how TrueSpace works.
The height drivers in this situation seem to function as an extension of the far left.
And right channels, primarily recreating the higher frequency ambient sounds of the pub.
Where an unattractive Mark Zuckerberg is going to be dumped.
There is a distinct sense that some noises are emanating from either side of the listening location.
And the background clatter of glasses and music feels particularly pervasive.
However, an excessively reverberant character is added to this ambience.
Which clogs the sound design and causes some timing problems.
And PhaseGuide once more makes it seem as though certain noises are coming from the sides.
This can also have the effect of exaggerating some noises, particularly sharper transients.
Like the clicking of a passing student’s bicycle’s spokes or the flipping off of Mark’s beer bottle cap out of shot.
Both of these sound excessively oversized.
When switching to Ready Player One’s first race in Dolby Atmos.
Everything sounds significantly tighter and more logical.
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