Small soundbar, massive Atmos sound

Whether or not you are an audiophile or you do not know your aux out of your Atmos, the probabilities are you’ve got heard of Bose. The American tech large is without doubt one of the greatest audio firms on the planet, and is a model that folks instinctively belief to ship good merchandise with respectable sound high quality. The excellent news? Typically talking, that is not far mistaken.

The agency’s newest soundbar, the Bose Smart Soundbar 600 hopes so as to add to that. It sits round center of the corporate’s soundbar providing and serves up wide selection of connectivity choices – to not point out guarantees Dolby Atmos spatial audio from a single speaker, with no subwoofer add-on. Costing $499 / £400, that takes it head-to-head with the wonderful Sonos Beam Gen 2. However can it ship as promised, and the way does it stack up in opposition to its formidable competiton? This is my full assessment.

Design

• Dimensions: 56 x 694 x 104mm
• Weight: 3.1kg
• Wall mount obtainable individually

Should you’re available in the market for a visually discreet however fashionable soundbar, then you possibly can think about the Bose Good Soundbar 600 the last word box-ticker. Boasting a smooth and understated design, there isn’t any doubt it’s going to complement nearly any TV it is plonked beneath, be it a humongous OLED or a smaller TV for a kitchen or bed room.

Count on sturdy plastic for the primary physique and a perforated steel grille wrapped across the entrance and sides – plus one other grilled part alongside the highest for the Atmos-focused drivers. It is understated but it surely works – it appears the half and feels stable with out shouting too loudly about it.

The perfect half, nonetheless, is the Good Soundbar 600’s compact dimension. By way of dimensions, it measures simply 56 x 694 x 104mm, and weighs in at 3.1kg, which makes it simply wall-mountable. Though – in true Bose model – the optionally available bracket comes at a further value. Grr.

Nonetheless, it makes it a very easy soundbar to accommodate regardless of your private home cinema setup, notably for these in smaller rooms who do not have the house to make means for a separate subwoofer too.

Options

• Dolby Atmos help
• 1 x HDMI eARC, 1 x optical
• Wi-Fi, AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Spotify Join, Bluetooth 4.2

Whereas the primary promoting level of the Bose Good Soundbar 600 is that it is a compact and versatile all-in-one soundbar, there are different issues to shout about right here too.

After all, the biggie is that it presents help for Dolby Atmos soundtracks, however in a really completely different option to Sonos’ Beam Gen 2.

That is as a result of, of the 5 drivers that you could find right here behind this grille, two full-range drivers fireplace upwards to bodily improve the sense of peak by projecting sound upwards – one thing Sonos’ soundbar does just about. There is a single driver dealing with the centre channel in the course of the bar, whereas a racetrack driver at both finish of the soundbar give some added width, in addition to peak.

These bodily drivers are supported by Bose’s proprietary TrueSpace processing. This claims to upconvert stereo and 5.1 channel sources into an Atmos-like soundtracks, with the identical sense of added peak as you’d count on from a local soundtrack – however extra on that shortly.

Connectivity-wise, the Good Soundbar 600 contains an HDMI eARC port for lossless Atmos playback, plus an optical digital audio enter for connecting an older TV that does not help HDMI ARC/eARC. You’ll lose all native Atmos performance over Atmos although, and revert completely to Boses’s TrueSpace processing, so do query your resolution to spend the additional on an Atmos soundbar in case you’re not utilizing HDMI.

A second HDMI enter to supply a passthrough could be a pleasant addition, although that is one thing that is not all the time discovered on funds soundbars – the Sonos Beam would not embrace one, for instance.

Wi-fi streaming choices are aplenty, too, with help for Wi-Fi, AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Spotify Join, and Bluetooth. The Bose Music app integrates quite a few providers for streaming over Wi-Fi, together with Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, iHeartRadio, TuneIn Radio, and Sirius XM.

From right here, you can too management the soundbar’s capabilities, together with deciding on your supply and adjusting the amount – there’s even an EQ for tweaking sound, in addition to the choice for including different appropriate Bose merchandise, like a sub or wi-fi rear surrounds, for a bigger system (although that will, partly, take away from the 600’s compact attraction).

In case your telephone is not handy, the Good Soundbar 600 comes with a distant within the field, which feels substantial sufficient for a product of this high quality – a far cry from these low cost clicky membrane units that by no means actually work all that properly. There’s additionally the choice to regulate it through Alexa, or Google Assistant in case you desire, for the reason that presence of bodily buttons on the soundbar itself could be very restricted – it solely encompasses a mute and voice-control motion button on the highest.

Alexa can supply primary controls like quantity and monitor skipping, in addition to entry to music apps supported by the world-famous voice assistant. This works properly – more often than not. Should you’re extra of a Google Assistant individual, Bose’s soundbar additionally performs properly together with your voice assistant of selection, supplying you with comparable performance when a Google speaker is linked to the community.

Alexa has the sting over the 2 for being in-built, that means it might probably additionally use Bose’s Voice4Video characteristic to regulate capabilities of a linked Good TV – all the pieces from turning it on and off, to enjoying and pausing video playback and altering channels.

Efficiency

Get the soundbar arrange – which is so simple as plugging it in and connecting it to your TV – and serve it the easiest of its capabilities, like an Atmos soundtrack from Netflix or 4K Blu-ray, and the Good Soundbar 600 shines. Watch massive blockbusters like action-packed Marvel movies, as an illustration, and the Bose handles them with authority and confidence, producing a large, open sound that locations results convincingly.

After all there are limitations to its capabilities, but it surely does sound larger than its bodily dimensions, and people peak channels do an honest job of including some elevation to the weather of a soundtrack that require it.

The midrange is stable and full of loads of element, and dialogue is delivered with focus and readability. Bass is on the nice and cozy aspect, however managed, including presence to the soundtracks of thriller or high-octane flicks. It is a dynamic sound too, the soundbar having the ability to categorical any shift in quantity with out second thought.

There’s, nonetheless, an absence of decrease bass right here. In a comparatively giant room, for instance, the deeper rumble you may count on from a T-Rex working amok round Jurassic Park falls a little bit quick – one thing you may get extra from with a separate sub.

Some may discover the insistance of Bose to have the listener embrace spatial audio at each flip a little bit annoying. If you aren’t listening to Atmos soundtracks, Bose’s TrueSpace processing, which makes an attempt to imitiate an Atmos expertise from a non-Atmos soundtrack, is switched on by default – and cannot be turned off.

Whereas it may be convincing with some content material, and add an additional stage of immersion, it is not reliably so, and having some management of the playback on this sense could be appreciated.

Verdict

The Bose Good Soundbar 600 delivers massive on Dolby Atmos sound for its worth bracket, with an efficient efficiency that offers the sense of peak in Atmos soundtracks you’d hope for.

Dialogue readability is commendable, and midrange element is nice, however whereas the bass obtainable is heat and stable, the decrease bass vary is underwhelming in comparison with these soundbar programs that include devoted subwoofers. Anybody searching for a deeper, richer rumble will wish to think about that.

Some folks may also discover the soundbar’s insistance on spatial audio, even to the detriment of efficiency in some circumstances, irritating. It is a disgrace this cannot be turned off by the consumer, quite than being on by default – and this loses Bose some edge.

On a extra constructive be aware, the Good Soundbar 600 boasts a compelling characteristic set that many different soundbars fall in need of, and the app-based setup is sweet and easy too – making certain even technophobes will discover it straightforward getting this factor up and working out of the field.

In the end the soundbar’s compact design and all-in-one kind issue means there’s a stability to think about – whereas aesthetically pleasing, there’s a restrict to its acoustic capabilities. Should you want one thing on the smaller aspect, that is in all probability one thing you can also make peace with, however its massive competitors, the Sonos Beam Gen 2, arguably comes with fewer sonic quirks.