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Bose has been in the home theater game for a long time, though its modern product catalog favors innovation and updates in its personal audio and wearables categories. As a result, the company’s home theater lineup has been stale, with only a few soundbars, rears, and subs to choose from.
Also: Forget the soundbar: How I upgraded my TV audio with spare Bluetooth speakers
Still, the company makes an effort to remind its consumer base of its home theater roots, and the new Lifestyle Ultra lineup, consisting of a smart speaker, soundbar, and subwoofer, shows it wants to continue its tenure in the industry.
I spent a week with the $1,099 Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar, swapping my beloved Sonos Arc with Bose’s latest offering. With the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar residing in the same price range as Sonos’s and Sony’s premium equivalents, Bose has big shoes to fill.
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Visible (and invisible) upgrades that matter
The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar debuts with a nine-driver array, with two upfiring speakers, four front-facing speakers, one dedicated center tweeter, and two horizontal speakers. On its own, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar delivers a 5.0.2-channel arrangement.
Under the hood, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar closely resembles its predecessor, the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar, as both feature a nine-driver array. However, Bose fitted the new Lifestyle Ultra bar with an improved AI-powered speech enhancement algorithm, a microphone-enabled room-correction feature, a proprietary spatial audio upmixing software, and enhanced bass response technology.
Bose gave its premium soundbar a much-welcomed facelift, introducing a glass panel along the topside and a touch-enabled dial of controls on the bar’s right side. Bose also swapped squoval edges for rounded ones, resulting in an elevated, modern look.
Overall, the soundbar is good; it does what it needs to do, especially in the midrange. The soundbar’s center channel handles dialogue very well, and Bose’s AI-powered dialogue enhancement sounds more natural than some competitors’. However, without external rear channels, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar struggles to deliver immersive sound on its own.
That’s too much bass
Additionally, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar’s bass response is weak, so the Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer add-on is necessary for a meaningful bass response when watching movies or TV shows. The Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer would not only add dimension to the soundbar’s lower frequencies but also offload some of the stress the soundbar would otherwise bear when handling deep bass on its own.
When watching intense scenes from “Dune: Part Two,” the rumble of the movie’s soundtrack often rattled the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar, which in turn rattled my TV stand and produced an annoying sound. Some people may like this crashing sound effect, while others, like me, won’t.
Also: Why the ‘Subwoofer Crawl’ is the only way I found the bass sweet spot in my living room
In comparison, my standalone first-gen Arc Ultra didn’t do the same when playing the same scene from the same movie. The Sonos soundbar delivered a more controlled bass response, though Bose’s midrange reproduction was louder and clearer.
Still, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar carries the same $1,100 price as the Sonos Arc Ultra, Marshall Heston 120, and Samsung HW-Q800H, all of which deliver deeper, and most importantly, tighter bass response.
One major drawback
The best thing about the Lifestyle Ultra collection is that they operate on an open ecosystem, offering multi-room audio via Google Cast and Apple AirPlay. Yet the Lifestyle Ultra collection doesn’t support backward compatibility with Bose’s older modern home theater products, which is a miss.
Though Bose doesn’t offer many home theater products in its current catalog, interoperability among all of them would be a plus; support for a wide range of devices is what gives Sonos and Sony an edge over Bose in this context. According to Bose, you can wire the Bose Bass Module 700 to the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar — that’s it.
ZDNET’s buying advice
The Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is good; it’s certainly the best from Bose, delivering refined sound technologies, a clean design, and an open ecosystem for Wi-Fi streaming. However, the Sonos Arc Ultra shares the same $1,099 price tag. If bigger, more theatrical sound is what you want in your living room, Sonos does it better.
Also: Your TV can sound a lot better: 7 easy but unexpected ways to improve audio quality
However, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar sounds great when playing music, and has plenty of smart speaker features, including Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, and Alexa built in. Thus, it’s a solid option for those looking for a smart speaker that happens to be a soundbar, rather than those interested in a soundbar tuned for immersive movie-watching.