Bose® - Solo 5 TV Soundbar - Black

I purchased a TV and needed better sound. I also read all the reviews that said the clarity of people talking is better using this speaker, which is what we were really looking for. Here is the review. Pro:The best clarity occurs when you activate the speaker into the voice enhanced or dialog mode by pressing a special button on the remote. As stated in other reviews, it makes a very positive enhancement in clarity of all voices on all programs. But there is a catch that you should be aware of. Con: The enhanced clarity dialog mode stays active only as long as you are watching at that particular time. Which means that if you turn off the TV, the speaker reverts back to the normal audio mode which is much less enhanced. Additionally, if you set the speaker in auto sense mode, where it comes on by itself when it notices you have turned the TV on, you still need to find the remote for the speaker and activate the enhanced audio mode by pressing the special dialog button every time. If the TV has only been off a short time, then the speaker won't revert to normal mode. But if its off for any longer than an hour, it will always revert to the standard sound mode. Our hearing is not good so we would much rather have the speaker stay in the enhanced audio function every time. I called Bose customer care at 800-792-7197 ext 54464 and they confirmed the speaker does reset every time. They said most of their other systems stay in the mode you put it in and don't revert. They said if enough people call and ask them to adjust this, they will consider a firmware update to allow it to stay in dialog mode if you put it there. (there is a usb port on the back of the speaker and the tech said that the speaker could get a firmware update in that manner if they choose to create one) Overall the speaker has very good mid range sound and decent bass as well, but you should be aware that for the enhanced dialog voice mode you will need to have the speaker remote handy to activate it each time or else you will get the standard sound. As a note, I was not able to get my learning remote to "learn" the dialog button frequency and assign it to a button. On the other hand, if you want to call Bose and ask them to consider providing the option to keep the enhanced dialog mode active until you want to shut it off, give them a call on the number above. Hope that helps.

Full disclosure, I did a ton of research leading into this: - Sounds quality issues are either defective unit or setup based. Once set up, the sound quality is honestly impeccable for a pure sound bar. - Installation, from out of the box to connecting wires, took me 4.5 minutes - and I timed it to make a point to my wife (love you honey :). - The Universal Remote: It really requires a capital 'The' because while it is by FAR the most advanced component Universal Remote I have ever seen, it takes advanced setup. I have 2 engineering degrees and it took me 4 hours to understand how to program and then actually do it. PROGRAMMING THE UNIVERSAL REMOTE (If you have any questions, here is how I did it) - To understand why each brand has only one Code, it is because under each brand (Samsung, Vizio, etc.) there may be multiple SUB-codes, any one of which may work for your device, so it will be time consuming. For example, for Samsung, I discovered through trial and error, there are approximately 30 sub-codes. To find the right one for your component, you enter the code per the instructions, then press volume + ONCE and wait till it is set, then you test per the instructions. If responsive, great! If not try again up to the volume +, then you press volume + TWICE, then test, if not - then follow the process over this time volume + THREE (FOUR, FIVE, SIX) so on and so forth until it responds. I am sure the brilliant team at BOSE would have told me this had I been able to get someone on the phone on a Saturday afternoon, and possibly they have a better method, but this is how I did it and I was able to add 4 components all of different levels of age and complexity. The directions could use some fine-tuning. That is my only knock and why I go down to 4 starts. Let's call it punitive incentivization in that, had I left for my 75 year old father to set up, he would not be talking to me till the holidays, but the 4 hours kept me from having to go to BedBathBeyond with my wife - so I could make it 4.5 stars - but baby steps. Once up and running though, I couldn't imagine going back to the receiver component systems I was running. Love the BOSE SOLO 5 so far!

I purchased this Bose soundbar to replace a Philips 5 speaker surround sound system. Bose sound bar is super easy to set up. Pulled it out of the box, connected the power cord and digital sound cable. Then paired the universal remote with my Samsung TV as shown on page 16 of the Owner's Guide. Sound and remote functions are working perfectly with DIRECTV. You can get to your recorded shows in DIRECTV by pushing the "menu" button on the remote. Push "guide" to get to DirecTV guide. It's that easy. You can easily record a show by pushing the red dot "record" button on the remote. (This doubles as the "delete" function when deleting shows from your recordings list...so be careful there) I did adjust the bass sound exactly as the instructions show on page 18 of the Owner's Guide for movies. The bass maxes out and does not provide bass sound like Pioneer car speakers, but it does have extremely clear sound and enough bass to my liking in my large living room. (400+ sq feet). As other reviewers have mentioned, right under the "bass" button, there is a "dialogue" button to press for extra voice clarity on regular dialogue programs. I turn it on immediately when I turn on the remote if I want decreased bass for news, talk shows, or regular programs. You can easily play music from iPhone by turning on Bluetooth on iphone, pressing Bluetooth icon at the top of the Bose remote - the speaker immediately pairs. (You will hear a beep and see a blue light flashing and know that it is paired) Then play a tune from phone and adjust volume from either the remote or phone. Sound clarity is excellent. Again, I adjusted the bass to highest setting, and while this still isn't a party thumping type of bass sound, it completely fills room with beautiful sound. I will be using the speaker often to listen to my tunes at a medium to low sound without shaking the walls. Overall, I love the ease of use and clear sound. Would definitely recommend this soundbar if you are looking for easy setup and Bose quality sound at a fraction of the price for full Bose surround.

Purchased my Bose Solo 5 to enhance TV audio experience. I use my TV to watch "traditional cable" and also "stream" movies, IHeart Radio and Pandora for music. This is the single entertainment device on the primary floor of the house. The Bose Solo 5 interfaced with my "low end" Sony LCD flat screen via "optical cable" The Bose Solo 5 was easily programed into my Xfinity Remote. This was painless... Bose unit turns on an off with the TV and cable box. I don't play music or TV shows loudly (I'm Married.. enough said) The Bose Solo 5 has met every objective I had for the everyday use intended. (I do have my separate man cave in the basement with the full monty setup the Bose Solo 5 is not in that room... the Bose Solo 5 is on the residence primary floor for everyday viewing/listening. I mounted the Bose Solo 5 under my Sony TV which is wall mounted via swing arm mount. I manufactured my own sound bar mount using simple angle iron, painted black and trimmed. See pic. The sound quality is excellent for the $250 price point. Bass is surprisingly good for unit without separate sub. The bass is adjustable via remote too. The Bose Solo 5 also has Blue tooth option for use with phone's or pc's. This works as expected. One negative... the Bose supplied optical cable was faulty out of the box and frankly could have been better quality if it had worked.

I listened to the store demo at my local Best Buy for about a year before I pulled the trigger on this for Christmas 2018. I liked what I heard in the store and I was prepared to have less bass and a more balanced sound with lots of clarity. I did everything right including of course the optical cable hook up. It just sounded HORRIBLE.... worse than my internal TV speakers. Flat.. zero depth...zero stereo separation.... nothing like what I heard at the store. It sounded like two little cheap crappy speakers in an oversized sound bar. I am 60 years old and a musician since the age of 5 so I know a little bit about his stuff. For you Techies who want to find the weak link in my chain of gear that would explain this horrible phenomenon, I have a 100Mbs cable Internet connection with a pretty expensive 2 channel Linksis Wifi Router so the TV is alone on the 5Ghz channel. Amazon Fire TV Box into fairly new Sony Bravia. Optical out to Bose Solo 5. My old Altec Lansing 2.1 system from the 90's plugged into the digital audio out on the Sony Bravia sounds light years beyond the Bose Solo 5 in the Optical Output. I don't get it.... except... when I went back to Best Buy to check THEIR connections, the Bose Solo 5 was not hooked up to the optical output on the TV. Instead, the Optical Input on the Bose went into some location hidden within the display. It did NOT go to the optical out on the TV - so that tells you something. I so wanted this thing to do what it does while both my kids and their spouses/girlfriends came home for the Holidays... but it was universally agreed upon that it is just a horrible piece of electronic equipment.

Long time Bose customer. Part of what has made them one of my go to's when considering speakers is simplicity along with the quality of sound. This item certainly delivers on both. One speaker, simple setup, incredible sound! I bought this as a Christmas gift for my parents to accompany their 55" Samsung TV. They would never go for a system that has a sub as they'd not care for the deep bass. Their hearing isn't as great as it once was and one key feature with this soundbar is the dialogue clarity. It makes a noticeable difference even for them when watching TV. They also appreciate that sound is better and much more clear than from the TV speaker. In short, they are thrilled with this product and that makes me very happy. My personal opinion: It fills the room with rich, clear sound. You can hear a full range of sound from this impressive little speaker system. Setup was simple. Optical connection from TV into the soundbar, power on the soundbar. That's it. Make sure to adjust your TV's settings to Audio Out and you'll be enjoying sound from the Solo 5. The remote was a little tricky, as I've still not found a code that would allow me to turn on TV and cable box with Bose remote. I'll work on that with Bose Tech Support. In the short term, I was able to use the remote from the cable box to power on the Solo 5 so that works. Truthfully that's probably easier for my parents as they're used to the cable box's remote. I enjoyed the Solo 5 so much that I'm considering adding one for my bedroom TV as it takes up very little space, but produces incredible sound! There are likely cheaper options out there, but the Solo 5 is well worth a look if you're looking for a single soundbar.

This review does not provide any technical detail. Purchased this unit for use in a den area that’s 14ft by 10ft. Primary reason for buying a sound bar was to get better vocal sound while watching movies since some flat screen TVs have awful sound. Settled on the Bose Solo 5 given its size, quality of sound, ease of use and the fact that a bass module unit is not needed. Setup was quick and easy. Instructions were easy to follow. We were up and running with the Bose sound bar within a few minutes. We thoroughly enjoy using this unit. It provides good clarity on vocal sound and is easy to hear even when setting a low volume on the sound bar. The unit comes with a remote that can be set up as the cable box remote if needed, but we don’t use that function. We turn the unit on and off as and when required. The sound bar also connects to mobile devices via Bluetooth. This is proving to be a good option since we can use the speaker to play music etc from a mobile device or PC that supports Bluetooth. The sound is great even for music and we’ve since retired the stereo and computer speakers used so far. Other reviews on this unit appear to show differing opinions on whether this unit is any good or not. In our experience it is good. The design and build quality feels great. Some of our other Bose products are now more than 14 years old and still working really well. We expect this unit will probably give us a great service life.

I bought this soundbar for my mother who, according to audiology testing, has severe loss in the high frequency range and moderate loss in the lower frequencies - she can't hear many consonants so "sand, band, fanned, panned, canned " etc all sound like "and". Funny thing is that when conversing with her you don't need to speak loudly, but when watching the TV she needs the volume cranked way high. She refuses to get a hearing aid mostly out of vanity but also because she can usually figure out what you're saying by context; only occasionally do I have to write the word that she can't hear. Anyway, after a quick and easy set up, she immediately noticed a significantly improved clarity to conversations and that was before we entered the dialog mode which improved the spoken words a little more. With this soundbar she has a much more enjoyable tv viewing experience as she doesn't have to struggle decipher conversations (both in English and her native Asian language) and everyone else benefits because she doesn't have the volume cranked up so high, though it's still louder than what the non-hearing challenged would require. This soundbar is definitely helpful for someone with high frequency loss who refuses a hearing aid; it is well worth its price.