Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great sound easy set up, don't have the sub yet but even wothout ot it sounds great

Great soundbar with lots of base. Just wish I could figure out how to selectively turn it on off since it is always on when the TV is powered up.

The Bose 900 Smart Soundbar is a competent device which includes voice-activated services, supports Dolby Atmos and provides a good (but not great) sound experience. It is attractively packaged in a slim black housing with a glass top but does not meet my criteria for a truly great product. Best Buy offers a number of much better soundbars at equal or lower prices. I really wanted to like this soundbar, given the popularity of the Bose brand. Bose has established a strong reputation in the audio products field since it was founded in 1964 by Amar Bose, an M.I. T. professor. He sought to develop better consumer stereo speakers using a new approach which utilized reflective surfaces rather than pointing speakers directly at the listener. In 1987 Bose introduced its Acoustimass systems which gave it wide consumer awareness. These consisted of very small cube or double cube speakers to handle mid-range and high notes and a base module to generate non-directional low frequency sounds. Their unique design appealed to many for their style and small size but received somewhat mixed reviews from audiophiles. Today Bose generates sales of over $4 billion from a broad line of speakers, headphones, audio systems and automotive audio systems. It has over 9,000 employees. My perception of the sound quality is that it is good but “small.” It did not really fill the room like other soundbars I have evaluated. Although the waveguide approach is clever, I think there is just no substitute for the rich sound produced by multiple, larger speakers and the powerful amplification you will find in competitive premium soundbars. Bose equipment all seems to have the same sound profile – an exaggerated emphasis on bass and clipped high frequencies. I conducted several side-by-side comparisons of the Bose 900 with two other soundbars that I own – a nice 3.1.0 system and a premium quality 7.1.4 system. Soundbars are designated “a.b.c” where “a” is the number of speakers at the listener’s height, “b” is the number of non-directional base speakers, and “c” is the number of “height” speakers. The last element is essential to the Atmos system. The Bose 900 soundbar is a 5.0.2 system. Both of my alternative soundbars produced richer, fuller and truer rendition of diverse musical works that I know very well (Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue album, the Chicago Symphony playing Beethoven’s 9th symphony, a medley of opera arias and a selection of songs by the Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, Simon & Garfunkel and Smokey Robinson.) In every case the Bose 900 sounded good, just not great. And at the price of the Bose 900, the consumer deserves “great.” The Bose 900 Smart Soundbar is certainly well designed, beautifully finished in a relatively compact unit with a glass top and a fine black mesh metal grill wrapping around the front and sides. The top has openings for the left and right height speakers. While attractive, the glass top is a fingerprint and dust magnet, so be prepared to wipe it with a microfiber cloth often. The overall width (41.1 inches) is a little smaller than a 50 inch TV (about 44 inches wide) and it is only 2.3 inches tall so the Bose 900 will be relatively inconspicuous under larger TVs. There is no display to inform you of the status of the soundbar, other than a slim light bar on the left side which glows when a command is received from the remote and to give notifications (in various colors) from Alexa. On the glass top above the light bar area is a spot to turn the Alexa/Google Assistant microphone off. On the back are the tuned base ports and the primary cable connections (power, eARC HDMI, optical , Ethernet) plus a set of four 3.5 mm connections (labeled Base, ADAPTiQ, Data and IR) and a USB-C socket labeled “Service”. “Base” allows you to attach a sub-woofer with a wired connection. ADAPTiQ is used for the microphone which determines room characteristics. “IR” and “Data” connections are not explained by Bose. Because Bose gives little information about the product I partially disassembled it to see what was inside. I removed all 31 screws on the bottom of the unit and pried open the metal grill. I discovered that the unit contains seven speakers. Facing the listener are five speakers, a small (1.3 inch tweeter) center speaker, flanked by two pairs of 3.5 inch speakers providing left/right primary sound plus left/right side sound. The upward firing height speakers are 2.5 inches and are located at either end, next to the base port. There is also a listener-facing Bose wave guide to the right and left of the speaker pairs which helps to create the side effect. The speaker arrangement, aside from the two height speakers is very similar to the Bose 700 soundbar. By placing the side left and the side right speakers next to the primary left and primary right speakers and clustering all four of these speakers in the center of the soundbar the natural separation of sound is hindered. The center speaker (typically used for vocal reproduction) is a very small tweeter so speech is going to be weak in base. Bose missed the opportunity to enhance the side stereo effect by failing to mount actual side-firing speakers at the ends. As a comparison, Best Buy offers another Atmos soundbar at a comparable price (when you add the cost of the optional Bose sub-woofer and surround speakers) which has 13 larger speakers in the main soundbar. Now, in defense of Bose, they do use a different speaker technology than other firms. They incorporate patented “acoustic waveguide theory” which utilize specially shaped chambers to amplify the sounds from speakers, producing impressive output from relatively small speakers. The sound profile typically emphasizes base and the highs are a bit clipped. A debate among audiophiles has raged since Bose first introduced consumer products about whether the quality of the sound was really superior, comparable or inferior to conventional speaker technology. Bose has not helped resolve that debate because they refuse to release the specifications (frequency response and amplification power) of their speakers. They insist the subjective judgment of the listener is the ultimate test, not the raw numbers. Skeptics suggest that if Bose really did have good metrics they would tout them in their marketing. Other concerns/comments: The remote control is very minimal, not backlit and with only volume and source selection capability. Bose offers a far superior remote control with its 700 soundbar. Since the 900 is now the flagship of the line it should have the best remote control. As previously noted, the soundbar has no informational display. In order to adjust its settings (base, treble, center channel volume, height channel volume) you have to use the Bose Music app. You need to keep your phone nearby in order to adjust the sound. Another weakness is that there are no equalizer preset sound modes (e.g., movie, sports, music, etc.) The outmoded Bluetooth 4.2 is used, rather than the clearly superior 5.0 (which can transmit eight times more data at twice the speed over four times the range). Another technical shortcoming is lack of support for any DTS sound format. Also, there is just a single HDMI input, so you cannot connect multiple devices directly to the soundbar. Good points? The Alexa/Google Assistant capability is excellent. The ADAPTiQ calibration works well, although I think the “headset” is a clumsy way to support a microphone. Setup is simple and worked the first time. Connecting other devices via Bluetooth was easy. But overall, I believe that for the cost of a complete Bose ATMOS system (soundbar, subwoofer & surround speakers) the consumer has the right to expect near perfection. Keep in mind that to set up a fully functioning Bose system you really need to add a sub-woofer and surround speakers. The cost of these additional components is actually greater than that of the soundbar. For that investment you can find excellent 9.1.4 and 11.1.4 audio systems which, in my opinion, will far surpass the Bose auditory quality. Consequently, I am reluctantly giving the Bose 900 Smart Soundbar just three stars and cannot honestly recommend that you buy it.

Was marked as an open box was in perfect condition i might as well call it new

I don't know if its operator error or they system, but this is the worst Bose product I've ever owned. The sound bar shuts off on its own occasionally with no reason. Other times it won't be on when we turn the tv on and have to troubleshoot to get it working again. Also, there is no indication light if the bar is on or off so that causes issues when trying to figure out what the problem is. Not a fan of this soundbar.

I expected more of a full room sound versus just standard sound bar experience.

I did research on this particular item. I decided it was the best base on my research. I then discovered it was on sale and decided to purchase it.

I love the soundbar. But i couldn't make it sound like the one is at the store i most be doing something wrong.

easy to connect, sounds like theater, using with projector

I have had this soundbar for two months and despite spending four hours in two separate calls with the support team, the product continues to fail to work. The support team is very helpful in getting the soundbar working again, but it fails again within days. Their response is that there is a "firmware"update needed. This should be a seamless process that doesn't require hours of time on a call to get the product to "reboot". Sound quality is great, but stay away from this one - it will drive you crazy!

Exactly how I wanted my soundbar and my base speaker

It was worth buying the open-box Bose sound bar. It was very easy and comfortable through the BestBuy app.

Really disappointed with Bose on this one. I’ve always been a huge fan and have always used their products. This product sounds good but I’m constantly having to factory reset it and fine tune the sound because this soundbar decides it’s going lower the volume to zero and keep it there. Any attempt to raise the volume and the sound bar lowers it back to zero. Factory resetting and connecting to WiFi is never smooth, as it takes multiple attempts to actually get it on the network.

Excellent sounds,easyset up very impressive, sounds around the room great!

We purchased the 900 and 700 base together and everything worked great for the first month. The volume started to act up by slowing down when adjusting it and then the sound quit working completely. This is the first Bose product that we have had trouble with. An appointment with the Geek Squad has been scheduled and hopefully the can remedy the situation.

So far good but the only problem is see is with the hdmi, there is some lag, called Bose haven’t got positive response yet, still troubleshooting.

Initially we were not sure. After having the Geek squad come to our house and explain things as to how to operate it we changed our opinion and declared it an excellent product.

Great unit minus the fact that I need HDMI-EARC to get the full Atmos experience. Calibration is a must. Works great while playing music or watching movies.

I just received the new Bose Soundbar 900. I was super excited to get it set up. After unpacking, I set the Soundbar on my entertainment center sitting just below my 75" TV. The Soundbar does have some weight to it so be prepared. It has a sleek low profile modern look and a very nice glass top creating a very high-end look. Setting this up was extremely easy. I already had the Bose Music app on my iPhone since I have the Soundbar 300 in my master bedroom along with a few other Bose products I use all the time. Setting up your google assistant and or Alexa was super easy as well. My house uses both but ended up setting Alexa. Now came the real test. I wanted to hear this soundbar all by itself without hooking up the base speaker and any other bose surround speakers to see what this really puts out. I streamed a few Dolby Atmos movies and listened at low volume and at higher volumes. Bose has always put out very clean sound, but this new Dolby atmos is a whole new level of sound. The drivers on each end create a very cool life like spatial sound and don't muffle the sound like other soundbars I have heard. It packs quite a punch as well. This could stand alone in any room and perform amazingly. You can here the sharpness of glass breaking or the sounds in a jungle coming from all directions. Now I am a big sound guy and want the Max output, so I decided to pair my base module 500 from my master bedroom to it. Now it had even richer base. What incredible sound! I know the price point seems high, but in this case, you get what you pay for. This is every bit worth the investment. If you want a Soundbar that has crystal clear hard punching clean sound at any volume with a spatial lifelike feel then don't think twice!

I tried LG and Samsung and didn't work for me, they are good but is not deep and clear same as Bose.