Customer Ratings & Reviews

I bought this for my mom for her TV and it has issues powering on. It seems to lag and mute when you turn on the TV. My mom had to inplug it to watch tv.

Took it home, gave it a chance. But for the price, the bass was too non existent for the price that i could not keep it. The dolby atmos, my LG tv with built in atmos does virtualization better than this bar, has more bass as well.

The audio skips im a best buy member no one can fix issue and cannot be replaced well within return period

The Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar is an incredible addition to any home theater setup. Bose is synonymous with quality sound equipment. I own their Noise cancelling headphones, Bluetooth speakers, and a portable PA system, and all of them are the best products in their category in my opinion. So, it was no surprise to me that when I got the new Ultra Soundbar in my home it blew away my previous tv speaker setup by leaps and bounds. But let’s dive into the meats and potatoes of what makes this soundbar so good. Initial unboxing and setup were very simple and straightforward. The speaker comes in a classy glossy black finish, its downright sexy if I’m being honest. The speaker is lightweight for its size and fit perfectly on my mantle under the tv in our Living room. Provided with the speaker was a high-speed HDMI ethernet cable, a remote, a power cable and a weird looking headset which I’ll get to in a bit. Setting up the speaker itself I took notice of the additional ports behind the speaker for an ethernet cable (but the speaker does have built in Wifi) and optical cable, an AdaptiQ port and a bass plug. Additionally, you can add wireless bass modules 500 and 700 along with the Bose Surround 700 speakers for a complete home theater system. Once everything was hooked up, I used the Bose app to get the speaker setup. It instantly found the speaker and did a software update and then had me do an AdaptiQ sound setup for my room using the headset provided. AdaptiQ considers how your speaker sounds depending on where you sit and adjusts settings accordingly. I found it to be an intuitive feature with the ability to tweak and adjust as needed. The Bose app is very impressive and compliments the speaker very well. It has a multitude of features at your disposal, you can completely control the volume, source, and adjust settings all from your phone. I was able to change the CEC option, so my speaker automatically turns on when I power up the TV. You can connect additional speakers, music services such as Pandora and Spotify, enable Chromecast streaming and Voice assistance through Alexa. Theres also a Voice4Video feature that is extremely impressive in that if you have a cable box attached to your tv you can change channels, HDMI inputs, play music and make phone calls all using voice commands. Being able to say things like Alexa “Watch NFL Network” and it changes on the fly is amazing! The app also has access to things like Local Radio and Podcasts which are sure to be a hit with my wife since she loves her Dateline podcasts and you can even save them as Presets. Another very cool feature is being able to connect your Noise Cancelling headphones or another portable speaker to the setup as well. Overall I was very impressed by all the features the App brings to the speaker itself. The most important part of a sound bar must be the overall quality of the sound, because let’s be honest what’s the point of a bunch of features if the sound isn’t great and this is where the Bose Ultra Sound Bar really excels. With nine total speakers inside this beautiful sound bar, it delivers a rich and immersive audio experience for any home theater or music fan. I am a huge music junkie so the first thing I did once setup was play some of my favorite tunes to see how it sounds and was amazed by how crisp and clear the music was. You would think not having a separate base module would make the sound muddy but that’s not the case at all. I was blown away by how loud the speaker could get as well. I can just envision myself for years to come playing music in our family room through this speaker and it fills my heart with joy. The experience watching movies is no different. There is an especially cool AI feature that they’ve added that detects when vocals are being played and it allows the speakers to separate those to make sure you don’t miss key dialogue in intense sounding scenes. We watched Avatar 2 Way of the Water as the first movie, and I was really impressed by the overall sound quality. For being just a single sound bar, it blew me away with how well it can act as a complete surround sound experience. I think if you paired this with the wireless bass module you would be hard pressed to find a better surround sound experience for the money. We came away very impressed by the movie quality sound and look forward to watching many more movies with this setup. Overall, I can’t recommend the Bose Smart Ultra Sound bar enough for someone looking for an all in one home theater experience. The speaker is synonymous with Bose quality products and is a home run in my opinion. The App experience only adds to the features it possesses. If you’re looking for a great sound bar for your home this is the one, Period.

TL/DR: Amazing Dolby Atmos sound, perfectly fine standalone, great compatibility with Alexa and Google. Why Bose Smart Ultra? It is the best soundbar I've ever heard (and I've heard a lot, including multiple other Bose ones I own). Set up is done through the Bose Music app from either Google Play store or Apple App store. Sound: The Dolby Atmos experience through this soundbar is exhilirating. I especially appreciate the fact that I no longer feel the need to hang rear mounted speakers. The experience this soundbar provides with Atmos fulfills that for me. Keep in mind your room size and configuration will vary the experience, but Bose has their Adaptiq calibration which will ensure your best experience, as it did for me. My room was about 16' x 13' and rectangular. The soundbar did a really nice job in placing the sounds where it wanted. Some felt above my head, some behind, and some to the sides. The clarity in songs and movies is also nothing short of you being center stage in a concert or better yet, in a private concert with perfect equalization. You can control the equalizer and now a new "height" equalizer enables you to give the surround sound more or less strength. You can't equalize left vs right speakers, but it's what the Adaptiq is supposed to do so no problem there. The bass is very clean. I put it on 100 and found it to be trying too hard, so I lowered it back to 30 and it was perfect for a smooth, clean bass good for music and tv. This soundbar also incorporates AI Dialogue mode which I noticed makes a subtle but effective difference when the soundbar detects sound. It just takes the guesswork out of you having to do it for each show/movie you watch. For me, it even seemed to improve music, especially ballads where the voice is more pronounced and the instruments are quieter. Smart Features: You can connect it to Amazon music, Spotify, Apple AirPlay and it is recognized by Google Home, so you can cast it that way too. Note, there is no display casting, just audio. A small inconvenience is that I couldn't cast YouTube audio from my android phone (since it's a display cast). However, you can just connect via bluetooth to solve this. Alexa is built in, so it can turn into your smart speaker right out of the box. It does not have Google Assistant, but it does have Google Home. This soundbar has a single ARC HDMI so you can hook that to your TV's ARC HDMI. HDMI cable included. It also has an optic cable included. It will find your TV and Cablebox remote codes so you can control them on/off and display selection. You can also link them with other bose speakers for simultaneous playing. You can link it wirelessly to subwoofer and surround speakers if you prefer (I did not). I don't have a Roku TV, but it does come Roku TV ready. Ports: Bass, Data, IR, Adaptiq, Ethernet, HDMI (ARC), Optical in, Power There is nothing negative I found in this soundbar in my 5-7 days of testing it. It is my favorite.

One of the best soundbars bar none....but you need more to be perfect. I have had numerous soundbars from cheap to flagship and this is a flagship, with a caveat. I say this is an awesome soundbar and you get the most out of this if only, if you intend just to use it in a smaller room or intend to add components to use this soundbar in a larger open area. Why? Because in a small room, you do not need the rumbling bass of a subwoofer and satellite speakers. You just need on direction. However, to really fully utilize the sound of this soundbar, in a large room, in my opinion, need the satellite speakers and subwoofer. The soundbar is really that good. So good that it almost trumped my existing set up. I say almost because once you have surrond sound installed, you really do miss it. So if you do not have surround sound and no need of a subwoofer set up, buy this. Set up was pretty simple. Once you unbox it, it comes with all the connections you can use, the classic optical or HDMI ARC. It was refreshing to know that these wires were included. I turned on the AI and used the headset thing to calibrate the soundbar. That heaphone thing has ample length to go virtually anywhere in your room in a moderate sized space that is. That was cool you use the app you can download in your respective app stores. However in my usage of calibrating the sound, the app crashed everytime is completed it's set up. But, the settings stuck so they were indeed saved. I am running on the Android 14 Beta software on my Google Pixel 7 so, I am not sure if the beta builds just aren't compatible fully with the software just yet. But either way, the set up was complete. I tried to sync up different bluetooth speakers, but for TV it didn't sync properly. I think you need devices that also have the proprietary simplesync installed on the hardware to proprely enjoy this party bluetooth functionality. However, after the set up, I connect to my Alexa realy simple through the app as well and it was up and running in about 25 minutes. The remote is built very well. Just a tad too small to lose in my house though lol. The great thing is that the TV synced up with the soundbar with no issues so I was able to use my TV remote to control the volume without set up. It worked automagicly. Other than my snag with the app, it was pretty seemless in setting up. Now I have to mention the build quality is superb. You look at it and it looks like a high quality bar. It looks like a shinly black piano key. and it is a small bar that packs a big punch in sound quality. You can hear the crispy highs without distortion and it was a treat to listen to various tracks with this bar. Would I recommend this? Heck yes, however, if you intend to replace this with an old surround sound system, you will indeed miss that feature. But if you can look past that and use it as a straight sound bar, then this is for you. Or you can buy the subwoofer and component speakers to complete the sound stage, in a sense.

Open box item, Stopped working after six months. Had geek squad protection, so received a full refund.

The Bose name has always been a symbol of excellence in sound. The products they make sound terrific and truly bring out the best in music. With the new Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar, Bose has done is again. This soundbar is truly a beautiful beast. As you take it out of the box, one is impressed with the overall aesthetics of the soundbar. It truly is a beautiful piece of hardware. Measuring 41 inches long by 4 inches deep by 2 inches high, the soundbar should fit most areas where you may want this. The soundbar is a bit heavier than most, so if you want to mount it, realize this may be a slight issue. There are many options to connect to the soundbar. The soundbar accepts HDMI, optical, Ethernet, Bluetooth, and AirPlay. If you have a device that needs sound, this soundbar can connect. There is even a companion app for iOS and Android. This app can work as an additional remote control and allows you to tailor the sound however you want. After you get it connected, the real evaluation is in the sound. The soundbar can not only fill up a room, but it can also fill up a house. This packs a serious punch. It can get as loud as any soundbar I have seen. There is a bit of distortion when you get to the full blast, but it is not that bad. I doubt there will be many needs to go that high. You will likely turn it down before the real distortion starts. The sound is crisp and clear. There are the standard front facing left, center, and right speakers. In addition, there are upward facing speakers on either side. This allows the sound to be projected upwards to really help fill up the room. The bass is strong in the soundbar. The trebles are strong. You can always boost or reduce these as you see fit. One of the nicest features of the soundbar is the AI Dialogue Mode. Many times, I will watch a movie in my media room and the music seems very loud and the words are barely audible. So, I end up cranking up the dialogue and turning it down in the louder scenes. With this mode, the AI figures out where the dialogue is and adjusts so the words can be heard. It is wonderful. If you asked me what I would like to improve upon this, I would like to see more channels of equalization besides just treble and bass and perhaps some presets that are tailored to certain styles of music or movies. But honestly this is a minor picky point. The sound is just that good. In the end, I really love the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar. With the ability to connect multiple devices to it, the amazing looks, and the tremendous sound, this is a wonderful work horse for any media room. I recommend this soundbar to people wanting to get the most out of their home systems. Bose has always been a leader in sound, and this soundbar continues that tradition.

The Smart Ultra Soundbar appears to be a follow-up product to the Bose Smart Soundbar 900. The Ultra Soundbar is sleek with a glass top. There are only two touch-sensitive buttons on it, microphone mute and action button. Physical setup requires just two included cords, power and HDMI. You can also use the included Toslink digital optical cable if your television doesn't have eARC capability. Once you have the soundbar connected you need to download and install the Bose Music app which is where my trouble starts. As an early adopter of tech, I am running the beta version of IOS on my devices, unfortunately, the current Bose app is not compatible with the beta and has not yet been released for the upcoming IOS update. Getting past this hurdle, the app immediately recognized the soundbar and setup continued smoothly. Once the initial setup was finished the next step is to connect the ADAPTiQ headset and calibrate the sound to your room by sitting in five different locations in the room while the bar plays a series of sounds. The remote is minimalist, having only 8 buttons - volume, power, source and play/pause. It's the same small form factor used on my iPod speaker dock. I like that when you press the bluetooth source button the soundbar goes into pairing mode and doesn’t require the app to change pairing. According to the app, the Ultra Soundbar only works with Amazon Alexa. I have other Bose speakers that include Google Home as well but it is not an available option for the Ultra. Alexa works as expected by simply speaking your wake word and command. There is a linear light bar that acknowledges your voice commands. The mute touch button mutes the microphone for Alexa and shows a red light when it's muted. Now the reason you buy a soundbar - how does it sound? I’m using the Ultra in a mid-size room and I was surprised by the soundbar, especially the bass since it doesn’t come with a sub. In bass-heavy movies the earth didn’t shake but you could feel the rumble from across the room. The Ultra has nice stereo separation and sound stage. Mid’s and highs sound great and you can boost bass, treble, center and height in the app but there are no presets to choose from. I like that the Ultra sounds crisp even at higher volume levels. Volume levels show on the tv but not consistently. There are no displays on the Ultra and the linear bar does not react to volume changes. Additionally, the volume is not as responsive as I would like, you notice a decent gap between pressing the button (on any remote). I did find the easiest way to change the volume is via Alexa and telling it what level you want. The Ultra tries hard at the Atmos/surround but with no rear speakers it falls a bit flat for me. This was true with my previous LG soundbar as well. If you have a larger room you will definitely miss having the sub and satellite speakers. Bose offers rear satellites and a subwoofer however, like all Bose products these carry a hefty price. Unless you are die-hard Bose, I think there are more cost effective options to consider. I give the Bose Ultra Soundbar four stars and would recommend it only if you have a smaller space or can afford to complete the set.

I really thought this system would be good for our home. But i was very disappointed in the quality. Took it back to the store poor quality

This center channel is unlike any other center channel I’ve had. I don’t know how many speakers are in it, but it produces sound that feels like it is coming from different directions. There is an option called ADAPTIQ to tune it to your room. The set-up process has you put a microphone that is mounted on a headband on your head. Then it has you move to your 5 favorite places in the room so it can tailor the sound to give you the best listening experience for those seats. When you hook it up, it works best with your ARC HDMI input. If you don’t have one available, then the next best is the Optical input. I have an older A/V Receiver and unfortunately it didn’t have an extra ARC output. I only have one HDMI output and that goes to my Projector. I have Optical inputs, but no outputs, so I was forced to use a splitter on my HDMI output. The splitter gave me an Optical output and it seems to be working in 2 channel mode only. I’ve tried different output settings from my A/V Receiver, but it seems with this splitter only the 2 channel option works. This speaker is a monster. It is nearly 12 lbs, about 41” long and 2.25” high. The piano black finish is very nice. The sound comes out the front as you would expect, but also has 2 large oval holes on top at each end. The quality seems top notch, I have never been disappointed with any of my Bose products and this one is very well made and the fit and finish is very good. I like to stream music from my phone and have a few different devices that I use in different parts of the house. This speaker allows me to stream music wirelessly to it. As long as I am in range of the speaker, I can select it from my iPhone and start playing my music. You can also use the Bose Music app with it. From the app you can control the center channel, height channel, base & treble. Change audio tracks, there is a AV Group Sync and Audio Delay setting. When setting it up, you can add Music Services, it has Chromecast built-in and has a voice assistant feature. You can add additional surround speakers or a base module. As you can see it is a very full featured sound bar. If you are looking for a sound bar and are into Bose products, then I don’t think you will be disappointed.

When I received the Bose smart ultra soundbar, I was a little disappointed that my sample did not have the wireless subwoofer as part of the package. The disappointment came to an end once I actually had a chance to install the soundbar and set it up for my particular listening location. Setup was fairly easy. The soundbar packaging included a small setup guide that basically contained four easy steps. You unpackage, connect to your television, connect to power and then download the app. The app walks you through the rest of the setup process. After I connected the Bose Ultra soundbar to the app, the first thing that happened was a firmware download which was automatic and for the most part seamless. I did have to unplug the soundbar and plug it back in to reset everything and finish the update. In the app you have pretty much full control in changing inputs on the soundbar as well as turning on and off various features. One feature that I have come to really enjoy is the voice enhancement setting that allows the speaker to emphasize voices in movies and shows. This makes dialogue so much clearer. The sound is great, even without a sub. You will get a taste of what it can do as soon as you power it up and you get the deep startup sound. Size is great, not a huge speaker, so you shouldn't have any problem finding room for it under your television and it also sounds good as a stand alone speaker for Bluetooth music. I still like bass, especially with action movies, but this speaker with its Dolby Atmos speakers and full range sound almost makes me forget that there isn't a sub in the room. Bose has done a fine job on this line of sounbars and I think this would make a fine addition to anyone with a medium to somewhat large room looking for better sound.

Having trouble with connecting to my tv through my Apple TV. When it finally connects the sound is awesome.

Purchased 2 weeks ago, still haven't received it, terrible customer service

Not as good at they say . Tv alone soun way betteer

After 10+ years of service from my previous sound bar, I suddenly found myself with a malfunctioning one and starting looking at options. Fortunately I had the opportunity to experience this latest product from Bose and fell in love! The product is easy to set up right out of the box and includes everything you need for connectivity. I took advantage of the HDMI connection most modern sound bars and TVs support and after just a few settings changes on the TV I was ready to go. One advantage to this setup is that the TV remote controls the sound bar volume, meaning you don’t have to use the included remote unless you really want to. Setup is accomplished using the Bose Music app which is pretty straightforward. One unique element is the ‘headset’ included that you plug into the sound bar for tuning purposes. Basically you sit in the positions you most frequently use when watching TV and the sound bar picks up that positioning to fine tune your audio quality. I’ve seen this done using your phone with competing products and my only concern is having to remember to dig out this extra accessory if I ever switch rooms or move. Sound quality is why you buy Bose products and I will tell you this one does not disappoint. Audio clarity is outstanding, with built in boosting for dialogue to help make it come out to the front instead of being muddied by background sound/music. I can say without a doubt this sounds night and day better than the product it replaced and I look forward to many years of use.

I've always loved Bose sound bars. They always offer great sound and this new Bose Ultra Smart Sound bar is the best yet in my opinion Coming in at about 41" long with a height of a hair over 4" the Ultra packs a lot in what I consider to be quiet a small frame. It houses 9 speakers which consist of 6 full range transducers, two custom upwards firing dipole speakers and a center tweeter. All this gives you extremely immersive audio while watching your movies or playing your games. This has dolby Atmos support and it really does work well when in use, it amazing how this soundbar can make it seem like you have speakers around you and not just firing in front of you. It really does seem like you have a speaker above you at times. If you're watching something that isn't in dolby Atmos then truespace does a pretty good job of trying to give you that similar experience. While not quite what you get with Atmos it still does a good job of sound separation. High marks for Bose on how this works. One big problem I've found with sounbars is dialogue being drowned out by explosions or any other loud noise but with the Ultra this is greatly improved as it uses something called AI dialogue mode which makes so you can still hear spoken word during fire fights and races. I find nothing worse than watching a movie only to stop it to change my sound settings to hear what people are saying and then removing all the action noise. It totally kills the audio experience and Bose has done a great job of not needing to do that. You can use Bose simple sync with this which allows you to connect your other Bose headphones and speakers, while I didn't try this feature it's nice to have options like this. This soundbar is also voice activated with Bose voice 4voice. When I connected via HDMI ARC I could turn on my TV and soundbar with my voice, it also utilizes amazon Alexa. It works really well. It also have Bose app support which you use to setup the soundbar, it's very simple to use and makes the experience much better Apple airplay2 and Spotify also work here but I didn't test those as I don't use those services. Overall this is the best soundbar I've owned. The audio is crisp, clear and immersive. Voices come through really well even in the high octane moments. Setup is easy, the app is well laid out and the size is respectful.

Summary: The Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar delivers a clear cinematic experience with a lot of extras that challenges the competition to step their game up. Pros: - Sounds great out of the box, even better with Adaptiq tuning on set up. The Bose quality everyone expects. - Can modify sound to your tastes with App control of center channel, height, base and treble. Especially useful to fit in different size rooms. - Insane volume range (loud) - New AI dialogue mode makes hearing movie dialog easier to hear than ever. - Decent App makes it easy(ish) to set up, easy to use, and you put the provided remote in a drawer. - Decent build, easy to place. - Decent Dolby Atmos support with up firing side speakers. - Decent support for Apple Airplay,Roku, Alexa, Google Home, Android and Chromcast. - Built in wifi, Bluetooth, and ethernet. HDMI and optical inputs. Cons: - Does not support Apple Siri. Okay, not that big of a con. - Limits you to Bose accessories. Admittedly most companies try to limit you to their ecosystem. A Matter of Taste: - Black minimalistic design with glass top, should look great in most homes but your tastes may vary. - Typical minimalistic instructions, scan the code, forces you to download the Bose App, and then into set up which can be time consuming with the Adaptiq tuning which has you sit in five different places in the room wearing a provided headset with microphone. And they mean 5. It can tell if you sit in the same place twice. But the results are worth it. So buck up. - Only one HDMI e-arc port. Some like two to form a chain. The Full Word: I'm not going to repeat the pros and cons, but expand on a few themes. It is easy to recommend the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar to Bose enthusiasts. It incorporates all the positives of the preceding top of the line, Dolby Atmos support, pristine audio, Adaptiq tuning, wide variety of inputs, and classy look, and adds in a well designed App (if you have suffered with poor Apps you know how impressive this is) and a new AI dialogue mode that clarifies movie dialog easier making it easy to hear. If you are new to Bose, well, let's dig a bit deeper and return to the AI dialogue mode and the dirty little secret of ALL soundbars, and that is they work to deliver a simulated surround sound experience, but in the end, it is hard to beat physically discrete speakers around you. That is why Bose and others also sell discrete side speakers and bass modules to upgrade your experience. What does this have to do with dialog? Well, a film's sound mixer technician(s) will utilize separate sound channels to spread out the sound, and the dialog comes through a separate center channel (speaker) making it clean and crips. That works well with a 3D aural experience (multiple discrete speakers), but soundbars by design cram the 3D simulation together and dialog often comes out muddied and hard to hear in comparison to the booming effects of some movies. Hence Bose introduces AI dialogue mode, which balances the dialog and surround sounds to the Ultra's unique sound pattern and the result is dialog is clear again. Pro tip. Turn OFF the AI mode for music which typically does not have booming surround sound effects. And while we are on the subject of just how well does the Bose Ultra Soundbar succeed in a full cinematic experience? For many it will be all they need or want, it's plenty loud and gives you the feeling that sound is spread out. You won't be fooled into thinking speakers are behind you, but more requires more money and more space and some just won't want to do this. The Ultra is definitely heads and tails above simpler speaker systems. And for those that have the budget and space for more, Bose gives you some great options. And check out all those built in input options, HDMI, ethernet, wifi, bluetooth, Apple Airplay, Chromecast, Spotify, optical audio, if you can't find a way to connect to your soundbar, it is time to upgrade your source device. I know I could hook up all my devices (mostly Apple) wirelessly (besides the TV) and it just worked flawlessly. And it probably goes without saying, besides Dialog AI, and the tuned surround sound experience, the 'smart' part of the smart Ultra Soundbar, is full integration with Alexa and Google Home. Sorry Apple, you are excluded from this table. In my mind, all that is good to great, but what about sound quality you ask? That's the hardest thing to comment because audio is such a subjective matter, but I found the sound to be clean and crips at moderate volumes, but got muddy at high volumes. And by high, I mean your neighbors would be pounding the walls if you are in an apartment, or calling the cops after 10 if you are in a home. If you have doubts, I would recommend you listen for yourself, but I would say that about any speaker system. Where the Bose performs well is allowing you to customize the sound to your preferences in the App. Which by the way, I will repeat, the App works well for me.

I'm gratefully surprised with the awesome experience now when I watch TV. The sound is super good, loud and cristal clear. The videos on YouTube finally I enjoyed a lot, specially the orchestra music. And the movies with low volume speaking now I can hear it without rising too much the volume to disturb neighbors. Higley recommended. The super easy setup is fantastic, now I can control my TV, volume and cable box (tivo) with one control and with my voice, alexa turn on TV, easy like that.

Now, complete transparency up front… I am using this Bose soundbar on a bedroom tv. It’s not my main source of entertainment. With that said, I’m very impressed overall with this soundbar and the ease of setting up. Using an included microphone-laden tiara and the app, the setup took literally less than 10 minutes. Once set up, I played a few of my go-to demo movies for Atmos. Even though it’s a soundbar and requires the sound waves to bounce the sound, this soundbar does a convincing approximation of Atmos. You can ALMOST hear separation in the channels. Soundbar technology has come a long way! That said, I ordered the optional surround speakers and a bass module to get the full effect. When those pieces get delivered, I expect my enjoyment of the Bose Ultra to improve considerably. The soundbar has some of the best low frequency audio I’ve ever heard in the category, but still has a noticeable drop off point. For instance, watching Jurassic Park’s t-rex rain scene one expects to feel the footfalls of the rex, and the vibration of its roar. Without a subwoofer, the rex sounds like it’s floating. You don’t get the immersion of an impact. The roar doesn’t ring in your chest. So I highly recommend picking up a base module. The surround effects are pretty good. It does a satisfying job of wrapping you in an audio bubble, but I like a lot of shooting and action. Movies like John Wick and Starwars. With major effects like car driving or space ship battles, the Atmos sound is perfectly fine. However, with more spatially pointed sounds such as bullets or laser fire, the virtual surround sounds “boomerangy”. I’m hoping having physical surrounds will help mend that slight discomfort. Dialog is CRYSTAL CLEAR! Disturbingly so! Bose really has dialed in its technology for clarifying conversations. I was able to turn off closed captioning and follow conversations in typical Hollywood fare. So in summary, I really am impressed with the Bose Ultra. It’s a huge step forward in audio processing by the wizards at Bose. I truly look forward to adding a few accessories to complete the experience.