Customer Ratings & Reviews

This didn’t work with the hdmi cable when we had a Samsung tv which meant we had to use the soundbar remote which was kind of a pain. My Samsung tv happened to break, replaced with a Sony and the soundbar works with the Hdmi and my directv remote. Easy to install. Great sound quality.

I am happy with it so far. It has excellent sound quality

Sound was pretty good, purchased bass module as well, this is far better than the cheapy sound bars, adaptiq auto adjustment worked well and did make a difference in sound quality. But in the end, it quit after a week and had to be returned.

great choose! the most reliable brand, according my experience, I know it's expensive but really worth it, need additional information in the user's manual to connect to your TV with different scenarios (old TV, new TV), with or without optical cable or ARC connection.

we have been really surprised at the incredibly high quality sound from the sound bar. We havent used all the internet features, but have enjoyed the ability to play music from the internet through the sound bar. We paired it with the wireless bass woofer for better sound with movies, and it works very well.

Awesome soundbar. Got a killer deal with an open box. Google assist is a challenger and i still haven’t got it to link up. Hopefully this won’t be an issue. Downloaded app but still running into a google connection problem.

Sounds awesome even without the sub woofer. Good enough for apartment living. Does not have mounting holes but sits just fine right under my 55” Samsung tv on top of my entertainment stand. The red light will not tell you if its on or not. But you can tell the difference if it wasn’t.

This Bose sound bar isn’t perfect but it’s worth the money. I was able to use Bose Jewel speakers from another older Lifestyle system and they worked well. The deeper tones, explosions, etc. will require a subwoofer but if you don’t crank the volume up you’ll never notice.

Bought a sonos sound bar kept in less than a month. We had a Bose before and it had an accident. Thought we would try the Sonos and we didn't think it compared to the Bose. Bought the new Bose and guess what we were right we love it.

The Soundbar 500 works great but for some reason the wireless subwoofer will not keep its connection. I ended up having to connect a 3.5mm cable from the Soundbar to the subwoofer, not a big deal but really defeated the purpose of why I purchased the wireless subwoofer.

Everything came on-time, and packaged well, except for one of the optical cable boxes that was slightly crunched. Product still seemed fine, just that the box was smashed so it could have been packed a bit better. Delivery was right to front door, and that was nice too.

Sound was excellent, but the lack of user friendliness took away from the enjoyment. On the first night it went into a forced firmware update. No notice of the update or that it would remove the soundbar from the Bose controller app. The next morning it wasn't working. I spent hours searching for the problem and after a few days found the information on a sight where others had the same problem. The soundbar had to be purged to restore to the app. Alexa also never really worked the way I expected for a 550$ soundbar. After all this, I decided to return it for a more user friendly soundbar.

This Bose soundbar has tremendous theater-like sound. I especially like the deep bass sounds heard usually only in a movie theater. It also has Alexa capabilities although I have yet to try. The size is perfect whether one needs to place beneath the television or in a designated space.

I'm very happy with the sound and music service integration. I can start on my iPhone or iPad Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, etc and switch to my Soundbar. I'm to the point of disabling Alexa though. No spatial awareness: i talk to the kitchen and soundbar answers. No Drop In. So when someone tries to Drop In, Soundbar takes over (see spatial awareness) but is not supported on Soundbar. If i could change the wake word to Echo or Bose, I might get around that, but I can't do that either. It does seem to be finicky when I change speakers from TV to Soundbar. I and several users have had to unplug from power to reset.

Great sound and fully emerge yourself with this system. Just a heads up if you have VPN installed on your phone then need to disable it when you setup the Bose Mobile app. Was frustrated when trying to get sound bar connected until I disconnected VPN.

Purchased this item to add some kick to my living room and let’s just say my neighbors aren’t as excited as I am to say the least. I love this thing but for the consideration of my neighbors I think I’ll wait a while before I get the subwoofer that goes along with it.

After purchasing the Bose cheaper model soundbar, I realized I could not add the Bose 300 rear speakers to it. I returned it and purchased the Bose 500 soundbar and could not be more pleased. It gave me great audio from my tv and the rear speakers give me marvelous surround sound.

I was always skeptical of sound bars, but this truly impressed. Listening music has given a different spectrum on how instruments sound. Playing games give it an extra boost of entertainment. But when it comes to Movies its a little short of amazing. Still great buy.

The Bose 500 is a nice smart speaker and I would definitely recommend if you plan on using as such the majority of the time. But if you are looking for something to be used mostly as a TV soundbar – I believe there may be better options out there, especially if wanting to upgrade the sound on an older TV with multiple inputs and no ARC. My review includes the optional 500 wireless subwoofer. In the 500 soundbar box; Soundbar and power cord (nice that the “block” is in the middle of the AC cord so doesn’t block any other outlets on my power strip or running thru a wall). Basic remote control and batteries HDMI cable ADAPTiQ headset to “tune” your sound field VERY basic “setup” manual In the optional 500 sub-woofer speaker box; Subwoofer and power cord (which has no “block” so easily plugs into AC outlet, nice if running thru a wall too). Very basic “setup” manual Pros; Nice flat black design and it feels “hefty” (7 lbs.) for its size. At 1 ¾ inches height it probably wont block your TV’s IR. Width of 31.5 inches and 4 inches deep means it should fit nicely in front of any TV too. After downloading the Bose Music app to my android smartphone, it was easy enough to setup. It steps you through wireless setup, music apps, amazon sign in, attaching/synching optional Bose speakers, naming device, etc. Also during setup you are asked you to create a Bose account – which registers your product- which I did. Later I received a welcome email from Bose with several links on how to learn and enjoy your speaker. I found it very telling that none of it mentioned using as a TV soundbar – all the info focused on using as a smart speaker and how to maximize music apps/options. But do yourself a favor and download the full manual if you really want to know what everything does/operates If your TV has ARC (Audio Return Channel) and HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) you are pretty much set to go. I am using this connected to a FireTV which has ARC and HDMI-CEC connectivity so turning on blu-ray disc player automatically turns on the soundbar and TV. This also allows any remote you may have setup for your TV to control the soundbar volume. However turning off the blu-ray player doesn’t turn off the TV or soundbar – which is standard but odd to me. Bluetooth is built in and easily synched Alexa is built into the soundbar – which is very nice - but make sure you have the soundbar “listening speaker” turned on if you plan on using it. It seems to default to off during setup but was easily turned on thru Bose Music App. Even with the volume up and a cold that made my voice sound like I had been smoking all night – Alexa recognized and understood me. Whether playing music or TV the units sound fills the room but, to me, lacks a little midrange causing it to a tad “tinny” sounding – and that is with the subwoofer optional speaker. There are basic bass, treble and center speaker adjustments within Bose Music app but I didn’t seem to hear much difference no matter how I had the settings. I did try using Alexa to try to tune the sound but was “told” it could not change EQ settings for this device. That would be a nice update to have in the future, I think! I did run the sound setup using the ADAPTiQ headset. You sit in 5 different seats/areas and it runs a series of sounds supposedly to setup for optimal sound. I really didn’t notice any discernable difference between before and after using it. I found it to be more gimmick than science. The sub-woofer is a pleasant enough shape with the same flat black finish as the soundbar. It’s also relatively small at 9.5 inches tall, 10 inches tall and wide and weighs about 11 lbs. It defiantly provides needed bass/oomph. Since its wireless you can pretty much place anywhere, you’d like within a reasonable distance. Now for the Cons – mostly related to TV soundbar usage You need a smartphone to setup the speaker to have access to your internet, amazon account, adding optional subwoofer and/or rear wireless speakers, speaker tone adjustments (limited as they are), etc. Most people probably have one but wanted to mention. I have looked everywhere and could not really find where the soundbar or subwoofer response specs or output are spelled out. It seems it does support Dolby Digital and DTS, but I could not find anywhere on the speaker that indicates which it is processing. No ATMOS. Bluetooth is input only so you cant use it as output if you want to listen silently thru headphones – as some soundbars allow you to do. There are no video inputs/outputs, only audio inputs. So the 1 HDMI connection is sound input only. If your TV doesn’t support ARC you wont be able to use this HDMI connection. This leaves the optical sound connection which, as long as your TV has optical output, you can use it to listen to anything else connected to your TV thru soundbar. Even if your TV doesn’t have optical output and doesn’t support ARC all is not lost. If any of your other components such as cable box or blu-ray player have optical out you could connect them to the soundbar – just not both at the same time. Not an optimal situation which could have been avoided if soundbar had HDMI input/output/passthru functionality. Remote is not illuminated and makes it hard to find or use in dark room. Its pretty basic as far as functions. You cant use it to change bass, treble, center speaker, etc. – must use app. You don’t get a lot of discernable info from the soundbar. Cant really tell if on, what it is processing, etc. Final Ramblings; Bose has stated they plan on making continual firmware updates, indicating they will be adding Google and Apple Airplay functionality in the future. Ambitious as I believe no one has been able to do this in one package – SONOS comes to mind. IF they can get that accomplished that would be a big plus…. I would also consider adding the optional rear wireless speakers to get 5.1 sound. Looking at website they run around $300.

Simple set up for a great sound in a compact package. I also bought the Base Module and a pair or rear speakers both of which are wireless connection to the sound bar. Totally satisfied with my purchase. Great sound. Easy set up. Unobtrusive items all three.