Customer Ratings & Reviews

Unable to manage sound equalization. Would like to be able to customize the sound

The Bose Soundbar 500 is a fantastic sounding soundbar. The looks and design of the product are very premium and high quality looking. Unboxing and setup were very easy and straight forward, the directions made it very easy for a quick setup. Most of the calibration and setup takes place on the Bose App required for setup, it is very simple process. The build quality on the speaker feels very durable and long lasting. The sound quality on the speaker is very good, treble and mid ranges sound very crisp and clear. However, the only downfall is the lack of bass the speaker has. I would highly recommend buying the Bose Bass Module 500 along with the Soundbar 500, this provides a hefty bump in performance of the overall system. Having Alexa built in is a very handy feature because I can play my Spotify off it and it sounds amazing, also very handy for controlling my lights. I would highly recommend the Bose Soundbar 500 to anyone looking for a premium soundbar but would highly encourage them to purchase the Bass Module 500 because it makes the overall sound experience much better with the lower range. Overall it is an excellent product from Bose with a high-quality feel and would highly recommend.

Over the years I have purchased a variety of Bose Products and was a huge fan until I purchased the 500 Soundbar. I bought it because of the potential via Bluetooth to connect everything from my TV to iPhone, to a wireless turntable. It worked great for about 2 months and then randomly generated feedback as loud as an air raid siren. I sent it to Bose twice for repairs and it was never fixed. I wasted a huge amount of money on this soundbar which has changed me from a huge Bose fan into a total skeptic. If you purchase something like this from Best Buy, pay for the extra protection. Best Buy will just replace the faulty equipment, Bose will not.

One would think a $550 soundbar by Bose would have a little bass, it is nothing more than a way over priced treble monster. What a disappointment, returned it back to store and bought the $159 Vizio with sub, and what a great move, not to mention a lot cheaper.

Not enough powerI thought it would have more bass but it doesn’t

was not impressed with this soundbar. Would probably be better with subwoofer

need speakers to be complete I will buy surround speakers

Has not helped for us in terms of speech recognition. Movies very hard to watch because so often we can’t understand what the individuals are saying. Very disappointed after spending $500 for the sound bar and additional hundred dollars plus for installation

I got this with the bose 500 bass module. My review is based on the combined system. This is my first soundbar. I'm a little spoiled since I've mainly used component systems for music and multimedia listening. It's unfair to compare them with a soundbar since they cost 5 to 15 times more. I've probably spent 2x this much just for cables and speaker wire over the years. If you're just wanting to upgrade you're tv for way better sound and casual music listening this is a much simpler way. If your tv is fairly modern it probably has a hdmi arc output which you can connect with the included cable. It may not work with all tvs so you might need to purchase an optical cable for movies or tv use. If your tv doesn't have optical output you probably need a new tv anyway. Plug in the power cords for the sounbar and Bose 500 sub and that's it for wiring at least. Much simpler than connecting a bunch of components and trying to run speaker wires for a 7.2 system. Again don't expect this to sound like a high end component system but it does sound good. I had a little trouble getting it to connect with my phone app at first but after a few tries it connected fine. Adding the bass module was simple using the app (it's wiireless except for power). The soundbar also has bluetooth and wifi for streaming. Surprisingly good sound for such a small package. Loud enough for my medium sized living room. If I want to get louder I'll use my component system. If you have a large room you might consider the more expensive bose 700. Get the bass module with it, it gives you good bass in a small sub.

I opted for the Bose 500 soundbar rather than the 700 due to the size of my TV/stand and living room area. I hoped that the 500 would provide enough sound for my living space and it definitely delivered! I added the 500 base module as well and the sound is outstanding. Setup was simple and flawless. Download the Bose Music app and it walks you through setting up the system and tuning it to your space using the Adaptiq headset. The app worked perfectly and guided me through adding Spotify and Sirius as well. Once setup was complete, I tested the music services and the sound was superb. I then tested sound from the TV and for some reason I could not get the HDMI Arc output to work, so I switched to an optical cable and in worked perfectly (must be my TV output I guess). Again, the sound was excellent. I found it a little lacking in bass so figured out how to adjust that using the app and now it is perfect. The size of the soundbar is smallish (about 31 inches) which fits my TV/stand area just right, but I was not sure it would be able to put out enough volume to fill the room. So I cranked up the volume and, WOW does this thing get loud! It puts out far more volume than I need. I have numerous Bose products and every one of them delivers fantastic sound quality and excellent usability, this soundbar is no exception. Overall, a great soundbar, even better with the base module, and I will be adding the satellite speakers very soon. Thanks Bose!

Kind of disappointed. Just doesn’t have the sound.

The Soundbar 500 provides quite good sound on its own (without the add-on subwoofer), comparable to other soundbar systems that include a woofer module. Adding the Bass Module 500 really completes the package, but then makes the price pretty darn high. Either way, the sound is clear, crisp, and loud if you want it to be. The ADAPTiQ room-correction system is no gimmick - it dramatically improves the sound. For me, it was a night-and-day difference. All this is very good. 5 stars for sound. However... The user interface and interacting with the soundbar is cumbersome and irritating. About the only thing you can do with the supplied remote control is turn it on and off, adjust the volume, and switch sources. Everything else has to be done via the Bose Music app on your smartphone. No smartphone? No dice! And that app can't do everything it should. Primarily, you can't use the app to switch inputs. Which may not seem like a big deal, until you use the thing. Say you were watching TV, then switched to Amazon Music or your bluetooth device. No problem, it switches automatically. But when you want to go back to watching TV, guess what? There's no way to switch back to TV without digging out the remote control! You can't do it from the app, and it won't do it automatically. I've seen people complaining about this on the Bose message boards for almost 2 years! Also, the interface gives you know way of knowing what the volume level is set to. The light on the soundbar just blinks if you are turning it up or down, with no feedback on how loud it actually is. So sometimes you think it's turned off until you press volume up a bunch of times. Other times you are blasted by crazy loud output. Also, there's no pilot light on it so you have no way of knowing if it's on or off at a glance. 2 stars for the user interface. The Amazon Alexa integration works as well as any other 3rd party Alexa device. Which means it does all the skills you expect, except you can't add the device to a multi-room or multi-speaker Echo group, and you can't change the wake word. But this is common to all 3rd party devices so not a knock on this one in particular. Speaking of multi-room/multi-speaker sound configurations, the Bose app does let you group together the Soundbar 500 with other Bose smart speakers. I also have a Bose Home Speaker 500, which is compatible for grouping. however, there is a significant delay in sound between the 2 speakers when grouped, making it unlistenable and useless. Hopefully they can fix this in a future update. But at the moment, it's a good idea that doesn't work. In comparison, grouping my many Amazon Echo devices into a single group yields perfectly synchronized sound. The build quality of the soundbar is very nice, it looks and feels expensive. Which is good, because it is.

For the price very disappointing , I bought a Polk for 148.00 sounds 10 times better . Sad that bose would sale that for 578 waste of money

It took several hours to get up and going on my Samsung TV. Worked for about 10 days, and now it does not work after another 1/2 hour of trying. Have not had the time to get going again.

I got it in, Plugged up, and That's all. It would never do anything except the light on the front kept slowly pulsating. The remote did not even work. There is no way to reset to default and try again. The online update firmware file was not even on the website. So it was like I just bought this soundbar so I could unpack it and pack it back up. I've had several Bose sound bars, and with each one I had the experience has got worse! So I returned this Sound Bar and got another brand.

Poor design, mediocre sound quality and cumbersome setup/contols/app. Far better products available for the money.

Not worth $500.00. Very disappointed. Maybe alone this is not how its suppose to be.

Expected far more from Bose. Soundbar was difficult to set up even for Geek Squad techs. Then one day after installation it quit working and no sound could be obtained from my new LG OLED TV. Scheduled a service call with the Geek Squad but they can't get to it for over a week! Will NEVER buy another Bose product. Stay away from these sound bars unless you like pain.

This speaker is exactly what I would expect it to be. From the packaging, to the sound it is all incredible. Everything was packaged well. Cloth like covering, and super dense foam. The packaging was very sleek. The set up was rather easy. You download their app. Follow the directions on screen. Use the adaptive headphones in the area you plan to use the sound bar, and then it works. 15-20 minutes tops. The remote is very easy to use, super functional. Connecting the speaker to the device playing is super easy too, once the device has paired to the speaker, all you do it push the Bluetooth button and it connects automatically in the future. NOW the sound.. the sound is incredible. Crystal clear.. perfection. I couldn’t believe how real it sometimes feels. There is no delay, no interference. Just exactly what you want out of this kind of speaker. I’ve watched several movies, shows and listened to all genres of music with it. Honestly I cannot find a flaw. I chose to use this in my den and my bedroom. Both places are different in size. The speaker is just as clear in the bedroom on my headboard as it is 10ft away from me in the den. It has a good bit of settings inside the app which makes it super convenient. The look and size of the speaker is perfect as well. Very sleek, and clean looking. Metal look to it and it’s pretty heavy. Having Alexa makes it convenient as well. I love being able to talk to it to increase or decrease the volume, pause, play or stop. It’s just the added little things to make it more versatile. I would recommend this speaker to anyone. The quality of the sound to the look of the actual speaker is amazing.

Returned the product after learning it did not integrate well with the LG TV