Right on the heels of Sonos’ biggest release in a few years, Bose is firing back with a new wired speaker and a premium soundbar/subwoofer combo, all of which are a part of a new “Lifestyle” collection.
First up is the $299 Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, which is a Bluetooth/Wi-Fi speaker similar to the recently released Sonos Era 100 SL. Like the Era 100 SL, there’s no independent battery in Bose’s offering, meaning it has to be plugged in for power, so don’t plan on bringing it to the park. Whatever it lacks in portability, it makes up for in its big sound. The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker uses a reimagined version of Bose’s Direct/Reflecting speaker technology from the late ’60s and has three drivers. The most interesting bit here is that one of the drivers is up-firing, meaning it’s pointed at the ceiling, while the other two are front-facing.
That up-firing driver is designed to give the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker a greater sense of space than your typical Bluetooth speaker, since sound gets projected toward the ceiling and walls and bounces around the room. Adding to that sense of space is the fact that Bose outfitted the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker with its TrueSpatial processing technology, which can create Dolby Atmos-like content with multiple “channels” from non-Dolby Atmos content. Similar to the Sonos Era 100 line of speakers, you can also pair more than one Lifestyle Ultra Speaker together for stereo sound or to play simultaneously in different parts of your house or apartment.
I got a chance to listen to the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker myself, and the experience was pretty impressive. Despite its size, it manages to really fill the room with sound, and the bass is much beefier than you would expect. That extra bass is by design, according to Bose. Each Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is fitted with what Bose calls “CleanBass” technology, which combines the speaker’s woofer and a proprietary “QuietPort” acoustic opening and Bose’s own processing to amplify the low end without creating distortion or delivering sound that feels overprocessed. I know that’s a lot of marketing-speak for one feature, but the results are definitely real if my small sampling is any indication.
Compared to the Sonos Era 100 SL, it’s clear that Bose’s Lifestyle Ultra Speaker has more oomph. That “oomph” is much more pronounced when paired with another speaker for stereo sound, too. I listened to two Lifestyle Ultra speakers in a stereo pair, and I can see why one might be tempted to buy two of them, despite the $600 total for that setup.
Speaking of stereo pairs, Bose is definitely leaning into the Sonos of it all by making the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker Wi-Fi-ready and also launching a redesigned app experience so you can control your Lifestyle speakers in one place. I got a glimpse of the Bose app and setup process, but I didn’t get a chance to go hands-on with the app, so it’s TBD on whether it’s better or worse than the Sonos experience. Sonos’ app, as many of us know, has had its fair share of hiccups, so a lot can go wrong.
If voice assistants are your thing, Bose is also launching the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker with Amazon’s Alexa+, which, to be honest, I’m a little skeptical of. If Alexa+ is anything like Google Home’s chatbot-infused voice assistant experience, you can expect some frustration there, since wait times for actions can be a little bit longer and it tends to be verbose. And no, you can’t use a different voice assistant on Bose’s speakers—I asked.
The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker can be preordered starting today at Bose.com and will release on May 15. Speakers come in black and “White Smoke,” while the “Driftwood Sand” option is limited edition and will cost a little bit more at $349.
A big boy soundbar
While the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker may appeal to anyone wanting to listen to music, there’s also the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer for anyone who wants the latest Bose tech for their home theater setup.
Like the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar leans into 3D sound and features what Bose calls the “first major soundbar redesign from Bose in over a decade.” Inside the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar are six full-range drivers, and two of them are up-firing while four are front-facing. There’s also a centered tweeter and two proprietary “PhaseGuide” drivers. It’s those last two drivers that really make the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar interesting, since it allows Bose to beam sound to the left and right of the room in an effort to mimic surround sound from a single soundbar. Like the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar also has TrueSpatial audio processing to give non-Dolby Atmos a sense of space.
I experienced the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar myself, and it was… decent. Admittedly, I was off to the right during a demo, so I didn’t get the best seat in the house, but I wasn’t blown away by my brief listening experience. There was definitely a richer sense of space compared to other singular soundbars without surround speakers, but I don’t know that it’ll be replacing a true multi-speaker setup anytime soon.
There are other bells and whistles inside the Ultra Lifestyle Soundbar, like SpeechClarity technology, which uses AI to recognize and enhance dialogue when activated. I also got to sample this feature briefly, and again, it works, but it didn’t knock my socks off. There’s also CustomTune technology (rebranded from Adaptiq), which can tailor EQ to your specific room. Unlike the previous iteration, which required you to put on a special headset to calibrate your room acoustics, CustomTune now uses an approach similar to Sonos, which uses your phone’s microphone to judge room acoustics.
If you want to expand your Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar system, there’s also a new Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer. There aren’t as many bells and whistles in the subwoofer, but I got to listen to the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar with and without the subwoofer connected, and confirmed it definitely adds some kick. And if that’s still not enough, you can combo the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar with a pair of Lifestyle Ultra Speakers for two back channels.
As is the case with the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and subwoofer can be preordered now for $1,099 and $899, respectively, and both will be widely available on May 15. Both come in black and “White Smoke.”
