Bose Soundbar Ultra launch experience: Home theater right out of the box?

For as long as I can remember, I have had a pair of large floor-standing speakers at home. I have always believed that a TV can only be called a TV if it is equipped with a complete sound system. But when I first started working, I couldn’t afford professional home audio. After inquiring and understanding the product positioning, I found that the sound bar category is very suitable for me. It meets my needs in terms of sound quality, size and price. Therefore, I decided to go with the soundbar.

After careful selection, I selected this panoramic soundbar product launched by Bose in early 2024: Bose home entertainment speaker Ultra.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Generally speaking , if we want to experience the "original" Dolby Atmos effect, we need to install a measured and calibrated surround sound ceiling sound system at home, coupled with an Atmos amplifier, no matter the price or the level of trouble All far exceeded the expectations of most consumers.

If you don’t want to be so troublesome, there are now some solutions that are easy to use and have much better effects than the TV’s built-in speakers, such as the Bose Soundbar Ultra I bought this time. It can be regarded as a "extremely simplified" but relatively reliable way to achieve home panoramic sound.

Why do you say that? Let's continue looking down together.

First impression after unboxing: luxurious and powerful

First time I saw the appearance of Bose home entertainment speaker Ultra I was a little surprised when the box was packed. Its size was far beyond my imagination: 103cm long and nearly 6cm high, it was really a "huge thing". However, it is quite harmonious to put it on the TV cabinet, and it is not as abrupt as I imagined.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

This shape reminds me of Xiaomi’s 2015 split with The SoundBar launched with Xiaomi Mi TV 3.

The front of Bose Soundbar Ultra is covered by a metal mesh with the BOSE brand LOGO Located right in the middle of the speaker, this is where the center tweeter is located.

The top cover is composed of a whole piece of transparent glass, which looks high-end enough, but it is more susceptible to fingerprints, which is a gain and a loss.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Bose Soundbar Ultra The overall shape of the phone continues Bose's consistent simple style. Each corner is treated with arc edges, and there is a regular gap between the top cover and the body, giving it a floating visual effect. There are large-area metal grilles on the front and sides of the fuselage, and there are no extra embellishments except the logo in the lower center.

The interior of Bose Soundbar Ultra is composed of 4 runway sound units, 2 side sound units, 2 upward dipole sound units and 1 center tweeter , this configuration can only be described as luxurious.

(Photo source: Bose official)

Two runway style The sound unit is quite interesting. It can add a clearer and more thorough effect to the left and right channels of Bose Soundbar Ultra. Currently, mainstream soundbars can only bring the simplest surround sound experience.

Two upward sound-emitting units are the key to Bose TrueSpace's original sound enhancement technology. The principle is that the upward sound-emitting units can convey the sound to the ceiling (resynthesize the sound signal to provide the sound (increase "height"), and then create an overhead sound field after diffuse reflection. Not only can it create clear Dolby Atmos, but it also improves the original height distribution of the sound based on the traditional 5.1-channel construction, making the surround sound more effective. Sense of space.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Bose Soundbar Ultra There is an inverter hole on each side of the back, which is connected to a large-sized inverter tube. When the machine is working, the air inside the inverter tube is forced to compress under the vibration of the speaker diaphragm, thus generating resonance. Get nice low frequency gain.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Turning over to the back is the interface area of ​​Bose SoundBar Ultra. In addition to the two essential interfaces of power interface and HDMI eARC, there are also IR infrared interface, subwoofer wired interface, optical S/PDIF audio interface and engineering service interface. However, For ordinary users, they basically only need to plug HDMI eARC into the TV.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Of course, Bose SoundBar Ultra also supports two digital audio access methods, optical fiber and HDMI eARC return. But if you want to enjoy a more comprehensive sound experience (core Dolby Atmos and LPCM 7.1), it is still recommended to use the HDMI eARC interface. It should be noted that the other end also needs to support the eARC protocol (most TVs support it, but only There is an HDMI port support).

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

If you want If you use mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets to play music, you can also connect directly through Bluetooth. By the way, if you are using an Apple device, you can directly switch the playback source with one click through AirPlay. The actual streaming speed of the Bose home entertainment speaker Ultra is even faster than Apple's own HomePod mini. (It can even be played by two speakers at the same time)

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

When unpacking, I found a headphone with a somewhat unique shape. After checking the information, I found that it is an essential device to help the speaker calibrate the sound of the room. When the user connects ADAPTiQ headphones to the speaker, the speaker will use the wearer as a dot and adjust the direction of the sound appropriately, thereby giving the user a better immersive sound effect.

Listening test: The sound quality is really good

Back to the sound effect of the Bose SoundBar Ultra product itself, Just by looking at the nine large-sized sound units, you can already guess that its performance will definitely exceed expectations.

The first is the so-called immersive sound effect mentioned many times before. Bose home entertainment speaker Ultra can emit multiple sound units through self-developed PhaseGuide directional sound transmission technology. The sound is transmitted to different areas in the room. Even if you are in the corner of the room, you can still hear the sound from Soundbar Ultra.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Use simple sentences To put it simply, the Bose home entertainment speaker Ultra is more like a complete home audio system, which can bring you a close to 3D immersion.

#The second is the sound quality. Without any settings, the performance of the native sound effects is already very good. The vocals in the song are very clear and prominent, the three-dimensional effect is also good, and there is a certain sense of enveloping sound effects.

It is worth mentioning that after ADAPTiQ intelligent sound calibration, the entire sound field is significantly wider and the sound effect positioning is clearer, especially the sound effects above become more obvious.

This obvious sense of space gives me a feeling of being wrapped in sound. When watching some science fiction blockbusters, the cannonballs in the movie seem to be around me. It was like exploding, and the sense of presence was immediately full.

In the music playback session, the effect of Bose home entertainment speaker Ultra is very enjoyable. The three-band balance, three-dimensional sound field, and the texture and positioning of musical instruments have good effects. , comparable to some expensive small home theaters, and one of the most impressive soundbar products I have ever heard.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Listening to some When playing rock and pop music, Bose Soundbar Ultra will have strong low-frequency support, which is dynamic but just right, without affecting the vocal and high-frequency performance.

However, after listening to it as a whole, I personally think it may be more suitable for performing some pop music that mainly focuses on human voices. The human voices are three-dimensional and clear, and there is no need to specially adjust the EQ. It has very prominent and excellent mid-frequency sound effects, and of course some pure music will also have a good listening experience.

And to be honest, its performance in low frequency can only be said to be acceptable, and there is still a big gap compared with the real home theater. This is also the product launched by Bose The reason for the separate satellite speaker and woofer combination.

#If you want the upper sound effect to be more prominent, just push the high channel up in the APP. The only pity is that there is no preset EQ in the APP. If it can be updated in the APP in the future, it will be more convenient for users who are not so feverish to set up the sound.

When playing movies, the performance of the Bose home entertainment speaker Ultra is also beyond expectations. In addition to Dolby Atmos, I also recommend that you turn on the AI ​​dialogue mode in the settings, which can automatically balance the human voice and the Surround sound makes vocals sound more transparent and clear. After turning on this function, the human voice and background sound in the movie are well separated, and various subtle sound effects in the background can be clearly heard. However, the TV's own speakers firstly have a much smaller voice, and the overall sound is muddy and unclear. .

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Thanks to The sound unit is large enough, and the sound of Bose SoundBar Ultra is far beyond my expectation. In a 20-square-meter living room, turning the volume of a mobile phone connected via Bluetooth to about 25% can cover every corner of the room well, and it can be used as the background of the living room every day. The music system is even a bit wasteful.

There are also some small details that are well done. For example, when playing through the TV, the Bose APP will display the audio track format currently being decoded. For users who like to study It is said that it can help them understand the currently playing audio track well, and it can also be targeted when improving the audio-visual experience in the future.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Of course, in In the past few days of using Soundbar Ultra, my most commonly used scene is not music but various games. Especially most games on PS5 support Dolby Atmos. With this sound system, it can bring more detailed sound effects.

Take the "Moto GP" I am playing recently as an example. When speeding on the track, in addition to the roar of the engine and exhaust pipes, I can also hear The sound of the wind breaking when the car is racing at high speed is so "3D" that it gives the illusion that the wind is blowing directly towards me.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Such an experience Thanks to Bose TrueSpace enhanced original sound technology, of course, if your film source or external device does not support Dolby Atmos (such as stereo or 5.1), Bose TrueSpace enhanced original sound technology will analyze non-Dolby Atmos sound through spatial algorithms. The content sound signal is then re-upmixed to present a multi-channel immersive sound experience. In the simplest terms, it turns stereo sound into a surround multi-channel effect.

However, it should be noted that if you want to experience true Dolby Atmos, your TV or monitor must support the output of Dolby Atmos format, otherwise it will look like I was the same. After struggling for half an hour, I found that the TV was castrated in the Dolby Atmos format, which was a waste of time.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

I have never really experienced a top-level home theater, and I understand that the advantage of a soundbar is not the sound quality but the immersion, but the Bose home entertainment speaker Ultra surprised me beyond expectations in terms of sound quality.

If you feel that a Soundbar Ultra is not enough to satisfy your pursuit of sound effects, you can also combine it with Bose's own satellite speakers to form a professional sound system. Official recommendation Acoustimass 300 wireless subwoofer and a pair of Surround Speakers 700 wireless surround speakers can form a complete 5.1.2 physical multi-channel sound system. However, the price of this pair of speakers is not much cheaper than buying a Bose Soundbar Ultra alone.

How can lazy people easily build a “home theater”?

Advantages:

1. There is nothing to say about the immersion brought by Dolby Atmos;

2. The sound quality is far beyond imagination, not much worse than mainstream home theaters;

3. It’s easy to get started, just plug in and use it;

Disadvantages:

1. There is no real sky channel, and the sound field is relatively limited;

2. The low-frequency performance is average, and it is recommended to have a sufficient budget Paired with a set of satellite speakers and subwoofer.

After nearly two weeks of use experience, I think the Bose home entertainment speaker Ultra meets the audio and video needs of the family very well. Some readers may object, since I am pursuing better sound quality, why not choose a high-end product that comes with a wireless subwoofer and rear surround? Wouldn’t this be better?

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Indeed, those speaker systems with more channels and a wider range of speakers can indeed bring better results. But not all users have enough space to place a huge floor-standing subwoofer, and not all families reserve power supply slots and stands for independent speakers.

Therefore, products that can condense the audio quality of "panoramic sound surround" into a small body as much as possible are suitable for those who want to upgrade the audio experience and save money and space. For the relatively limited number of users on the Internet, it is actually very meaningful and can even be said to be difficult to replace.

Of course, the Bose SoundBar Ultra is simple enough to set up, and the fact that it "works right out of the box" is enough to capture many young people who are afraid of trouble. The simplification of professional technology equipment has been tried and true in many consumer electronics. For example, OPPO Find X7 and other imaging flagships have transferred professional imaging capabilities to mobile phones, allowing everyone to take beautiful photos easily and simply. Look at it this way, the tech giants are all doing the same thing.

It is precisely for this reason that the Bose home entertainment speaker Ultra is small in size, comprehensive in function, highly expandable, full of immersive sound experience, and of acceptable sound quality. Become my favorite.

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