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(Image credit: Bose)
(Image credit: Bose)
T3 Verdict
Reasons to buy+Organised, confident and expansive sound+Compact and well made+Easy to integrate into a bigger system
Organised, confident and expansive sound
Compact and well made
Easy to integrate into a bigger system
Some very strong competition
Wall-bracket costs extra
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
The dream, of course, is to get great big home cinema sound from the smallest, most discreet speaker cabinet possible. Many have tried… and with a very few notable (and subsequently wildly successful) exceptions, the failure rate is through the roof.
Of course, these portents aren’t enough to put off a company as serious and successful asBose. And so here’s the Smart Soundbar 600 - it’s physically small and discreet, it’s configured to serve up spatial audio, and it’s priced to meet its very few realisticbest soundbarcompetitors head-on.
So is Bose living the dream?
Bose Soundbar 600 review: Price & Availability
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
The Bose Smart Soundbar 600 is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it’s priced at £499. Well, it’s £499 on the Bose website, but you don’t need to be any kind of search-engine ninja to find a slightly better deal - as you can see in the shopping widget embedded below.
In the United States, meanwhile, it’s yours for no more than $499 - this is home territory for Bose, after all, so you’d expect it to be very keenly priced. In Australia, expect to have to part with AUD$799 or thereabouts.
Today’s best Bose Smart Soundbar 600 deals$499ViewLow Stock$499View$499ViewWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bose Smart Soundbar 600 deals$499ViewLow Stock$499View$499ViewWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bose Smart Soundbar 600 deals
$499ViewLow Stock$499View$499View
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We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Bose Soundbar 600 review: features & what’s new?
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
As far as other physical connections go, there’s just a USB for servicing, and a couple of connections for a hard-wired ‘bass module’ (which is Bose-speak for ‘subwoofer’) and a wired IR blaster. If you want to use a wireless Bose subwoofer and wireless Bose rear speakers to create a full-on surround-sound system, go right ahead.
Wireless alternatives are available in the form of dual-band Wi-Fi,AppleAirPlay 2, Bluetooth 4.2 (with SBC and AAC codec compatibility), Chomecast Built-In and Spotify Connect.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Bose soundbar 600 review: Performance
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
At its best, the Bose Smart Soundbar is as uncomplicatedly enjoyable to listen to as it is straightforward to set up. It delivers an open, generous sound that’s going to be an obvious and significant upgrade to pretty much any TV that doesn’t have a premium audio system already attached.
Tonally, it’s undeniably got that ‘Bose’ thing going on - we’re not ones for lazy stereotypes, but anyone with experience of a Bose product or two will know what we’re talking about. There’s just a hint of warmth in the 600’s sound, a suggestion of richness and substance, that can give a definite impression of luxuriousness in the right circumstances and a little hint of woolliness in the wrong ones.
There’s decent bite at the top of the frequency range despite this, though, and sufficient control to the (surprisingly deep and nicely textured) low frequencies at the points of attack and decay to prevent things getting overheated. And in the midrange, where the majority of movie soundtracks keep the bulk of their information, dialogue is crisply rendered and contains a great deal of detail both broad and fine. The journey from the bottom of the frequency range to the top is smooth and even, and while the centre channel projects voices with real positivity they still manage to be part of an overall presentation rather than an entirely separate entity.
The Smart Soundbar 600 is adept where dynamics are concerned too. Most soundbars are prepped to make the most of those big and/or switches in volume that are such a Hollywood trope, but not every soundbar is as attentive to the more nuanced dynamic variations present in a voice or a solo instrument. The Bose can even make the difference between the first and second bursts of engine-revving apparent.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Bose Soundbar 600 review: design & usability
(Image credit: Bose)
(Image credit: Bose)
Not everyone wants their soundbar to make a visual statement - and it’s those people Bose has in mind with the design of the Smart Soundbar 600.
At 56 x 694 x 10mm (HxWxD) it’s compact enough to sit happily beneath even the smallest TVs (‘smallest’ in this instance means 42-43in - anything smaller is an anachronism these days). At 3.1kg it’s light enough to be wall-mounted without alarms - although Bose has ignored the opportunity to put simple keyhole mounting points on the rear of the chassis, and instead offers a wall-bracket as a cost option.
‘Black’ is the single colour option here, so that’s one decision you won’t have to agonise over. The 600 is built mostly from robust, quite tactile plastic - there’s a metal grille on a portion of the top surface, behind which the upward-firing drivers are doing their thing, and more of the same tightly perforated metal covering the front and sides of the cabinet. Build quality, as both the brand and the asking price strongly suggest, is unquestionable.
As far as usability is concerned, Bose has included a number of options. The Smart Soundbar 600 ships with a tidy little remote control handset - via its quite long-travel buttons it’s possible to control power on/off, input selection, volume up/down/mute, and play/pause. There are a couple of touch controls on top of the soundbar itself, just above a little tell-tale light strip - one switches the integrated mic on or off, the other offers access toAlexavoice control.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
The 600 is also compatible with the Bose Music app, and it’s from here you can get access to control of every type. From adjusting volume and selecting source to adjusting the relative response of centre and height channels, or fiddling with bass and treble levels, it’s all available here.
The app is where you can integrate the Smart Soundbar 600 into a multichannel system with rear speakers and/or a subwoofer, where you can set upAmazonAlexa voice-control or enable Chromecast… it’s not much to look at, the Bose Music app, but it’s got it where it counts. And if you preferGoogleAssistant to Amazon Alexa, all you need is a Google-enabled smart speaker on a common network.
Bose Smart Soundbar 600 review: Verdict
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Also consider
The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is the obvious rival here, and it’s obvious for a reason - well, a few reasons really. It’s similarly priced, similarly unassuming in its physical dimensions, and similarly at home as part of a multichannel or multiroom system as it is working alone. But most of all, it’s a similarly capable soundbar - which means it’s a similarly entertaining listen. Its digital sound processing is clever, no doubt - but the Bose 600 makes it apparent that it’s no substitute for actual drivers firing in an actual direction in an effort to deliver actual spatial audio. The Beam Gen 2 counters strongly with its flexibility, though - no ecosystem around is the equal of that of Sonos.
Today’s best Bose Smart Soundbar 600 and Sonos Beam (Gen 2) dealsBose Smart Soundbar 600$499ViewSee all pricesSonos Beam (Gen 2)$499$437.75ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bose Smart Soundbar 600 and Sonos Beam (Gen 2) dealsBose Smart Soundbar 600$499ViewSee all pricesSonos Beam (Gen 2)$499$437.75ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bose Smart Soundbar 600 and Sonos Beam (Gen 2) dealsBose Smart Soundbar 600$499ViewSee all pricesSonos Beam (Gen 2)$499$437.75ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bose Smart Soundbar 600 and Sonos Beam (Gen 2) deals
Bose Smart Soundbar 600$499ViewSee all pricesSonos Beam (Gen 2)$499$437.75ViewSee all prices
Bose Smart Soundbar 600$499ViewSee all prices
Bose Smart Soundbar 600$499ViewSee all prices
Bose Smart Soundbar 600
Bose Smart Soundbar 600
$499View
$499
$499
See all prices
Sonos Beam (Gen 2)$499$437.75ViewSee all prices
Sonos Beam (Gen 2)$499$437.75ViewSee all prices
Sonos Beam (Gen 2)
Sonos Beam (Gen 2)
$499$437.75View
$499$437.75
$437.75
See all prices
We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
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