Bose is starting to shake up Sonos with their new home speakers

Last Thursday, in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, I sat in a very narrow and deep chair in front of a small, beige speaker nestled between three arched midcentury storage cabinets. On either side of the wise speaker were two tall, curved white curtains.

The speaker was the new $299 Lifestyle Ultra, Bose’s answer to the Sonos Era 100. Along with the $1,099 Ultra soundbar and $899 subwoofer, it’s one of three new home audio products the company announced today, which seems to be a direct shot at Sonos — hopefully clearing up the company’s recent missteps. I heard all three at the Bose event in New York, and the speaker really impressed me.

The $299 Ultra speaker is the funniest and best-looking of the bunch. It has a front-firing woofer and tweeter, a driver-firing – unlike the Era 100 – and a bass port on the back. (For music, Bose uses its own surround sound system, not Dolby Atmos.) Above the speaker, behind the speed driver, are power controls, Bluetooth pairing, a silent microphone, volume control, and a play/pause button. Volume and play/rest are located in a circular depression, which you can move your finger vertically or horizontally to adjust the volume. The Ultra speaker and soundbar support Alexa Plus.

The speaker sounds great with clarity and clarity, and without the harsh sounds found on speakers like it SoundLink Plus. In fact, listening to the first sample – “The Man I Need” by Olivia Dean – I thought there must be extra speakers playing behind the curved white curtains.

I was partially correct: The display was hiding two other Lifestyle Ultra speakers, but they weren’t playing at the time. Instead, they were there for an upcoming stereo group show. Playing Leon Bridges’ “Peaceful Place” and Steely Dan’s “Hey Nineteen,” they showed good stereo separation.

I found that the Ultra speakers can sound a bit punchy when it comes to things like snare beats (I noticed this a lot on Chris Stapleton’s “Bad as I Was”), especially at the volumes we listened to. This may be due to the lack of room preparation, a surprising lack from the Ultra Speaker in the installation. Especially when used in a stereo system, I was hoping there would be a way to call the speakers into the room and compensate for any installation problems. I was told that Bose is looking into the possibility of adding room control later on to single speakers and stereos.

Instead of putting all the playback controls in the Bose app like Sonos does with its app, Bose instead relies on categories and playback functionality within apps that people are already using, like Apple Music and Spotify. The Ultra speaker can stream music over Wi-Fi via Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, and Spotify Connect, and can be added to AirPlay and Google Cast speaker groups, including those with non-Bose speakers. When Wi-Fi fails, you can stream to Ultra via Bluetooth. The speaker is Auracast capable, but it won’t be Auracast enabled when it launches on May 15. Raza Haider, Bose’s president of premium consumer audio, told me that Auracast will be enabled once the environment is mature.

I was hoping Bose would unveil its own Sonos software competitor, but this open-source approach — allowing you to add to your existing content whether it’s Bose or not — is interesting. It also bypasses the hassle of having all the streaming apps within the Bose app, making it work better. “We’re intentionally trying to be open and unprogrammed about our experience,” Haider said. In addition to Spotify Connect, I expect Bose to include services such as Qobuz Connect and Tidal Connect in the future.

On top of the Ultra speakers was the $1,099 Ultra Soundbar, which is one of Bose’s first sound upgrades in years. It has two firing drivers, two larger drivers for the left and right channels, two Bose PhaseGuide drivers – its design that directs sound from the sides – and two additional drivers with a center tweeter. The capacitive controls are similar to those found on the Ultra Speaker.

We started the soundbar scene with the spice harvester evacuation scene from Duneand it was a little difficult. This is one of my favorite things to test the sound of a movie, so I know it well. Although the sound had a lot of width and I could hear the vibrations in the bottom, there was a hole where the bass waves should meet the midrange, which makes the sound a bit muffled. Sound quality was spot on, and the speaker did a good job with Atmos channels, but I couldn’t get past the lackluster bass frequencies.

Fortunately, along with the Ultra speaker and Ultra Soundbar, Bose is releasing the Ultra Subwoofer, and that’s exactly what the sound needs to fill the short-range hole I heard. Instead of feeling a little shaky from the end, on Jacob Collier’s “Mi Corazón” the music sounded full and sustained. It was a big difference, but at $899, it also turns the audio/sub combo into a $2,000 system (the same price as the Sonos Arc Ultra combined with the Sonos 4 sub).

For a full Atmos system, two Ultra speakers can be used as rear channels, creating a 7.1.4 configuration. Wembley Stadium, from the Live Aid concert section of the video Bohemian Rhapsodythey went around and filled the room well. The Atmos range was good, although it was a bit blurry at times in the installation. This could be due to the design of the room and my seating position – although interestingly, unlike the smart speaker alone or in pairs, the complete system has control rooms.

Based on my experience with the Ultra speaker, there is a lot of potential for the new Bose Lifestyle Collection. “There is more to come. This is the beginning of a new platform for the Lifestyle series,” said Haider when I asked him about the possibility of a battery type or a large speaker. The result will not be small.

Photography by John Higgins/The Verge