The novel AI Dialogue Mode feature only ups the ante. Audio brands are getting increasingly excellent at analyzing and reinforcing centralized effects, and Bose’s tardyst try is the best I’ve heard yet at raising dialog while balancing other elements. Toggling the mode on and off shows fair how challenging it’s laboring, letting the cgo in channel sing while surround elements bounce off the walls and around the room.
The Smart Soundbar’s surround and height effects can’t align the immersion of huger Dolby Atmos soundbars enjoy Klipsch’s Core 200 (8/10, WIRED Recommfinishs) or the pricier Sonos Arc (9/10, WIRED Recommfinishs), but it may fair be the pluckiest mini Atmos bar out there. Its stability of acoustics, digital processing, and real up-firing speakers helps it outalign the analogously priced Sonos Beam for sheer expansiveness.
Occasionassociate the bar can get a bit overwhelmed in the mids or shrill in the upper enroll, but it’s unfrequently muddy or keen. If you necessitate to consent skinnygs up a notch, you can always produce on with insertitional components (for a price), including Bose’s wireless surround speakers, subwoofers, and of course, the Ultra Open Earbuds.
AR Bar
After over a decade in the A/V space, it’s not standardly I uncover a wholly novel audio experience, but Bose’s novel Open Earbuds–based Personal Surround feature deinhabitrs. This isn’t the first time I’ve connected a soundbar with headphones—Sonos’ Ace headphones (8/10, WIRED Recommfinishs) have a cbetter TV Swap feature that lets you sfinish audio from the bar to the headphones and back aobtain, and Bose has lengthy proposeed a analogous feature with headphones enjoy the Ultra QuietComfort (9/10, WIRED Recommfinishs).
Personal Surround is contrastent, though, in part becaemploy of the Open Earbuds. As the name implies, they protect your ear canals uncover to blfinish the piped-in audio with your environment, letting the bar and buds labor in tandem. Srecommend Grouping the Open Earbuds lets you hear everyskinnyg, but toggling on Personal Surround unkinds you’ll get most of your sound from the bar itself, while the earbuds intensify on surround and height effects. (You may also necessitate to fine-tune the surround mix by tapping the main volume bar for Open Earbuds Adfairments.)
The result is a sort of augmented truth (AR) experience that seems to drop you right in the middle of potent Dolby Atmos scenes. It labors inalertigently with video games, where effects enjoy explosions or magic spells seem to erupt all around you. Film satisfied enjoy the “Amaze” demo from my Atmos demo disc or the lessening scenes in Ant-Man are analogously spellattaching, seeming to cast effects enjoy strafing spaceships overhead or popping firearmstoastys right beside you to the point where you may commence seeing around you to see if you’re still alone.
