Bose has introduced three new speakers to its home audio lineup, including the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, Ultra Soundbar, and Ultra Subwoofer. These products mark a re-entry into the home speaker space for the company, bringing back the iconic Lifestyle lineup that originally debuted in 1990.
Overview
The new Lifestyle Collection features a sleek, compact design aesthetic and promises to deliver immersive, room-filling sound experiences. The speakers can be connected to multiple units and third-party speakers via AirPlay and Google Cast for a better multi-room audio experience.
What it does
The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker starts at $299, with a $349 limited-edition model in Driftwood Sand. The soundbar costs $1,099, and the subwoofer is $899. They're available for preorder now and go on sale May 15. The speakers support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, and have an auxiliary input for connecting the Ultra Speaker to a turntable. They also integrate with Alexa+ in the US, allowing for voice commands.
The Ultra Speaker features an upward-firing driver for spatial audio, along with two front-facing drivers. The company is also touting its CleanBass technology, which pairs Bose's QuietPort acoustic opening with the woofer for deep sound. The Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar features two up-firing drivers, four front-facing drivers, a center tweeter, and two PhaseGuide drivers that focus the sound on the sides to help fill the room.
Tradeoffs
The new soundbar is not backward compatible with all existing Bose soundbars, and can only be used as a wired connection with the Bass Module 700. For multi-room audio, the company has passed those grouping duties to the Google Home app for Google Cast technology, or Apple’s AirPlay for iOS users.
In conclusion, Bose's new Lifestyle Collection offers a range of features and improvements, including a redesigned onboarding process and the ability to optimize audio using an iOS or Android microphone via the Bose app. With these new products, Bose aims to reclaim its position in the high-end home audio market.