Compact Bose Smart Soundbar 600 Supports Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio
Bose is mostly known for producing some of the best noise-cancelling headphones on the market, but it also makes plenty of speakers, and it just announced the compact Smart Soundbar 600, its newest soundbar.
The Smart Soundbar 600 features five directional transducers: two side-firing, two upward-firing, and a center tweeter. These angled drivers are designed to produce a large sound field, with acoustic reflections from the ceiling creating vertical as well as horizontal imaging. Thanks to the drivers, the soundbar supports Dolby Atmos spatial audio, and can up-convert stereo and 5.1-channel sound to spatial audio with Bose's TrueSpace audio processing.
While acoustic reflections can produce a big sound field, its ability to give a sense of sound coming from behind is limited. Because of this, the Smart Soundbar 600 can be expanded to a full surround system with rear channels by adding the $399 Bose Surround Speakers or $599 Bose Surround Speakers 700.
Bose also offers optional subwoofers, or bass modules, for $499 to $1,299. These extras seem very pricey compared with the Smart Soundbar 600's own $499 price.
Like Bose's other Smart Soundbar models, like the Smart Soundbar 500, the Smart Soundbar 600 features far-field microphones to enable Amazon Alexa built-in.
It also has Apple AirPlay 2 for streaming from iPhones, iPads, and Macs; Google Cast for audio streaming from Android devices; Spotify Connect for streaming from any version of the Spotify app; and Works With Google for control through Google Assistant smart speakers. However, it does not support Google Assistant itself.
The Bose Smart Soundbar begins shipping on Oct. 20.
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