Bose is known for getting big sound out of small packages, and its $549.95 Soundbar 500 is strikingly thin. It delivers rich lows, detailed highs, and laudable balance, with built-in Amazon Alexa voice control for good measure. Switching from Bluetooth to Alexa-based streaming or listening to audio from your TV is a snap. For the price, however, you might find sounds like explosions and other deep bass elements lacking through the soundbar. Bose offers a separate subwoofer and satellites for surround, but all that adds significantly to the price. While the Soundbar 500 is still strong on its own, there are similarly priced options out there that deliver more of a complete audio experience, sub-bass included.
Design
Measuring in at approximately 1.8 by 31.5 by 4.0 inches (HWD) and 7 pounds, the black Soundbar 500 is thin and sleek. It's designed to blend in, like most soundbars, but subtle details like glowing LEDs (that pulse in various colors depending on the mode) are a nice touch. Rubber padding keeps its vibrations under control and secures the system's footing. Internally, three central forward-firing drivers are matched with dual side-firing drivers.
The rear panel houses connections for the included HDMI cable, an optical port, dedicated connections for the optional add-on speakers, an Ethernet port, and the included power adapter. There's also a connection for the included AdaptIQ headset you wear during setup—it's got a long cable that will reach anywhere in your living room.
Bose's AdaptIQ technology measures the reflective surfaces in your room to provide the optimal listening experience. It's also possible to skip this process and listen to the speaker without any of this. We tested the speaker in both modes, which we'll cover in the next section.
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The setup process requires the Bose Music app, which is available for Android and iOS devices. The app practically does everything for you—it connects to the speaker, then connects to your Wi-Fi, and soon you're going through preferences, like what to name the speaker, and whether others can access it. Within the app, you can stream services for which you have an account, like Amazon Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Pandora, SiriusXM, and Spotify. The app also walks you through the cable connection process.
The setup for Alexa is also simple, and the long-range mics do an excellent job of picking up your voice, but sometimes Alexa struggles to hear you in a loud scenario (when we were blasting Queens of the Stone Age, we had to pause manually after yelling to Alexa for help that never came). The app also has plenty of decent built-in programming—you can stream radio shows right from it, and switch back and forth between that and controlling the system vocally via Alexa.
The included remote control runs on 2 AAA batteries and has a matte rubber contour. Its buttons, from top to bottom, are for Power, Music (via Wi-Fi), TV, Bluetooth, Volume Up/Down, Mute, Track Backward, Play/Pause, Track Forward, and there are six dedicated memory buttons for radio stations or streaming services.
Performance
We tested in both standard mode and AdaptIQ mode. We preferred the non-AdaptIQ version of the audio experience, but they're quite similar. In AdaptIQ mode, the stereo images feel a little wider, while with it off, the bass sounds a little more natural.
During a Blade Runner 2049 crash scene, in which Ryan Gosling falls from the sky in something that looks like a military-grade Lamborghini that flies, there are multiple explosions—they pack a punch through the soundbar, but not a sub-bass rumble. Explosions later in the film, when missiles hit Harrison Ford's hideout, also have solid mids and treble, but lack the bass depth you might be yearning for if you're used to having a subwoofer around.
Dialogue-driven scenes with and without music, in Nocturnal Animals, have a wonderful crispness to them, along with plenty of richness. Things sound bright and clear but never thin. Gunshots in this film pack some punch, and car motors have some depth, too. Basically, sounds that have some lows and lows-mids come across very well. It's the sub-bass that we miss.
Tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," bring out the DSP (digital signal processing) in the Soundbar 500. On the positive side, the DSP keeps the track from distorting. On the negative side, at top volumes, the DSP thins out the bass so much it sounds more like a powerful tap than a deep, sub-bass-heavy thump. Thus, when powerful deep bass is in the mix, moderate volume levels convey more of it than high volume levels do.
Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with less deep bass in the mix, sounds far better through the Soundbar 500. The drums have some heft to them, but nothing too overwhelming, while Callahan's baritone vocals get a pleasant low-mid richness. There's a crisp, bright presence balancing everything out and bringing the acoustic guitar strums to the forefront. Generally speaking, it's a clear, rich, balanced sound signature—not for bass fiends, but also not thin or brittle.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop gets an ideal high-mid presence, allowing its punchiness to remain intact, while the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat lack their typical deep, ominous presence.
For orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the lower register instrumentation gets a slight boost, bringing the lows forward a tad in the mix. The higher register brass, strings, and vocals still command the spotlight, however. This is a rich, bright, somewhat scooped sound, where the mids step backward a tad. But it's balanced, and sounds best on modern music mixes that have bass presence but don't rely on super-deep bass.
Conclusions
For the price, the Bose Soundbar 500 gets plenty right—Alexa integration, an easy-to-use-app, and clear, rich audio. I suspect Bose wants you to use it with all of its Surround speakers or at least with the Bass Module, and it's easy to see why. The soundbar simply cuts off before much sub-bass can be pumped out. It still delivers a solid lows- and low-mids experience and excellent clarity in the highs. But sub-bass lovers will either want to opt for the Bass Module, which adds $400 to the price, or another soundbar system of comparable (or lower) price that ships with a sub. And in that category we're fans of the JBL Bar 3.1, the Polk Audio Signa S1, and the LG SJ7. The Sonos Beam is another top pick (and an Editors' Choice)—it ships without a subwoofer, but delivers stronger sub-bass out of the box.
The Bose Soundbar 500 gets high marks for Alexa integration, a great app, and rich, clear audio, but it lacks the bass rumble you might be after.
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Contributing Editor, Audio
![Tim Gideon](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/authors/04896dWbRzLlA7BUwmQSojs.fit_lim.size_200x200.v1723226071.png)