So for the past year, the Bose Smart Soundbar 300 has been my go to soundbar and favorite soundbar to recommend. I really feel that you can’t go wrong with the Bose Smart Soundbar 300. But now, we have the Bose Smart Soundbar 600, which is the 300’s successor. Now, the 600 has a new speaker set up and it now has dolby atoms support. So toady we’re going to see the performance improvements from the 300 to the 600, and if you already have the 300, should you upgrade.
Now first there’s pricing, the bose smart soundbar 600 currently has a retail price $500, the same as what the 300 was recently going for. Now in this review we’re going to strictly focus on the soundbar itself… however if you wanted to build out this soundbar, you could always add an external subwoofer and or surround sound speakers. But in this video, we’re only going to focus on the soundbar itself.
Now first lets talk about the design of this soundbar… the 600 is almost identical to the 300. The 600 has basically the same foot print as the 300… except its a little bit shorter than the 300, length wise. But overall, the 600 has a decent foot print to it, and this soundbar is very inconspicuous thanks its plastic top that does a really good job of not creating any reflections and thankfully, there are no constantly on indicator lights which can be very distracting on some other soundbars. So the 600 does a really good job of simply disappearing when you’re watching a movie. The only main difference between the 600 and 300 design wise is that the 600 now has a grill on the top. And this is where the new upwards firing speakers are found. But we’ll talk about that later.
Now just like with the 300, the 600 plugs in through an AC port… and thankfully there are no external power bricks that you have too worry about… which makes wiring this soundbar into your set up a little easier… and it also makes wall mounting this soundbar a little easier as well. However, in Bose fashion, the 600 doesn’t come included with a wall mounting kit, that is sold separately.
But something that does now come included with the 600 is an HDMI cable, which is a nice touch cause with the 300, you would have to buy that separately. And this leads us to one of the main upgrades in the 600 over the 300. The 600 now has an HDMI eARC, and combined with the 600’s new speaker set up, you’re going to have true Dolby Atmos support. But unfortunately the 600 still doesn’t have an HDMI in port. So if you have a blue ray player or a gaming console you’re not going to be able to directly plug in into this sound bar.
Now continuing on the topic of connectivity, the 600 has wifi support… so once the 600 is on wifi you’re going to be able control it by using the Bose Music app… but also the 600 has Airplay 2 Support which is good if you’re in iPhone user cause you’re going to be able too stream to it if you’re connected to the same wifi network… but also, the 600 has chrome cast support, so if youre an android user you can also easily stream to it if you’re on the same wifi network. And this is a big deal cause the 300 initially didn’t have chrome cast support.
And if you want to, you can always use ALEXA or Google assistant with your soundbar and use it as a smart speaker. Now personally, I don’t use the voice assistants on my soundbar cause I don’t want the possibility my movie being interrupted… so personally I don’t use the voice assistants on my soundbar.
However, if you can’t or don’t want to connect this soundbar up to wifi… you can always still stream to it by using a bluetooth connection. But having Bluetooth on your soundbar is also handy just in case you want to let your friend DJ… but you don’t want to share your wifi password. But regardless, I do recommend that you connect with soundbar up to wifi so that you can use the app and control this soundbar, and also so that you can stream to it through AirPlay or chromecast.
But now lets talk about the sound performance about this soundbar. Regarding speaker set ups… both of these soundbars have a frontward firing tweeter, they both have transducers on each side which shoot out at like 45 degree angle and they both have dual bass chambers with exhausts ports that shoot out the back. However, the the 300 it has a pair of frontward firing center mounted transducers that flank the tweeter. Where as with the 600… it has moved it center mounted frontward firing transducers to the top… so now they shoot upwards instead of directly at you. And the this new speaker set up gives the 600 true dolby atoms support. And from a performance standpoint, the 600 does sound a little more open than the 300. But so that you can hear for yourself, we’re going to jump into a soundtest. Both the 300 and 600 are playing with their stock EQ’s and they’re both playing at 75% volume.
So first off, obviously anything is going to sound better than you’re tv’s built in speakers. Your tv most likely just has a pair of downwards firing speakers that bounce sound off of the table, they’re not going to get as loud as a sound bar and they are going too distort a lot at higher volumes and especially when the bass really gets going.
Now the performance difference between the 300 and 600 is very nuanced. Both of these soundbars get equally as loud as one another. Personally I feel that both of these soundbars are going to have no problem filling your bedroom with sound and they’re are also going to have no problem filling a small or medium sized living room.
Both of these soundbars also put out a decent amount of bass all by themselves. Now they’re obviously not going to put out as much bass as an external subwoofer, but you’ll still be able to feel what it is going on on the screen. And again, the 600 has just as much bass as the 300.
But the main performance difference between the 300 and 600 is simply the instrument separation. The 600 sounds a little more open than the 300. So with the 600, things don’t sound as close together as and thanks to the new upwards firing transducers… you do get a sense of verticality with the 600. And even if you’re not specifically watching Dolby Atmos content… you’re still going to enjoy better instrument separation on the 600.
But to be honest, the improved instrument separation on the 600 isn’t a big enough reason to upgrade from the 300. So personally I feel that if you already have the 300, you can just stay with it. However, if you are in the market for a soundbar, I do feel that you can’t go wrong with the 600.
Now in this sound test, these soundbars were using their stock EQ’s. But peronsally I like to go in and raise the center channel so that dialog is a little more prominent, I like to raise the bass so that there’s more kick during those action scenes, and with the 600 I like to raise the hight channel so that we can get more verticality out of this soundbar.
But finally I do want to address simple sync on this soundbar. Now if you have any bose headphones or earbuds, you can very easily pair them up with this soundbar, so if you want to watch a movie late at night, you can fully enjoy it without disturbing anyone else in the house.
However, simply sync isn’t just for bose headphones… you can pair any pair of Bluetooth headphones with this sound bar. And this is a very cool feature to have just in case your tv doesn’t support Bluetooth connectivity or if your tv’s Bluetooth connection has too much latency to it.
But with all of that being said, just like before, the Bose Smart soundbar 600 is a very solid soundbar that I feel that you can’t go wrong with if you’re looking for an easy way to fill your bedroom or small or medium sized living room with sound. The 600 gets decently loud and it has a decent amount of bass all on its own all in a discreet package. And thanks to the 600 new speaker set up, the 600 has better instrument separation and it has true dolby atoms support. However when compared to its predecessor, the 600 gets just as loud and has just as much bass as the 300… and even though I enjoy the 600’s improved instrument separation… I don’t think that it would warrant an upgrade. But if you are in the market for a soundbar… I do think the 600 is a great choice.