⚡️🔋 Anker Prime Base: https://geni.us/GC-AnkerPrimeBase
Bose Lifestyle Ultra: https://geni.us/GC-BoseLifestyleUltra
Bose Smart Soundbar: https://geni.us/GC-BoseSmartSB
Sony Bravia 8 M2: https://geni.us/GC-SonyBravia8M2TV
Bose Lifestyle Ultra vs. Bose Smart Soundbar: Which Should You Buy?
Welcome back, Gymcaddy readers! The Bose Lifestyle Ultra soundbar is here, bringing a massive amount of standalone bass and a noticeably wider, more open soundstage than its predecessor. But when you are spending premium money on home theater audio, does a high-end Bose soundbar actually make sense for your setup?
Both the Bose Lifestyle Ultra and the more compact Bose Smart Soundbar are self-contained systems. This means they produce impressive bass on their own without requiring an external subwoofer. While you can expand both systems with external Bose subwoofers or rear satellite speakers, doing so gets incredibly expensive very quickly.
Let’s look at how these standalone soundbars perform, their design quirks, and why you might want to rethink buying a premium soundbar if you already own a premium TV.
The Problem With Premium Soundbars
It can be very hard to justify a premium soundbar like the Lifestyle Ultra if you already have a premium TV. If you own a high-end display, you are often better off getting a matching soundbar for your TV brand. Modern setups allow your soundbar to use your TV’s built-in speakers in conjunction with the bar (e.g., matching a Sony TV with a Sony soundbar, LG with LG, or Samsung with Samsung).
If you have a less premium TV, or if you are looking for a smaller soundbar for a medium-sized living room or bedroom, the Bose Smart Soundbar is actually a fantastic option.
Design and Build Quality
The Bose Lifestyle Ultra introduces a sleek new design language, complete with a tempered glass top. While it looks elegant, the glass can cause distracting screen reflections depending on your lighting and TV placement.
World Wide Stereo
More importantly, the Lifestyle Ultra suffers from a notable design flaw: its stiff silicone feet. Because the soundbar produces so much heavy bass, it suffers from severe rattling and can move across your media console even at moderate volumes. In our tests, we had to place it on a blanket to stop the rattling. The smaller Bose Smart Soundbar, however, does not have this rattling issue.
Connectivity and App Control
Both soundbars feature a double-barrel AC port with no external power brick, making cable management and wall mounting much cleaner. However, keep in mind that Bose sells their wall-mounting kits separately. Both models include an HDMI port and the necessary cable, and support modern standards like Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi streaming.Unfortunately, neither has an HDMI IN port for cleaner cable management.
World Wide Stereo
When it comes to controlling your audio, Bose requires you to use their dedicated app. While the app is simple, it can occasionally crash. This highlights a major advantage of buying a matching soundbar for your TV: you can easily adjust sound settings directly through your TV's native interface without reaching for your phone.
Sound Quality and Speaker Setup
When it comes to hardware, both Bose soundbars have unique configurations:
Bose Smart Soundbar: Features a single forward-firing tweeter and a total of four speakers (two upward-firing, two side-firing), along with dual bass chambers.
Bose Lifestyle Ultra: Steps it up with six main speakers (four forward-firing, two upward-firing for true Dolby Atmos support) as a 5.1.2-channel system, dual phase drivers shooting out the sides, and a single frontward-firing tweeter.
World Wide Stereo
During our max-volume sound tests against the built-in subwoofer of the premium Sony Bravia 8 M2 TV, the Lifestyle Ultra delivered massive, room-shaking bass. However, its single front-firing tweeter means vocals can get a bit lost in the mix. If you buy the Lifestyle Ultra, we highly recommend opening the Bose app to crank up the mids and highs. Conversely, the Bose Smart Soundbar delivered stronger vocals out of the box and still packs a surprising amount of bass for its size.
The Verdict
If you have a premium TV, you are better off getting a matching soundbar. If you are looking at the Lifestyle Ultra but have an entry-level TV, you are spending your money wrong—allocate some of that soundbar budget toward upgrading your display. However, if you need a powerful, self-contained audio upgrade for a bedroom or small living room, the Bose Smart Soundbar is an excellent choice.
FAQ
Do I need an external subwoofer with the Bose Lifestyle Ultra or Smart Soundbar? No. Both soundbars are designed as self-contained systems with built-in bass chambers. They produce plenty of low-end rumble on their own, making them ideal for smaller spaces.
Does the Bose Lifestyle Ultra rattle at high volumes? Yes. Due to the intense bass and stiff silicone feet, the Lifestyle Ultra can rattle and vibrate against hard surfaces. Placing a blanket or absorption mat underneath can resolve this issue.
Does the Bose Lifestyle Ultra support Dolby Atmos? Yes, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra is a 5.1.2-channel system that supports Dolby Atmos, utilizing upward-firing drivers to bounce sound off your ceiling for an immersive experience.
World Wide Stereo
Why should I buy a soundbar that matches my TV brand? Matching your soundbar to your TV allows the two devices to integrate seamlessly. You can adjust sound settings directly from the TV menu rather than a third-party app, and many premium TVs will synchronize their built-in speakers with the soundbar for a richer audio experience.
Which Bose soundbar is better for a bedroom? The Bose Smart Soundbar is smaller, doesn't suffer from rattling, and delivers clear vocals, making it the perfect option for a bedroom or medium-sized living room.
So the Bose Lifestyle Ultra soundbar is here, and overall this soundbar has a lot of bass all on its own and it does sound noticeably more open than its predecessor… however for me, it is very hard to justify a premium soundbar like this cause you most likely have a premium TV. And if you have a premium tv then I recommend that you just get a matching soundbar for your tv so that your soundbar will use your tv’s built in speakers in conjunction with your soundbar. So if you have a sony tv, get a sony soundbar… if you have an LG TV get an LG soundbar and if you have a Samsung tv, get a Samsung soundbar.
However, if you have a less premium tv, or if you’re looking for a smaller soundbar either for your medium sized living room or for your bedroom, then I’m actually a very big fan of the Bose Smart Soundbar. Now both of these soundbars are self contained systems… as in they produce their own bass, which is good for people that either might not want to have to deal with an external subwoofer or they just don’t have the room. However, you can build out both of these soundbars with an external subwoofer and or rear satellite speakers from Bose… however I can not justify building out either of Bose’s systems cause it get very expensive very quickly.
So in this video we’re going to be focusing on these soundbars by themselves, and if you want to pick either of these two soundbars up they’ll be linked down below, or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button, and if you want to further support the channel then you can always watch some of the related videos in the description down below.
So first there’s the design, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra is giving us a look at Bose’s new design language for their soundbars, and personally I think that this is an elegant looking soundbar, but Im not the biggest fan of the glass top cause it can cause reflections, which can be super distracting in certain set ups. Now I think that its safe to assume that the next generation smart soundbar will look like the lifestyle ultra, but without the glass top, which I think would be better. But more importantly, the Smart soundbar is smaller than the lifestyle ultra making it a great option for a medium sized living room or more importantly a bed room.
Now one big design issue that I have with the Lifestyle ultra is that the silicon feet on this soundbar are very stiff, and since this soundbar has a lot of bass, rattling is a big issue for this soundbar, even at moderate volume. Now you can easily fix this if you just place the Lifestyle ultra on a blanket which is what we did in our tests… but rattling is not an issue for the Smart Soundbar and its not an issue for other soundbars out there similar to the Lifestyle ultra.
Now when it comes to connectivity, these two soundbars plug in via a double barrel AC port and there is no external power brick that you have to worry about, which means wiring these sounders into your set is easy and it makes wall mounting a little easier. However something that I don’t like about Bose’s soundbars is that their wall mounting kits are sold separately, which I don’t think is cool especially on the lifestyle ultra cause of its price. Plus the lifestyle is super dense which is a factor to consider if you have thin walls.
Now when it comes to connectivity, both of these soundbars have an HDMI port and they both come included with an HDMI cable, which is very standard. But unfortunately they don’t have an HDMI in port which can help you get cleaner cable manegmnet… But with the Lifestyle ultra it has an ethernet port. So if you want you can hardwire this soundbar into your network. But I think that’s pointless cause might as well just hardwire your tv into your network which is connected to your soundbar.
Now one of the reasons why I just suggest that you get a matching soundbar for your tv is cause you’ll be able to easily adjust your sound setting directly from the tv itself. In this case we’re using a Sony soundbar and tv combo. Where as with Bose’s soundbars if you want to adjust their sound you have to open up their app, and I feel that being able to adjust your sound is very important cause everything either just has different mixing… or maybe you want to quickly switch over to night mode cause you don’t want to wakeup your Wife’s boy friend. He’s maybe tired of carrying you in COD all night. Now Bose’s app is simple and its easy to use… however sometimes this app just doesn’t work or crashes because that’s why.
But with all of that being said, lets talk about sound. Now when it comes to speaker set up, unfortunately I feel that both of Bose’s soundbars are under built. The Bose smart soundbar has a single frontward firing tweeter and a total of 4 speakers, 2 that shoot upwards and two that shoot out the sides, and it has dual bass chambers. But I always felt that the Bose needed a few more drivers in it. Specially two more to shoot out the front. Where as with the Bose Lifestyle Ultra, which has a single frontward firing tweeter, which I don’t think is enough but bose just love doing this for some reason, and it has a total of 6 speakers. 4 that shoot out the front and 2 that shoot upwards for your true dolby atmos support which is to be expected on a premium soundbar like this. And then you have dual phase drivers which shoot out the sides. Like I said, I think both of these soundbars are lacking hardware when compared to their direct competitors. But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest, both of these soundbars are playing at 75% volume and we’re also going to be comparing them to the built in speakers found in the Sony Bravia 8 M2 but those are going to be playing at max volume.
Sound test
For starters, adding a soundbar to your tv is automatically going to sound much better. Your tv most likely just has a pair of downward firing speakers that bounce sound off of the table, they don’t get all that loud and at higher volumes their bass can become a distorted mess. However, if you were to get a more premium tv, like the Sony Bravia 8 Mark 2 like we have here, then you are going to have better sound quality, you’re going to have more bass and distortion isn’t going to be an issue cause the Bravia 8 M2 actually has a built in subwoofer.
Now with the Bose Lifestyle ultra, like I mentioned earlier, this soundbar has a lot of bass, which is very good for someone that’s looking for a self-contained system doesn’t doesn’t need an external subwoofer either cause they don’t want it or they don’t have the room for it,. But like I also mentioned earlier, the Bose Lifestyle ultra has so much bass, it can become a problem cause it’ll rattle around which is going to mess up your sound and the soundbar is going to start moving on the table. Now in this soundtest you didn’t see any of these cause movie magic, but for the audio recording, the bose was on a blanket.
Now all of this bass is great, but like you may have noticed, the Bose Smart soundbar had stronger vocals… cause like I said, I think a single frontward firing tweeter on the Lifestyle ultra isn’t enough… so for this soundbar I recommend that you go into its app and really crank up the mids and highs so that the bass isn’t so overpowering. But the good thing about the Bose Lifestyle ultra is that is does sound noticeable more open then the Smart Soundbar, which is good cause the Smart Ultra soundbar that the lifestyle is replacing always sounded very narrow.
And finally there’s the max volume performance of these soundbars, now obviously the Lifestyle ultra is going to get louder and its going to have more bass than the Smart soundbar. Now I think the Smart Soundbar is going to be good for a large living room and its going to be overkill for a bedroom. Where as the smart soundbar, I think this is a great option for a bedroom or a small to medium living room. And even though the Smart soundbar is small, it has a good amount of bass as well.
But with all of that being said, for me it is very hard to justify the Bose Lifestyle ultra soundbar… if you’re looking at a premium soundbar like this you most likely have a premium TV. And if you have a premium tv, you’re better off getting a matching soundbar. I don’t care if you have a Sony, LG, or Samsung. And if you’re looking at the Lifestyle ultra and you don’t have a premium TV… you’re spending your money wrong. Allocate some of your soundbar money and put it into your TV. However, if you have a smaller tv or les premium tv or if you’re looking for something for your bedroom, I still think you can’t go wrong with the Bose Smart Soundbar… and if you want something that sounds a little more impressive you can look at the Sony Bar 7. But more importantly, if you’re looking for a surround sound system, I do not recommend that you build out either of Bose’s soundbars cause bose gets very expensive very quickly.