So the Bose Smart Soundbar 600 is a great mid teir Soundbar that has improved instrument separation from its predecessor and it also has true dolby atoms support. Personally I feel that you can’t go wrong with the Smart Soundbar 600 and its an all around solid pick up. But today we’re going to compare the 600 to the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 and we’re also going to compare it to Bose’s entry level Soundbar, The Bose TV Speaker.

Now when it comes to pricing, the Bose TV Speaker has a retail price of $280. The 600 has a retail price of $500 and the 900 has a retail price of $900. Now in this video we’re going to be focusing on the Soundbars themselves, but if you want, with either the 600 or 900, you can build them out by adding an external subwoofer and or surround sound speakers… where as with the Bose TV speaker, you can only add an external subwoofer. But nonetheless, both the 600 and 900 are perfectly fine all by themselves.

Now first lets talk about the design of these soundbars. Now all of these soundbars have a hight of 2.2 inches and they all have a depth of 4.1 inches. However, the Bose TV Speaker has the shorts length here coming in at 23.4 inches, the 600 has a length of 27.3 inches and then there’s the 900 which is noticeably longer coming in with a length of 41.1 inches. Overall, all of these soundbars have relatively small footprints… but the 900 can be a little more challenging to place in your set up. Now when it comes to materials,  all of these soundbars has grills on the front, and both the TV speaker and 600 are mostly made out of plastic. Now overall, the 600 does the best job here of simply disappearing when your going to watch a movie with it cause there are no constantly on indicator lights and the plastic top on this soundbar doesn’t create any reflections. Where as with the TV speaker, this thing does have a constantly on indicator light, which I feel can be distracting. And then there’s the 900, now the glass top on this soundbar is very elegant… however, depending on your setup, this glass top can cause a reflection. And personally I find this reflection to be very distracting when watching movies. So personally, design wise the 600 is my preferred soundbar here cause it simply disappears.

However, something that all of these soundbars have in common is that they all plug in via a universal AC and thankfully there is no external power brick to worry about with any of these soundbars, which is going make wiring any of these soundbars into your set up a little easier and its also going to make it easier to wall mount any of these soundbars. However, none of these soundbars come included with a wall mounting kit… that is sold separately.

But now lets talk about the ports on these soundbars. Now all of these soundbars have a single HDMI port… unfortunately you can’t plug in a gaming console or blue ray player into any of these soundbars. Now both the 600 and 900 have eARC ports… plus their upwards firing speakers… they both have true dolby atoms support… where as the TV speaker has a standard HDMI ARC port. Now both the 600 and 900 come included with HDMI cables, something that’s new for Bose’s mid teir soundbar… however with the TV speaker you are going to have to supply your own HDMI cable cause it only comes included with an optical cable.

The only major different port on the 900 which isn’t found on any of these other soundbars is that it has an ethernet port… But regardless both the 900 and 600 have wifi… so after you connect either of these two soundbars up to wifi, you’ll be able to control them through their app, you can stream music to them with either AirPlay or chrome cast… and if you want, you can also use either of these two soundbars as a smart speaker and either use Alexa or Google assistant.

Where as with the TV speaker, this soundbar doesn’t have wifi support, so there is no app and you can’t stream music to it though AirPlay or Chromcast. However, it does have bluetooth so there’s that. Now both the 900 and 600 also have bluetooth… but being able to to stream to your soundbar with either Airplay or Chromcast is a lot more convenient because you’re going to be able to sync multiple speakers together and you’re also going have a lot more range than bluetooth… if you have a solid wifi network.

But with all of the basic stuff out of the way, lets talk about the sound performance of these soundbars. Regarding speaker set ups, the bose TV speaker has single frontward firing tweeter it has dual frontward firing drivers, and it has a single bass chamber. But then there’s the 600 which has a single frontward firing tweeter and it has a total of 4 drivers. Two of which can be found on the ends of this soundbar and they shoot out at like a 45 degree angle, and two of them fire upwards. And the 600 has two bass chambers with exhaust ports that shoot out the sides. But then there’s the 900… the 900 has a single frontward firing tweeter, it has 4 frontward firing drivers, we’ve got two bass chambers, just like the 600 except a little larger… and at the ends there are frontward firing drivers. But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest, all of these soundbars are playing with their stock EQ’s… both the 600 and 900 are playing at max 75% volume, but so that the Bose TV Speaker can keep up, its playing at max volume.

So like you may have just heard, obviously any soundbar is going to sound better than your TV’s built in speakers. Unless you have a higher end tv, your tv most likely just has a pair of downwards firing speaker that bounce sound off of the table, they don’t get all that loud and at higher volumes or when the bass really gets going… they just become a distorted mess.

Now first lets address the bose TV Speaker… now yes this soundbar is going to be an improvement from your built in speakers… but personally I am not very impressed by this soundbar. From a performance stand point this soundbar doesn’t get nearly as loud as these other soundbars, it doesn’t have all that much bass, and at higher volumes, it still distorts a noticeable amount. And the instrument on this soundbar isn’t all that good… so with this soundbar it just sounds very narrow… but gets louder. Overall, the Bose TV Speaker gets the job done, but I wouldn’t feel satisfied with it.

But now lets turn our attention to the big players here. Thanks to the upwards firing speakers found on both the 600 and 900 both of these soundbars have a good sense of verticality, they both have true dolby atoms support, and even if you’re now watching dolby atoms content, you’re still going to enjoy great instrument separation and immersion with both of these soundbars. And improved instrument separation is the main upgrade found on the 600 over its predecessor, the 300.

Now personally, I feel that the 600 is going to have no problem filling a bed room or small to medium sized living room all by itself. It gets decently loud and it also has a decent amount of bass. Now obviously you’re not going to get as much bass as an external subwoofer… but you are still going to be able to feel what is happening on the screen.

But then there’s the 900… the 900 gets louder and has more bass than the 600… and its center channel sounds fuller cause you’ve got those four drivers aimed directly at you. Personally, I feel that the 600 is a good default option… But if you want more sound then you can go for the 900. But the core performance between the 600 and 900. They both have similar instrument separation and distortion isn’t a problem.

Because for comparison sake, going from the Bose TV Speaker to the Bose Smart Soundbar 600 obviously you’re going to get more volume and more bass… but with the 600 you’re also getting much better instrument separation and distortion isn’t an issue at higher volumes. Where as going from the 600 to the 900, the main difference is just volume.

But also last year, when we compared the 300 to the 900, which is the 600’s predecessor… I recommended that you go with the 900 over the 300 cause not only are you going to get more volume… but you’re also going to get better instrument separation. But this time around, the main difference between the 600 and 900 is just volume.

Now whether you decided to go with the 600 or 900… personally I do recommend that you go in and raise the center channel so that dialog is more prominent. I also like to raise the bass so that you can better feel those actions scenes, and I also like to raise the hight channel on both of these soundbars so that you can get more verticality out of them. Now with the Bose TV speaker… you can’t customize its EQ like you can with these other two soundbars. However, you can choose between a dialog mode or bass plus mode from the included remote. Now these other two soundbars also have included remotes… and the remote that comes included with the 900 is a little nicer… but honestly I never use these remotes, I simply use the app.

However, one feature that the 900 has over the 600 and TV speaker is that you can calibrate it to your room by using the included microphone and ADAPTIQ which will walk you through the process through the app. But something that both the 900 and 600 have over the Bose TV Speaker is simply sync. So with either the 600 or 900 you can pair a bose speaker or bose headphones up to it and get them to play in sync. Now this is very useful cause if you have headphones, this way you can fully enjoy your content late at night without running the risk of disturbing people in your home.

Now I have managed to get simple sync to work with non bose products… however, to be on the safe side… if you plan on using simple sync, you are better of using it with a bose product.

But with all of that being said, if you’re in the market for a soundbar, and if you’re trying to choose between any of these Bose soundbars, here is my break down. Even though the Bose TV Speaker gets the job done… personally I am not very impressed by this sound bar cause it doesn’t get all that loud, it sounds rather narrow and at higher volumes distortion is a problem. The real question here is choosing between the 600 and 900. Now personally I feel that the 600 is a great default option for anyone looking for an easy way to fill their bed room or small to medium sized living room with sound. The Bose Smart Sound Bar 600 gets decently loud, and has a decent amount of bass, all on its own… and thanks to its new speaker set up, it has improved instrument separation and true dolby atoms support. However, if you want more sound then you can always go for the 900. It gets louder, it has more bass, and its center channel sound fuller. My only critique about the 900 is that I still don’t like its glass top.