So personally, i really like the new Bose Smart Soundbar 600… and this is currently my favorite mid range soundbar to recommend. Now we’ve already seen how the 600 stacks up against its larger brother, the 900… but today we’re going to see how the 600 stacks up to some of its direct competitors like lets say the Sonos Beam 2 and the Sony HT-A3000.

Now when it comes to pricing, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 has a retail price of $450, the Bose Smart Soundbar 600 has a retail price of $500 and the Sony HT-A3000 has a retail price of $700. But the Sony does like to go on sale very often. Now with all of these soundbars, if you want you can build them out with an external subwoofer, and or satellite speakers… and with the sony, if you use it with a compatible sony bravia tv then the TV’s built in speakers will play in sync with the soundbar. But in this video, we’re only going to be focusing on the Soundbar themselves.

Now first lets talk about the design of these soundbars, simply put, the Sony simply dwarfs these two sound bars. The Sony has a length of 37 and a half inches, a width of about 5 inches and a hight of about 2 inches an a half. Now hight wise, the sony is fine, but length wise, this soundbar is much longer than both the 600 and Sonos which have a length of about 27 inches and 26 inches, respectively. So I truly feel that placing the Sony in your home theater setup, could be a little harder when compared to these other two speakers.

But thankfully, all of these soundbars plug in via a universal AC port and none of them have an external power brick that you have to worry about. So that it going to make wiring these soundbars into your theater set up a little easier, and its also going to make wall mounting these soundbars a little easer. However, with both the Bose and Sonos… their wall mounting kits are sold separately. Where as with the Sony, it has built in wall mounting holes built into its chassis and you can use your own screws, but just be sure that your wall is sturdy enough cause this soundbar weighs in at 10 pounds.

Now when it comes to the materials on these soundbars, all of these soundbars have a mostly plastic body with a grill on the front, and they all do a really good job of not reflecting any light when watching movies with these soundbars, they simply disappear… but I do have to point out that with the Sony, by default it has an always on screen… and this can be very distracting, but you can always turn off this display by using the included remote.

But now lets talk about ports, with all of these soundbars, they all have a single HDMI eARC and they all come included with an HDMI cable… but I do want to point out that the Sonos comes included with the most premium feeling HDMI cable here, which I do feel is a very nice touch. But unfortunately, none of these soundbars have an HDMI in port, so you can’t directly plug in a gaming console or blue ray.

Now all of these soundbars have your typical optical port… but with the Sony, there’s a USB A port so if you want you can plug in a USB Stick and play music off of it… and with the Sonos, its the only soundbar here with an ethernet port… just incase you can’t or don’t want to use wifi.

But more importantly, all of these speakers have wifi so you can always stream to any of them by using Airplay or chromcast, and all of these speakers have an app so that you can control your soundbar and also manage your media… But I do have to point out that both of Sonos’s and Bose’s apps are much better laid out… where as with Sony’s app, it gets the job done… but it is not as well designed as these other two soundbars. And also, with both the Bose and Sonos, you can use these soundbars as a smart speaker, if you want… where as with the sony, you can’t.

But one major detail that I do have to point out about the Sonos is that before you can use this sound bar, you have to connect it to wifi and register this product… and also, you can’t connect to this soundbar by using a simply bluetooth connection. You can only stream to it by using wifi… and I do feel that some people are going to require a bluetooth connection for niche cases. And this is the only soundbar here that doesn’t come included with a remote. Now granted, I prefer to use the apps on my phone… but some people might want or need and external remote.

But now lets talk about how these speakers actually sound. Regarding speaker set up, the Sonos has a single frontward firing tweeter, it has a total of 4 mid range drivers, two of which flank the tweeter and there’s one on each side, and there are a total of 3 passive radiators for the bass. Two on the front and one on the back. Then there’s the sony which has a total of 3 frontward firing speakers and dual frontward firing subwoofers with exhaust ports that shoot out the sides. And finally there’s the bose which has a single frontward firing tweeter, it has dual bass chambers with exhaust ports that shoot out the back and it has a total of 4 drivers. Two on each side, and there are two that are located in the center and fire upwards. And this is a very important detail to keep in mind, even though all of these speakers are DOLBY Atmos speakers… the dolby atoms on both the Sonos and Sony is artificial cause these soundbars don’t have upwards firing speakers… where as the Bose does… so the Bose are true dolby atmos cause this soundbar is going to have more verticality to it and its going to be able to bounce sound off of the ceiling. But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest… Now the Sonos beam isn’t the loudest soundbar here… so its playing at max volume. The Sony leans towards a warmer sound signature, so it doesn’t seem as loud, even though it has a lot of bass… so its also playing at max volume… but finally there’s the Bose which is much more balanced sounding than the Sony… and its playing at 75% volume.

So first off, obviously anything 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 downward firing speakers that bounces sound off of the table, they don’t get all that loud and when the bass really gets going… it just becomes a distorted mess.

Now first I want to address the Sonos beam. The Beam 2 has good instrument separation and it sounds fairly open. Its very easy to hear dialog with this sound bar and it has good audio normalization. So your sound is going to stay consistent even if a large action scene starts up.

However, what I don’t like about the Beam 2 is that it doesn’t get as loud as you’d expect it to and it doesn’t have a whole lot of bass. So with the beam, youre not going to physically feel what’s happening on the screen, as well as you would as with these other two soundbars. Personally, I would only recommend this soundbar for your bed room or small living room.

But then there’s the Sony… this thing is a bass machine… this thing has a whole lot of bass all on its own and if you want more bass, then you can do that cause in this soundtest, this soundbar was playing with its bass set to mid. Personally, I think this soundbar is a really good option to consider if you need something with a whole lot of bass, because depending on your setup… maybe adding an external subwoofer isn’t an option for.

However, the problem with the Sony having so much bass to it is that sometimes it can be a little hard to hear the dialog… so you’ll have to use this soundbar at a higher volume… however, the audio normalization on this soundbar isn’t the greatest… so if an action scene starts… it could get a little ear piercing, so you’ll have to quickly lower the volume.

And again, due to the Sony’s bass heavy sound signature… it doesn’t get as loud as you’d expect, especially for its size. However, I do feel that this soundbar get decently loud enough for your bedroom or medium sized living room.

And you can always combat this soundbar’s warmer sound signature by using its voice up feature… but regardless, I can’t help but feel that this soundbar doesn’t have the best instrument separation cause everything sounds very close together. However, just keep in mind that this critique is with this soundbar playing by itself. If you were to use this soundbar with a compatible Sony Bravia TV, where the TV’s built in speakers will play in sync with the soundbar… then your TV and soundbar combo could sound much louder and much more open.

But finally there’s the bose Smart Soundbar 600 which I have already mentioned is currently one of my favorite soundbars to recommend. From a performance standpoint, this soundbar gets louder than the Sonos and its going to have no problem filling your bed room or medium sized living room with sound. And this soundbar seems louder than the Sony cause its mids are much more pronounced. Now the Bose isn’t capable of producing as much bass as the Sony… but I still has a lot more bass than the Beam, and you’re going to be able to physically feel whats happening on the screen.

But also, the Bose is my preferred soundbar here cause I feel that it has the best instatement separation and sounds the most open here and that could be partly due to the upwards firing speakers on this soundbar. And just like with the Sonos… the bose has really good audio normalization… so you’re not going to have to rush and lower the volume on this soundbar if an action scene starts up like you’ll have to with the Sony.

So with all of that being said personally I feel that if you’re looking for a mid sized soundbar for your home theater set up… then you can’t go wrong with the Bose Smart Soundbar 600. The Bose Smart soundbar has great instrument separation, its has a decent enough of bass and it gets plenty loud to fill a medium sized living room with sound… and it does all of this in a fairly compact package. But then there’s the Sony, now even though this isn’t my favorite soundbar… I still feel that it is a good option to consider if you need something with a lot of bass all on its cause maybe adding an external subwoofer just isn’t an option for you. You have have to be mindful of its size and very warm sound signature. However, if you have a Sony Bravia TV… then the Sony HT-A3000 is a good default option. But finally there’s the Sonos Beam Gen 2… personally it is very hard for me to recommend this sound bar. It just doesn’t get as loud as you’d want it to and it is lacking a little bit in the bass department.