Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar

The Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar is the flagship of Bose’s soundbar range, and the model where the company’s Dolby Atmos processing is at its most ambitious: up-firing drivers plus Bose’s own virtualisation, aimed at producing height and surround effects from one bar.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 device rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can put it in a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

Television sound does not go through Apple Home at all. That arrives over HDMI ARC or optical from the television, and the soundbar’s own remote and app control the modes and the volume.

Before you buy

The Ultra is worth the step up from the Bose Smart Soundbar mainly if you watch Atmos content and cannot fit real surround speakers. If you can fit them, a cheaper bar with real rear speakers will usually beat an expensive bar without.

Bose’s wireless subwoofers and surrounds pair to it, so the system can grow.

Voice assistants are built in, which means microphones in the room. Worth knowing if that matters to you.

Specifications