So the Panorama 3 is the latest soundbar from Bowers and Wilkins that features dolby atoms.
Now overall I think the Panorama 3 is a great looking soundbar… but when it comes to performance…
it does fall short.
So if you’re thinking about picking up the Panorama 3… today we’re going to compare
it to the Bose Smart Soundbar 900… cause I feel this is a much better preforming alternative.
Now first there’s price.
The panorama 3 retails for $1000… now this isn’t unheard of, but at a thousand dollars
this soundbar is hard to justify.
Whereas the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 retails for $900.
Now in this review, we’re only going to focus on the soundbars themselves…
cause with the 900 if you want you can add an external subwoofer and surround sound speakers
if you want… so you can build out your home theater.
Where as with the Panorama 3, you can’t do that.
Nonetheless if you want to pick the Bose Smart Soundbar 300 up, it’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about the design of these soundbars.
Now personally I like the hexagonal and angled shape of the Panorama 3.
I also like the fabric wrapped body and I also really like the perforated brushed metal
top of this soundbar.
Now the 900 also has a very premium materials… but it is not as cool looking as the Panorama
3.
However one thing that I really don’t like about the 900 is its very reflective glass
top which can get rather distracting depending on your set up.
Where as the brushed metal top of the Panorama 3 does a much better job of fighting reflections.
But overall, if I had to choose between these two soundbars purly on design then I’m going
with the 900 every single time cause the Panorama 3 is just huge.
The Panorama 3 has a length of 46.6 inches and a depth of 5.5 inches.
But its still relatively low profile coming in at 2.5 inches.
But then there’s the 900 which has a length of 41.4 inches, and a depth of 4.2 inches.
Its noticeably shorter and thinner than the Panorama 3… and its a little more low profile
coming in at 2.3 inches.
Overall, I think the 900 is going to be a little easier to place in your home theater
set up.
However if you are planning on wall mounting your soundbar… you are going to have to
get a wall mounting kit from Bose which is sold separately…
where as with the Panorama 3… you do get a wall mounting bracket included in the box.
Now speaking about what comes included in the box… both of these soundbars come included
with a standard AC power cable… and thankfully there isn’t an external power brick that
you have to worry about hiding.
And both of these soundbars come included with HDMI cables included in the box.
Now the 900 comes included with a simple remote control whereas the panorama 3 doesn’t.
Now personally I really don’t care if the Panorama 3 has a remote control or not cause
I just end up using my Soundbar’s app instead.
However the Panorama 3 does have onboard media control buttons on it that present themselves
when your hand gets near these buttons.
However, you can’t deactivate these buttons which could be a problem if you have kids
in the house.
But now we have to address the port set up on these soundbars cause they are pretty streamer
focused.
Now both of these soundbars have EARC support, but that’s pretty much a given since these
soundbars are both meant for dolby atmos.
But more importantly, neither of these soundbars have an HDMI input.
So you can’t directly plug in a blue ray player into these soundbars.
Now both of these soundbars have an optical port and an ethernet port… and personally
I feel that both go these ports are going to go mostly unused on both these soundbars.
However, the major differentiating factor here is that the 900 has an input for a wired
bass module, along side a data input and a wired IR blaster.
But when it comes to wireless connectivity, both of these soundbars have bluetooth and
they both have wifi.
And if you wanted to, you can use both of these soundbars as a smart speaker.
Now the Panorama 3 only has support for Alexa, where as the Bose has support for both Alexa
and google assistant.
But now lets talk about what really matters and that’s sound.
Now when it comes to speaker set ups… the Panorama 3 has a lot more going on under the
hood than the 900.
The panorama 3 has a total of 3 frontward firing tweeters… and it has a total of 8
drivers.
6 of which shoot out the front and 2 that shoot upwards.
And finally this soundbar has 2 upwards firing subwoofers.
But then there’s the 900 which has a single frontward firing tweeter, a total of 4 frontward
firing drivers and 2 upwards firing drivers on each end.
And instead of using woofers for its bass… the 900 has dual bass chambers.
Now when it comes to overall performance…
the Panorama 3 gets a little louder than the 900.
However…
the 900 has better instrument separation and better clarity than the panorama 3… and
also the 900 has more physicality in its bass than the Panorama 3.
Which I feel is a little surprising given that the Panorama 3 has those two builtin
subwoofers… which usually put out more bass than bass chambers.
But nonetheless, we’re going to jump into the sound test where both of these soundbars
are playing with their stock EQ’s.
So like you may have just heard…
obviously any soundbar is going to sound better than your 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 don’t get all that loud… and when their bass really gets going it just becomes
a rattling mess.
In most cases, getting a soundbar is good investment…
however…
I would argue that if you have a more premium TV like lets like lets say a Samsung Q80 or
something similar…
then the Panorama 3 isn’t going to sound all that much better.
Now my main problem with the Panorama 3 is that it has a very shallow sound signature
and more nuanced sounds get lost very easily.
Cause I hope during this soundest you noticed that with the 900 you were able to hear foot
steps, the clicks of your weapon, and the Watson generator much easier than you could
with the panorama 3.
And since the 900 has a much more balanced sound signature to it… you don’t have
to use it at a higher volume like you do with the Panorama 3.
And overall, the 900 does sound much more open and much more immersive than the panorama
3.
And also, the 900 does have a much more noticeable verticality effect to it than the Panorama
3.
But personally, what I think is more important is that the 900 has a lot more physicality
in its bass than the Panorama 3.
So with the 900 you’re going to be able to feel what’s happening on the screen much
better.
Now you can go in and raise the bass on the Panorama 3… but if you go in and raise the
bass… you’re not going to get all that much physicality out of it.
It's just going to sound more shallow.
Where as with the 900, if you were to raise its bass, you’re going to get more physicality
out of it… and you’re still going to be able to easily hear the dialog.
It doesn’t get shallow like the Panorama 3.
So overall, even though the Panorama 3 does get a little louder than the 900…
its sounds shallow and there’s very little physicality in its bass especially given its
size and speaker set up.
So overall, the Panorama 3 isn’t going to do the best job of immersing you in your content.
Where as with the 900, this soundbar has much better instrument separation and its has much
more physicality in its bass.
So its going to do a much better job of immersing you in your content.
And plus if you wanted to, you can always build out this soundbar with an external subwoofer
and or surround sound speakers.
Now even though I do think the 900 should defeneitly have an HDMI inport for people
who want to plug in a blue ray player…
I defiantly feel that the 900 is a much better pick up than the Panorama 3.