So with the Sonos roam right around the corner Id thought these we’d explore Sonos a little bit.
Now in my previous video we checked out the Sonos Beam… But today we’re going to compare the Sonos
Beam to the Bose Smart Soundbar 300 which has been my go to Soundbar for the last couple of months.
Regarding pricing, both of these sound bars have a retail price of $400 by themselves… and
for the purpose of this review we’re going to be evaluating these sound bars
by themselves. But you can always build out these sound bars
by either adding a Sub and or a pair of surround speakers. However if you do decide to build
out these sound bars their total price is going to be way different.
With the bose if you were to pick up the bass module it’ll run you $400…
where as the Sonos Sub retails for $700 almost twice as much as the Beam itself.
And with the Bose if you want to get a pair of surround speakers you can get a
pair for $300 where as with the Beam you would have to get two One SL’s for $358.
So the total cost of the Bose System with the Soundbar, surround speakers and sub is going to
run you $1,060. Where as with the Sonos their whole system would run you $1456…
So yeah these systems can get a little pricy very quick… but if you’re just using these
sound bars in your bed room or small living room then the Soundbar itself is just fine.
Now first lets talk about the designs of these soundbars… both of these soundbars have very
subtle designs to them with very minimal notification lights on them which is great.
Soundbars should be heard not seen. Cause personally I absolutely hate
when sound bars have power on lights or constantly display the time on the front
cause when you’re watching something its super distracting and unnecessary.
Now even though both of these sound bars are very compact… I do gotta point out that the Bose
is a little longer than the Beam with a length of 27 and a half inches where as
the Sonos has a length of 25 and half inches… But when it comes to thickness… the Bose is a
little more low profile than the beam with a thickness of 2 and a quarter inches where as
the Beam has a thickness of 2 and three quarter inches. I don’t know… personally I kind prefer
the Bose’s more low profile design cause it just looks sleeker.
However one very important thing the Beam does have over the Bose is that it has built in control
buttons so you can directly adjust your media without having to souled rely on your phone,
remote or voice assistant. Where as with the bose there are only two button on it. One to mute the
microphone and the other to activate your voice assistant. Now the bose does come included with
a remote which is nice… but personally I wish this sound bar had built in control buttons on it just
for those fringe cases where you just can’t reach for your phone, TV remote, or sound bar remote.
But now lets talk about tech specs… regarding ports on the back both of these soundbars
have an AC port for power… pretty basic. But the good thing is neither of these soundbars have an
external power brick to hide. Which is good. However I do want to point it out
that Sonos’s power cable feels more premium than the one you get with bose. Sonos’s cable
its a little longer and much more flexible, making it easier to plug into your set up.
Now both of these soundbars have an HDMI port to plug into your TV…
But the Sonos actually comes included with an HDMI cable. Where as with the Bose
if you want to use and HDMI connection, and you should use an HDMI connection… then you’re going
to have to get your own HDMI cable cause the Bose only comes included with an optical cable.
However, even though the Sonos doesn’t have an optical port like the Bose which I think is fine…
its does have an ethernet port. So if you’re thinking about using this Soundbar in an area
of your house with spotty wifi you can always hard wire it in into your network.
Now both of these soundbars have wifi support and they both have Airplay 2 support.
So if you’re an iPhone user as long as you’re connected to your wifi
you can stream music to your sound bar. Or if you’re logged into these soundbars’s respective
apps you can stream music to them whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device.
However, personally I am not a fan of the Sonos Beam’s
over reliance of wifi cause lets say your friend comes over and they want to DJ,
they can’t just simply connect to the Beam using a bluetooth connection. Now I know this might be a
fringe case, but a lot of people like to use their sound bar to play music when entertaining guests.
Where as with the Bose it does have Bluetooth. So if your friend
wants to DJ or if you just have your sound bar in an area of the house with spotty wifi…
you can just connect directly to it using trusty old bluetooth.
You don’t have to worry about your wifi strength or having to download an app.
Now staying on the topic of connectivity I want to mention voice assistants cuase
I feel its tangentially connected. Both of these sound bars have support for the Google Assistant
and Alexa. So if you want to you can always use this either of these sound bars as a smart
speaker and you can always use voice commands to control your music playback. And if you’re using
Alexa voice commands then you can also control your tv.
But if you don’t want to you don’t have to use a voice assistant on either of these sound bars.
Some people don’t like using voice assistants cause of security concerns… but personally I
don’t like using voice assistants on my sound bars cuase sometimes there can be accidental
activations while im watching something which can be a little annoying.
But now lets talk about speaker set ups cause these soundbars are fairly
different from one another. The Bose has a single frontward firing tweeter,
it’s got two drivers flanking either side of the tweeter, and then there’s a second
pair of drivers on either end shooting out at like a 45 degree angle. Now the Sonos
also has a single tweeter, and a total of 4 drivers similarly placed to the bose… but the Beam
also has an additional 3 radiators. Two that shoot out the front and one that shoots out the back.
So the Sonos does have a lot more going on under the hood than the Bose… but we’re
going to save judgment until after the sound test. Now both of these soundbars
have a companion app which basally do the same things. They can be used an aggregator
for your various streaming sub subscriptions and you can also use them to adjust your EQ.
Now before we jump into the sound test, just as a heads up we are using my EQ
settings. With the Sonos I did have to lower the treble and raise that bass
cause the Beam does have a brighter sound signature to it. Where as with the Bose
it does sound more balanced but I did raise the bass on it to get more physicality out of it.
So like you may have just heard, obviously any sound bar if going to sound better than
your TV’s built in speakers. Your Tv most likely has a pair of downward firing transducers that
bounces sound off of your table. Now besides your TV’s built in speakers just not sound as
open or as loud as a sound bar… the biggest issue for your TV’s built in speakers is bass. Like you
may have heard in this sound test when the bass really got going you heard whole lot of rattling.
Where as rattling just isn’t an issue with sound bars. But when it comes to comparing these two
sound bars… the Bose does out perform the Sonos in two key areas. First there’s max volume, the Bose
does get a little louder than the Sonos. Its not a huge difference and the Sonos gets more than loud
enough but the Bose does get a little louder which will might matter for like entertaining purposes.
But more importantly the bose does have more bass than the Sonos. Now you shouldn’t expect
a whole lot of wall shaking bass from your sound bar and if you really want a lot of
bass you can always pair these sound bars with their respective subs… but when it comes to
actually feeling whats on the screen… the bose does give you more physicality than the Sonos.
Now personally I was a little surprised of this out come given than the Sonos has those dedicated
passive radiators where as the Bose just has those 4 drivers… But overall with the Bose you
do feel what’s on screen more than with the Sonos which does add to immersing you into your content.
Now before we wrap this video up I do want to address these soundbars’ eco systems. Now
whether you have multiple Sonos speakers or Bose speakers you can always groups them up
and have them play in sync and fill your whole house with music. However Bose does have way
more speakers to choose from and in a much wider price band. An even if you’re got an older Bose
speaker like a Sound Link color that doesn’t have Airplay support, you can still pair your
sound bar up to it using Bose’s Simplesync. But more importantly with Bose’s Simplesync,
you can actually pair up your Bose NC 700’s to your sound bar. So if you want to watch
something late at night you can do so and fully enjoy your content on your headphones and
not have to worry about waking anybody up cuase you can just mute the sound bar. And if you are
using your headphones you can still use your active noise cancelation or the ambient mode.
So with all that being said, obviously you’re going to be much better of going
with a Soundbar rather than sticking with your TV’s built in speakers.
Now when it comes to choosing between the Sonos Beam and Bose Smart Soundbar 300…
personally I gotta say the Bose is the better way to go. From a performance stand point the bose
does get a little louder than the Sonos… but more importantly the bose does have more physicality in
its bass which allows you to better feel what’s on screen and making you feel more immersed.
I also really like that as a Bose NC 700 owner I can pair up my headphones to my
sound bar and fully enjoy my content late at night without having to worry about waking
anybody up… and I also like that the Bose has bluetooth. So if anybody has to connect
to it they can do so directly. They don’t need wifi and they don’t have to download an app.