PROS / It has great surround sound simulation.
CONS / The bass performance suffers from the lack of a subwoofer.
VERDICT / Adding a subwoofer to this sound bar system could make this the best sounding sound bar system available.
One of the most difficult tasks for a sound bar is recreating surround sound, simply because the speakers are directly in front of the listener and not surrounding them. The Bose SoundTouch 300 not only simulated surround sound – it did so very convincingly and with crystal clear quality. It is one of the most expensive sound bars in our lineup, but it’s worth it for the surround sound quality. This sound bar is one of the best you’ll find, and it earns our Top Ten Reviews.
Audio Performance
We watched a handful of movies and listened to a number of different songs to evaluate each sound bar system. The first movie we watched was “Mad Max: Fury Road.” This movie is basically one non-stop car chase with constant explosions and big, loud action scenes. The first thing we noticed about this sound bar was the lack of an additional subwoofer. Without a subwoofer, the Bose really struggled to produce the same type of room-rattling bass that other top-rated sound bars provided. When cars would crash or big, fiery explosions would take place, the SoundTouch 300 wouldn’t provide that deep, room-filling low-end that submerges you in the action. This home theater subwoofer would greatly benefit from the addition of a separate subwoofer.
What this sound bar lacks in bass production, it makes up tenfold in surround sound simulation. While we tested, we had several sound bars hooked up in the room at once; we simply muted the inactive ones. There were several occurrences while we were watching “Star Trek Beyond” that we thought other sound bars in the room were accidently unmuted, because the sound effects really sounded like they were coming from the other side of the room. We would go to mute the other sound bars only to find out they were still muted and that the SoundTouch 300 was the only active system. The Bose sound bar literally convinced us that there were other speakers positioned all around the room. The surround sound simulation was by far the best in our comparison.
Clarity is another strong point for the Bose. During “Star Trek Beyond” all of the dialogue was crystal clear, even in the action scenes. There was never a need to adjust the treble. The volume was well balanced between loud action scenes and quiet dialogue-driven scenes. Watching movies was a joy with the Bose SoundTouch 300.
Listening to music isn’t quite as impressive. The SoundTouch 300 is so clean with treble and midrange instruments that some of those instruments were overemphasized. While we listened to “Madison Square” by Lettuce, we noticed the wah-guitar in the bridge section of the song was much louder than anything else, and that shouldn’t be the case. It made the song sound much thinner and brighter than it should be.
That doesn’t mean this sound bar only sounds good during movies – however, adding a subwoofer would really help balance out the sharp, clear highs that dominate the soundscape.
Connectivity
The Bose sound bar has Wi-Fi connectivity – a feature only found in a handful of the sound bars we reviewed. This allows you to connect the SoundTouch 300 to your home Wi-Fi network and stream music and other content. This is better than Bluetooth connectivity for a couple different reasons. Wi-Fi isn’t limited to a 33-foot connectivity range like Bluetooth. This allows you to stream audio to the sound bar as long as you are within your home network’s range. Also, you can stream higher-quality audio with Wi-Fi than with Bluetooth, so your music will sound better and less compressed.
After connecting with the Bose for the first time, as long as you are close enough to the device, your phone or tablet will automatically connect to the sound bar once Bluetooth is activated. This conveniently saves you from having to go into your settings to activate Bluetooth and find the device on your phone or tablet.
On the back of the sound bar you’ll find all of the connectivity options. We were pleased to find HDMI ports alongside the optical port. HDMI connections can receive higher-fidelity audio than optical connections, which results in better sound quality. There is also an auxiliary input to connect a media device with a 3.5 mm cable. The connection option that was missing was analog RCA (red and white), but with optical and HDMI connections being far more advanced and high quality than RCA connections, it’s not a surprise that companies are moving away from that direction.
Peripherals
We evaluated the remote that came with each sound bar, and although the Bose remote received a low grade compared to the rest, one of this system’s best attributes is that the remote can be programed to be a universal remote. With some extra time for programming, you can control your entire home entertainment center with the Bose remote alone. It is huge, with a ton of buttons that are all clustered together. It is also much heavier than the rest of the sound bar remotes. It is simply overwhelming, especially for a sound bar.
When a mobile device is connected to the SoundTouch 300 through Wi-Fi, the Bose SoundTouch app is the best way to control streaming music to the sound bar. From here, you can access all of your music on your device and stream it to the sound bar.
Help & Support
Bose covers the SoundTouch 300 with a 12-month warranty. That is standard length for sound bars. If you have any questions about the SoundTouch 300, you can reach Bose by phone or email.
Summary
What the SoundTouch 300 lacks in bass production, it makes up for in clarity and surround sound simulation. Adding a subwoofer to this sound bar would greatly improve the bass production and round out the sound quality to this impressive system. Without the subwoofer, it still boasts the greatest surround sound simulation we experienced.