Honest review Bose Solo 5 soundbar (connect, system, volume, program)

[victimofGM]

I wanted to research, price, and then buy a soundbar to meet our needs. Wife saw this product on one of those home shopping networks. Then she saw it available in the store and had to have it. Here’s the good and the bad on this soundbar.

Good
The universal remote is very easy to program. The book has one code per manufacturer. Found my TV manufacturer and only one code to input. Same with the other devices. One button power on and off. Sometimes it doesn’t turn them all back on at one push of a button. Still trying to figure out why this happens.

The other good is sound clarity. I have a partial hearing loss so it’s hard for me to understand what’s being said on TV regardless of volume. Closed captioning helps. The clarity of this soundbar makes it easier for me to understand. It has two speakers directed away from each other like they’re on the side of a triangle facing out. This helps to simulate a stereo surround effect. Connecting the speaker is as easy as one digital optical cable (included) and one power cable. It is shorter in length than most other soundbars on the market so it would be a great fit in a bedroom or office.

The bad

This does not include a subwoofer nor is it high power. Don’t buy this expecting a home theater experience with deep bass and room filling surround sound at theater level volume. Though there is a bass adjustment it doesn’t hardly do anything. Best to leave the bass around the mid level and forget about it. Turning up the volume to the max limit is t anywhere near as loud as my 500 watt 5 speaker + subwoofer system damaged in the move (over ten years old anyway). It’s other negative is price. $200 for what amounts to a good external TV speaker.

You can most likely buy better sounding soundbars at this price range and you can probably find cheaper external TV speakers/soundbars with this level of power. For what it is, it’s not a bad product. We hardly ever watch movies, we don’t play video games, and we’re in our 50s. We wanted ease of use, easy to become familiar with the control, and good sound clarity for our regular TV watching.

A cheaper and better sounding option is Logitech computer speakers with subwoofer. They can connect to a TV via the auxiliary jack. Down side is no remote control for power and volume.

[turf3]

If you want really good sound, you're going to have to have size in your speakers. They can do all kinds of stuff, but in the end the best sound reproduction is going to come from moving a lot of air, and that takes big cones mounted in big cabinets.

[NYCresident2014]

Would you recommend this for a bedroom TV? My tv has speakers in the back so the spoken words are muffled/garbled, just looking for a small soundbar to get forward facing speakers without going too large. We do watch movies in bed but not at a high volume; usually we're just hiding from the kids when doing so

[LesLucid]

Originally Posted by turf3

If you want really good sound, you're going to have to have size in your speakers. They can do all kinds of stuff, but in the end the best sound reproduction is going to come from moving a lot of air, and that takes big cones mounted in big cabinets.

Ditto that. I find the artificial boominess of small boxes distracting. I have a pair of Klipschorns supplemented with an SVS Cylinder sub. Many times I feel the bass more than I seem to hear it. It’s powerful but never booming or intrusive in a forced way.

[victimofGM]

Originally Posted by NYCresident2014

Would you recommend this for a bedroom TV? My tv has speakers in the back so the spoken words are muffled/garbled, just looking for a small soundbar to get forward facing speakers without going too large. We do watch movies in bed but not at a high volume; usually we're just hiding from the kids when doing so

It would be great for a bedroom but do your research. It is pricy for what you get but it is clear sounding, good universal remote, and small size makes it a good option for a bedroom.