Bose 600 vs Sonos Beam Gen 2: The Best £500 Soundbar?

the Sonos being Gen 2 or the Bose 600 both Dolby Atmos sound bars both around the 500 pound price point and both big contenders in the compact Soundbar market so which should you buy hey guys Louis here from Smart Home sounds and we're back with another comparison video if you want today now this is actually up there with probably the closest of competitions that we've had on this channel with two very strong contenders and Hot Products in the Soundbar market right now if you're on the lookout for Adobe Atmos Soundbar for under 500 pound with just 50 pound between them then these are two great options and I've got a feeling that this head-to-head is going to be a good one so after hitting the market in mid-october 2022 there's been a lot of hype around the Bose 600 and its performance plus with an RRP of 4995 it sits nicely as Bose's mid-range option between the Bose 300 and the Bose 900 so it's only fair to put it to the test against the king of mid-range sound bars the Sonos beam gen 2. coming in at 449 the beam is the cheaper option of the pair and it's just picked up the 2022 what holiday award the best Soundbar under 500 pounds so we have got a really tough competition here now don't forget guys pricing does tend to fluctuate so be sure to check here or use the link in the description below for the latest pricing if you decide that you want to support us then head over to smarthomesounds.co.uk and if you find this video helpful then let us know down in the comments below and subscribe follow us all that good stuff [Music] performance I want to take a closer look at the differences in Design After All These sound bars are built to be placed front and center in your space so you want them to look the part that's definitely something that's very important to me now the most notable thing right out of the box or boxes is the differences in shape the Bose has a much more rectangular boxy shape in comparison to the beams curved edges and there isn't really a specific reason to list other than to accommodate the side firing drivers in each Soundbar they're both made from similar materials so a matte plastic finish a metallic wrap around Grille but the Bose does have the addition of a top panel Grille too which interestingly houses a pair of upwards firing drivers which is something that we're definitely going to revisit a little bit later on in the video now in terms of colors the beam is available in both black or white whilst the Bose is only available in Black when it comes to size both sound bars are Compact and ideal options if you're lacking a little bit of space although the Bose is a little wider and deeper than the beam it is shorter so it's just a case of what works best in your space now looking at them both side by side here I think the design will split opinions for me I'm a big fan of the Sleek modern aesthetic of Sonos and I think this beam is a really good looking Soundbar the Bose feels more like your standard Black Box bit of tech albeit with a little bit more of a modern finish but it's not blowing me away on a design front maybe it feels a little bit more dated now design is definitely down to Personal Taste and I know interior designer so let us know down in the comments below which one you guys prefer [Music] when it comes to connectivity as we know Sonos doesn't over complicate things the beam has one ethernet port and a single HDMI ERC port and it also comes with an optical adapter provided in the box so you've got that flexibility there now the Bose on the other hand has a more extensive list of connections offering a wider variety of input ports the Bose 600 is equipped with ir Optical and HDMI ERC inputs under port to hardwire a base module of course both sound bars use Wi-Fi in order to work with their respective apps and they also have apple AirPlay 2 capabilities as well but when it comes to streaming the Bose is Bluetooth and Chromecast enabled whereas the beam isn't so that means for those of you out there who make use of Bluetooth connectivity or you can see yourself trying to stream things from an Android phone outside of the app this could be a tick in the Bose box for you now both the Bose 600 and Sonos beam Gen 2 have some control capabilities on the sound bars themselves but the Bose does also come with a separate IR remote for control 2. now in terms of app control Sonos and Bose both have very user friendly apps making it really difficult to pick which is better I've got to give some credit to Bose though for their EQ customization options the ability to freely control the exact output from their Soundbar Center Channel height Channel bass and treble was a really nice touch and the center channel adjustments is definitely something that Sonos could take some inspiration from now you do still get a decent amount of control in the Sonos app with bass and treble adjustments as well as night mode and speech enhancement to suit your listening environment on the whole Sonos are pretty renowned for that ecosystem and app functionality and it's so simple to group up your different rooms and toggle different things on and off for me it's slightly more intuitive to use but it's splitting hairs here really the only thing I've noticed during testing is that the Bose app has been a little bit laggy at times and it's not a deal breaker by any means but it's just something that I've picked up on this week I should also point out that the Sonos beam can make use of sonos's true play tuning technology if you have an iOS device so this means that you can optimize performance of your Soundbar within your space as it analyzes the surroundings and adjusts performance to match now when you toggle true plate on and off you can see it does make a pretty big difference in performance and it's a great feature from Sonos [Music] right onto the internals and this is where we get one major difference from these two sound bars while both our Dolby Atmos sound bars the height channels from the Sonos beam Gen 2 are simulated internally it has four front facing woofers two angled outwards and a dedicated Center Tweeter but no dedicated at firing speakers instead what it does is it uses virtual processing and psycho Acoustics to simulate height channels and provide separation between ear level and overhead level the Bose 600 on the other hand has two dedicated up firing speakers to deliver the overhead effects in Dolby Atmos tracks which work alongside two sideways firing speakers and a front center Tweeter for me the beam does a brilliant job at simulating height effects but as great as I think it is it will always struggle to compete with physical height speakers but we'll see what you guys think about that in our sound test foreign [Music] so after testing both of these sound bars in loads of different setups and locations with a variety of different audio content from movies to TV shows music and gaming we quickly knew that this competition was going to be a little bit tighter than we first thought now the usual disclaimer as always guys that what you hear over YouTube will not be exactly what we're hearing right here in our studio but it should give you a good flavor did you think your dad was the only Mandalorian [Music] foreign [Music] did you think your dad was the only Mandalorian [Music] all right kid hang on you ready for an adventure [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] well I think it's fair to say that both of these sound bars are guaranteed to be a huge Improvement on any TV's audio output alone now put it this way these sound bars are a little bit like Messi and Ronaldo both brilliant in their own right but they just excel in different areas both produce audio with a wide Sound Stage that can only really be described as size defined delivering sound that expands far beyond their form factor for Atmos content I do think that the upwards firing drivers on the Bose really help to deliver an immersive audio experience that reaches a different dimension than the beam I also think it handles complex scenes really well when watching Top Gun any scenes that incorporated height channels and multiple different layers were handled exceptionally well and didn't get messy or overwhelming on the whole the details from the Bose 600 are really clean and actually help to add to the experience the crackle of a fire for example just enhances the immersion in the scene and it sounds great however the beam isn't critically acclaimed without reason and based on our testing although it might not be able to deliver the same overhead performance as the Bose I would say that they've been outperformed it when it came to the vocals and Bass Performance that's not to say that these elements weren't solid on the Bose they just weren't as standout as they are on the beam the vocals in Center Channel Clarity on the beam are the best thing about its performance for me and a real standout feature with low end weight if we're looking at performance Straight Out of the Box the low end frequencies Feel clean and Punchy on the beam and just offered that little bit more oomph that I felt was lacking when listening with the bows now you can tweak the Bass Performance on both sound bars and I could replicate a similar performance on the Bose to the beam after playing around in the settings but the overall balance I think is still slightly better on the beam for music performance the beam handles most genres while and again offers a well-balanced and Punchy performance with vocals being the standout feature the Bose 600 also copes well with a variety of different genres it's an accurate performance which retains nice separation of the layers but I think in certain circumstances I would like a little bit more bass and the lack of at times can take away from the overall performance [Music] now you do have the option to add separate subwoofers to both sound bars which is also an option for enhancing performance and when it comes to expanding your system further this is when things like the ecosystems become very important now Sonos has been designed to be as simple as possible to keep added speakers to your system and I have to say it is a really seamless process you can add a Sonos Serb or sub mini and Rears to this Soundbar wirelessly with ease the Bose ecosystem is less extensive but you do have the option to add a subwoofer and Rears to the soundbar to expand your performance further now we've yet to test that out with the Bose but I do think that the Bose based module 500 will be a great add-on and they do wireless surrounds that could also help increase immersion further now with the launch of the sub mini earlier this year it makes a brilliant pairing with the beam Gen 2 or for an RRP of 878 pounds now if you were to add the Bose based module 500 you're looking at an RRP of 949 so around 70 quid in it now I personally would be really interested to see how those setups compare so let me know if you'd like us to test that out [Music] right let's try to bring everything back together then and see which Soundbar we think has come out on top now I'm not going to beat around the bush here guys I think that the Sonos beam is an unbelievably good sound bar for its size and price point and it has been at the very top of my soundbar list so we have been excited to test out some solid competition from the new kid on the Block and as far as overall performance goes the Bose 600 hasn't let me down it's a good sound bar it offers great immersion and Bluetooth capabilities something that the Sonos beam lacks and the overall sound goes far beyond its footprint the design personally isn't my favorite but again that's a personal preference and when it comes to overall Sound Performance it's almost a case of Tit for Tat beam slightly better vocals and bass Bose 600 has the point when it comes to lead Atmos soundtracks I really would be splitting hairs here to pick a winner and so I'm not going to because I don't think that there's one winner here what might come out on top for me might not for you and that's the beauty of choice what a lovely predicament to be in so I'm going to hand it over to you guys which would you you go for the Sonos beam Gen 2 or the Bose 600 let me know down in the comments below thank you guys all very much for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: Smart Home Sounds

Views: 63,313

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Id: DuQlPwYYxiw

Length: 12min 32sec (752 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 22 2022