Bose steps into smart home audio with new modular sound gear

Bose just launched three new pieces that let you build a home theater slowly instead of buying everything at once. There’s a soundbar with nine speakers built in, a standalone smart speaker that can also work as a rear speaker, and a cube-shaped subwoofer with a glass top. All three use the same tuning tricks found in Bose’s expensive headphones, like a feature that listens to your phone’s mic to guess your room shape and adjust sound automatically. The tech works with regular TVs but skips older Bose gear—you can’t mix it with most products from 2022 or earlier.The star is the smart speaker. It plays music by itself, but hook up two of them to the soundbar and suddenly you have surround sound without extra wires. It also works with Apple AirPlay and Google Cast, which is rare—most brands only pick one. Meanwhile, the soundbar adds Dolby Atmos movies and a tweak that sharpens dialogue, handy if you’ve ever struggled to hear actors over explosions. The subwoofer rounds things out with deep bass and a see-through panel that doubles as a conversation piece. Compared to Sony and Sonos, Bose offers fewer choices if you want to grow your system over time. Sony sells more soundbars and subwoofers, while Sonos still sells older pieces you can mix and match. Bose’s big edge is Google Cast built right in, letting Android users toss music from their phones without extra adapters. Apple fans get AirPlay, but they’ll still need dongles for some services.