Bose Soundbar 500, TV Speakers with Alexa Voice Control Built-in, Black

The best for a clear movie theater like experience, whether in a large family room or small man cave. Bose always delivers and this is no exception!

I needed a compact soundbar with minimal height to fit in about 2.5" of vertical space. The television is mounted on a brick wall over a mantelpiece, and I did not want to mount it any higher on the wall. We have a few Sonos products, but none of their soundbars would fit. The Bose 500 is only about 1.7" high and fit perfectly. It is unobtrusive and practically disappears. The sound is much better than that from the Sony TV speaker. I had difficulty with dialogue, in particular, and found that the Bose makes a big difference in the clarity of the spoken (or whispered) word. We did not get the subwoofer but would consider adding it. The Bose remote works fine but I don't use it much; easier to use the remote from our cable/internet provider. The Alexa app also works adequately but is quirky; you can't say "Alexa, turn down the volume," but instead must say "Alexa, turn down the Bose soundbar volume." There may be bigger soundbars that produce a more encompassing sound, but if you need a compact soundbar that is still sonically excellent and will fit in a small space, the Bose may be just the thing.

You can attach a cord connected to a head-set device to set up the sound profile of your room, but it never seems to last. I always get an echo in dialog or music that does fade in time. The remote works for volume and you can program into it your favorite internet radio stations (TuneIn, IHeartsRadio) into a single button. I also like that when the remote and bar is not used for several hours it automatically goes into "mute" (which you need to turn off when you turn it back on): you're ears are not blasted by a loud advertisement or TV show or movie you were previously playing. One star removed for the sound quality echo issue, but maybe over time I can figure it out. I do not use Alexa.

(Putting a one star unless there is a solution to my problem)I bought this on Thanksgiving and it was my biggest purchase of the year, its my first ever Bose speaker. Install was easy, i know quite a few people mentioned its difficult to install, but I have to say unless you are from stone age (which means you are not efficient with your smart phone) the installation process is just as simple as setting up some random online account. In terms of the sound quality, I have to say I was hoping for more. I hoped the sound was more surrounded giving that its Bose. I can feel the sound comes from a single source in front of you, and its a just a clearer, louder version of the TV sound. It doesn't make you feel like you are immersed into whats playing in your TV. I think its still very very far away from the experience of a good set of 5.1 sound system or in a cinema. But its probably one of the best TV soundbar out there.Now, as for the 1 star. I had it for 1.5 days, a total use time of less than 5 hours, before it decided to go into perpetual updating mode. There is nothing I could do, it doesn't respond to any command it just got stuck at something while updating the software, not even responding to the factor reset command via the remote control. And there is no button on the soundbar. Very disappointing.... my first Bose speaker and it just died. Caused me more trouble than enjoyment so far.Update 1:Contacted Bose and they agreed to do an exchange. Since I had a trip in two weeks they said they would send out a new one to me and once I got it just send the faulty one back, because otherwise the exchange process would usually take three to four weeks before I can get a new one. I waited for almost two weeks and no new sound bar came. I called Bose and they said nothing was indeed sent to me!!! They said I will have to send the faulty one back before they could do anything. What!? I asked at least 3 times to confirmed a new one was being sent to me in the first call. The sloppiness is laughable. I know you don't know what the other service support person said, but thats very irresponsible for a company selling luxury electronics. No record, just making things up.I gave up on them and I left for the trip. I came back on 12/30 and decided to send Amazon a message to see what they could do. Within 5 mins, they said they would send one out. I got it the very next day!!! On New Years Eve!!! Thats amazing! I would have given Amazon 5 stars if there is a choice.Update 2:This new sound bar hasn't gone into perpetual updating mode yet, thank god! But two cons I noticed using it:1) It doesn't really hear you say "Alexa" when its playing music. I had to shout really loud even the other Alexa in the other room responded. I was just about 6 foot away from it, although the sound may have been blocked by the TV. But in general, we have to raise our voice to talk to Alexa when the sound bar is playing music even we are standing next to it. And I have a feeling this Alexa doesn't understand as well as the other Alexa thats on an Echo.2) This sound bar Alexa doesn't have all the functions as the normal Echo Alexa. Things like "remind me in 15 mins" or "set a timer" the Bose sound bar Alexa said she couldn't do it. Shame because I use it very often.

Have owned for 3 years. Bought from best buy. The product stopped working after having a white flashing bar. Have tried to fix it on and off for about 3 months (I travel for for a lot so not a lot of time at home).In the end I smashed it to pieces so it could fit in my trash bin. Which means it works just as well now since it's a worthless paper weight if you have that flashing bar. Getting the firmware updated manually to get it out of the error is like pulling teeth. You should not have to email bose for them to send a firmware package to your computer that you put on manually by connecting with a cable. Bad product and bad product design for that firmware crap on the bose engineering side. It plays well when it's working, but I would not recommend buying a soundbar for it to work 3 years and then have an fault on firmware because bose wants to design their product to be a pain in the ass. Probably to force you to buy a new one.Shame on you bose. If anyone actually reads this, I recommend buying a different brand of soundbar because the engineering choice and firmware update will be the same on all models, and I won't buy another product that the manufacturer can just turn off at will because they feel like it. It's not like you can choose to update or not update the firmware. It just does it. So when the company wants to turn off your product, they will.

Hooked up my Bose 500 soundbar yesterday & I love it. I was a lil hesitant after reading some reviews & w/it being so pricey. The sound is GREAT, it was easy to hook up & connect, Alexa works flawlessly, Bluetooth is a great addition & it looks nice & sleek. You must have an HDMI Arc port on your TV or an optical port. Luckily my streaming box has an optical. If not you'll have to buy a converter box.