For decades, the challenge for high-end home cinemas has been to settle for mediocre sound or surrender your living room to a maze of cables and bulky black boxes. However, things have changed in recent years. Audio brands like Sonos, Bang & Olufsen, and Bose acknowledge that the design of a speaker system is just as important as the sound it produces.
That’s why the recently announced Bose Lifestyle Collection includes: The Ultra Speaker, Ultra Soundbar and Ultra Subwoofer adopt a design-first philosophy that perfectly aligns with the shift towards warm, tactile minimalism in interior design. Made from premium materials and available in three timeless finishes, the Lifestyle Collection is designed to deliver a great listening experience without compromising your décor.
The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker costs £299.95, the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar costs £999.95 and the Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer costs £899.95. The Lifestyle collection is available in Black Smoke or White Smoke, while the Lifestyle Ultra speaker is also available in limited edition Driftwood Sand, priced at £349.
design
This collection consists of items that will blend in with your home decor.
(Image source: Bose)
The technical specifications of the speakers, soundbars, and subwoofers in the Lifestyle collection are all impressive, but for the design-conscious, the most interesting is undoubtedly the Lifestyle Ultra speaker. The limited edition Driftwood Sand finish eschews the cold plastic of traditional technology in favor of a soft beige palette and solid white oak base, creating a technology that looks like furniture. Built to stand the test of time, this speaker feels as durable and purposeful as a designer armchair.
Meanwhile, the Ultra Soundbar and Ultra Subwoofer use textured knit fabrics, premium glass panes, and curved frames to further bridge the gap between high-performance audio and home style. These are silhouettes destined to be displayed rather than hidden behind the doors of your gorgeous new sideboard.
Design is important with these speakers, but so is sound. “With the Lifestyle Collection, we focused on every detail with a single purpose: to make it easy to enjoy great sound,” said Raza Haider, President, Premium Consumer Audio, Bose Corporation. “The flexibility, sophisticated aesthetics, and experience are all built to fit into your home life, delivering on the core promise that has defined Bose for decades: Sound Matters.”
bose
lifestyle ultra speaker
bose
lifestyle ultra soundbar
bose
lifestyle ultra subwoofer
performance
This collection includes speakers, soundbars, and subwoofers.
(Image source: Bose)
Under the beautiful design, Bose has completely overhauled the internal engineering and introduced a series of proprietary technologies designed to deliver multidimensional soundscapes from a compact footprint.
The Ultra speaker uses Bose’s direct/reflecting speaker technology, featuring a three-driver array that utilizes two front-facing drivers for direct audio delivery and one precision angle up-fire driver to handle vertical sound channels. It works in conjunction with TrueSpatial processing, a proprietary algorithm that intelligently adds height and dimensional depth. To prevent the sound thinness often associated with compact devices, Bose’s CleanBass technology combines a high-excursion woofer with a QuietPort acoustic aperture and advanced digital signal processing (DSP) to deliver deeply controlled low frequencies.
The Ultra Soundbar, on the other hand, is Bose’s first major soundbar redesign in over a decade, featuring a single enclosure designed to native Dolby Atmos specifications. Behind the textured knit grille hides a nine-driver architecture, including six full-range drivers, a dedicated center tweeter for clear dialogue, and two proprietary PhaseGuide drivers. These PhaseGuide drivers are designed to beam sound to the left and right edges of the room, creating the illusion of side speakers where none are actually present.
For casual listening, there’s SpeechClarity AI, which applies real-time, data-driven audio enhancement to separate vocals from background noise, so even whispered conversations can be heard clearly without having to press a volume button. Meanwhile, it comes with CustomTune Calibration (previously known as ADAPTiQ), which uses your smartphone’s microphone to map your room’s unique dimensions, furniture placement, and surfaces to automatically adjust the audio output to suit your home.
Finally, when paired with a soundbar and speakers, the Ultra Subwoofer handles the lowest frequencies, allowing the rest of the system to focus on midrange clarity and crisp high frequencies. Utilizing the same CleanBass technology and QuietPort aperture, it delivers floor-shaking bass without distortion.
The Lifestyle collection is modular, so you can start with one Ultra speaker in your kitchen, pair two to create a traditional stereo setup, or wirelessly link a soundbar, subwoofer, and rear surround to scale up to a complete 7.1.4 multichannel home theater system.
Elements from this range can be combined to create a home theater style setup.
(Image source: Bose)
The Bose Lifestyle Collection is exciting for several reasons, not least because it combines gorgeous design with great sound performance. However, this has worked well for other brands as well, which is somewhat unusual.
Bose has fully integrated Google Cast, Apple AirPlay, and Spotify Connect technology into these speakers, allowing Lifestyle Collection speakers to be grouped with hardware from other manufacturers that support them. It brings a refreshing change and acknowledges the way we actually live in our homes, which are often a patchwork of different technologies.
Bose has also redesigned the app, claiming that “initial installation is now easier than ever with unified permissions, third-party account sign-in, and secure Wi-Fi credentials sharing between devices.” Once everything is set up, you can control your Lifestyle Collection speakers through the app, giving you precise control over volume, equalization, surround, and height levels, so you can adjust the output to suit the room the speaker is in and your preferences.
Some controls and features can also be accessed via soft-touch buttons on the speaker itself, music streaming apps, voice control via Alexa+, or your compatible TV remote, so there are plenty of ways to get what you need. It also has Bluetooth.
The Lifestyle collection is available in Black Smoke or White Smoke, while the Lifestyle Ultra speaker is also available in limited edition Driftwood Sand, priced at £349.
For more inspiration for your home tech setup, why not sign up? living room etc. Newsletter.
#Bose #launches #stylish #home #audio #series