Key Takeaways
- Bose's new Smart Ultra Soundbar uses AI and machine learning to improve dialogue clarity, addressing the issue of unclear speech in TV shows and movies.
- The soundbar claims to create a more immersive audio experience by combining various technologies and spatial technologies.
- The soundbar offers standard features like Wi-Fi, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth, and voice control with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. It is available in Black and Arctic White for $899 each.
It isn't just you. TV shows and movies are making it harder and harder to actually hear what people are saying and it's infuriating. Some of us have taken to watching with the subtitles turned on even though our hearing is just fine. At least, it is until we sit down to watch the latest blockbuster. That's something Bose has also noticed, so its new Smart Ultra Soundbar is here to help.
It'll do that by using the magic of A.I. and machine learning to take the spoken word and turn it into something that we can actually hear. It's a novel idea, having dialogue that you can hear. Here's hoping that it catches on with the people making the TV shows and movies we watch. But until that happens, Bose's new soundbar might be the answer.
Machine learning smarts
Bose's new soundbar was announced via a press release and is here to replace the existing Smart Soundbar 900 in the lineup.
Bose says that it uses a new A.I. Dialogue Mode that uses machine learning to listen to millions of clips of content and then takes what it leans to automatically adjust the tonal balance to ensure that we can more easily make out what is being said on-screen. It sounds like magic and, frankly, that might be what we're dealing with here. But if it means what it claims to mean, we're all for it.
The magic isn't the only thing that's going on here, as you'd expect from something sitting toward the top of Bose's lineup. The press release promises that the soundbar will "put you in the centre of your music or movies in an entirely new way." That's a big claim, and it'll apparently do that by "combining custom arrays, dipole transducers, and low-profile transducers with Bose spatial technologies" to create a new layer of realism that the competition can't match. We'll be the judge of that if and when we get this thing in for review.
Some soundbar features are very much table stakes at this point and the Bose doesn't disappoint. You've Wi-Fi, Apple AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect while Bluetooth is also present. Voice control is offered by Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, too.
As for availability, the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar should be available as you read this with Black and Arctic White colorways offered for $899 each.