Sound quality: Bose's Solo 5 TV Sound System delivers sound quality that falls in the good range - it reproduces music and dialog reasonably well despite obvious shortcomings. Bass has good impact, but is boomy, somewhat prominent, and doesn't go particularly deep. Midrange is slightly edgy, grainy, and lacks a bit of body. Treble is prominent, sizzly, thin and the upper treble sounds cut off. Does a so-so job of recovering room ambience (the sense of the acoustic space in which the music was recorded), sounds slightly congested and constricted. The dialog mode sounds gritty, more constricted, and bass-shy. There was no significant difference in sound quality between the optical, coaxial, analog, and Bluetooth inputs. The sound bar can provide satisfying volume in a medium sized room.
TV setup and ease of use: Very good overall. Setup: The steps to program its universal remote to control a TV are quick, easy, and straight forward, but are not intuitive so the instructions included with the unit need to be used. The system comes with optical digital and stereo analog audio cables for TV connection, a coaxial digital audio cable must be purchased separately if that's the way you want or needed to connect your TV. Ease of Use: If the soundbar's universal remote has been programmed to control a TV's functions the soundbar can work seamlessly with that TV. The remote is uncluttered and the controls are well labeled. The soundbar console lacks controls but it can be set to automatically turn on when it recieves an audio signal and off after it hasn't received a signal in a while. Its display consists of indicator lights that can be seen from a typical listening position but require the instructions to decode. The source display consists of patterned lights - one of which indicates power status, changes color to indicate when the DSP (digital sound processing) effects mode has been turned on, and provides a visual indication when muting has been engaged or that the volume has been adjusted. There is no volume level indication.
Features setup and ease of use: Good overall. Setup: Although the soundbar has three different types of cable connections only one is intended to be connected at a time. Pairing a Bluetooth device required a long push of a well marked button on the remote - easy and straight forward. Ease of Use: The remote is uncluttered and the controls are well labeled; while it can switch the soundbar between a Bluetooth source and a cable connected source, it can't switch between cable connected sources if more then one is connected. The soundbar console lacks controls but it can be set to automatically turn on when it receives an audio signal and off after it hasn't received a signal in a while. Its display consists of indicator lights that can be seen from a typical listening position but require the instructions to decode. The source display consists of patterned lights - one of which indicates power status, changes color to indicate when the DSP effects mode has been turned on, and provides a visual indication when muting has been engaged or that the volume has been adjusted. There is no volume level indication.
