Sound quality: Bose's Soundbar 500 delivers sound quality that falls in the Good range - it reproduces music and dialog reasonably well despite the obvious shortcomings in its sound. The bass has good impact, but is slightly boomy and doesn't go particularly deep. The midrange is even, but is a bit grainy, somewhat hazy, and has a slightly echoey quality. The treble is extended, but is slightly prominent, generally smeared and "washed out" (bland and "flat" sounding), and has a sizzly peak. This model does a so-so job of recovering the actual room ambience of recordings (the sense of the acoustic space in which the music was recorded); the echoey quality of the midrange adds artificial reverberation. The overall sound has a "processed" quality - there is a faint sense that something in the sound is shifting up and down or cutting in and out, and on louder program material the overall volume level sounds compressed. The dialog mode sounds gritty, constricted, and somewhat bass-shy. There was no significant difference in sound quality between the HDMI, optical, and Bluetooth inputs and high quality WiFi streaming. The system can provide satisfying volume in a medium sized room.
TV setup and ease of use: Very Good overall. Setup: Initial setup for TV use requires connection to home network, but after setup the soundbar can be used with a TV without being connected to a network. The typical WiFi connection involved downloading the app to an Apple or Android mobile device and following straight forward directions in the app. The soundbar must be registered with the manufacturer for full functionality; registration requires the users email, password, first and last name, and country. The soundbar can also be connected using a LAN cable, but no LAN cable or instructions for LAN cable setup are provided. HDMI CEC activation, if wanted, is done during initial setup with the app; thereafter the app setup menu has an HDMI CEC enable/disable tab. Enabling the built-in Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant digital assistant/voice control function is optional; if done it requires setting up or linking to a separate Amazon or Google account respectively. The soundbar comes with an HDMI digital audio/video connecting cable; an optical digital audio cable must be purchased separately if you want or need it to connect your TV. Ease of Use: This model can work seamlessly with many TVs - it can respond to the volume and mute commands of HDMI CEC compatible TV remotes when connected via the HDMI ARC ports with and HDMI cable. Its own physical remote is uncluttered and controls are well labeled and easy to use. Its volume and mute functions can also be controlled by voice commands if the Soundbar 500's built-in Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant digital voice assistant function has been activated. The Apple or Android mobile device app that was downloaded to set up the soundbar is also intended to be used as a remote that operates via WiFi. The section of the apps that can be used when watching TV has a volume control and mute control and a cumbersome to get to voice enhancement DSP feature, but no source selection is provided for the TV input - that has to be done with the physical remote that came with the soundbar. The Soundbar 500 console does not have an on/off control - it is always in auto on/auto standby mode. The only controls on the console are an on/off control for the Alexa/Google Assistant microphone and an action button that lowers soundbar volume and allows the digital voice assistants to execute commends without saying "Alexa" or "OK Google" first. The Alexa/Google Assistant controls are on the top and are easy to see and access. The console lacks source and DSP status displays; it indicates if the volume is being changed, but does not show level, and has persistent muting status indicators. These indicators may be hard to see due to their position under a ledge in the front of the soundbar.
Features setup and ease of use: Very Good overall. Setup: Bluetooth pairing requires a long press of a well marked button on the remote. Ease of Use: The remote is uncluttered and controls are well labeled. If the Soundbar 500's built-in Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant digital voice assistant function has been activated voice commands can be used to control its volume and mute functions and to steam audio from Internet content services. Switching between the other soundbar inputs can't be done with voice commands. The Apple or Android mobile device app that was downloaded to set up the soundbar is also intended to be used as a remote that operates via WiFi. These apps have general sections that are used to control the soundbar like a typical physical remote, and streaming player sections that are used to play audio streamed from the Internet. The general sections have volume and mute controls and can select various WiFi streaming services and the soundbar's Bluetooth input. The streaming player sections can switching between Internet streaming services and has volume and mute controls. Neither of the apps could stream audio content stored on the host mobile device over WiFi. The Soundbar 500 console does not have an on/off control - it is always in auto on/auto standby mode. The only controls on the console are an on/off control for the Alexa/Google Assistant microphone and an action button that lowers soundbar volume and allows the digital voice assistants to execute commends without saying "Alexa" or "OK Google" first. The Alexa/Google Assistant controls are on the top and are easy to see and access. The console lacks source and DSP status displays; it indicates if the volume is being changed, but does not show level, and has persistent muting status indicators. These indicators may be hard to see due to their position under a ledge in the front of the soundbar. The console has inputs for HDMI ARC digital video/audio and optical digital audio connections. The optical input is provided as an alternate connection for TVs that lack HDMI ARC, not as a separate connection for another device. These two inputs are covered under one source and the soundbar uses on or the other depending on what's connected. If both are connected HDMI ARC TV connection takes priority.
