Bose Solo TV Sound System

This 'review' considers the Solo for what it is while addressing a couple of (I think, unrealistic) points made by other reviewers. I can't imagine anyone saying that the Solo is difficult to hook-up. If a power cord and either one optic or two audio cables make for such 'difficulty,' the I don't know what would please those folks. Magical, thought-connected devices, perhaps? The Solo is VERY easy to hook up. Quite literally, a child could do it. Sound quality (More on that in a bit.)--as well as enclosure and remote quality--is what you'd probably expect from Bose. I didn't expect a whole heckuva lot for this price. Seriously? Even at $399 list, that's cheap in the home A/V world. Heck, a decent dock costs $199-$299. Again, I don't know why some are complaining about the price. Overall sound quality is very good. As at least one other reviewer said, voice reproduction is excellent. Here's another example of some other reviewer's 'magical' thinking. Look at the design. It's one enclosure. If you're expecting deep, booming bass such as that from a subwoofer, you're simply expecting too much. Port design and engineering is largely where Bose excels; the Solo confirms this. My take? The lows are impressively and surprisingly 'rich.' Again, keep that in context. Overall sonic range is quite good, even when we're playing Pandora on the TV via a Roku 2XS. The Solo's sound is amazingly rich FOR a compact, single enclosure. I doubt that you'll get such richness from the typical, nearly-flat-panel soundbar unless it has a separate subwoofer--which I preferred to avoid. With the Solo, I was also shooting for less clutter. Should you believe Bose marketing that the sound is room-filling? Again, look at the enclosure. From what I can see, there seem to be four, front-firing speakers, as is the case with most soundbars. The ported bass design of the system works very well. During dramatic explosions in a movie or lows of sountracks, put your fingers over the bass ports in the back. This thing's moving a lot of air--again, for its size. That's always a good sign. It does, in a way, 'fill the room' with sound, but there no way (again, without magic) to design a single enclosure that will miraculously make it seem as though sound is coming from behind you. Bose is not Hogwart's. Again--for what it is--the sound and DSP are really impressive. Another reviewer pointed out that there should be a way to remotely and easily equalize the sound of JUST the Solo. There's not. So, to make such adjustments, you need to go into your TV's settings. Not by any means a horrible situation, just a bit clunky. Of course, if Bose were to build-in this capability, the Solo price would easily jump to $599+--and there are already some pretty good systems out there for that price. Such capability already exists in some entertainment sound systems. If you want that convenience and tuning ability, pay the price for the higher-end systems. I'm in a situation in which I don't want to wire the sound system and my house for actual Surround. It's a lot of hassle that I don't want to deal with. Heck, my cat would find the speaker wiring and shred it in about four minutes. I don't want to have to mess with an amp. I don't want to have to mess with wireless rears. For me, the Solo made a lot of practical sense. No regrets at all. Keep in mind that, unlike other reviewers who are impossible to please--and compare the $399 Solo to systems costing twice that and more--I comfortably and confidently gave it 5 Stars for what it is. If you want to use the optical connection, remember to do your research before purchase. This time and unfortunately, I didn't. While my Sharp Aquos supports a physical fiber connection, there's apparently a known incompatibility on the fiber side with the Solo. My Aquos and Solo don't play well together. From what I've read, there's some sort of copyright or patent issue between Sharp and Bose that prevents such optical cooperation. Sure, it'd be nice if both companies addressed this, but I can't legitimately minus a star for something that's also seems to be Sharp's fault. Oh, well; I hooked up the wired audio cables and--magically--it works just fine. If you want a high-end, real Surround system, you're just not going to get it for $399. For that money, however, the Solo is worth every penny. Is the Solo one box that does it all? No. It is, however, one quality setup that works exceedingly well for such a reasonable price. If you keep those things in mind, you won't be disappointed. If you want to simplify things instead of complicate them, again, you'll be quite pleased with your Solo purchase.

I've was interested in buying the Bose Solo since it first came out, but put off ordering it because I wasn't sure if I could hook it up with my TV. I recently took a good look at the back of the TV and realized it had more places to connect things than I thought, I must explain, I have no clue about electronics, but recently someone talked me into going wireless and helped me buy a Samsung tablet. I liked it so much, now I'm trying to understand things on my own. It only took two days for the Bose Solo to arrive, I was so excited, but a little worried I could get it to work. First I put my Dish cable box on top of the Bose, which was a bit worrying, but it's OK. It comes with an optical digital cable and analog stereo audio cable, you chose which one to use, but it said the optical digital cable got best results. I'd never seen this sort of cable before it is very skinny. First I plugged the main cable into the wall, I had a choice of plugging the digital cable into the TV or the cable box, I plugged it into the cable box, I noticed a tiny light at the other end of the cable, which I plugged into the back of the Bose, I was worried I'd damage that little light. I expected it to work right away, but it didn't, I then remembered the remote, and turned it on! I wasn't sure if the sound was supposed to come out of the TV or the Bose, it seemed to be coming from the TV. First I played around with sound on the TV remote. If the sound is turned up on the TV it echoes. I turned the sound down completely on the TV. I then turned up the sound on the Bose remote, it sounds really good. Instead of the flat sound before, it appears to fill the room and sounds rich, especially if you're listening to music. The main reason I purchased this product, is because I'm a bit deaf, I had to have the TV turned up as far as it would go sometimes I still couldn't hear it. Now I can have it much louder, it's great. I chose Bose, because I have 3 Bose Wave radios which I love, and recently the Bose SoundLink Mini speaker which I use with my new tablet, I love that too. I'd only had this Bose two days, this morning I turned it on, the little green light didn't come on, I thought it may need a new battery. I had a bit of difficulty opening the back of the remote, it has a round area which you are supposed to open it with a coin, I ended up using a screw driver and mashed it up a bit, but I finally got it off. Unfortunately, the new battery didn't work, I did what I should have done in the first place, unplugged the Bose and plugged it in again, finally the green light came on. It was a great feeling, I'd been worrying I'd have to send it back. I'm really happy with my new Bose, I only wish I'd bought it earlier.

As we age ability to hear sounds diminish, sad fact. Plus hearing loss effects different people at different levels. My husband and I were so frustrated that to hear any kind of dialogue on a program or in a movie we'd have to jack up the volume level, so when the gunfire started and things began to explode or the background music would play we'd be literally blown back into our chairs, not to mention the already "volume enhanced" commercials being even louder. So the research was on to find a sound system that would bring dialogue to the front and the rest of the bells, whistles, explosions, gunfire, etc a bit more to the back. I relay what this research brought forward in considering the type of system we were looking for and what got us to this Bose Sound System: 1) The size of the room you'll use it in and how close you will be to the TV; we have a small living room and so would be fairly close. 2) How much equipment plus wiring that you want (need) for your system; again small living room and with a Sat.dish receiver, TV and DVD player there's too much equipment already and way too much ugly wiring to it all. 3) Ease of use, for us is important, we already have more than two remotes with loads of buttons to function some box/TV already. You know the saying, " Find a 7 year old they can program it for you!", gets less amusing as time goes by. 4) What hook ups are available on our TV to match up with a device. 5) If you have access to a operators manual/user guide before you buy look at it, it gave me lots of helpful information and size dimensions, plus how easy the device would be to use. The Bose Solo TV Sound System was the right choice for our needs and wants: - One easy unit to deal with, nice looking as well. Our LCD TV fit perfectly on top (we have a 37" Toshiba) - One easy to use cable to plug into the unit and the TV and one power cable then it is ready to go (also there is more than one option to hook up the device so if you have an older TV you still should be able to use it and most of these cables are included) - One easy 4 button remote (power button; volume up; volume down; mute) We now hear dialogue! Even whispers! We've even heard background/filler dialogue clearly when main characters were in a public place, plus just turning the volume up a little the dialogue was still plain as day to hear as far as the kitchen, a pleasant surprise. We do not play the volume game anymore (turn it up, turn it down,turn it up...), got to watch a whole movie without touching a remote. For us all other sound was fine as well so, at this time the system is giving us the sound we need and we're very happy with it. NOW, if you like bass sounds you won't get Big bass sound with this system, if you want more buttons to control high, mid range and lows, you won't get that with this sound system. But, and this depends on your hearing level, if you want to hear more dialogue without playing the volume game plus a one piece easy and simple system then I would recommend this device. This sound system would have gotten a 5 star if the price was more reasonable, Bose is quality but their pricing is pretty high for those on a budget.

I have a wonderful 51 inch plasma TV, and as is typical, the speakers are stupidly on the BACK of the TV. I have a moderate hearing loss (low tones), so the combination of those things made it difficult for me to make out dialogue. It was disappointing to say the least. High def picture and terrible sound! I tried a less expensive sound bar. It was OK, but not great. I saw this, and while it was more money than I wanted to spend, I knew the stellar reputation of Bose, so I bought it. Boy am I glad I did! It simply WORKS. It does exactly what you want it to do--make the TV sound better. And it took me longer to open the box and get it out than it took me to set it up. The cable is included (rare) and the battery is already in the remote (incredibly rare). Here is the complete set up: open outer carton, remove Bose box. Open Bose box. Take remote out of plastic. Take twist tie off cable and power cord. Plug cable in to the proper port on the TV. Take the Solo system out of box. Attach power cord to Solo. Plug power in. Hit "on" on remote. Turn off TV speaker. Done. Less than 5 minutes, and now I have PERFECT sound. I've watched the Lord of the Rings movies many, many times, and I'm watching it again now with the Solo. I can FINALLY hear some of the lines I never was able to make out before. But the volume doesn't go up and down the way it did with the other sound bar I had. One thing you should know. This thing is pretty big. Significantly larger than my blu ray player. Bigger than my cable box! But it looks very nice on my media unit shelf as it is all back with just a subtle "Bose" on the front, and one light. You should also know there are no adjustments you need to (or can) make. There is no menu. There is no tuning. You cannot increase the bass or treble. For some, that might be annoying. For me, it's fabulous. I am not an audiophile. I just want the darn thing to work and do what it says. This is it! Please also note: there is a weight limit to the size TV you can sit on this. The dimensions of my TV stand would have fit on this nicely, but my TV is a plasma and therefore too heavy. So you do need a shelf to put this on if you have a large plasma TV.

I ordered this item as a Christmas gift for my mother because although her television is very nice, the sound quality is average, at best. My grandmother owned a Bose Wave and I knew how well it worked, even years later, so I was willing to pay what I felt to be a fairly high price ($399.99) because of the past experience with the quality of Bose items and I wanted to get my mother something nice for Christmas. The item was VERY easy to hook up, so easy, in fact, my 11 year old son was able to do it almost entirely by his self (this is the reason for the one star the item did receive). Unfortunately, this is where the satisfaction ends. Although there was a slight improvement in the sound quality (it did sound a bit clearer when the volume was up, with less of a static sound), the improvement was not major and we almost had to close our eyes and really concentrate to see if we could hear a difference. Some family members could not hear any difference at all. It was a Christmas gift, but my mother waited until February to get it out of the box and use it, so I was unable to return the item because the exchange date ended on 1/31/2013. The fact the item was clearly not worth the amount of money I paid for it was disappointing, but given the fact there was a tiny improvement in clarity was a bit of a consolation and I thought to myself, "Lesson learned - next time I will make sure the recipient of an expensive gift tries the gift out immediately in case it needs to be returned." However, unfortunately, about six weeks after it was hooked up, the sound system quit working altogether and no amount of unhooking and reconnecting or replacing cables could fix it and a family friend who repairs electronics looked at it said it does not appear that it can even be repaired and if it could, the cost would be prohibitively expensive. Now I am out the $399.99 I paid for it and on top of that, my mother now has a broken Christmas gift. I am literally sick over it - I could have used that money and bought her a basic surround sound/home theater system instead. Save your money - this Bose Solo TV Sound System is a piece of JUNK, albeit very expensive junk... ***UPDATE*** - I contacted Customer Service at Amazon who, after hearing my story, sent me a return slip and told me that if Bose would not take back the item, they would. After speaking with a Bose rep and getting the runaround, everything from maybe the television was not new enough (it was purchased new in 2013) to maybe I forgot to put batteries in the remote, it was clear that Bose was not willing to back this item up, BUT Amazon was. Thank you, Amazon! This is a prime example of why I do most of my shopping needs through you!

Pros: Very good sound that is quick & easy to setup. Sturdy build quality with small convenient footprint. Cons: Non-Programmable unit & remote. No volume level indicator or auto-power on features. Slightly expensive considering some features lacking. The Solo nicely fits a niche form factor not met by most other sound bar offerings. I wanted to improve the basic sound quality of a Toshiba 37" LCD kept inside a large oak TV cabinet on an extendable swivel stand. I had been using a Sony sound bar to enhance the nearly nonexistent sound of a LCD TV. When the Sony bar bit the dust I went looking for another. The Solo seemed the perfect solution because I could put the Solo easily inside the cabinet on the swivel stand with the TV on top. But at twice the price of other quality name sound bars, I decided to first go with a bar model tested out at Best Buy. The unit I received proved to be defective and was returned. So having had good experiences with other Bose products, I bit the bullet on the Solo. Besides, it really is better for use in a cabinet, than a standard horizontal sound bar. Out of the box, the Solo is hefty and feels very solid. The top appears to be able to easily handle the 18 KG weight of my 37" LCD. Set up was quick & easy. Just connect the power cord and the included digital audio or analog RCA cable and you are ready to go... Nothing could be simpler. The base of my 37" LCD fits the foot print of the Solo perfectly with nothing hanging over. A very stable set up overall. The sound quality was very clear and crisp from the first. It is far superior to both my old and most recently returned sound bars. Voices are very clear during dialog and newscasts. Background music or sound effects are more pronounced but not over-powering. I was expecting to hear a slightly booming bass effect like with my Bose Wave radio, but bass seems fairly controlled yet present. The base seems to come more alive with music and action sequences. You really do get the sense that the Solo is dynamically adjusting itself to the sound requirements of what is being watched. My wife noted it too. She raves about the realistic sound clarity. Still the Solo does not give a 5.1 or even a 2.1 surround sound experience. If that is what you are after, look elsewhere. However, to enjoy a HDTV with very good quality sound, the Solo delivers. Basic operation is fairly straight forward. The Power and volume can only be controlled by remote. There is no on-screen or on unit volume level indicator. The TV cannot reflect the volume changes made on the Solo as with other sound bars. This is not a huge problem since I set the level to what is best for my ears. The Solo also powers down automatically after a few minutes of audio inactivity. However, it does not automatically power back up when the TV resumes sending an audio signal. So you have to find the remote to turn it on again. The lack of a auto on feature is inconvenient. My other sound bars all had this feature. The included remote is OK and works fine, but it's not programmable. It is small and easily misplaced. Programming and using one's regular TV remote is always better, like with the other sound bars I had. The Solo itself is not programmable to use or learn other existing remotes like the previous Sony bar I had. Instead, Bose Support says..."the Solo uses standard Bose IR codes that are offered in lots of cable set-top box remote controls along with other universal controllers." But Bose does not provide IR program codes with the Solo. This makes programming TV or other universal remotes inconvenient. Programming a remote to work with the Solo has been problematic. My DirecTV and Toshiba remotes do not list any Bose IR codes. So I had to use the "step-by-step" method of finding the right code. (Have an auto-searching remote would be better.) Once I found the code setting on each remote, only the power on/off worked. Neither remote will adjust the volume level for some reason. Bose tech support had no answer either and even acknowledged the problem with DirecTV remotes. (Note: Bose does offer to sell you their very nice universal remote for $30. But for the price of the Solo, this should have been the remote that was included instead of the one provided, IMHO. I think Bose will get several returns on the Solo just based on remote control frustrations.) Overall, I very much like the Solo sound quality and design. It does exactly what I wanted by providing very good sound quality to a HDTV with minimal fuss and clutter. Plus, it fits well in the area under my TV. For these reasons I rated it 3 out of 5 stars and would give a conditional buy recommendation. However, the Solo's not having an auto-sensing power-on feature, and not at least offering a convenient programmable option, drops its rating. Having these 2 additional features would push the rating to 5 stars with a strong buy recommendation that's well worth the $400 price. As it stands, we will see if I keep the Solo since I have another 75 days to decide and other options could be found.

Thank you to all you wonderful Amazon reviewers. I'd never purchased a Bose product before, with the exception of possibly headphones at some point in time. We know the Bose sound is legendary, but I never really needed a Bose radio or CD player. The Solo caught my eye because I love my flat screen TV, but the speakers are only so-so at best. Like many other reviewers, I have trouble understanding some dialogue on TV. It's fine as long as there is someone around to annoy endlessly by asking "what did they say," but watching TV alone, I miss big chunks of the story & plot. The doctor says it's just "one of the vestiges of old age." Oh. Another one of those. Thanks, doc. So, I wondered if the Solo speaker might help, and thanks to all my hard-of-hearing contemporaries here (or should I say THANK YOU), I saw all the reviews promising that I wouldn't have to ask "what?" every 2 minutes any more. I could jump for joy after hooking up the speaker and giving it a listen, although my doctor would probably advise against it. On my TV, unlike some others mentioned here, the TV speakers work along with the Solo speaker, so it's easy to mute the Solo and hear the difference between it and the TV speakers. It's amazing. The sound is rich, and big, and crisp in a way that my surround-sound system isn't. Most importantly, in answer to my wildest hopes, I can understand every single word of dialogue, even Christian Bale mumbling behind his Batman mask. No kidding. The Bose speaker took 20 years off my age, and reduced my waist by four inches. Ok, I am kidding about that. As if all that isn't reason enough to get one of these gems, it has to be the simplest piece of electronics to hook up, set up & operate. It's simply two cords, one to the power outlet, and the other to the TV. They include all the cables in the box: digital optical, HDMI & RCA. Plug, plug, power. That's all. The remote is four buttons: power, mute, up & down volume. It's hard to believe that such intricate, complex sound can come from such a simple device. Thank you, Mr. Bose, wherever you are. Not only would I highly recommend this to my friends, I think everyone with a flat-screen TV owes it to themselves to get one. Seriously. This is the audio-visual experience I thought I was already having with 5.1 surround system.

The Solo "TV Sound System" is advertised to work with a television, yet the controls and user interface are configured in a very proprietary way- making it ultimately impractical for use with the very appliance for which it's supposedly designed. When watching television you have a remote control- the most used functions on that remote are channel selection and volume. If you have a cable, satellite or DVR box, the cable/satellite/DVR suppliers provide a remote that can be programmed to work with your television in a relatively seamless manner- so that one remote can easily control channel selection and volume (as well as other functions). Enter the Bose Solo. Solo is actually a very appropriate name because its functions are absolutely proprietary and solitary. Y'know that list of remote codes your cable/satellite provider has for all different devices? None of them will emulate the volume or power on/off controls of the Solo. I spent hours searching the web for info, on the phone with the cable company and on the phone with Bose to learn this. Bose confirmed that the solo can only be controlled by it's own remote- which means that when watching tv, you have to have one remote for changing channels and power and another for volume. Now you might say.... cable remotes can control volume from the source level- so why not just leave the solo on all the time and use that? Well, I'll tell you... the Solo, after sensing no sound signal coming into it after about 10 minutes, shuts down. There is no way to reconfigure or adjust this. It's a feature apparently designed to save power- that requires you to always keep the proprietary Bose remote around in order to power the unit back on. The Solo unit itself has no controls on it at all, count 'em, none, zero, nada, bubkis. Lose the remote and you're out of luck. Find the remote and you're only marginally better off. I told the Bose rep how silly it seemed to me that Bose couldn't simply adopt an existing code in order to integrate the Solo more easily into a standard home theater setup. The rep, who was very nice, told me that Bose sells a larger, universal style remote that would replace my cable remote and do all the functions in one as I wanted. He even offered to ship one to me at no additional charge (considering the unit itself is $400). I thanked him and eagerly awaited the remote. When it arrived, I saw I was back to square one. Does the new remote let you control all functions (tv channels and sound) in one device? Yes. Does it do it in a way that is intuitive and works similarly to the cable or TV remote you're used to? No. The Bose "universal" remote is shaped similarly to a cable remote, it has a prominent, single round power button at the very top with the classic "Power" symbol on it. Thing is that button is preconfigured to work only to power-on the Solo. If you want to turn on your TV or cable box, that's a separate button down below that's mixed in with a bunch of other buttons. You sit down to watch the game on your nice big new LCD, pick up the remote and push that iconic "Power" button only to see a small red dot light up on your Solo. Apparently Bose's mentality is that sound takes precedence over everything else, even the TV itself. Everyone in my family constantly hits that button to turn on the tv, only to have to remember to press yet another button down below. In addition, the Solo still requires to be turned on separately. No way for it to turn itself on each time you turn on your TV- which means it's yet another button that must be hit every time you want to sit down and watch something. Bottom line: Stupid, stupid user interface. The Bose Solo itself delivers decent sound. Relatively rich and full compared to most television speakers but not really worth anywhere close to $400. Unfortunately, the extra time and confusion the Solo causes has forced me to replace it with a pair of powered speakers that I currently have plugged directly into my cable box's audio outputs. They stay on all the time, they look good, they're controlled seamlessly via my cable/tv remote, sound great and cost a quarter of what I'd paid for the Solo.