The best soundbars of 2020 offer fantastic audio quality, cool designs, and extra features like Dolby Atmos immersive sound – but they can also be cumbersome and expensive.
Enter the latest budget-friendly soundbar from Bose, the Bose TV Speaker – which promises to boost your TV's tinny built-in speakers without taking up precious space in your home, thanks to its compact 594mm length and 56mm height.
- The best soundbars of 2020
- Read our Sonos Arc review
- Sonos Arc vs Sonos Beam: which soundbar is best for you?
It also won't break the bank, costing $250 / £200 / AU$400 – pretty cheap for a soundbar, particularly from a trusted audio brand like Bose. It's far cheaper than the Bose Soundbar 700 too, which impressed with its stylish design, but disappointed in terms of value for money.
Simplicity is key
The Bose TV Speaker is all about simplicity, using a single connection to your TV via an optical cable – though you can connect it using an HDMI ARC cable if you prefer, you will have to buy that separately.
The new soundbar also comes with Bluetooth connectivity, which means you can use it to play music and podcasts from your favorite music streaming services.
According to Bose, the soundbar delivers "surprising rich and deep sound for a speaker of its size", and you can boost the lower frequencies using the 'Bass' button on the included remote.
There's also a nifty 'Dialogue mode', which is designed to help you decipher mumbling actors; Bose says that the soundbar "analyses what you're watching to further elevate vocals so you can hear and understand every word more clearly".
While you won't find any virtual surround sound features as with the pricey Sonos Arc, this cheap soundbar comes with two angled full-range drivers to create a wide soundstage, while a central tweeter handles all the dialogue.
If you want to make even more of an impact, you can hook the Bose TV Speaker up to a wired subwoofer, too – it's compatible with the Bose Bass Module 500 and Bose Bass Module 700, though these will set you back an additional $400 / £400 / AU$600 and $700 / £700 / AU$1000, respectively.
