Bose Lifestyle 650

The Lifestyle 650 is the most accomplished home cinema system in Bose's Lifestyle range. It brings together five speakers, a wireless bass module and a media console, the whole set-up being designed to render a film soundtrack as convincingly as a piece of music without imposing bulky audio furniture on the living room. The console acts both as a video switching hub and a network source, allowing devices connected to the television to be routed through it.

The four satellite speakers follow the OmniJewel design: each speaker sits within a milled aluminium enclosure housing two separate acoustic chambers, dedicated to two drivers arranged in opposition. This architecture gives Bose its first omnidirectional speaker, dispersing sound across 360 degrees rather than projecting it along a single axis, resulting in a sound image less dependent on listening position and a more continuous surround envelope. The centre channel speaker, wider than on previous generations and finished in anodised aluminium, houses five drivers for dialogue reproduction.

Bass duties are handled by a wireless Acoustimass module, finished with a glass top plate. It relies on a driver paired with QuietPort technology, designed to limit port turbulence in order to achieve a high bass output from a compact enclosure. Two wireless links reduce cabling: one for the bass module and one for the rear surround speakers, avoiding the need to run cables to the back of the room.

This system is aimed at anyone wanting a complete, unobtrusive 5.1 home cinema set-up in a living space, without a separate amplifier or floorstanding speakers. The SoundTouch platform also makes it an expandable music system: further SoundTouch products can be added later and controlled together from the dedicated smartphone or tablet app, maintaining the same listening experience from room to room. In practice, switching from a film to a playlist requires no change of operating mode.