Bose Soundbar 700

The Soundbar 700 is Bose's flagship soundbar, designed to replace a television's speakers while also serving as a connected speaker for music. Compact, it sits in front of the screen or mounts on the wall, and handles both a film's soundtrack and listening to a streaming playlist.

Its distinctive feature is the Alexa voice assistant, built directly into the unit: an array of eight microphones with noise reduction allows the bar to recognise a voice command even when music is playing loudly, and a light bar on the front visually indicates whether the assistant is listening, processing the request or responding. On the sources side, home Wi-Fi provides access to online music services, Bluetooth allows streaming from a phone or tablet, and the Bose Music app centralises stations, playlists and presets, with personalised profiles for multiple users and a step-by-step setup wizard. The supplied universal remote controls all the devices in the living room, offers six presets and only lights up the buttons relevant at the time of use. The finish follows the same care: tempered glass top surface, metal grille and clean lines.

• Built-in Alexa voice assistant, eight microphones with noise reduction
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay 2 compatibility
• Bose Music app and universal remote with six presets
• Possible extensions: Bose Bass Module 700 and wireless surround speakers

This model suits a living room where you want noticeably fuller TV sound without installing a full multi-speaker system, while retaining serious everyday music listening. It also suits those who want to start simply and then expand their setup: adding the Bass Module 700 subwoofer and wireless surround speakers gradually transforms the bar into a genuine home cinema system.