For most folks, using a set of wireless headphones or earbuds with a soundbar offers two main benefits: You can listen privately without disturbing others in your home (or even in your bed), and you can hear details like dialogue more clearly. Recently, Sonos added to these scenarios. Its Ace headphones can reproduce 5.1 or full 7.1.4 spatial audio when grouped with one of the company’s compatible soundbars.
And yet, each of these setups represents an either/or situation: You’re either listening to your soundbar or you’re listening to your wireless headphones or earbuds.
That’s what makes Bose’s new Personal Surround Sound technology so interesting. It takes the existing sound offered by its new entry-level Dolby Atmos soundbar — the $499 Bose Smart Soundbar — and lets you augment it with the company’s Ultra Open Earbuds. When the devices are paired together, the earbuds act as a substitute for discrete surround speakers. Thanks to the earbuds’ fully open design, you can hear all kinds of surrounding sounds, including the soundbar’s audio. Later this year, the feature will also work on the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar.
Bose sent me the Smart Soundbar and the Ultra Open Earbuds so I could give Personal Surround Sound a whirl.
It took some time to figure out the right settings. But once I did, I found the result was impressive.
When I originally reviewed the Ultra Open Earbuds, I noted how they “create an airy, natural listening experience that does a better job of simulating a set of stereo speakers.” This effect makes them perfectly suited to the task of re-creating surround speakers. Sure enough, the Open Earbuds delivered those sometimes subtle/sometimes fierce left and right surround sounds in a way that felt completely natural.
Like using a full Dolby Atmos home theater system, not all material benefits equally from Personal Surround Sound. TV shows with 2.0-channel sound are barely enhanced, for instance. However, it gives 5.1, 7.1, and Dolby Atmos content an extra level of immersion that the Bose Smart Soundbar can’t achieve on its own.
Movies like Mad Max: Fury Road, with lots of surround channel action are ideal. Other strong candidates are shows like Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive, with its whine of high-revving engines moving rapidly from one side to the other.
Music (whether streamed from your TV or using one of the soundbar’s wireless options) can also get in on the Personal Surround Sound act. Depending on the track (and whether it’s in stereo or Dolby Atmos Music) the effect can range from a slightly fuller sound to a quite noticeable added width and depth. Lusaint’s cover of Wicked Game grows to encompass the whole room, while Fleetwood Mac’s Little Lies comes across nearly unchanged.
What I hadn’t expected was the earbuds’ bass-enhancing capability.
Open-ear earbuds are known for their ability to let you hear the world around you. But that often comes at the expense of low-end frequency response. And yet in a controlled environment like a living room, the Ultra Open Earbuds can add a layer of lows that I immediately missed when I turned Personal Surround off.
I don’t want to overpromise on this — it’s not like having a dedicated subwoofer in the room. But it enhances what the Bose Smart Soundbar produces, even with its bass level set to maximum.
The one caveat is that you need to play with the position of the Ultra Open Earbuds until they give you the best results. Their clip-like shape lets them move up and down easily. That’s great for comfort, but not always ideal for sound quality.
I’m a little surprised that Bose hasn’t taken advantage of the Ultra Open Earbuds’ head-tracking option, which they use to deliver Bose’s Immersive Audio feature. When using the buds normally (with your phone for music) Immersive Audio can keep the position of the virtual speakers fixed in space as you move your head.
Applied to Personal Surround Sound, this could have kept the virtual surround speakers locked in their correct relative positions. But instead, they follow your head movements.
What’s both amusing (and perhaps a bit unfair) is when you use the Ultra Open Earbuds while your sofa mate is limited to just the soundbar. They think they’re getting the full experience, and as far as the Smart Soundbar’s capabilities are concerned, they are. It’s just that you’re getting so much more. For now, this will lead to the kind of fights that will make your remote control jealous; only one set of Ultra Open Earbuds can be used with Personal Surround Sound.
Connecting the soundbar and earbuds is a breeze (as long as you’re on the latest firmware for each): open the Smart Soundbar’s settings in the Bose Music app, tap the Group button, select the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, and you’ll be introduced to the Personal Surround Sound feature.
When you arrive back at the soundbar’s settings, you’ll now have separate volume sliders for the soundbar and earbuds, with the option to enable Personal Surround.
If you’re already wearing the Ultra Open Earbuds (and playing content on the TV), you’ll notice you can hear the same audio as the soundbar. In this mode, they act like any other set of grouped Bose wireless headphones or earbuds — you can mute the soundbar while still listening to the earbuds, vice versa, or something in between.
Enable Personal Surround Sound and the app merges the two volume sliders and provides an additional set of options when you select the nearby three-dots button.
Here, volume, center channel, and height/surround levels can be set individually for the earbuds. I needed to boost the height/surround to its maximum to get the most convincing surround sound effect.
Unfortunately, once you group the Ultra Open Earbuds to the soundbar, there’s no way to access the earbuds’ regular EQ controls. Thankfully, they’ll preserve whatever setting was in use before grouping.
If you’re thinking of buying the Bose Smart Soundbar, should you save $100 on the price of a set of $399 Bose Surround speakers by getting the $299 Bose Ultra Open Earbuds instead? It depends.
I see a few different scenarios here. If you already own the Ultra Open Earbuds and you do most of your TV viewing alone, by all means, take advantage of Personal Surround Sound and save some cash. If you ever decide you want a more permanent option, you can always add the speakers later.
Likewise, if your room can’t accommodate the extra speakers, Personal Surround Sound is a fantastic alternative to physical surrounds.
However, If you want true surround sound and have the room and the budget, go with the dedicated speakers. Everyone who’s watching can enjoy them, and you’ll never have to go hunting for your earbuds to get the best experience.