Bose Soundbar 500 vs Bose SoundTouch 300: Which one should you buy? (2023)

Bose 500 sound bar

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The Bose Soundbar 500 is all about connectivity. You can natively stream most music platforms, connect to your TV via eARC HDMI, control your soundbar and TV via Alexa or Google Assistant voice commands, or sync to Bose or Apple speakers for a multi-system -room. The only downside is that you're paying more for features than audio performance for a smaller 3.0-channel soundbar without a subwoofer.

Bose Sound Touch 300

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This Bose soundbar takes advantage of its larger build to produce louder, richer sound that uses internal arrays and custom room calibration to better fill your space. Enables HDMI ARC and 4K passthrough based on your TV's capabilities and syncs with other SoundTouch speakers. It lacks some of Bose's latest advances, however, and is priced too high for limited performance.

Bose charges a premium for its 3.0 channel soundbars compared to the market price and expects you to pay more for special features and Bose brand loyalty. However, when choosing between the recently released Bose Soundbar 500 and the older and larger Bose SoundTouch 300, the former justifies its high price more than the latter. While the 300 has a wider soundstage and 4K pass-through, it lacks the smart home qualities of the 500, which makes it easy to control and connect to other devices in your home theater.

Bose Soundbar 500 vs. Bose SoundTouch 300 Sister soundbars with similar specs

Just like when we compare themSoundbar 500 e Soundbar 700, we found that the Soundbar 500 and SoundTouch 300 share many characteristics. This means that no matter which soundbar you choose, you will have a number of advantages and limitations.

Both the 300 and 500 are 3.0-channel soundbars, meaning they have left, right, and center speakers to fill your living room, but no subwoofer or separate surround sound speakers. You can buybose surround speakers(opens in new tab)it's atBose 500 Bassmodul(opens in new tab)Subwoofer to pair with each of your devices and improve sound performance. But even with these accessories, you only have access to Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks, not Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, which require upward facing drivers.

Bose Soundbar and SoundTouch models come with plenty of connectivity options: you can natively stream a variety of music platforms like Spotify over WiFi (or via an Ethernet connection to your router) or you can connect your smartphone via Bluetooth for easy viewing. from your playlist drive . As for your TV, you can connect it via HDMI or optical cable.

Each soundbar comes with an ADAPTiQ headphone jack, Bose's proprietary room calibration technology. The Bose app sends signals to the headphones as you walk around the room, helping them map the space so you know where to direct the sound for best performance.

Current gen vs last gen specs

The SoundTouch 300 had impressive features and solid performance when it launched in 2016, but when the Soundbar 500 was released two years later, the benchmark for what constitutes an "amazing" soundbar shifted and shows what each device offers.

Voice commands and smart speakers were less ubiquitous back then, so Bose allowed Alexa commands to control the 300, but only if you had an Echo speaker. Alexa responds with 500jThanks to the built-in microphones, Google Assistant controls itself; You can also control it with Siri if you're using a separate Apple device via AirPlay 2. In addition, 500 owners can use the built-in Bose Voice4Video to control their TV via voice commands on the soundbar.

The single HDMI input on both soundbars supports ARC, improving data transfer and audio/video synchronization. But only the 500 has eARC, which allows the soundbar to handle completely uncompressed audio. Check your TV's eARC support before buying the 500, as without it the audio quality doesn't live up to the soundbar's potential.

However, only the 300 has 4K, HDR and HDR10 pass-through thanks to its HDMI output, a useful feature at launch as not many TVs supported ARC/eARC at the time. Unfortunately, its streaming potential is hindered by its single HDMI input, ensuring you can only connect one device at a time.

With the 500 winning the feature battle, the only possible justification for the SoundTouch 300's higher price is its improved sound performance. As the 300 is slightly wider, you can mount an additional front driver and tweeter, improving the audio experience (especially high-frequency quality) for viewers sitting directly in front of the soundbar. The 500 uses two side speakers to better spread the sound around the room, while the 300 uses smaller arrays designed to point the front speakers in different directions based on ADAPTiQ calibration. Neither soundbar has particularly impressive bass.

If you've bought other Bose products in the past and want to create a multi-room speaker system, check their compatibility with Bose apps. The SoundTouch 300 only connects to the older Bose SoundTouch app, as do many of the company's pre-2018 devices. In contrast, the Bose Soundbar 500 only connects to the newer Bose Music app, as do most of its technologies released in 2018 or were published later.

Soundbar 500 > SoundTouch 300: Buy the Latest Model

If this is your first Bose purchase, you'll want the 500, as any other Bose tech you buy might not work with its predecessor. A prime example is the Bose SimpleSync feature, which lets you stream content from your soundbar directly to another Bose Bluetooth speaker or Bose headphones. 500 owners can send audio from their TV to a speaker in another room to sync a party playlist, or directly to their headphones for a late-night movie marathon.

Even if you're not a Bose fan, the 500 gives buyers a versatile option that connects to the Amazon, Google, and Apple speakers you own or plan to buy. And since you save some money on the 500 instead of the 300, you can invest the money saved in a subwoofer to improve the bass performance, which is a shortcoming of the two Bose soundbars.

We've already established that the 300 will perform better in audio, but it's also important to note that other soundbars will offer better performance than any other soundbar, at a lower price! The 500 appears in ourList of the best soundbarsa strong choice for Bose fans, but other units in this range often have subwoofers, surround sound, or other useful perks.

What the 500 offers is a device that can access any streaming service, easy to control with just a few words, while also making your TV voice controllable and working with a whole ecosystem of other devices. If the 300 tempts you with better performance, look to thoseBose 700 sound bar(opens in new tab)Instead, it effectively combines the features of the 500 with the audio technology of the 300 at a comparable price point.