Loud and clear (and never too loud)

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Last night's Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals game was the moment I knew the soundbar I've been testing had changed how I watch TV. It took a few ad breaks to notice, though. For once, the ads played at the same volume as the game (you know, instead of five times louder for no reason). The new Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar uses AI to level ad audio, a feature Bose doesn't really market. (Its president of premium consumer audio, Raza Haider, mentioned it to me in an interview before testing, and it was the detail I immediately hooked onto—I’m clearly scarred.)

How we tested it: I've used the soundbar daily since May 11 in my living room, replacing my TV's built-in speakers. Setup was quick: I plugged it into my TV's eARC port and ran CustomTune to optimize it for the room, then tested it across streaming platforms, movies, and live TV (the natural habitat of obnoxiously loud ads).

I'm also a chronic subtitle user because modern audio mixing loves burying dialogue (an annoying fix, since I tend to read faster than actors speak). Haider told me an "absurd" number of people watch movies with captions: "We've all gotten used to it, because it's become normal, but that's not normal. You should never accept that." After a month with the dialogue-boosting SpeechClarity feature, I believe him. The Medium setting helped with most of what I watched, but High let me turn subtitles off for nearly everything.

The Dolby Atmos immersion is also pretty great. Watching Top Gun: Maverick for the first time, I heard fighter jets streak left to right across my living room, which was thrilling for about 15–20 minutes until it settled into just feeling normal. (Maybe that's the point.)

The Good: I can finally hear dialogue without squinting to read along, and ads no longer ambush me with jumpscares. Setup took less than 15 minutes. I went in a skeptic and came out a convert.

The Bad: The $1,099 price tag stings, even though it’s pretty standard at this level. (Sonos's premium offering, the Arc Ultra, costs the same.)

Verdict: ✅ Signal (if your ears flinch at every commercial break, or you're tired of reading your TV). —SM

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