The idea of a home theater setup is evolving or dying as some might say. Its gone from multiple speakers, soundproofing, receivers, etc. and has turned into soundbar setups. The full theater setup still sounds superior but many consumers just want better sound than what their TV puts out. So a soundbar w/ a pair of speakers & subwoofer can do the trick.
The Canadian-based Bluesound has a sweet soundbar that aims to bring you full home theater sound in a soundbar. We originally demoed Bluesound products in NYC back in April. We got a chance to check out everything from their 3 wireless speakers to their subwoofer to their sound bar. And that is the topic of our discussion today, their Pulse Soundbar. We spent about a good 2 months w/ it and ready to see how well it blends old-school & new school.
The Pulse Soundbar weighs in at a modest 15lbs, sits at 42inches long, 5.5inches wide, & just under 3inches tall. However, being new parents, the wife & I rely on Closed Caption a lot but the soundbar was actually too tall where it completely blocked the CC on the TV. Definitely, the one thing I won't miss about it.
As far as connections, you have an Ethernet port, a standard USB port + miniUSB port, optical, RCA, and a Power cord. It includes kickstand feet + extenders and all of the necessary cables expect for an optical cable. They even included a wall mount for it but if you need a Universal TV stand, you'll have to get that on your own. The setup of the Soundbar was pretty straightforward - for the most part. Unfortunately, the only way I could get this working was via optical line-in w/ an Ethernet connection as the other means to set it up wasn't working for me.
Once you have all the connections going, you're controlling everything from the BluOS app on your smartphone, tablet, or desktop. From there you can adjust settings, bass, mids, etc as well as toggle between their 3 pre-loaded sound profiles of movie, music, & TV. Speaking of music, you got built-in support for streaming Tidal (regular & Hi-Fi), Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Deezer, & more. The software is pretty good. I wish they had native support for Google Play Music but I was able to still work around it.
Bluesound equipped the Pulse soundbar w/ tons of goodies to make it stand out amongst the pack of average soundbars. You got 6 speakers (2 tweeters, 2 mid-rangers, 2 woofers) & 2 passive radiators capable of 24-bit audio w/ support for Hi-Res FLAC codecs. As well as a 120-watt DirectDigital Amp DAC, Dolby Digital & Bluetooth aptX support. This is way more than your average speaker setup.
But how does it all work together in execution? The Pulse Soundbar sound quality is superb. Enough so that it will easily satisfy audiophiles & consumers alike. For movies, you get deep bass to cover things like explosions, deep bass tones, clear vocal output. For music, you get a good reproduction of bass, percussion, vocals, keys, etc. The volume output is pretty strong as well. I had to maintain the volume at around near halfway to prevent neighbors from knocking on my door or waking my son from naps or sleep. This thing sounds amazing overall.
A little pricier than what you spend w/ Sonos but worth it in sound.
TG 2 Cents
Now outside of the demo in NYC, I wasn't familiar w/ Bluesound and what they bring to the table on the audio side of things. I definitely got acquainted w/ their sound and love it. Bluesound did a good job in blending old-school sound w/ new school execution. Especially for audiophiles where sound in your living room is the most important thing.
Now this nugget is worth mentioning. It is pricier than what Sonos charges for the Playbase, it does pump out a more crystal clear sound w/ good bass - even w/o a subwoofer present. FYI: Sonos Playbase $700 vs Bluesound Pulse Soundbar $800. It is definitely worth the extra $100 if you can swing it.
