Bose takes a swing at Sonos with its new home speakers

Last Thursday, in a staged home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, I sat on a couch that was a bit too low and a tad too deep in front of a small, beige-colored smart speaker sitting on the middle of a trio of arched midcentury storage cabinets. On either side of the smart speaker sat two tall curved white screens. The speaker was the new $299 Lifestyle Ultra, Bose’s answer to the Sonos Era 100. Alongside a $1,099 Ultra soundbar and $899 subwoofer, it’s one of three new home audio products the company announced today, all of which seem to be gunning directly for Sonos — hopefully minus that company’s recent missteps. I heard all three at Bose’s New York event, and the speaker in particular impressed me. The $299 Ultra Speaker is the most interesting and most distinctive-looking of the bunch. It has a front-firing woofer and tweeter, an up-firing driver — unlike the Era 100 — and a bass port on the back. (For music, Bose uses its own processing for the upward-firing sound, rather than Dolby Atmos.) On the top of the speaker, behind the up-firing driver, are capacitive controls for power, Bluetooth pairing, microphone mute, volume control, and a play/pause button. The volume and play/pause are in a circular depression, which you can trace with your finger clockwise or counterclockwise to also control the volume. The Ultra Speaker and soundbar support Alexa Plus. The Lifestyle series uses capacitive controls on the top of the speakers. …