GoKawiilThree new Bose AirPlay speakers have launched today, and the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker appears to be going head-to-head with the original HomePod.
Bose has dusted off the Lifestyle sub-branding it first introduced in 1990 before discontinuing in 2022. The original Lifestyle speakers achieved iconic status, so perhaps choosing this name for the latest lineup reflects the company’s hopes here …
If you were a style-conscious audio fan back in 1990, then the Bose Lifestyle speaker lineup were a very desirable option. The company eventually abandoned the use of the sub-branding back in 2022 but has reintroduced it for a lineup of three new AirPlay-compatible speakers:
Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker
Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar
Bose Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer
The company says that the first of these is intended to create room-filling sound from a single compact speaker. With pricing ranging from $299 to $349 depending on color, it appears to be targeting the original HomePod market. As with HomePod, you can pair two of them for a stereo setup.
The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is the most versatile product in the collection, small enough to fit almost anywhere yet powerful enough to fill a room with rich, enveloping audio. The speaker uses a modern evolution of Bose’s pioneering Direct/Reflecting speaker technology with three drivers — two front-facing and one up-firing — to project sound towards the ceiling and walls and back toward the listener, creating a broad soundstage uncommon for a single speaker. With TrueSpatial audio processing technology, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker places sound naturally in space using its up-firing speaker design to intelligently enhance content with added height and dimensional depth — an effect that’s multiplied when in a stereo setup. CleanBass technology enables exceptional bass from a compact design by combining the speaker’s woofer, a proprietary QuietPort acoustic opening, and advanced digital signal processing to deliver deep, controlled low-frequency sound that’s difficult to achieve in speakers of this size.
The Soundbar and Subwoofer are rather more expensive, priced at $1,099 and $899 respectively.
All three speakers are compatible with both Apple AirPlay and Google Cast for wireless multiroom capabilities. They are available for pre-order today with delivery on May 15.