GoKawiilThe LS Ultra Speaker is rather compact. At 7.27 x 4.77 x 6.59 inches and weighing just 3.7 pounds, it's smaller than one of the Audio-Technica bookshelf speakers that flank my turntable. Bose's latest speaker is about the same size as the Sonos Era 100 though, except the LS Ultra is about an inch and a half deeper. The overall shape here is more of an elongated cylinder or pill. A fabric speaker grille wraps around the front and sides of the device like a cover. And if you splurge for the limited-edition Driftwood Sand color, there's a wood base for an even more refined look.
Inside, Bose has packed three drivers, including one up-firing speaker, alongside QuietPort acoustics for the company's Cleanbass system. Up top, touch controls give you the ability to play/pause, skip tracks, adjust volume, activate Bluetooth, mute the mic and summon Alexa (more on that last one in a bit). The volume control is a radial slider ring that allows you to quickly swipe to make changes or be more precise with your tweaks. If you'd rather just tap on the + or – as if they were normal touch-based buttons, you can do that too.
The LS Ultra Speaker has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, in addition to a 3.5mm aux port around back. With a Wi-Fi connection, AirPlay and Google Cast are in the mix, both of which allow you to use the speaker as part of a multiroom setup. There's no need to create rooms in the Bose app, you simply send the audio to each device via the AirPlay or Cast menu in your app of choice. Depending on your preferences, this may not necessarily be a bad thing. Personally, I did miss the ability to send audio to all rooms with a single tap like I could in the HEOS app with Denon's speakers.
Bose is the first to support Alexa+ on non-Echo devices. The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, the new Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and a few of the company's other products are all compatible. Amazon's next-gen assistant arrived last year and delivers a big improvement over its predecessors. This is the only voice assistant that's directly supported by the LS Ultra Speaker, so if you prefer Gemini or Siri, you'll want to disable Alexa+ and mute the speaker's microphone. A tiny red light on the top of the speaker lets you know the mic is disabled.