Best settings for my Bose 900 soundbar?

[themimi]

Hey everyone,
I just got a Bose soundbar 900, and I'm trying to figure out the best settings for my setup, hoping you can help!

Here's my situation:

1. Room Size: About 16x14 feet
2. Ceiling height: Around 9 Feet
3. Setup: soundbar is mounted on wall about 2 inches below my tv, which is a 65-inch OLED. I also have the Bose bass module 700 and the surround speakers.
4. seating position: main couch is about 10 feet from the soundbar, centered. there's also a side chair about 7 feet away at an angle.
5. walls: one side is open which leads to the kitechen and the other side has a windoe with curtains.

I should mention that I've already ran the ADAPRiQ calibration and the dialogue still gets lost sometimes, especially in movies with heavy background effects. Also, I'm not sure if I should be tweaking the height channel settings for Atmos content. Any advice would be very helpful. thank you in advance guys!

 

[kyuu]

At least as far as your dialogue goes, you can try adjusting the center channel in the Bose app:

 

[GXAlan]

There are going to be limitations of any sound bar.

The first thing I would test is to disable your subwoofer. This will let you see if the dialogue is hard to hear because of the subwoofer or not. For soundbars, the subwoofer carries a lot more information beyond the LFE. While the sub does reduce the strain on the soundbar itself, room EQ and optimization of the subwoofer is tricky with even super expensive Trinnov and Dirac solutions not working as well as a hand tuned setup (whereas the standard approach works well for correcting the primary channels).

If the dialogue is better when your subwoofer is turned off, then I would start playing with subwoofer position.

It would also help to know which movie(s) and scenes you are talking about. Some movies intentional have drowned out dialogue for effect.

At least on Reddit, someone said that Christopher Nolan was talking at the National Film and Television School and when discussing the occasionally inaudible dialogue in his films, he explained that he mixed the movies as he does to make them feel realistic if you were there. It wouldn’t be crystal clear if you were actually there, so it’s mixed not to be crystal clear.

 

[amarsicola]

My 2 cents advice: sell all the bose stuff and get a pair of kef Q7 / Q11 fed by an hypex/purifi amp, all of which is objectively better according to measurements

 

[GXAlan]

My 2 cents advice: sell all the bose stuff and get a pair of kef Q7 / Q11 fed by an hypex/purifi amp, all of which is objectively better according to measurements

So… where do you get your surround sound option with a wireless subwoofer?

 

[kyuu]

Yeah, without knowing why they are using a soundbar I wouldn't declare that they should ditch it for some Kef floorstanders. Not that I disagree they are better in just about every way, but there may be completely valid reasons why even bookshelves aren't an option.

 

[amarsicola]

Ok touché, then to stay with the bose scenario, i would buy a Umik microfone (120€) and proceed with measuring frequency response to understand the issues

 

[themimi]

Good points guys, I actually tried turning off the subwoofer like GXAlan suggested, and the dialogue did sound a bit clearer. Funny enough, I came across this guide on Bose settings that also mentions how subs can sometimes muddy vocals, so it seems like a common issue: https://smarthomescope.com/best-bose-soundbar-settings/
Gonna keep tweaking. thanks again!

 

[GXAlan]

Good points guys, I actually tried turning off the subwoofer like GXAlan suggested, and the dialogue did sound a bit clearer.

Move the sub away from corners or walls. You should try to move the sub either closer to your sitting position or perhaps as close to the soundbar as possible, front and center, just to compare.

With the sub in the corner or against the wall, there can be big gains in the bass which may overwhelm. Moving it out will reduce boominess that exceeds the room correction’s ability to fix it.

Or maybe, the sub is fine, but you are demanding too much from it, which leads to distortion. Moving the subwoofer closer to you reduces the amount of output the sub needs to hit the target volume at your ears, which will reduce distortion.

Or maybe, the sub is delivering huge amounts of 120 Hz data or more, and the disparity between the subwoofer location and sound bar location is affecting clarity and testing to see if having all the sound coming from the same location improves things.

Now that we know the sub is the issue, testing those three scenarios
1) move away from corner or wall, even it it’s temporary

2) test it right next to your seat, even if temporary

3) test it right next to your soundbar, even if temporary

Going to the extremes and sharing your results can help the community give you advice on what to do in terms of subwoofer placement in a practical long term position.