Bose Bass Module 500 Black

Over the last 15-20 years, I have gone through several sound bars, but my last combination of the Bose TV speaker with the 500 bass module is clearly the best sound I have ever had. I bought the TV Speaker as a stand-along several months before the bass module, based on a recommendation from my brother in law that had one. I previously had an economical LG sound bar with a wireless sub woofer, but the sub kept cutting in and out. Tried different locations to improve the wireless transmission (as recommended in online forums), but did not work. Finally relegated that system to the basement, and bought the Bose sound bar. Very happy with it and it’s price point ($250), but felt I was missing out on the low frequencies. I had a powered, stand alone sub-woofer from a previous 5.1 sound system that I tried plugging into the bass output from the sound bar. But there was no signal. Searched high and low online to see if there was some fix. No luck. Bose literature only talks to plugging in one of their bass modules, so I have to figure Bose must have some handshake protocol between the sound bar and the bass module. One of the key reasons I bought the Bose TV Speaker was that it had a dedicated, wired output to feed a sub-woofer (in addition to allowing wireless). I was eventually able to utilize the other sub-woofer by plugging it into the RCA audio out jacks on the tv and running the Bose sound bar with the optical output. The only problem with this arrangement is that there was no remote controllability of the sub-woofer sound level. There was a gain control on the back that I ended up setting to a nominal level, but when I would mute the TV for something like a phone call, the sub-woofer continued to stay on. At $400 for the bass and $250 for the sound bar, total investment was $650. I never would have justified buying a $650 sound system originally, and before plunking down $400 for the sub module, I did have to ask myself if it would just be better to ignore the sunk cost of the TV Speaker and buy another sound bar/sub-woofer for less than $400. But all other systems out there go with a wireless sub-woofer, which worried me. So bit the bullet and treated myself to a boys toy here and got the bass module. Before I bought this on Amazon, searched high and low other places. FYI - Bose never discounts. Everyone sells this for $399.00. Found some used ones on eBay, but bidding always brought the price upwards of 90% of what a new one cost, so figured just get a brand new unit with full warranty. Next issue was availability. Everywhere said they were sold out, with no idea of when they would get them in stock. Went ahead and ordered it on Amazon when I saw they had some in stock. Had to check daily to see when they had it. Original quote was 4 week delivery, but ended up showing up after 10 days. Absolutely love the sound. Great looks. Low profile that tucks away nicely. You don’t need to spend $10 on Bose cable - any 3.5mm audio cable will do. Got a longer one from Amazon for half the cost.

Purchased this to add a little more punch and dramatic sound to our very simple TV set up in the living room. We have a basic Bose TV soundbar that was purchased last Christmas, which is great for improving the sound coming directly from your TV, whether live or streaming. However, it was lacking the nice, thundering bass sound that you usually get when watching films or even TV shows. Unfortunately, already having the Bose soundbar means that it's not compatible with any other separate bass module outside of Bose. This was the cheaper of the two models available from Bose that was compatible, so I had to go with this one for sure. The price is pretty steep and it's a bit whack that it doesn't include the additional cable you need to connect the bass module to the soundbar (you can purchase it separately for around 10 bucks), but once connected it works perfectly. It's basically plug and play, so there's no remote or additional configuration that you need to do once it's connected to the soundbar. I did notice that for TV shows, the bass is barely noticeable unless you really have the volume turned up. I was looking for a way to rectify this, since we don't typically watch things at a really high volume constantly and luckily I found that the solution was in the remote that came with the Bose TV soundbar. There's a "bass" button on the control that will allow you to actually increase just the bass volume without affecting the overall volume. So that's what I did, though I think there's a limit to how much you can actually increase it. Seemed like it only allowed about three to four clicks up from the default setting. Anyways, all is good for now and I recommend getting this if you need to expand your current Bose soundbar setup.

I don't normally write reviews but I'm glad to make an exception here. I recently upgraded my 65" LED Samsung TV to a 75" Hisense Mini QLED. I paired the new tv with my existing Bose 900 Sound Bar. The soud bar sounds good (as all Bose products do) but I couldn't help feeling as if there was something missing. I knew just what it was too. I want to distinctly hear and almost feel the rumble of thunder, the bass guitar and the sound of the drums etc. After convincing myself that paying the exuberant cost of the Bose Subwoofer would be worth it in the long run, I pulled the trigger and purchased the Bose 500 through Amazon. The sub is packaged really well to avoid damage in shipping. After I unboxed it and put it in place, I followed the directions in the manual and wirelessly paired the sub to my sound bar using the Bose app. It took about 8 seconds to pair and when it did the void was instantly filled. Although I have a large living room, I don't feel the need to shake the house which I have no doubt the 700 would do, I realized almost immediately that I had made the right choice. The sound is amazing! My setup is now complete.

Rather expensive, but once I chose a Bose sound bar I had no other choice for a sub woofer. Combined with a Bose sound bar, this sub woofer sounds great and brings that much needed low frequency to life in movies.

Sounds great, it's Bose. What else do you need to say?

have this hooked up in bedroom with bose tv speaker, sound is impressive and more than adequate. bass is exceptional, you can literally feel it

This was so underwhelming, its like not having a bass speaker at all. I tried everything I could to get the bass up, turned it up to max with the remote as instructed and still not much. I have the "Bose TV Soundbar" so not a wireless connection or a connection to the Bose app with this setup, it uses a direct wired connection. So I did not have the fine tuning with the phone app. But I turned up the bass as much as the speaker allowed and still was not much better than with only the soundbar. I also tried connecting with Bluetooth as suggested online and turned up the bass on my phone to the maximum, it was better, but not great... and on top of that it began distorting when I turned up the bass too much. I have better bass with my Yamaha bass speaker and my Bose towers and I expected this to turn out something close to that. It was not good at all and not worth the price tag. I am going to try the 700 instead, I read reviews that it's much better in this setup configuration. Someone I know says its got hard hitting power that shakes their house. While I don't want to shake the house, I want to hear and feel a little bass. Such a let down, I was so excited to get this and when I hooked it up, it was a huge nothing. I have a lot of Bose speakers over the years, and this is the first one that's disappointed me. My 501 towers are still going strong and sound great. I think I get more bass out of my Bose S1 Pro +.

Bought with the 500-series soundbar that I also bought and immediately returned AFTER I had already bought and returned the 700-series soundbar and subwoofer. Yeah, don't ask. Still, the 700s were really good and I expect that this would be, too, had I actually kept them.

Potencio las frecuencias graves de mi barra de sonido y se escucha increíble. Aparte para conectarla a la barra de manera inalámbrica fue muy sencillo por medio de la aplicación de bose. Simplemente calidad bose. Totalmente recomendado.

Compacto, valente, versátil, som de primeira, ótimo!!

This little subwoofer sounds really good. I'm really fussy about sound and I would not recommend something that didn't sound good to my ear. You can buy this with confidence, in my humble opinion.

Exceptional quality

Como todos los productos Bose, este subwoofer produce un sonido excelente. Es discreto (en apariencia, en tamaño y en sonido) y enriquece en gran medida el sistema de audio. Yo lo adquirí como complemento a una barra de sonido 600 de Bose; me he dado cuenta de que no es un complemento, es parte esencial de mi sistema de sonido. La configuración del subwoofer fue rápida, simple y eficiente con la aplicación de Bose music. El sonido es claro y potente, pero discreto, notas su presencia sólo en el "punch" del bajo, no hay sensaciones de "hueco" o de bajo exagerado. Si pudiera describir su funcionamiento con una palabra, diría "equilibrado". Recomiendo este subwoofer ampliamente.