How Do Bose Wireless Surround Sound Speakers Work & Are They Actually 'Wireless'?

Picking up a fancy OLED or QLED TV is nice, but you're leaving a lot on the table if you don't get a better set of speakers to go with the purchase. For many, picking up a soundbar represents a good middle ground between TV speakers and a full speaker setup. A Bose soundbar isn't a bad choice, and it's one of the many soundbars that allows you to build a surround sound setup. While it's not one of the biggest surround sound brands on the market, Bose still gets the job done.

Instead of a typical 5.1 setup with three front speakers and two surrounds, the Bose soundbar handles your front listening area while a pair of Bose surrounds take care of the back. You can do this by picking up the Bose wireless surround sound speakers that connect to your soundbar. You don't have to connect to the bar directly with cords, but you need a power source for the speakers. While some people might not consider that to be truly wireless, it would be a real hassle to constantly swap out batteries or charge up your speakers each time you want to watch TV.

The Bose wireless surround sound speakers will only work with a compatible Bose soundbar, so first and foremost you'll need to make sure you have one before shelling out a few hundred dollars on additional speakers. If you fit the criteria, the connection is simple. You have to plug in your surround sound speakers, press the SoundTouch button on your remote control, and then press and hold down 7 on the remote until the soundbar blinks white. If everything goes off without a hitch, your speakers are now connected.

Unlike traditional surround sound setups, these speakers won't have to have a cord running into the soundbar or audio receiver as the connection is done wirelessly. The only thing you need to make sure of is they have a way of being powered, so a nearby wall outlet will be needed. The Bose surround sound setup even lets you add a subwoofer into the mix, which could be another step you take after adding the speakers.

Wireless speakers, by nature, perform worse than their wired counterparts, but the gap is so narrow that it's negligible to many people. It comes down to how Bose surround sound speakers compare to competitors on the market. The big thing here is the price, as it's about $400 for a pair. You don't have any choice if you're pairing to your Bose soundbar, as that's all it'll support, so you're locked into this price point.

For $400, you can pick up a good pair of bookshelf speakers to act as your surround sound, but you'll need an audio receiver for that. It'll also rule out the Bose soundbar. What works in Bose's favor here is you don't have to buy any speaker cords or a receiver to get set up, and that type of easy access is hard to ignore. User scores on Crutchfield's website indicate people are happy with the purchase, so while there's a high cost to the speakers, they do their job well.