They are not recommended, as they were released prior to the SB900 and are not Dolby atmos compatible. I would recommend waiting for Bose to release atmos rear speakers before spending any money at all More on reddit.com

Impersonally waiting until Bose gets their s**t together and releases a pair of surrounds designed for the current generation of soundbars… so in other words I’ll never have surround speakers :( More on reddit.com

The existence of the 700 surrounds annoys me more than it should. The price of the bar alone, $800ish, okay I sort of get that. 6x woofers, 3x tweeters, big metal and glass build, good software integration, smart home mics, it's a premium thing. But 2x tiny drivers face to face inside a tiny metal tube for $600, no way. Worst value I've ever seen. For comparison, a $500 pair of Sonos Era 100's can be paired with the the Arc and they are so dramatically better as surrounds it's not even close. More on reddit.com

It is unlikely you will get 5.1 from an audio source, seeing as it is normally recorded in stereo and not in 5.1. If it was recorded in Dolby Stereo then the SoundBar will use the function of Dolby Surround (used to be known as Dolby Pro-Logic) to up mix it so you get sound out of the rear speakers but you will only get high frequency sound as that is all the speakers are designed to do and also that is all that Dolby Surround will send to them. This is because rear speakers in a 5.1, 7.1, 5.1.2 etc are only meant to produce atmospheric sounds such as wind, rain, people cheering in the background etc. You will only make the full benefit of the speakers if you listen to 5.1 audio from a film and from the Blu-ray / DVD disc or streaming service such Netflix / Sky Movies etc and when the film was originally recorded in 5.1 or above (excluding films / TV programmes that have been remastered where in this case a whole new audio track has often replaced the original one, purposely so it is in 5.1 rather than mono or stereo). When the soundtrack is sold separately from the film such as on CD for example, this is normally only recorded in stereo. If you are listening to 5.1 films and are still getting low audio from the rear speakers, please check TV settings and settings on the device the film is coming from, such as Blu-Ray player / Sky Box / Roku stick etc and make sure that the audio output is set to either something that says Dolby or DTS or Auto. Make sure that this setting is not set as PCM, stereo or normal. On some cable / satellite boxes the default setting for this setting for some reason is set as normal or stereo, even though the cable / satellite box is capable of sending the audio in 5.1. So check this setting. Please also check the content you are listening to is recorded in 5.1, for example films made before around the time of 1985, it is unlikely you will get any audio out of the rear speakers and if you do, it will be very quiet. You will also not get any audio out of the rear speakers From a film made after 1985 when the main characters are only talking and there is no "action" going on or music. If you want the rear speakers to produce the same audio as what comes out of the SoundBar speakers (which is audio that is destined for the centre channel and front left and right channel) you will not be able to, as the Bose SoundBar does not support Quadrophonic audio or multi channel stereo (aka all channel stereo). There are A/V receivers that are capable of doing this where the audio signal is divided into the number of speakers you have connected (which in your case would be 5, not including the sub). When this happens all speakers effectively become a mono speaker and are all sent the exact same audio and frequencies. However this does not mean that you will hear the exact same frequencies and audio because quite often the speakers are of different sizes and each set of speakers will have a different limitation of the highest and lowest frequencies they can actually then produce. When an audio track is recorded in stereo, it means that only information has been destined for either the front right and / or front left speaker. If the audio was recorded using Dolby or DTS, then the Dolby Surround or DTS Neural technology inside the SoundBar or any other A/V receiver will attempt to send what it believes will sound effective to the rear speakers or any other speakers you have connected. This will normally only be high frequency audio to the rear speakers, this is because that is what rear speakers in a 5.1 setup were meant to do. They were never meant to produce the same audio that is destined for the front left and right channel and / or centre channel I am afraid. More on reddit.com