Before I purchased this system I spent a lot of time to finding/reading reviews. There were not many, and most of them were old. So I decided to write a short review. Disclaimer: Yes real 5.1 systems are obviously better than soundbars, also much cheaper than Bose bars. My decision to purchase a soundbar:

• Relatively small space, not much space behind the sofa (whole "tv area" is around 20 sq meters)

• Not willing to drill/hang stuff on the wall.

• No proper cabling opportunities (can't hide cables on sides since I have windows starting from the floor, no carpeting)

So let's dive in to Soundtouch 300 and Acoustimass:

First I bought only the bar since the sub-woofer Acoustimass was out of stock. I did the setup of the bar and tried some Dolby 6 channel movies:

It gives you definitely that movie theater surround feeling, BUT there is no clear effect of hearing from behind like in real surround systems. Which is to be expected, but just saying so that people shouldn't expect real surround from a bar of speakers in front of the TV. Score and effects of movie vs voice of actors had that "surround effect", you could hear that score/music was around you and dialogs were coming directly from actors, i.e. from front speakers. There is also feeling that some sounds are coming from your left/right side, even somewhat behind (like 4/8 o'clock), but it is up to a degree, not full 100% effect. It also depends on the structure of your room, walls and etc. Soundtouch's bass quality was also good, I even decided it is enough for relatively small space. I was considering canceling my sub-woofer order. But then decided to just try it, if it is not worth it I can return it anyway.

Connecting to TV via HDMI ARC worked directly. But some TV functions were not working via Bose remote. After some research I learnt that you need to put in manufacturer code of the TV. Mine is Samsung, so after entering it's code all functionality on the remote worked.

Setting up requires choosing 5 positions, sitting with plastic headphone thing, which has also a long cable which gets easily tangled up. Also there isn't proper description of setup process, where should those 5 places be? How close to one another and etc. Afterwards I found out that it is sorted according to priority (mostly used sitting space, then second best, then third and etc.) Set-up part could be better described in help document.

After 4 weeks I received my Sub-woofer. Setting it up was easy, just turn it on, hold some buttons on remote and voila. No cables required, connects wireless. With Acoustimass you get 10 times better experience. I thought soundbar would be enough, but you have to hear the same thing with Acoustimass, much much better, even in a small area. I decided to keep it.

App: App is not the best thing there, but it works, there are lots of internet radios, also I use Spotify app mostly, I can just select output device to S300 and it will play directly there. Otherwise I don't use Soundtouch app.

Cons:

• App could have more options, like equalizer, bass level, voice mode and etc (which is set by remote)

• Set-up process requires using headphone with a long cable which is a mess.

• When you first turn on the soundbar and play music, it takes some seconds till the sub-woofer kicks in. This connection delay (around 2-3 seconds) occurs when you turn it on, afterwards there is no problem.

• If you want to play music from your Iphone directly, you have to use bluetooth connection (maybe it is an Iphone thing, but anyway, WIFI would be better)

• Doesn't support Alexa (Amazon Echo). It was announced that it will come with update, but currently it doesn't work. You can just connect Amazon Echo via Bluetooth, but you can't give commands to Bose. What you can do is to use Spotify via Alexa and play it via Bluetooth on Bose Soundtouch.

Pros:

• Works perfectly with Spotify.

• Has a chic design, build quality is top.

• Wireless Sub-woofer.

• Expansion capabilities; add 2 wireless rear speakers and you get real 5.1

• Voice mode (which is probably not a special thing, if you have an eq just adjust the frequencies, but it is at least one button away)

• I tried Sonos, Samsung soundbars with sub-woofers in stores, but honestly they all sound good there, you can't feel the differences, demos are different, there is a noise of the store and etc. Best option is to try same music track/movie with other soundbars in your setting (at home). Unfortunately I couldn't do that so I cannot say which one is better. They are all almost in the same price range (+- 200 USD), I went for Bose, I am happy with it and I expect future updates from Bose (like Alexa support, better app and new features)