BoseBass 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.

We had a Bose TV speaker that was gifted to us by my wife's company a couple of years ago, and I wanted to get one of these to complete the system but could just not justify the cost (or want to pay that much for a sub). Well, I got some extra cash and luckily enough, they went on sale, so I took the plunge.Like the headline says, every time I hear this thing I just walk away shaking my head at how good it sounds. Like, Wow! The Bose TV speaker we have is the lower end model (I'm pretty sure), but the bass module makes it rock! You can easily adjust the level of the sub through the TV speaker but ultimately, it is just amazing.Very happy that I took the plunge and made the purchase. It really makes me want to sit in the room and listen to it more and more.Note: I was able to string together a couple of old Harmon Kardon PC audio cables (1/4 in or 3.5 mm) with filters with a coupler (for length) to connect it to the sub and worked just fine. I had other cables that did NOT work. So if it doesn't work the first time, try a different cable, or purchase a real one.The bass module did not come with a cable. It can be connected/controlled via Bluetooth(?) or the Bose app if you have a higher end Bose sound bar. I think.