The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker ($299) is part of a potential three-part system that could also include the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar ($1,099) and the Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer ($899). It represents a redesign from Bose for home audio by standing as a single, all-in-one speaker that connects via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or your favorite mobile casting tech and delivers rich, detailed sound. I like that it has a 3.5mm port and an upward-firing driver for home theater applications, and the refreshed Bose app makes it easier to set up and control than ever. It competes head-to-head with the capable Sonos Era 100 ($219) and Sonos Era 300 ($479), which continue to sound great but are now more than three years old. With the latest tech, better sound than the Era 100, a much lower price than the Era 300, and seamless integration with other Bose products, the Lifestyle Ultra is our new Editors' Choice for wireless speakers.

Design: A Winsome Fit for Your Home

The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is relatively small and compact. At 7.27 by 4.77 by 6.59 inches (HWD) and 3.6 pounds, it fits easily on a nightstand, kitchen counter, or shelf. The Sonos Era 100 has similar measurements at 7.2 by 4.8 by 5.1 inches and 4.4 pounds. The Bose looks pretty nice. It comes in three colorways, including Black, Driftwood Sand, and White Smoke. I received the White Smoke model, but based on online images, I think the Driftwood Sand looks the best. However, at $349, it is more expensive than the Black or White Smoke models, and Bose calls it a limited edition.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The speaker has a mostly plastic build with a textured knit fabric grille curved around the front. There's a second grille at the top, above the control panel, for spatial audio. It definitely looks like a speaker, but it also looks quite premium and more upscale than most common plastic cylinders.

The top surface houses capacitive soft-touch controls rather than physical buttons for most actions. There's a play/pause button that lets you skip forward with a double tap or back with a triple tap, and dedicated buttons for Bluetooth, microphone mute, an action button, and volume toggles. You can also control the volume by swiping around the circular indent.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

Three drivers sit inside. On the front, there's a 3-inch woofer and a 1-inch tweeter, and on the top, an up-firing 1.5-inch "twiddler." Due to the up-firing driver, you'll want to place the speaker in a spot where the top won't be covered. Bose recommends at least two inches of clearance from walls or corners to avoid bass buildup, and more importantly, the upward-firing driver needs a clear path to the ceiling, which means it's probably not best used on a bookshelf. For trickier setups, Bose offers a Lifestyle Floor Stand ($149) and a Lifestyle Speaker Wall Bracket ($69) as optional accessories. Bose does not provide details on the drivers' frequency responses or power ratings.

The speaker has all the connectivity you expect. It has a 3.5mm input, which is always nice to see, plus a slew of wireless options. You can connect over Bluetooth as well as via multi-room Wi-Fi standards like AirPlay 2, Google Cast, and Spotify Connect. Tidal Connect is said to be coming later in a firmware update.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The speaker and a power cord are the only items included. There are no additional cables or accessories, though I didn't necessarily expect any.

App Experience: A Slightly Better Bose App

The speaker connects to the Bose app (available for Android and iOS), which has received a design update for this new generation of Bose products. Setting up the speaker with the app is a cinch. The app immediately recognizes the nearby speaker, as well as a second if I go to pair it with the first, and it lets me connect them both to the Bose soundbar and subwoofer without first individually pairing each component. I set up the soundbar, subwoofer, and two Lifestyle Ultra Speakers in about 10 minutes.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

Your EQ options will depend on how you use the speaker. When it's connected to the soundbar in a home theater setup, you won't EQ the speaker on its own, though you can raise and lower rear-channel levels individually. When you use the speaker on its own, you can adjust the bass, mid, and treble levels. One thing that is missing compared with Sonos' offerings, at least for now, is Bose's CustomTune room correction tech, which is available on the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar but not the speaker. CustomTune lets you use your phone as a microphone to help create an audio map of your listening space. This can help with the EQ.

Overall, the app is well-designed and easy to use. It's not as feature-dense as the Sonos app, but most people don't necessarily need it to be. I mostly use multi-room audio through AirPlay, which means streaming directly from Apple's native apps. Even though I have plenty of Sonos speakers throughout my home, I never stream from the Sonos app directly, and I suspect others are the same.

Sound: A Clean Presentation With Just Enough Bass

For a speaker this small, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra still delivers deep and rich audio. The up-firing driver means it can contribute to the height channels in a surround setup, unlike the Sonos Era 100. For that, you have to step up to the more expensive Era 300.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

For its size, the speaker delivers a fair amount of bass, but its size limits the low-frequency power it can push. On a track like "Silent Shout" by The Knife, the speaker sometimes struggles to reproduce the low, repetitive, sub-bass content, but that's to be expected. It still delivers a generally well-rounded listening experience, and the track doesn't feel thin or lacking. It also offers solid clarity and detail in the high end.

The bass limitations are a bit more apparent on Kendrick Lamar's "Loyalty." The speaker isn't able to reproduce most of the sub-bass notes that run through much of the verse and chorus, but it does produce some of them, and it sounds pretty smooth while doing so. At the same time, Rihanna and Lamar's vocals sound nice and rich. Most speakers this size struggle with the track's lowest notes, so again, no surprises here.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

Listening to Bill Callahan's "Drover" is a highlight. Callaghan's vocal is clear and deep, and the kick drum that drives much of the track has enough power. The acoustic guitar sounds natural and crisp, and the cymbals have a fair amount of sizzle, especially for a speaker at this price point. I don't feel like anything is missing from the track, unlike on some of the other test songs that contain more low frequencies.

In the opening scene of John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the speaker delivers similarly well-rounded sound, with the deep, low strings coming through nicely. This full-orchestra track is busier than the others, and when using only one speaker, I miss some of the stereo separation. This is largely remedied by using a second Lifestyle Ultra Speaker in a stereo pair, though the stereo separation largely depends on placement.