Bose TV Speaker vs Yamaha YAS-109 which is better?

Bose TV Speaker vs Yamaha YAS-109 which is better?

Today our battle is the Bose TV Speaker vs Yamaha YAS-109. Both the Bose TV Speaker and the Yamaha YAS-109 are two fantastic soundbars and I think this is going to be a pretty fun matchup. Recently I had a similar battle with the Yamaha YAS-109 vs Bose Solo 5 which is better? Article that I did. I do have to say that both Bose and Yamaha offer better soundbars than these two, but if you are looking to be under that 300 bucks mark then either one of these is well worth considering to give your home better quality sound when you are watching movies, TV shows, sports or whatever it is you are into. 

The Price

A little while back I wrote an article called, 6 Best Soundbars without Subwoofer under $200 which looked at more budget friendly soundbars. I would class these two that we are looking at today as the next tier if you get what I am saying. I wanted to give my thoughts on the value for money that both of these are giving you and that is why price is the first category in our Bose TV Speaker vs Yamaha YAS-109 battle.

Bose TV Speaker:

Bose TV Speaker - Soundbar for TV with Bluetooth and HDMI-ARC Connectivity, Black, Includes Remote Control

Over at Amazon the Bose TV Speaker currently has an asking price of $279.99 which is not the worst price I have seen for a soundbar of this kind of quality if I am being honest with you. It is certainly one of the cheaper options from the good folks at Bose. I did have a look on eBay and there are some great deals on there. I would never recommend buying a used soundbar, but I found many sellers with this used offering it for under 100 bucks! I did also find a few new ones that were in the 200 to 200 bucks price range.

Yamaha YAS-109:

YAMAHA YAS-109 Sound Bar with Built-In Subwoofers, Bluetooth, and Alexa Voice Control Built-In

I think that the current $219.95 the Yamaha YAS-109 is going for on Amazon is more than fair. This is cheaper than the Bose TV Speaker by more than a few bucks and that is something you have to take into consideration. You may be tempted to shop around for this, but I have actually done that quite a bit and found that the price for this soundbar is all over the place! Over at eBay, you can find this anywhere between 200 and 300 bucks! I think that in all honesty, Amazon is your best bet and easiest option to get this.

The Verdict: I have to say that considering the price of these on Amazon the winner here for me is the Yamaha YAS-109. I think that as far as the Bose TV Speaker goes, it is awesome that Bose was able to keep their quality high and still be under 300 bucks, but overall I feel that you are getting more bang for your buck with the 109 than you are the TV Speaker.  

The Design

For me, design is the second most important category in our Bose TV Speaker vs Yamaha YAS-109 fight. At the end of the day, either one of these is going to be out on display and it is something you are going to have to look at a great deal. This is why I feel that the way a soundbar looks is very important. I know people (my buddy Steven) who have bought a soundbar purely based on price and then hated the way the thing looked and would not have it out in his living room.

Bose TV Speaker: If you are in the market for a more modestly sized kind of soundbar then the Bose TV Speaker could be just what you are looking for. This comes in at 23.4″ x 2.2″ x 4″ which makes this ideal if you do not want a larger soundbar under your TV or if you have a smaller TV. I have yet to come across a Bose soundbar that I do not like the style of and this one is no different. This is very well made and has a very sturdy feel to it, I was very impressed that Bose even at the lower price, was able to make this soundbar have a really high-quality look and feel to it which puts it in the same kind of boat as their more expensive and larger soundbars.

I highly recommend that you check out this Bose TV Speaker – Unboxing + Setup video which Bose has made themselves. I have to say that Bose is the best when it comes to showing off their stuff on YouTube! The front and sides of the soundbar are covered with a metal grill which is a style I am a huge fan of and a bit of a Bose staple in all honesty. The top of the soundbar is covered with this sleek plastic that I think looks very cool. As it has a bit of a shine to it, you will have to watch for dust and fingerprints, but a quick wipe every now and again is going to take care of that for you.

On the back of the Bose TV Speaker, you have that Bose quality you would expect. You have an HDMI and optical port for connecting this to your TV. There is also a USB port for any kind of update you may need to do and there is even an AUX port here which I was very happy to see. There is also another port called bass. The idea here is that you would use this with one of Boss subwoofer offerings like their amazing Bose Bass Module 500 which is great, but it is over double the price of the Bose TV Speaker!

Yamaha YAS-109: Before I tell you my opinion on the design of this I suggest you have a look at a video like this All about Yamaha Alexa Sound Bar YAS-209: review which gives you a great look at what you can expect from this soundbar.

I think that the Yamaha YAS-109 is a nice looking soundbar and I do not see anyone having a problem with the style of this. It has a very smart and elegant vibe that is modern and cool so I am sure most modern living rooms will have this blend in very well. This is a fair bit longer than the Bose TV Speaker as the dimensions of this are 34.9” x 2.0” x 5.3”, so you will have to make sure that you have a TV unit that can handle this.

As I said the Yamaha YAS-109 has a real sense of style about it. One of the things that Yamaha seems to like to do with their soundbars is use fabric. While the majority of the soundbar is made from strong plastic. The soundbar is covered in this very smart looking fabric. It is a very eye-catching design choice and one that at first glance I really do like. The thing is, this fabric has a kind of loose feeling to it and I have kids and pets which is a bad combo. I know the kids would feel the need to touch this and also, I am 100 percent sure that this thing would be a major magnet for pet hair and dust. However, if you keep on top of it then it will keep looking sharp and cool.

Yamaha has put the touch controls for the soundbar on the top of the device. I am not a huge fan of this as I feel they do take away from the overall sleekness of the soundbar. The sides of the soundbar have these openings which are there to accommodate the built in subwoofer the Yamaha YAS-109 has. On the back, you have both an optical and HDMI port for connectivity. There is also an ethernet port along with a handy USB port too.

The Verdict: I have to say that for me, Bose and Sony make the best looking soundbars on the market, with LG and Samsung coming in next. The Yamaha YAS-109 is a fine looking soundbar and to be honest I can see many people liking the fabric design of that better. I though, much perfect the more robust and cool design that the Bose TV Speaker has.     

The Sound:

If there is one category that is going to get the most attention in this Bose TV Speaker vs Yamaha YAS-109 showdown then this is it. I have put so many soundbars through their paces over the last couple of years I can usually tell the difference in sound pretty easily. I had a lot of fun seeing what these could offer and I was overall happy with the sound that both of them offered, but which one is best?

Bose TV Speaker: I know that one of the reasons that people will be drawn to the Bose TV Speaker is because of its rather small stature. The thing is, the small size does mean that the power and the overall sound does take a bit of a hit. Hey, I am not saying this sounds bad, and if you check out this Bose TV Speaker | Sound Test [Blues & Bass] which will give you a bit better idea about the sound capabilities of this soundbar.

I think that if you want a soundbar to make dialogue much clearer then you are going to be happy with what this is offering in that regard. One of my favorite more recent comedies is Hot Tub Time Machine and this was great when played with the Bose TV Speaker, you could clearly hear all of the dialogue and it was certainly way better than my LG TVs speakers!

Out of the box and with the settings as they are the Bose TV Speaker has a fantastic mid-range to it. I am sure for someone like my grandfather this would be great, he could take it out of the box, set it up and there will be a noticeable improvement over his TV speakers. One movie that has a fantastic sound design is The Fifth Element and through this, I think that it sounded better than the TV speakers, but it never quite filled the room with sound and had that extra bit of kick in the bass department that the more expensive Bose soundbar offerings have.

Like the other Bose soundbars, the Bose TV Speaker offers you Bluetooth connectivity. For those of you that love to listen to music on your phone, you can stream it to this and it will sound great. It is usually my wife who tests this function of a soundbar out, but I listened to a few albums and was impressed with the music quality, even at louder volumes it was clear.

Yamaha YAS-109: I would probably class the Yamaha YAS-109 as a budget priced soundbar. That right there makes the sound quality this soundbar provides even more impressive. I am not saying it is impressive for the price, it is impressive because it is good! I was very impressed with this and think that most normal sized rooms will be filled with sound and that is what you want from a soundbar. I have watched many movies with the help of this soundbar and one of the first things, no matter the movie that impresses me is the vocal clarity. One of my wife’s favorite movies is the live action, Beauty and the Beast, and this soundbar really did it justice. The way people spoke was so clear and the songs in the movie were truly fantastic when blasted through here. I even cranked the volume way up and there was still no loss of clarity.

One thing that is worth noting about this is that there is a soundbar built in. Look, you are not going to get the same kind of bass as you do from a dedicated subwoofer. As a matter of fact, the follow up to this the Yamaha YAS-209  actually has a dedicated subwoofer. I have to say that the bass the built in subwoofer provides is far better than I thought it would be. It really did give movies such as Logan that extra bit of kick when it was needed. I was realistic with my expectation when I first used this soundbar in terms of the bass and I was very impressed with what it offered.

If you are a music lover, you will be very pleased to know that the Yamaha YAS-109 does have Bluetooth connectivity. This means that you can easily stream music from your phone through this. This is a feature that my wife uses all the time and when she was playing around with it, I was impressed, first of all, I was impressed that she was playing some Prince which I like, but I was also very happy with the sound quality.

The Verdict: I have to be honest and say that before I started this battle, I would have put money on the Bose TV Speaker being the one that I prefer. Most of the other vs battles I have done that involve Bose tend to have them come out on top, but this one I do have to give to the Yamaha YAS-109. It offers a richer sound, better bass, and the vocal clarity was a little bit better.

The Remote Control

I do not think I will ever grow out of loving a remote control! The thing is, I can see more and more companies moving away from the remote control, Sonos for one are doing this already! Anyway, I really like to look at the remotes for deceives I check out so that is why this Bose TV Speaker vs Yamaha YAS-109 has a category dedicated to the remotes.

Bose TV Speaker: Bose has a fantastic app for their soundbars, but I am pretty sure that is not compatible with the Bose TV Speaker. Bose makes some of the best remotes around and the one they have here is one of their more basic offerings. I am not actually seeing this as a bad thing, to be honest with you. This gives you all the control you need over your soundbar and the fact that there are not loads of buttons on this means it is great for people who want something that is very easy to use. It is nice and compact and I think the style of it fits in with the soundbar very well.

Yamaha YAS-109: I am a big fan of the remotes that Yamaha uses for their soundbars, they have many different models of soundbars that all use a very similar remote control. This is a nice and small remote that takes up very little space. You will have full control of your soundbar with this and it has some very handy features such as clear voice and surround sound each having their own dedicated button. You can easily change the master volume, the subwoofer level, and so on. They even give you a few different presets to select for different sound experiences.

The Verdict: Bose makes some of the best remotes around the one they give you with the Bose Soundbar 700 for example has one of my all time favorite remotes. With that being said the remote for the Bose TV Speaker is pretty basic, but it does give you full control of the device and it looks cool. However, I am giving this one to the Yamaha YAS-109 as I love this remote and think it is designed very well. This was very close and I probably could change my mind, that is how close this one was.

What Is In The Box?

When you are spending your hard-earned money, it is only natural that you want to know exactly what you are getting. That is why we are looking at what you can expect in the box for both of these soundbars. This way you will know if you need to purchase something else before your new soundbar arrives.

Bose TV Speaker: These two are very similar when it comes to what they are offering you in the box. Inside the box of the Bose TV Speaker, you will find the following items. There is the actual soundbar along with its power cable. You also get your instruction booklet and there is the remote. You also get an optical cable, but there is no HDMI cable in here. This is something that really bugs me! Yes, you can hop on Amazon and get something like this Amazon Basics Premium-Certified Braided HDMI Cable for under ten bucks.

Yamaha YAS-109: I know it is kind of weird to mention that in the box for the Yamaha YAS-109 you get your soundbar along with its remote, power cable, and instruction booklet as that is to be expected, but I think the days of the instruction booklet are numbered! They do give you batteries for the remote which I appreciate. The only connection option inside the box is an optical cable. If you were connecting this to your TV via an optical cable that is awesome, but if you want to use HDMI, you will have to make sure you have one. In all honesty, you can get an HDMI cable for next to nothing these days, but I still would have liked one in the box.

The Verdict: While they are both lacking an HDMI cable in the box, I think the fact that Yamaha throws in batteries for the remote makes them the winner here. They both though should be made to sit on the naughty step for not giving us an HDMI cable!

What Is The Better Soundbar Bose TV Speaker or Yamaha YAS-109?

I am pretty sure somewhere up in the article I mentioned how in one of the categories I was sure that the Bose TV Speaker would win that category. Well, I have to be real with you guys and say that I actually thought I was going to pick the Bose TV Speaker for the whole thing. I am a huge fan with Bose (they are just behind my boys Sony) and most of the time they win these things as far as I am concerned, but I have to say that I think the Yamaha YAS-109  is the better soundbar out of the two. Not just because it is cheaper, but I feel it offers better sound in every category you could think of. While I do like the style of the Bose TV Speaker better, if I had to suggest one of these to you it would be the Yamaha YAS-109 every time.

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