I tested a music-lover's $1,499 all-in-one soundbar — and it's not by Samsung, Bose, or Sony

The Bluesound Pulse Cinema is an incredibly interesting soundbar. It’s $1,499, which puts it firmly in the “premium” category, and it’s all-in-one, which means it has two subwoofer channels in the soundbar itself. So, is all of this enough to make it one of the best soundbars available in 2026?

Unfortunately, not quite. While the overall sound performance is great, a few dialogue issues (and no dialogue mode) prevented it from achieving full marks. Even so, I didn’t have to strain to understand 99% of dialogue — but those rare instances marred my experience. It’s pretty pricey for just a soundbar, and there’s not as much height as I would expect for $1,500.

It’s still a worthy contender, though, especially if you want a soundbar as part of a wider multi-speaker sound system. Want to find out more? Keep reading this Bluesound Pulse Cinema review.

Bluesound Pulse Cinema review: Specs

Bluesound Pulse Cinema review: Price & availability

The Bluesound Pulse Cinema is a pretty pricey soundbar, at $1,499 from Amazon U.S. and £1,249 from Richer Sounds in the U.K.

For a 3.2.2-channel soundbar, this is quite expensive. I’ve tested the 23-driver, 7.1.4-channel JBL Bar 1300X MKII, which is only $300 pricier, at $1,699. I’ve also reviewed the Samsung QS90H ($899), which is fantastic if you want excellent bass without needing a separate subwoofer.

If money is no object, I’d recommend checking out the $2,999 Yamaha True X Surround 90A, which is the most immersive Dolby Atmos soundbar I’ve ever used. There’s also the fantastic KEF XIO, $1,699, which has incredible sound quality and 360° audio.

At the cheaper end of the spectrum, I’d recommend the $399 Samsung Q600F/H or the $699 Denon Home 550 for soundbars with clarity and depth.

Bluesound Pulse Cinema review: Design

The Bluesound Pulse Cinema looks like any other soundbar. It’s pretty plain, but in a purposeful way that means it won’t steal attention away from the rest of your living room. Of course, there’s a mesh exterior and an on-bar button control pad. This illuminates red, green, and blue.

It’s quite long, at 47 inches, so I’d recommend it only for 55-inch TVs and up. Any smaller would look strange. If you’ve a smaller TV, you might be better suited to the 27-inch Bose Smart Soundbar (2024), or the 26-inch Denon Home 550.

The soundbar was much lighter than I thought it would be: 14.8 pounds. Compared to the Yamaha True X Surround 90A’s 24-pound heft and the KEF XIO’s 23-pound bulk, this was noticeably easier to move around. You might not even need a friend to help you set it up.

Controls

There’s no remote, so all your controlling is done via the BlueOS app. I found setting this up relatively straightforward. I had to restart it a couple of times, but it worked without any headache from me. I didn’t even have to set up my Wi-Fi network: the app took the information from AirPlay, which was great. No scrabbling around trying to find that pesky piece of paper taped to the back of my router.

Ideally, there would be a remote, too. What if your phone breaks and then you’re stuck without a soundbar remote? While this likely won’t be an issue 99% of the time, there’s always that 1%.

As I connected the soundbar via HDMI eARC, I was able to control it via my TV and Blu-ray player remotes, so I didn’t have any issues here. Specific adjustments like treble and bass volume controls were easy to make in the app.

Features

I was disappointed to see no dialogue mode or dialogue enhancer. I personally wouldn’t buy a soundbar without this, purely because I like the reassurance of being able to enhance my dialogue if required.

The Pulse Cinema does have “night”, “movie”, and “music” modes. There’s also a “surround upmixer”, “virtualizer”, and “volume leveler”, alongside treble and bass EQ adjustment. The surround upmixer does what it says on the tin — creates a virtual surround sound environment. “Virtualizer” does pretty much the same thing. I didn’t notice “volume leveler” making much of a change, but it’s supposed to make all the soundbar output the same volume. This would be good if you listen to poorly mastered media or if you’re struggling to hear dialogue.

Bluesound Pulse Cinema review: App

The Bluesound Pulse Cinema uses the BlueOS app, which works almost identically to the Denon HEOS app. This is more of a multi-room smart speaker app than the soundbar-specific JBL One app. There’s no room calibration or individual channel adjustment, which is a shame for a $1,499 soundbar.

As you can see, the app has TuneIn and integrates music streaming services like TIDAL and Qobuz, making it ideal for building a general multi-speaker home setup. It’s easy to use and easy to set up, so I have no criticisms here. I just wish it had some more soundbar/home cinema-specific modes.

Bluesound Pulse Cinema review: Sound quality

I test every soundbar in the same room, with “Top Gun: Maverick” on 4K Blu-ray, various other Blu-rays, TV streaming, and music on Qobuz via AirPlay.

Movies

As always, I started with “Top Gun: Maverick”. The opening scene is a goldmine for soundbar testing: high-frequency in-scene sound effects like whirring engines and whooshing ropes, bass-heavy “Danger Zone”, the roaring of jet engines flying overhead.

I could feel the planes flying around me, but I couldn’t hear them tracking over me. This is a similar issue on Samsung soundbars, namely the QS90H and the Q600F/H. I want height and width! I tested the Yamaha True Sound 90A in the same room, and it offered much more height, which is why it’s the best Dolby Atmos soundbar I’ve ever used — but it is $3,000. I’d also recommend the JBL Bar 1300X MKII as one of the best surround sound experiences — it had plenty of height in the same test, and is only $300 more than the Bluesound.

Whooshing ropes were clear, and the grinding of Tom Cruise’s wrench was audible in the following scene. The string-heavy soundtrack radiated through the scene like sunlight streaming through cloud cover — but I didn’t get as much width or depth as I wanted.

I also noticed some roughness around dialogue, as if the soundbar was struggling to differentiate the bass in Tom Cruise’s voice from the bass in the OST. This was also an issue in “How to Train Your Dragon (2025)”, but I’ll discuss that in detail below.

However, during action scenes, the bass performance was good. In the first flying scene — Maverick attempting Mach 10 — I could feel the cabin rattling around, the rumbling of the engine right before the explosion. I did want a little more during the explosion, though.

In the first dogfighting scene, the radioed dialogue was clear, despite the lack of dialogue enhancement mode. The rumbling bass of the jet engines didn’t overpower dialogue. I never struggled to make out speech in this scene.

I also watched “How to Train Your Dragon (2025)”. Hiccup’s voice-over and the OST were both clear in the opening action scene, but the dragon sound effects were the true standouts here, especially in the grove scene halfway through the movie. When Toothless flew away, the sound swarmed from around me.

However, there were unpleasant crackling sounds when the characters were talking and moving. While this might be a “How to Train Your Dragon (2025)” mixing issue, I also experienced some crackling during Tom Cruise’s dialogue in “Top Gun: Maverick”. Amazon reviews mention “bass popping”, but I didn’t experience anything like this.

I also watched the original Disney “Alice in Wonderland”. This movie is encoded with Dolby Digital rather than true Atmos.

“Alice in Wonderland” sounded fantastic. The soundbar had no issues switching from music to dialogue to ‘action’ scenes (Alice falling down the rabbit hole). When Alice fell, my stomach actually dropped thanks to the sound effects. The flutes sounded particularly excellent, and I never struggled to hear dialogue — but this isn’t exactly a blockbuster action movie.

As a final blockbuster test, I watched “The Batman (2022)”. The eerie, tense, string-heavy OST didn’t overpower the dialogue or in-scene TV sounds whilst screeching in the background of the scene. The falling rain was exceptionally wide; I could hear it as if it were actually pouring in the testing room.

The iconic “Something in the Way” scene was my favorite scene of the movie. I could hear Pattinson’s brooding voiceover clearly, despite the music and motorcycle sound effects. I could also make out the newsreader speech and the rewinding sound effects over the music. This performance was really great — much better than “How to Train Your Dragon (2025)”.

TV

To test TV playback, I watched “Interview with the Vampire” on basic Netflix. I didn’t notice any crackling or dialogue hissing here. The saloon-inspired soundtrack danced across the soundstage, but never overpowered the dialogue. In-scene sound effects like crickets and crackling fires were clear and pronounced, but layered perfectly beneath dialogue.

I noticed some compression issues when the scenes switched between voiceover and retrospective scenes. “Interview with the Vampire” is that — an interview, taking place in modern day. The protagonist’s dialogue weaves from “present day” interview answers into the retrospective scenes of which he speaks. During each scene, I didn’t notice any processing issues, but during transitional scenes, some dialogue was compressed.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this experience. I never struggled to hear dialogue or make out high-frequency sound effects.

Music

To test music playback, I listened to a range of genres via Qobuz, our best music streaming service for audiophiles. ‘Von dutch (A.G. Cook remix ft. Addison Rae)’ by Charli xcx is an electronic track with processed synths and rolling bass. Right at the end of the track, there’s a spoken section. This section sounded fantastic. I felt like the words were bouncing around the room.

After, I played ‘I Was Neon’, an indie track with rounded female vocals and slightly crispy guitars. The percussion was a little muted, but not overly so, and the licks of electric guitar after the chorus were particularly melodic. While I wanted a little more control and complexity to the bass performance, at the end of the day, this is a soundbar, not a speaker. This music performance is impressive.

Lastly, I switched to heavier rock with ‘My God Is The Sun’ by Queens of the Stone Age. As with the Julia Jacklin track, the overall performance was good for a soundbar. Homme’s vocals were clear and propulsive, and the percussion wasn’t tinny. However, I wanted more. More bass, more complexity, more passion. At the end of the day, though, this is a soundbar. And soundbars will never be as impressive as genuine music-focused speakers.

Overall, for music, this is one of the best soundbars I’ve ever used. It matches the Bose Smart Soundbar (2024) and exceeds the Samsung Q600H and QS90H.

Bluesound Pulse Cinema review: Verdict

The Bluesound Pulse Cinema is a great soundbar, with impressive width and perhaps the best music on a soundbar I’ve ever experienced. The app is easy to use and straightforward, with no connectivity or setup issues.

Even so, for it to achieve our coveted 4-star rating, it would need a few changes: no dialogue/bass rumbling issues (as experienced during “Top Gun: Maverick” and “How to Train Your Dragon (2025)”, and more premium soundbar-specific features — or a lower price. When you can spend $300 extra for the near-perfect JBL Bar 1300X MK2, or save $600 and get the all-in-one Samsung QS90H, why wouldn’t you just do that?

I think I would buy the JBL Bar 1300X MK2 over this model due to the more expansive sound and room calibration tools, but the Bluesound Pulse Cinema is still a great option if you want to build a multi-room smart sound system.