16 Jul
Blog

The Bluesound Pulse Soundbar 2i is bulky and frustrating

Bluesound Pulse Soundbar 2i Rating 1

"The excellent sound quality is affected by poor design decisions and a poor user experience."

  • Excellent balanced, neutral sound

  • Tons of connection and accessory options

  • Compatible with wireless audio for the whole house

  • Works with Airplay

  • The bulky, high design limits the placement

  • Poor user experience overall

  • Expensive

Bluesound is not a household name, but it is a close competitor to Sonos in the fight for over-connected, intelligent high-fidelity audio. The Pulse Soundbar 2i is the second generation soundbar from the company for the living room and offers serious audio chops.

At $ 900, it's a little more expensive than the Sonos Arc, but doesn't offer Dolby Atmos support like its rival. Does it have other features that could make it a better choice? Let's take a look.

Large drivers, bulky housing

The Pulse Soundbar 2i is not nice. When we review soundbars, we do it from the perspective that they shouldn't draw attention to themselves. The best are slim and compact, and if you have to look at them, they have at least sophisticated lines and a classy finish. The Bose Soundbar 700 is a good example of this.

The Soundbar 2i seems to be the opposite. The Soundbar 2i places more emphasis on sound quality than in a room and is 5.5 inches tall. To put this in perspective: The feet of my 65-inch LED TV from Sony only lift the bottom of the TV a little more than 2.5 inches from the media stand.

That said, if I placed the Soundbar 2i in its optimal position directly under the TV, it would cover about two inches of the bottom of the TV. It's good that the soundbar has an IR receiver in the front, because the IR receiver of my TV is blocked due to its height.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

This isn't ideal, and for anyone with a similar living room setup, the Pulse Soundbar 2i will look incredibly large and just as intrusive. However, if you choose to wall-mount your TV, this is less of a problem. Bluesound contains a variety of wall adapters to simplify this.

If the reason why Bluesound made the Soundbar 2i so big is to record the speaker system, it was mainly the sound quality. The technical data of the drivers in this soundbar are impressive. It includes two 1-inch tweeters, two 4-inch woofers, two 2-inch midrange speakers and two 4-inch passive radiators.

Connected, but confusing

If you're looking for a variety of connectivity options and codec support, the Soundbar 2i is flush with these. It not only supports almost every conceivable audio file format, but also a variety of codecs, including aptX via Bluetooth as well as USB, Optical, RCA Line-In, HDMI ARC and eARC. There is also Wi-Fi for direct streaming from a number of services, including Tidal's master tracks.

If your home has it, chances are that the Soundbar 2i can play it. Thanks to Bluesound's impressive list of support devices, you have many options if you want to invest in this system.

If you want a wireless connection to the Soundbar 2i, you can grab a NAD M10 A / V receiver that supports built-in bluesound. If you have an existing home theater system that you want to integrate the Soundbar 2i into, the company's Node 2i connects the Bluesound app interface to this system and integrates everything into the Soundbar 2i for a multiroom setup without you having to create any new ones Gotta buy devices Got it. The number of add-on options is substantial and there is a lot more going on in Bluesound than in its competitor Sonos.

If you're looking for a variety of connectivity options and codec support, the Soundbar 2i is flush with these.

Unfortunately, I'm not the biggest fan of the Bluesound app, which is the control center for all Bluesounds devices, including the Soundbar 2i. Not only is it faulty, it is also not intuitive to use. Sure, there are many options in the app that allow you to fine-tune the type of audio you want to get out of the Soundbar 2i, but finding and using these features is not what I would imagine. In this area, the Sonos app is much more user-friendly.

The Bluesound Soundbar 2i makes me stupid.

In particular, the use of the Soundbar 2i with HDMI ARC has not been explained in the literature supplied or in a guided setup in the app, and the Soundbar is not intelligent enough to use standard HDMI signals and give you audio.

When I connected the soundbar for the first time and set it up via the app, at no time did I have to activate HDMI ARC via the app to get sound pass-through. I had to go to Google and find out how to get sound from the bar. The device has told me so little about how it works.

This is a step that feels like it should just happen and not something that I should tell the soundbar through the app. At least the app should be more open about what the Soundbar 2i is capable of and how the setup can be completed properly.

RIGHT: This is the home screen and you can tap either the top right or left. | MEDIUM: If you tap on the top right, you can choose which output the soundbar should use. This does not allow HDMI pass-through, but only the volume control. | RIGHT: To get an HDMI pass-through, tap HDMI ARC in the top left. This separation is absolutely unintuitive.

The Soundbar 2i does not have the supplied remote control. I'm not sure how that decision was made by anyone at Bluesound, but I can't get it over with.

Firstly, it is a speaker system for the home theater – it requires a remote control. Second, if you don't have an HDMI-ARC on your TV and want to connect via an optical connection, you can easily change the volume of this soundbar. All controls are in the app (more on that in a moment), but using an app to control your soundbar in your own living room feels shaky and disconnected, not to mention slow and boring. You can pick up the Bluesound RC1 IR remote, but that's an additional $ 60 for something that should have been included. We complained that Sonos overcharged for accessories, but Bluesound takes it to a new level.

On a positive note, the Soundbar 2i can work with most IR remote controls that you will find in a household if you set them up with the app. That sounds great, but the app never tells you that this is an option, and neither does the literature that comes with the bar. You almost have to trip over it as a skill. All of this stems from the problem at hand – the user experience is exceptionally poor. Everything about the bluesound experience seems to have been done by an engineer who wanted to pack as much as possible into the product but didn't help anyone massaging the usability in it.

The Soundbar 2i makes me stupid. Sonos guides you superbly through setting up one of its devices and mixes picture clues with specific instructions so you never feel lost. If you work with many different devices that can offer a variety of services, this type of hand holding is an absolute must. It is a shame that Bluesound does not help you as a consumer because the acoustic quality of this soundbar is excellent.

Powerful, pleasant, neutral sound

I mentioned the impressive array of drivers in the Soundbar 2i, and while they're not pretty to look at, they do provide an excellent listening experience. I am very happy with the sound quality of the Soundbar 2i and almost completely fix the above-mentioned problems with the user interface of the product.

The music bar 2i really sings in music.

The bass in the Soundbar 2i does not match the raw performance of a subwoofer, but it offers more than enough rumble for films and adds depth to the music.

I actually preferred the Soundbar 2i as a music speaker to a home theater centerpiece. While movies sound great, they lack a surround sound feel. Achieving this in a single, center-weighted bar is difficult, but not impossible. The Sonos Arc does a better job in this department thanks to its Dolby Atmos support, and The Fives from Klipsch makes me better with first-class cinema sound thanks to the real separation of left and right.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

While the cinema isn't the best choice, the Soundbar 2i really sings when playing music.

All of these drivers work together to produce a sound that allows you to disassemble any particular instrument in an orchestra or hear the nuances of the melodies in a rock ballad clearly. Bluesound has set its 2i soundbar to work almost like a reference monitor, with incredible clarity and excellent neutral sound reproduction.

I liked the sound from the Soundbar 2i so much that I moved it away from my TV – since it blocked the bottom of the screen anyway – and put it on my coat so that it was in the best position to play music, while I was reading on the couch. It played the sound in my living room beautifully, and when I enjoyed this beautiful musical experience, I complained about how this wonderful piece of sound hardware was held back by UI decisions that were so easy to avoid.

I tried the Soundbar 2i with the wireless subwoofer from Bluesound, the Pulse Sub, but was not impressed. The submarine was slim and easy to connect, but it offered little change in the way I experienced music or movies. Even at maximum performance, it didn't give me the rumble I was looking for. I think the soundbar does a good job of its own so that you can pass the submarine on for the time being.

Our opinion

The Bluesound Pulse Soundbar 2i is a bit strange in the soundbar. It's better in music than in the cinema, is formatted to work well with wall-mounted TVs in particular, and is heavily dependent on its app. Excellent overall quality helps with redemption, but most users should choose Sonos' more intuitive options.

Is there a better alternative?

The Sonos Arc is the most direct competitor and offers the same promises as a soundbar with multiroom connectivity. As a bonus, the Arc is $ 100 cheaper and supports Dolby Atmos. The Bose Soundbar 700 is also an excellent choice, and The Fives by Klipsch offers everyone the opportunity to fight for their money as real stereo monitors.

How long it will take?

Bluesound offers the standard 1 year warranty but the build quality is excellent and I don't expect this device to fail soon.

Should you buy it

No, it's hard to recommend the Soundbar 2i. Despite the excellent audio quality, it works better as a speaker than a TV soundbar, and the user interface takes a lot of work. That makes it a passport of mine.

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