Sonos Beam - Smart TV Sound Bar with Amazon Alexa Built-in - Black

beagn bought this to go with my 35 inch iltrawide monitor. I know some people find it too big for a computer setup but I find it looks fine. I was not super impressed with the sound out of the box. Probably because I expected something close to the sonos playbar. After a while though I start appreciating the sound coming out of the sonos. I also have a homepod in that room and I can say without a doubt that homepod doesn't sound as good. Mostly the base. The homepod base Max out at around 40 percent. Higher volume it feels like only the mid and high frequency goes up. The beam definitely has a better base response. Being so close to the speaker I can't hear a really wide sound stage. It does sound good but it's not impressive compare to the playbar. As per my hookup. I originally wanted to hook the beam to my Mac mini via the digital optical output using a mini toslink to toslink and then use the toslink to hdmi that is included but I couldn't make it work. Not sure what kind of signal osx can output but the bean never recognize it. I had to purchase an USB sound card to make it work. I purchase a creative omni. I used the optical out of that sound card and the bean works flawlessly. Didn't had any problem for almost a month now. I didn't test for latency but for watching movies it was fine.

I recently purchased an 82" Samsung Q8 TV and researched the heck out of soundbars to use with it. For reference I have Martin Logan speakers with Parasound and Adcom electronics because I used to be heavily into audio, but I really wanted to simplify my life and clean up the clutter in the family room. Enter the soundbar search! I still had a little bit of the audio snob in me because at first I decided that I really needed Dolby Atmos, so I was close to pulling the trigger on a 1.5k Samsung or Sony system. But then enter a whole bunch of technical gobbledegook about needing eARC and current HDMI ARC outputs not being upgradeable and lack of streaming Atmos content and yadda yadda yadda - ok forget Atmos. So I decided to heck with Atmos, just give me a basic soundbar. Then I was about to pull the trigger on a $100 Yamaha when I realized it didn't have HDMI ARC. That was the one thing I wasn't going to compromise on - I wanted the soundbar to act like the tv's built-in speaker, and HDMI ARC allows the tv remote to control the volume of the soundbar vs optical requiring you to use the soundbar's remote. I wanted to simplify my life and getting rid of remotes was part of that! I had just gotten my first Sonos speaker for Christmas, a Play:1. So I started looking at Sonos soundbars. Sadly neither the Playbar nor the Playbase has ARC. But surprisingly their cheapest, smallest speaker - the Beam - does have ARC! Finally I pulled the trigger and got the Beam and another Play:1 so I could have a pair for surround. Ok finally the actual review - everything works flawlessly. Really, that's all you need to know right there. Setup was a breeze, my tv works fine with the Cox cable box connected via HDMI and the Beam connected via HDMI ARC. Alexa works fine for playing music and radio. Spotify and Pandora stream perfectly. The sound is good but obviously doesn't compare to my previous setup, but it's less than 1/10th the price so I can't complain. After the Sonos auto-tuning I did adjust bass down one notch and treble up one notch. The system sounded a bit closed-in at first, like it was buried under a few towels, but after a day or two either I've gotten used to it or the speakers have broken-in and now sound much lighter. The Sonos app confirms that they are receiving the Dolby Digital signal, so yay. For people that are true movie lovers that like to play at Dolby reference levels (i.e. really loud), this speaker will probably not do it for you in the bass department. For normal people, I think it's perfectly fine. The bass is not really deep, but is certainly adequate and definitely much better than the tv's built-in speakers. If Sonos offered a $200 sub, I'd be all over it. But I'll pass on their $700 sub. The little Beam does look puny sitting under my 82" tv, so if the larger Playbar had ARC I probably would've bought that instead both for looks and a wider soundstage. Yes, another small nit is that the soundstage of the Beam is not huge at lower volumes, so if that's important then maybe keep looking. For my purposes, it's just fine. The soundstage does seem to get larger at higher volumes which is nice when you're ready to sit and watch a loud movie, but it's not going to make you think you have a left-center-right setup. Note that since the Beam and Play:1 surrounds are all linked together into a single room/system, you can't stream to them individually. I'm not sure why you'd want to, but if you wanted to maybe pick up a surround speaker and take it outside and play it by itself without playing the rest of the speakers, you'd probably have to undo the surround configuration. Also fyi, the Sonos TruePlay speaker auto-tune software is not available for Android (iOS only). It's not a huge requirement but worth knowing. Bottom line - it has HDMI ARC, it sounds great, everything works as advertised. Highly recommended unless you're the type that needs a subwoofer and plays movies really loud.

Antes que nada a mi la calidad de sonido me ha fascinado no esperaba tanto poder de una barra de sonido que se ve un poco simple, además de que no es "estorbosa" y no tiene ese acabado plástico glossy que es un imán de huellas. Hice varias investigaciones sobre que sería en general lo mejor para una barra de sonido de este rango de precio con lo que se encuentra en el mercado y al final me decidí por Sonos, he tenido un par de dispositivos Bose pero siempre hay como una falta de bajos increíble donde todo al parecer suena en la misma frecuencia, cuando lo comparas con esta barra hay una diferencia muy marcada en la que Sonos si tiene bajos tal vez no los de un home theater surround pero no estás pagando por eso a este precio. Ahora los "peros" al parecer Sonos en la mayoría de sus dispositivos no tiene soporte bluetooth todo se hace a través de wifi si quieres reproducir musica desde tu celular puedes hacerlo usando Airplay que es bastante fácil cuando usas iOS o a través de la conexión wifi eso es algo frustrante pero no algo que me haga devolverla ya que casi todo mi ecosistema está basado en iOS. No incluye control remoto, todo lo haces desde la aplicación o en caso de que esté conectada a la TV con el control de la tele, el set up no es complicado una vez que ya has podido emparejar la barra de sonido con tu celular pero es un poco tedioso no es lo mismo que solo conectarse vía bluetooth en dos toques de la pantalla y listo. Hasta ahora son las únicas cosas que he encontrado que aunque no me hacen devolverla porque la calidad de sonido le ha ganado a cualquier pero que le he hallado, aunque sí me gustaría que otras personas supieran antes de adquirir un equipo de estos, ya que esperan que hagan de todo por el precio. No es una mala compra pero hay que saber que estás comprando.

I had a cheap smaller TV soundbar but wanted to upgrade. Since I already own a Sonos 1, I knew that Sonos has great sound quality for the price. Having the ability to use pair up the Sonos Beam with the Sonos 1 made it an easy sell. It was super easy to set-up since my TV has an HDMI ARC output and so far Ive been extremely impressed with the Beam for TV/Movies/Video games. Pairing with my Sonos 1 is even better when listening to Spotify. I haven't taken advantage of the Alexa integration, but I dont really feel the voice activation is necessary. Bottom line: strongly consider Sonos if you're looking for a new sound bar for your TV, especially if you've already got other Sonos products.

WHY DID I GET THIS? DID I NEED IT? I already had the basic Sonos Play:1 Speakers (without Alexa built in). I already appreciated Sonos’ no-nonsense setup for the speakers I already had and thought that the Sonos Beam would be a simple way to add Surround Sound to my TV audio setup (using the Play:1 speakers as my rear speakers). I’m really pleased with the way that I was able to simply set up the beam as my front speaker and the quality of sound is as good as most other surround sound setups that I have used in the past. While I don’t consider myself an expert audiophile, I certainly enjoy good sound for music, TV, and movies and the Sonos Beam is a great way to upgrade sound quality for any sound needs that I have. I’ve used high-end systems running wires through walls connected to expensive amps and quite frankly, the Sonos setup is the most elegant, simple to set up, all without compromising on great sound. Even though in the past I’ve gone to great lengths to have good sound (cutting drywall, running lines, adding power), I don’t think I’ll ever have to do that again now that I’m invested in the Sonos ecosystem. [ Side Note: philosophically, it’s as important to me to be invested in a good ecosystem as much as just having good equipment - I think Sonos’ ecosystem is super stable and scalable as industry leaders in the smart/wireless speaker world] WHAT DOES IT DO? Obviously, Sonos has built its reputation on providing solid, great sound experiences. The Beam is no different and Sonos once again nailed it through this product. I think the most important feature of the Sonos Beam is that without compromising on great sound quality, the set up is so simple and all I needed was plug-in outlets and voila! It was all set up to use seamlessly with my TV, smart home setup, Apple Music (or Spotify), etc. DOES IT WORK AS IT SHOULD? I think any reviewers complaining about difficult setup must have gotten a faulty product. We have 3 different Beam set ups and they were so easy to install and then optimize through the Sonos app. IS THERE ANYTHING I DISLIKE ABOUT THIS PRODUCT? Of course, I wish everything in life was cheaper, but the price is ultimately worth it. The only thing that I wish Sonos did better was provide simple solutions to hang under TVs. We have the Beam shelf, but we don’t find it worth the price. IS THERE A BETTER PRODUCT? I’m sure there are better sound quality products out there, but probably none that are as easy to set up and just work straight out of box like Sonos products. Obviously, I’m a big fan here now, but I’m always on the lookout and have tried several different products over time (Samsung speakers and sound bars that are just as expensive, Yamaha set ups, different 7.1 setups), but frankly the ease of use and the ecosystem that Sonos provide make this the superior product for our family’s needs with music, TV, and movies.