Sonos - Beam Soundbar with Voice Control built-in - White

The Beam is the newest Soundbar from Sonos. It's smaller than the original Soundbar, simpler to connect and adds Alexa voice integration and Apple Airplay 2. Like other Sonos speakers, sound is rich and clear. Through the controller app, there's a room specific calibration, eq, night mode and voice enhancement settings. It does, as expected, produce a much richer sound than the TV speakers. It has four woofers and one tweeter. As a member of the Sonos system, the soundbar can optionally be paired with a Sonos subwoofer and a pair of Sonos speakers (Play:1 or Sonos One) as surround speakers. In this set up all the speakers work together in a group like a single system. Airplay 2 allows to use the whole Sonos system in addition to grouping Apple TVs (4 or newer) to play music from any app on iOS or macOS. Connecting it requires a power cable and HDMI 'ARC' from a TV: Most newer TVs have a single HDMI connector that's designated 'ARC' (Audio Return Channel), so whatever audio comes with the video on the TV is transmitted back through this port. Additionally the speaker can turn on or off the TV and the TV can control the volume via the CEC signal that’s transmitted via the same HDMI cable. The drawback is that this uses one of the few HDMI inputs on the TV. The 2017 model TV we're using the Beam with has 4 HDMI ports, but only two of these are 4K, ad one of these two is the ARC port (HDMI 2 in our case). So there is only one HDMI 4K port left that's where we have an AppleTV. Sonos Beam also has an alternative connection adapter that takes an optical audio input, found in most TVs (TOSLINK) and connects to the HDMI input on the speaker. The soundbar won't be able to turn the TV on or off (via Alexa) with this system. The Beam also has an infrared receiver that learns the volume commands from the TV remote. Because of this excellent integration, it doesn't have a separate remote control. It just works with either the TV's remote of the AppleTV remote in our case (The AppleTV uses the HDMI CEC connection to get the volume controls across). Setting up the Beam requires a phone or tablet: Download the app, start it, and then press the pairing button on the Beam, and within seconds it connected, asked for WiFi connection and was set up. It didn't require the phone to pair with a temporary WiFi network like other speakers do. It's very simple to do. In my experience simpler than setting up the Echo or other speakers. The soundbar doesn't have a Bluetooth connection like other speakers do, but the Sonos system is fantastic. It connects to every single music provider I could think of, including Apple Music (Not just Airplay 2 but native integration), Spotify, Pandora, Google Play, Internet radio, Plex, etc. Also, if using iOS, Airplay 2 is a better choice than Bluetooth. Then there is Alexa integration. While it's not the same as an Echo device (It's an 'Alexa enabled device'), it does pretty much anything an Echo does but doesn't currently support communications, drop ins or announcements, also doesn't join Echo music groups, although I can tell an Echo speaker to play music on the Sonos. Also, and this is different than other Echo speakers: When it wakes up with the Alexa keyword and is listening to a command it plays a chime. This is to announce that it's listening, but Echo devices don't do this and I initially found it very distracting, although after a week got used to it. Note that while voice with Alexa can control a Sonos playlist, if asking Alexa to play something it works like Echo devices, as it plays from the music sources configured in the Alexa App. There are four touch-sensitive buttons (not physical buttons, they're part of the surface, touch sensitive): Volume up/down, play/pause and mic button. There is a small white light for the mic button and a small light for the play button that changes color/intensity depending on what it's doing. It's quite faint and not distracting. The soundbar itself is quite compact, and while it's primarily designed to be sitting on a TV stand, it can also be wall-mounted, but the wall mount is extra. I'm disappointed that the wall mount didn't come with it because it doesn't use standard mounts. Sonos sells a custom wall mount for the Beam and a 3rd party mount to use as an under-cabinet speaker. The mount was quite expensive although I'm impressed how well it's made. It's a thick metal piece. The mounting holes fit like a glove, it has a felt backing so it doesn't mar the wall and is very simple to install either between beams or with anchors.

Where do I begin? I have had this speaker for 5 days now and I am amazed by the sound, design and functionality. I am new to Sonos in the last few weeks; I have Play Ones throughout the house, so I was definitely interested in the Beam for my office TV. Like all Sonos speakers, the Beam is packaged nicely and easy to get up and running. Simply plug in for power and run the included HDMI cable to your tv's "ARC" HDMI connection. I'm no techie, but it seems as if ARC gives you some two-way options as opposed to just sending audio and video. It allows a simpler connection to the tv, no need to program a remote and it also can turn the TV on when directed to. I love that. I have had Amazon branded Alexa devices throughout my home and have added smart lighting, switches and TV controls to complement my Alexa setup. The only issue was sound quality which is what led me to Sonos. The "Ones" blew me away and I was excited to try the Beam and replace an Alexa device in my office. The Beam has the same Alexa controls on the top center of the speaker that are on the One. Setting up Alexa through the Sonos and Alexa app is simple but these do not play as friendly as say an Echo. You cannot rename devices or customize alerts, etc, in the Alexa app. I am confident that these are options that will be added in the future, but I am ok with losing those options if it means superior audio. I will say that having Sonos Alexa devices throughout the home is a little more confusing than the Amazon branded devices as they do not pick up on the closest speaker like Echo's do. At times, when saying Alexa, multiple speakers are ready to listen and sometimes the closest one is not the one listening. I have the Beam in my office hooked up to a TV that runs off of an Amazon Fire TV. This is a nice combo as i can turn on the TV with my voice and have some control of content and TV volume. Again, I find that Echo devices play better with the Fire TV as well, but I'm sure that will be fixed. Any knocks on Alexa functionality is forgotten when you turn on your tv and hear the amazing sound coming from the Beam. I have Polk Omni sound bars in 2 other rooms and the Beam blows them away, but not on bass. Each sound is heard clearly and sounds beautiful, not just at high volumes. There are great options to hear voices better and a night mode so I do not disturb the neighbors late at night and still have great sound. There is plenty of bass for me in my office from the Beam, but if I had this in my larger living room, I would definitely want to add the Sonos subwoofer. In a smaller room, this is not needed, this speaker rocks! One of my knocks of the Polk sound bars are that they do not sound great playing music. This is not the case with the Beam. It sounds as good as the Sonos One Stereo pair setup in my living room, if not better. To me, this is one of the features that separates the Beam from other sound bars, the music sounds incredible. Switching back and forth between TV and music is easy to do with the TV and the Sonos App. I also tried a setup with 2 "ones" as rear speakers and it created an incredible surround sound experience. In this setup I would definitely recommend a sub, more bass was needed, but it still sounded fantastic. Conveniently enough, Airplay 2 is now supported by Sonos and I find it more reliable than choosing music through the Sonos app, but maybe I just have to get used it. The app seems to get confused by audio playing from different sources and it is something I need to get adjusted to. It is much better than the Play-Fi app, but it needs some improvement. More Alexa customizations and creating groups that can be saved would be nice. The speaker is elegant, blends in well and the sound is mind blowing, great job Sonos. The Beam is a bargain at $399 and I plan on adding another one in my bedroom.

First off the speaker sounds fantastic, providing impressive range and presence for its diminutive size (2.75” tall, 25.5” wide, & 4” deep). Setup was simple and straightforward. The Beam interfaces with your TV using ARC via an HDMI cable., making the setup fairly simply if your TV supports it. Otherwise, Sonos provides an adapter to convert it to optical audio (toslink). I opted to connect the Beam via ethernet, but it can be connected to your network wirelessly via a dated 802.11 b/g or to a speaker mesh (SonosNet). Adding Alexa (Google Assistant wasn’t available at time of writing) required bouncing between services in order to allow access and add the device, which is straightforward for most. Alexa worked on the Beam as well as any other echo device I have used. Setting timers, asking questions, and playing music all performed as expected. I don’t use Alexa often so I appreciate that Sonos put the an LED on the same circuit as the physical microphone, providing a visual indicator of when it is on. The microphone must also be enabled or disabled by physically touching the controls on the Beam, another privacy detail Sonos considered. Airplay 2 worked well, playing music on the Beam from my iPhone or HomePod when requested. I actually find the Beam sounds better then my single HomePod, providing a much richer sound that fills the room. Even out of the box I was surprised by bass response from 4 small woofers and clarity from a single tweeter. After optimizing the soundbar for my living room (17’x17’) using TruePlay in the Sonos app, the spatial audio improved further. Filling the space with immersive sound, the Beam is surprisingly effective considering it’s footprint. The Beam can even be expanded into a full 5.1 system by adding two rears and a sub. As mentioned the bass is great, but not quite as good as a soundbar and dedicated sub combined. Unfortunately, the Sonos sub offered costs more then the Beam itself! I would like to see Sonos offer a slightly cheaper sub, but that isn’t an issue with the Beam. I’m also not a fan of the fabric grill on the Beam as opposed to the perforated hard surface on the Sonos One. If you are in the niche market shopping for a smart speaker and soundbar to use in the same room, Sonos has you covered. However, I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a discrete soundbar with great sound that can also integrate with practically any music service or platform.

Unboxing/Set-Up: Minimal packaging, not many parts, the unit it self has a decent weight, and it comes with a power cord, HDMI cable, and Optical Output to HDMI converter if you don’t have room for the HDMI cable, and want to use the Optical Audio Out. The power cord has no ugly brick to it, so one less thing to worry about. I have mine set up with the HDMI to Optical Audio Out, and connected to my home network via Ethernet cable (Not included but I have a lot of them, so it wasn’t an issue) Configuring the Sonos Beam was not difficult at all. Download the App, and it walks you through configuration. One thing I did note, the Bluetooth connection for my iPhone didn’t want to pick it up, which is fine, the unit does not use Bluetooth for streaming at all, just initial set up. So, create your account, follow the guide. One thing to note is the tuning, which I found rather amusing. The Sonos app used my iPhone’s mics to tune the bar to the room. This apparently does not work on Android, so if you have a friend with an iPhone, use theirs if it’s that important. Not sure if Sonos is working on integrating the tuning on the Android platform. Once all that is done, it’s ready to go! Use of the app is a bit... odd for me. I airplay my music from my phone or Apple TV. I only use it to change settings and to control Alexa, which is a learning curve on its own, coming from a Siri user, and then Alexa can play from apps like Pandora/iHeartRadio, which is cool. It’s also nice to be able to ask it questions and have it respond. The mics are good about picking up your voice, even when it’s cranking music. Appearance/Controls: My TV stand is black tempered glass, and the Sonos beam blends in with it, almost to the point I forget it is there, until I see it’s single LED indicator light. There are five total buttons. In the back, the Link button, which is used in the set-up process and four touch-capacitive buttons. Volume Up/Down, Play and Mic Mute. To skip tracks on the bar, you swipe left or right. There is no input selection as that is all done through the app (Though, so far it switches automatically when I turn on my TV, after streaming from my phone). It does have an IR sensor, so my TV remote can control the volume level. Sound: In my opinion, I am very happy with the sound, its well balanced and projects rather well for a sound bar. My mom’s sound bar is dwarfed by this thing. Highs and Lows are produced nicely, and you’d never guess there is no subwoofer with how much bass it cranks. From music to video games, sound is produced phenomenally, and I certainly am driven to expand it with more Sonos products later. I honestly love listening to my music with this thing and playing video games with it is just fun to hear all the sounds.

Growing up in an audiophile home I was very quick to scoff at the Sonos products. But like most young men, I had a young lady start hanging around and my large Klipsch speakers with a “confusing” receiver had to leave the living room. Little did I know that Sonos products were an easy, user friendly, and surprising high quality sounding solution. I bought this Beam first to help keep my setup clean and was so impressed I added two Play1s as my surrounds! Setup was a breeze (no running speaker wires a breath of fresh air) and once I tuned the system I was very impressed with the sound.

Smart Home, Smart Sound. A sound system that gets better with time. The SONOS sound bar was easy to set up and use. The ARC connector from my TV via a HDMI cable lets the SONOS built in ALEXA app control both via voice. Basic functions as a standard sound bar (speaker and amp.) Just connect to your TV via HDMI cable, your network either via WiFi or hardwired cat5e or better cable, plug into AC and done. Last, run the simple set up APP and in 10-minutes or less great audio throughout the room. Here is what I learned by delving deeper: The system actually learns to sound better. Using your smart phone, the speaker can be used to emit varying sound that are picked up by you smartphone as you wander through the room. It then self tunes the system for even better sound quality. An optical adapter cable is included if your TV lacks an ARC port. I hooked up my bedroom TV via this and it performed flawlessly. So now instead of a radio clock I let ALEXA lull me to sleep with music and wake me up like an alarm clock. Its like having another echo DOT but with concert hall sound!. Use the app to connect to your favorite music library, apps and more. Even have your audio books read in a super clear natural sounding voice. I'm truly loving this. And if I want the app knows to stay quiet when others are sleeping in another room. 5-stars for this alone! I should mention the equalized is in the app. They thought of everything. ( If they didn't they can fix it via software.)

The Beam is great because it sounds good for movies, music, gaming, and sports. Most soundbars sound good for movies but no soundbar this size or in this price range sounds better for music. To hook it there are 2 wires...one for power and an HDMI to the TV. You can adjust all the settings through the Sonos app. Here are the pros and cons: Pros: 1. Great sound quality. The sound is full and distortion free. 2. Easy to setup. It took less than 10 minutes to get it working with my TV after taking it out of the box. 3. Compact size but powerful. It takes up very little room on my TV stand and it gets loud. I stream video from my Apple TV 4K and Roku Ultra and the sound is clean, vocals are clear, and the bass is full on both streaming boxes. 4. Expensive but worth it. The fact that I can use this soundbar as a speaker to play music when the TV is off adds value over the long term. Software updates also keep the soundbar at peak performance...most other brands can't make that claim. Cons: 1. No Dolby Atmos sound. I do like up firing speakers on Atmos soundbars but in a bedroom without high ceilings you can hear directional sound from left to right. 2. I highly recommend adding a subwoofer. You do get some bass but once you add the subwoofer the overall sound is like night and day. The only problem is a Sonos gen 3 subwoofer is expensive. You can add it later though and it's worth every penny. Soundbars that come with a subwoofer have a subwoofer that sounds like trash and are generally bad for playing music. 3. I wouldn't recommend this soundbar for a living room, den, or any room with high ceilings. The compact size works against it in bigger rooms. Bottomline...this is the best compact soundbar you can buy. You can add more speakers over time to build an even better sound system. I'd easily recommend to family and friends.

For the record, I have 4 pairs of standalone tower speakers by different brands but I don't use them since you need to be hooked to the power plant directly to run them. Sonos does speaker optimization like no other. You can listen to this speaker at 45db (quiet library) average and enjoy all the nuances of the proper recording. Deezer offers you 5 band EQ just in case you are not happy with the Sonos one. So unless you are a bass chaser this does not require the Subwoofer as most other small speakers do. TV aspect I won't even review since it covers a wide gamut of bad broadcast quality. If you are not an "Audiophile" snob you'll agree this is the best bang for the buck.