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.

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.

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.

Very impressed with this soundbar after getting it, setting it up and using it for music, TV, and movies. Setup is quite simple but you'll want to make sure that if you're setting it up with your TV that it has the HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel) or an optical audio output as there are no other inputs on the bar. While there are minimal connections it's important to note also that most newer TV's support the HDMI ARC and/or have an optical out for audio and it's well worth it as it's super easy to setup with very minimal cables. Inside the box, you'll find the soundbar, a user guide, HDMI cable and an adapter cable for an optical output. Setup is easy! Connect it to your TV (again - on the HDMI ARC port) or via the optical out with the included adapter. After that, power it up along with your TV, then install the Sonos app on your phone or tablet. Once that's done, setting up a Sonos account only takes minimal information and then it guides you through configuring and setting up the sound bar. What is really cool is the audio tuning that it does to adapt the sound to match the room and setup you have - very cool! A tip though.. make sure there's no background noise and that you take the case off your phone or tablet and follow the instructions closely or you may end up going through it a couple of times like I did. Once that's done, it's ready to go and configured so you can change inputs on your TV to whatever your video source is and the audio will play to the speaker instead of the TV (note that you may have to set your TV to play audio to external speakers). You can setup Alexa and it seems Siri and Google Assistant are coming too which will enable you to use your assistant. Another AWESOME feature is that it supports Airplay so you can push audio to it from your iPad/iPhone, and even from Android as well. Now for the best part, the sound quality! Wow, I was very impressed and definitely did not expect the sound quality that it has. It's volume is loud and more importantly sounds rich/full/balanced which is amazing considering it's size! It sounded every bit as good as my old soundbar/subwoofer, and doesn't have a subwoofer! You can of course easily pair up other Sonos speakers to make it truly a surround system and even add in a subwoofer too which i do want to look at adding. The best part is Sonos makes it easy to add speakers and setup multi-room audio so this will be on my list to do. About the only thing I can say so far that I found Sonos could have improved on was including a way to wall mount it (which, yes, you can purchase it separately but was disappointed as to why it was not included so you can). Second would be the lack of connection options for people with older TV's but of course this would complicate setup and add wires so there are drawbacks to that. Outside of that, I am very pleased with this sound bar and would VERY MUCH recommend it to anyone looking for a good upgrade - especially if you're looking for multi-room audio. All in all, a very solid system!

I have used multiple sound bars in the past 2-3 years as I disliked the visual appearance and overall complexity of using a full 5.1 or 7.1 setup for multiple years and finally with the Sonos Beam I feel as though we are almost at a perfect spot for sound bars. Firstly, the appearance of this device is wonderful as it is so sleek and minimalistic that it fits perfectly into nearly any space without taking up a massive amount of room or looking overly bulky. You can tell that attention to detail was made throughout the product as one thing I do appreciate is that the top is concave so that you are not seeing the power lights out of the corner of your eye while trying to watch something. This attention to detail is also evident in the power cable and included HDMI cord as there is no big brick for the power cable and both cords are very thin and give a sleek appeal that is perfect for concealing in an entertainment setup. The simplicity and minimalistic aspects with devices nowadays is something I have really begun to appreciate to which the Sonos Beam fits both those nearly perfectly. Setting the Sonos Beam up is similar to that of other Sonos products as you simply set it up through the app on your phone and with using 2 additional Sonos Ones as rear speakers connecting them together was extremely fluid (especially compared to running speaker wire throughout a room/wall and to a receiver). It took less than 10 minutes to set everything up through the app to which the majority of the time was spent waiting for wifi and everything to connect to each other. Then with using the app and having Alexa built in there is no need for a remote which is great because having multiple remotes can become annoying once devices and streaming products are added to a setup. Also with just having one HDMI cord and the power cable running from the sound bar cuts down on the clutter of wires tremendously. Then the sound of the device to which is the obvious main purpose of buying the Sonos Beam was definitely solid for only $400. Obviously larger sound bars may have more bass and speakers with the size increase, but for the price this sound bar definitely competes with those in the $500-$600 range and with the additional Sonos speakers setup as rear speakers it definitely competes with a full wired setup plus you obviously are getting the addition of Alexa versus a higher priced sound bar or traditional setup. With Alexa though this is my only con of the Sonos Beam or else it would be a completely perfect device that I would recommend to everyone. I unfortunately am someone more entrenched in the Google Assistant ecosystem (whole other discussion) and as of yet Sonos still does not have this available for any of its products though supposedly it is on the horizon. The other difficulty I did have was at times Alexa did not hear me while I had a movie or music playing and I did have to raise my voice in order to trigger an action, but this is something that at this price point and with all the other various positive aspects is nitpicking, but it was nearly the only negative I experienced. Overall though, I am extremely satisfied with the Sonos Beam and when/if Sonos ever does roll out Google Assistant compatibility this would definitely be a top notch product as the appearance, simplicity, and sound are exceptional!

I was pretty excited to try this device, but ultimately was left very disappointed. First off, I had never owned or used any previous Sonos product. We have a few Amazon Echos that see a significant amount of use for listening to music, setting timers, checking weather - basic stuff mostly. And we needed a soundbar for the living room TV. Reviews from around the web seemed very positive, so I thought this would be the product to replace the Echo in the family room and provide that soundbar for the TV. I knew that if I liked it I could add a Sonos subwoofer and 2 surround Play speakers at a later time. Had it for over three weeks, but ended up returning it. Main reason was the crappy Amazon Alexa performance. Compared to an actual Amazon device (the Echo it was replacing for instance), the response time from this guy was noticeably slower. To the point that it was just painful to try to interact with. Furthermore, the microphone response for Alexa activities was really pitiful. I would say it only caught the activation word about 25-30% of the time. Compare that to >90% for the Echo that was in the family room before this Sonos speaker arrived. Furthermore, it fits into the Alexa framework as smart home device instead of an Alexa speaker. What that meant was that it could not be added into a group with the other Alexa devices in the house (for getting mult-room audio for example). It also could not be used with Alexa's drop-in feature, and so on. I expected it to behave a lot more like a first party Alexa device, and was just completely let down on that front. It could turn on and off my TV using the voice commands, but that proved to be of very limited appeal. It didn't seem like it could do any other useful TV controls (and the TV is a 2017 LG OLED, so it's pretty new and unlikely to be the culprit). Related to the Alexa performance - you have to use the Sonos app and sign up with Sonos account to get this thing to work. But making it work with Alexa as a smart home speaker means going back and forth between the two apps. Go look up the directions on troubleshooting Alexa issues on the Sonos speakers - it's bananas. There is clearly some integration issues and complexities associated with both Amazon and Sonos pushing their own ecosystems and devices. I had thought that with the Sonos I would be in a neutral zone of supporting many services (like our Roku devices do for video), and that was partly true. I was able to get the Sonos to interact with my Plex server to play local music content. But frankly, no one else in the household was going to use this - they just wanted to say "Alexa... play some music." So when Alexa capabilties sucked, it ruined a lot of the appeal. The good? Sound quality was good. It might even have been great, but it was mainly used as a TV soundbar, and I'm not an audiophile. Suffice it to say, I wasn't blown away by the sound quality. It could get loud without distorting, that was nice. The dialog enhancement was very good to improve TV viewing. But ultimately the diminutive size made it behave in most ways as simply a center channel speaker in your traditional 5.1 speaker setup. You didn't really get any left/right separation. Bass was rather limited by the size as well. Maybe if you had a small apartment this could fill the space with impressive sound (like those old Bose wave radio commercials would claim), but it didn't work that well in the living room space I put it in (14' x 20' with 9' celings). Speaking of 5.1, this thing would only support decoding of dolby digital sound. For a device in this price range in this day and age, that was just pathetic. Design and looks were nice but I don't buy speakers for how they look, I buy them for how they perform and how much value they offer. This one is overpriced and underbaked. I'm pretty confused how people are reviewing this thing so highly. Maybe they had already gone all in on the Sonos ecosystem. But if you are coming to this device for the Alexa integration, just stay away.

Please be advised that according to the Sonos support tech I spoke with, there is a known compatibility issue between their devices and ASUS RT-XXXX series routers. I also saw scores of postings online from people who had issues with a Sonos device and ASUS RT-XXXX routers. If you have an RT router and are considering the Beam or any other Sonos device, I would first check for known compatibilities. This in itself isn’t a guarantee, because I was told a certain setting was the culprit but disabling it did nothing to fix the compatibility issue between my router and the Beam. I’ll share more further in my review. I was so excited to use this new Sonos, I immediately gave my existing soundbar to my daughter. The existing system (different brand) had a subwoofer and sounded pretty good but I figured the premium sound of this Sonos would be a worthy replacement, even without a sub for now. The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was that there were very minimal instructions. It was no biggie because installation is literally three steps: plug in power, connect included HDMI cable to soundbar and television and install the app. The remainder of the setup is performed through the app which provides step by step instructions. I installed the iOS version of the app and created my mandatory Sonos account. You can’t do anything without the app and an account, so don’t even think of skipping it as an option. You cannot enable the Beam to even simply work with the television without the app. My excitement diminished pretty quickly when the Beam wouldn’t connect to my Wi-Fi. I tried numerous times and methods to connect to Wi-Fi. I even moved to within five feet of the router but still, nothing. knew something was wrong when I finally relented and connected the Beam via ethernet as instructed by the app. Even that didn’t work. Eventually, the Beam stopped responding altogether and just stood there flashing like a useless brick. Since I was stuck with no apparent way to proceed, I called Sonos support. The call took about forty minutes between the hold time and actual troubleshooting but the techs were very nice. The techs advised me that there is a compatibility issue with Asus RT-XXXX routers. A quick search of the web confirmed tons of people with compatibility issues between Sonos products and ASUS routers. At first, they thought it was the usual culprit, a setting named “airtime fairness” being enabled in the router. However, I disabled the setting and still could not connect via wifi or ethernet. I removed the ASUS and the tech walked me through how to reset the Beam. You have to unplug the Beam, hold down the button in the back, plug it in and continue holding the button until the light on top flashes alternately between amber and green. I finally got the Beam connected to my ISP’s cheesy router instead of my very pricey and very fast ASUS router. I still haven’t decided if getting the Beam to work is worth the sacrifice in Wi-Fi speed. For now, I’ll keep it connected but it may end up the odd device out if I get tired of this pokey slow ISP router. Sound quality is decent but not what I would specify as spectacular, especially for such a pricey soundbar. The highs and mids sound good and clear but the bass is simply adequate. It’s okay for casual viewing or listening but if you’re a bass head, you will definitely want to splurge for the pricey optional subwoofer. This is especially true if you want to listen primarily to music through the Beam. Best way I can describe the sound is that it sounds like one of those overpriced curved bedside radios. The sound while viewing movies and TV shows is good but a little on the quiet side. I have to adjust the volume up significantly to get comparable loudness to the soundbar it replaced. Whereas the previous soundbar would fill the room (and adjacent rooms) with loud teeth-rattling sound and booming bass during movies, this sounds more like a basic soundbar than a home theater. Granted, the previous soundbar had a sub-woofer but even with the sub, it costs less than half the price of this Beam, so I expected it would compensate a little better than it does. The Sonos app is okay but a bit weak. The setup and interface with the Alexa app was easy but the app offers nothing really special beyond basic Bluetooth speaker functions. I don't need an app to stream music to a Bluetooth speaker. I have several far more capable and better sounding Bluetooth speakers that I stream to just fine. The fact that the Sonos app works with certain services isn't necessarily a plus to me. There also aren’t really any truly helpful sound tools beyond a basic EQ. The sound settings category was the first thing I headed to after my initial disappointment with the volume. There’s a loudness button but even when enabled, the volume is still too low for my tastes. My overall impression of the Beam is still pending. If I were forced to make a definitive judgement right here and now, I’d say I’m currently in the “it’s not so hot” camp. The compatibility issues with my router and the setup headaches that resulted were bad enough, but factor in the weak app and the somewhat disappointing sound quality and loudness and it didn’t exactly make the best first impression. One thing I wish they’d change is the inability to use this without Wi-Fi. Look, I get it, it’s all about connected smart home devices these days. However, there is nothing “smart” about a device that gets bricked by lack of Wi-Fi”. At the very least, Sonos should allow for a right out of box option to simply connect and use with the TV without a mandatory app pairing and Wi-Fi setup, if nothing else. But on the flip side, it does show potential and fares far better with music than movies. A sub would make it more suited to my tastes but not everyone is a bass head and it sounds really good for pop, rock, most jazz and other genres that don't require a ton of bass to sound good. This is why it's so hard to make a definitive judgement. However, if a friend did ask, I wouldn't try to dissuade them. I would absolutely recommend they try it but I'd also share my personal experience so they get another perspective. I know some people who would love the Beam, warts and all. It's nowhere near bad enough for me to say "absolutely not" if a friend were considering it. As long as they aren't dependent on an RT-XXXX router.