To say that the bass response of the Beam is satisfying, even impressive would be one of the bigger understatements regarding this soundbar’s performance. If you need more bass, Sonos charges extra for that in the form of their SUB Gen 3, which will set you back an additional $749! That said, in a bedroom or small room setup I do not believe the Beam NEEDS a sub in order to sound full-range or fulfilling in the bass department. I’m happy to report that the Beam is the real deal and in many ways may be the sub $1000 soundbar to beat, but let’s really break it down.įirst and foremost, the Beam, unlike a lot of soundbars, does NOT come with a wireless subwoofer. I was genuinely surprised by its sound quality. WAS IT WORTH OUR MONEY!? (drum roll) YES! The Beam is rather special. Okay, so enough about the nitty-gritty, how does the Beam Gen 2 sound? Does it live up to the hype AND was it worth the wait? Well - After having our review requests go unanswered for over a year while you guys continued to talk them up, I will admit, my expectations were pretty darn high. I found that after about 20 minutes of use, the App was pretty much second nature! HOW DOES THE BEAM GEN 2 SOUND? While I understand you can control the bar via its touch controls or somewhat through your voice truth be told, I tried these methods just to say that I did, but ultimately relied on the App more. And speaking of Apple, I was rather shocked to find native support for Apple Music! While it’s not hard to find a third party app with support for Spotify, TIDAL or even Amazon Music, the Sonos App is the first that I’m aware of with support for Apple Music, which for me is a big plus. For starters, it’s pretty great! Clearly, Sonos has taken a page from Apple in creating an App that is very polished, and relatively easy to use. Let’s talk about the Sonos App for a second. I recommend doing this because if you want to give the Beam voice commands either through Alexa or Google the speaker itself has a microphone for that! SONOS APP Trueplay and the Sonos App will commandeer your phone’s microphone in order to take measurements of the Beam in your room, but before you freak out and start looking for big brother, know that you can grant the Sonos App temporary access to your microphone in order to complete this step, and then turn off access once done. While Trueplay doesn’t completely alter the sound of the Beam, it does help with respect to intelligibility and overall clarity –not to mention spatial quality. Once connected to the App, you get full control over the Beam and the ability to tailor it to your listening space, which is an important step to get the best sound out of this particular soundbar. While perhaps not AS plug-n-play as the LG Eclair, it’s NOT that far off with respect to simplicity. Setting up the Beam soundbar for the first time is pretty straightforward. You also have some measure of voice control thanks to support for Alexa and Google Assistant, but mainly you’ll have to rely on the free Sonos App, which allows you to adjust the bar’s tone, dialog and night modes, not to mention run its auto-EQ program, Trueplay. DOES THE SONOS BEAM HAVE A REMOTE?Īlso absent is a physical remote control, though you can control the Beam via its touch-sensitive controls located along the top of the bar itself. But the Beam isn’t limited to just physical connections for it has support for WiFi, AirPlay 2 but strangely, no Bluetooth. ![]() ![]() You also get Ethernet connectivity which allows for streaming. The HDMI port can also be adapted using the included optical to HDMI cable, which allows the Beam to work with older displays that may not have HDMI ARC/eARC capabilities. The website claims DTS surround compatibility, though if you read the fine print, Sonos is careful to say that DTS support, “is not an indication of a licensed decoder.” That’s weird. Clearly the Beam gen 2 supports Dolby Atmos signals, though it does not have DTS:X support. The Beam has a single HDMI port that supports ARC/eARC. In terms of connection options there aren’t many. Speaking of subwoofers, the Beam is designed to be an all-in-one solution that can be expanded to include a dedicated Sonos wireless subwoofer and surrounds should you want, though both are optional extras, which we’ll discuss in a bit. The Beam utilizes three passive radiators to help give this small bar a more full-range sound without the need for a separate subwoofer. ![]() The SONOS Beam, now in its second generation, is the brand’s smallest, all-inclusive soundbar featuring Dolby Atmos with five drivers, each driven by their own Class D amplifier.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |