Clean only with dry soft cloth. Household cleaners or solvents can damage the finish on your Sonos products. Saying that we were very impressed by the width of the soundstage. You get the sense that the action onscreen is taking place all around you without adding additional rear left or right speakers, like the Sonos One SL.

Five far-field microphone array uses advanced beam forming and multi-channel echo cancellation so your voice assistant can be readily activated. And while the Beam is almost unbelievably spacious for its size, it doesn’t quite fool you into thinking you’re listening to a proper surround sound system. Effects stretch right across the front of the room, well beyond the dimensions of the screen but they don’t stretch up the sides of the room. This is an affordable soundbar that most could find space for, and that will prove a transformative upgrade on the sound coming from a TV's own speakers. The presentation simply smashes expectations, particularly in terms of width, depth and three-dimensionality.Gunshots echo and ricochet far out to the left and right, and much further into the room than you’d expect. The best TV mounts for Sonos Beam are the perfect way to clean up your home theater by bringing both together up on the wall. These mounts put the Sonos Beam directly underneath your TV, right where it belongs, and they hide all of your wiring behind them, giving your set up a nice and tidy look.

As already mentioned, there's also no Dolby Atmos support here – for that you'll need to spend extra on the bigger, newer (and also brilliant) Sonos Arc. Sound Besides the neatness of the connection, the other advantage of using HDMI ARC is that it allows the Beam a certain amount of control over your TV, as long as it supports CEC (Consumer Electronics Control). This means that, thanks to voice support on the Sonos Beam, you can turn on your TV and adjust the volume with voice commands. Still, the new Beam can cope with 32 channels of audio and even eight-channel 24-bit/192kHz uncompressed 38Mbps data streams. In other words, as well as supporting Atmos, it can play hi-res audio files of your favorite songs. One new connectivity feature for the Sonos Beam is HDMI eARC compatibility, which the company says will bring a “richer, more immersive, and higher definition sound experience”. Compared to the HDMI ARC connectivity found on the original Beam, eARC can handle more advanced audio formats and deliver superior audio quality.It’s a shame there’s no HDMI 2.1 support, which would allow for 4K at 120Hz and even 8K at 60Hz pass through—which, in turn, would make the Beam ideal for 8K-supporting consoles like the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. On the subject of sound formats, it’s important to ensure all of your sources are sending Dolby Digital signals to your TV, and that the TV can accept and send them to the Beam natively. Depending on the devices involved, this can be a fiddly process, but it’s worth making the effort as Dolby Digital signals result in a far better performance.

Like the original Beam, the new Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is a compact soundbar that can easily fit under most TVs on a cabinet or be mounted to a wall to keep your living room clutter-free. This product does not have any user-serviceable parts. Do not open or disassemble or attempt to repair it or replace any components. Refer all servicing to Sonos qualified service personnel. Servicing is required when the apparatus has been damaged in any way, such as power-supply cable or plug is damaged, liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into the apparatus, the apparatus has been exposed to rain or moisture, does not operate normally, or has been dropped. While the general audio performance of the Beam (Gen 2) was impressive, we weren't fully convinced by the virtual Dolby Atmos. As vending machines propelled soda cans over the heads of the characters on screen, the sound did provide a sense of height, but we didn't get the feeling that it was coming from above our heads. In this time of age brand loyalty and word of mouth are very important to any company. I will never ever in my life buy another Sonos product or recommend it to anyone. All the trust I had on Sonos is now destroyed.Then there’s the weight. This scene has a deep, club-like bassline that the Beam has no right to reproduce with anything like the depth and authority it does. This is chunky, solid, grin-inducing bass. The Beam can go loud, too – few will ever complain that it doesn't have enough volume. It’s extremely high quality and well-engineered. I have no hesitation in recommending this to anyone who has a Sonos Beam. Google Assistant: you’ll need the Sonos app and the Google Assistant app. You’ll make some changes in both apps during setup. Learn more The Beam is, though, about as musical as a dispersive soundbar can be. You sacrifice some directness due to the angling of the drivers but for a device designed first and foremost as an AV product, the Beam makes for a solid music system, with good tonal balance, bass weight, rhythm and punch. It’s a deep, spacious, atmospheric delivery, with echoes and reverb and three-dimensionality, but, unsurprisingly, it’s not surround sound. For that you’ll need to add a couple of Play:1s or pay the extra for the Arc, which is an upgrade on the Beam in every conceivable way, not least in terms of its room-filling ability.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to use the Beam’s room calibration feature, TruePlay, which tunes the ‘bar’s sound to the dimensions of your room. One key difference between the new Sonos Beam and its predecessor is the design of the grille, which is now made of plastic rather than a woven fabric. This design choice is more in keeping with the Sonos Arc, and as the company points out, it’s far easier to clean than dust-attracting fabric. We asked Sonos whether the new grille brings any acoustic benefits, but the company told us it’s purely an aesthetic choice. Protect the power cable from being walked on or pinched, particularly at plugs, convenience receptacles, and the point where they exit from the apparatus. Improper or inadequate wallmount installation could cause your device to fall, resulting in personal injury.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is the perfect soundbar for smaller spaces

Connects to WiFi network with any 802.11b/g/n, 2.4 GHz broadcast-capable router. 802.11n only network configurations are not supported—you can either change the router settings to 802.11 b/g/n or connect a Sonos product to your router. Use your voice to control your Sonos system with any voice-enabled Sonos product—play and control content, turn the volume up or down, and more. Use the included Sonos Optical Audio Adapter to connect the soundbar to your TV if you don’t have an HDMI ARC port. It felt like the virtual height channels cut out around the top of our ears. While this did feel more immersive than a non-Atmos soundbar, the effect wasn't as impressive as you get with the Sonos Arc, which features up-firing drivers. At 2.72 x 25.63 x 3.94 inches (H x W x D), it’s much smaller than the company’s flagship soundbar, the Sonos Arc, making it ideal for smaller spaces.