well here we are three soundbar options
from sonos but how do you know which is
right for your setup let's find out
[Music]
welcome guys to our 2022 sonos soundbar
comparison video which hopefully will be
all you need to watch to find out which
sonos soundbar is right for you and yes
we've even got a sound test so you can
listen to the differences between all
three and that's done by our other
reviewer the binaural mic so stick
around for that to help you work out
which soundbar is right for you i'm
going to cover design features and
control sound quality and then some
recommendations on which soundbar to go
for in your home who knows we might even
save you some money in this video don't
forget we love to review these products
but if you're interested in picking up
one of these feel free to head over to
our website
where you can purchase one with a
six-year extended sonos warranty and
30-day hassle-free returns policy i
expect there'll be lots of questions on
this topic so pop your questions in the
comments below as we like to base our
content around what you guys are asking
so out of the three sound bars in the
sonos lineup the first generation beam
was the first to hit the market
back in 2018 i think and it was
essentially a more compact and
affordable alternative to the bigger now
discontinued sonos playbar rip now the
beam was actually updated to the second
generation this one here in 2021 which
came with a number of improvements which
we'll get into later and has an rrp of
449.
alongside the beam we also have the
sonos arc which arrived in 2020 and was
the replacement to the sonos playbar now
the arc was a big shift away from the
design of the playbar and is now sonos's
top of the range atmos soundbar option
which comes in at a price of eight nine
nine and then the most recent addition
to the sonos lineup is the sonos ray
here released in 2022 which happens to
have the smallest footprint out of all
three and can be purchased for 279
pounds so essentially we're sort of
looking at a good better best situation
but best might not necessarily be best
for your setup which is why i'm making
this video for you guys if one of these
sound bars would be your first sonos
product it's worth knowing that all of
these sound bars are wi-fi only so to
set them up you would give each of them
mains power make the necessary
connection from the soundbar to the tv
and then use the sonos app to complete
the setup and this is a really
straightforward process as these are
wi-fi soundbars there's no bluetooth so
all of your music control is going to be
done using your phones and tablets
around the home either through the sonos
app directly or using a separate service
like spotify connect or airplay 2 or
with your voice on the beam or the arc
now i know the lack of bluetooth is
often a gripe about some sonos products
but connection over wi-fi does actually
offer a more solid connection from your
device to the soundbar and there's no
interruptions from what bluetooth might
cause such as pausing the playback when
someone calls you for example being
wi-fi enabled as well it also means
you're part of the sonos ecosystem so if
you add more sonos products over time
you can connect them all up to play the
same thing or different audio in
different zones and again that's easily
controlled in the sonos app now if you
would like a full tour of the sonos app
link to that video will be here or in
the description after you've watched the
comparison of course so if we take a
closer look at these sound bars then as
you can see they're all quite different
in their own right and that's why we
tend to find that the aesthetics of the
soundbar actually plays quite a big part
in your choice
now as you can see the arc is the widest
out of the three coming in at a total of
114 centimeters so i would have to say
that you do have to have a minimum of
about a 55-inch tv to ensure it looks
natural underneath your tv now the beam
and the ray you could get away with
using a tv smaller than 55 inch
especially the ray which i think is a
nice size right down to tvs which are
maybe 32 inches or even a monitor on the
other end of the scale you don't want to
have a massive 75 inch tv with a little
sonos rail beam because the sound bar
will end up looking very small in
relation to the tv so that's the first
tip i'd give you consider how large your
tv is going to be because that might
actually narrow down your options fairly
quickly a similar point to this is
starting your purchase decision with
your room size now while this is not the
be-all and end-all and i'm not going to
give you exact room measurements for
each soundbar it is an indicator to how
much you need the soundbar to fill your
space in general an arc will fill a
larger open plan space better than the
ray but it might be overpowering in a
small more compact room back to the
design of these soundbars there now all
three bars can be purchased in both a
black or white color and they can also
all be wall-mounted too using separate
wall mounts and i think there's even
options for fixing the soundbar onto
your tv's existing wall bracket or using
a cantilever so your tv and soundbar can
move together at the same time
now all three sound bars use a similar
material which is a sort of
polycarbonate material around the
outside and a perforated grille and i
have to say i really love the design of
all three of these products i find that
with most sonos products they age really
well due to their minimalistic and
understated design oh and then on all
sonos products you actually get these
sonos touch control pads as well
consisting of volume controls
play pause you've got skip track
previous track and in the case of the
sonos beam and the arc you also get an
additional microphone privacy button
which will actually cut the power to the
microphones because the beam and the arc
have the ability to use amazon
and google assistant as well as sonos's
own voice assistant built in so you can
use the sonos as a voice assistant too
to get your music played news updates
etc there's loads you can do with it now
the ray doesn't have this feature
unfortunately so that's why that button
isn't there but it is still possible to
integrate the ray with any other
or google home devices in your home it
would just mean your commands would go
through that device and not the ray
so as you can see i've flipped all of
the sound bars around i'll get my
editors to zoom in and as you can see
they do all look quite similar now on
the beam and the arc you've got your
power you've got your ethernet you've
got a single hdmi arc connection to your
tv and a join button for connecting to
your wifi now on the ray you don't
actually get that hdmi arc connection
and instead you get an optical port so
what is the main difference between them
well on the beam and the arc these both
have dolby atmos support and in order to
get dolby atmos out of the soundbar you
must connect the soundbar to a dolby
atmos enabled tv by hdmi arc or e-arc
now on the ray you are limited to a
maximum of dolby digital which can be
carried by a standard optical connection
so now you might be wondering what the
difference is between dolby digital and
dolby atmos well atmos is the latest
advancement in sound processing so
essentially this is object-based rather
than channel based and that means that
when a film is made with atmos the
directors have much more control over
exactly where individual parts of the
sound will pass through which ultimately
for you the viewer you get much more
immersion most newer movies are
available in atmos now so this will be
the norm going forward but there is
still a huge amount of content already
filmed in dolby digital and lots of tv
channels still broadcasting in dolby
digital so when you watch a movie that
supported atmos then you'll receive
atmos of course through the beam or the
arc but if you're watching through the
ray this will still give you dolby
digital surround sound which is great
now unfortunately this topic is endless
and it really deserves a whole video on
its own but for the purposes of this
comparison i'm just going to say that if
atmos is on your list of boxes to tick
then you'll need to look at either the
beam or the arc right then let's
smoothly segue into each soundbar's
internals then talk a little bit more
about the sound profile of each product
now first of all what i particularly
like about all three of these sound bars
is that sonos have focused a lot of
attention around how they can maximize
the size of each individual driver while
minimizing the size of the soundbar
itself both in terms of width and height
because at the end of the day as tvs get
slimmer and slimmer there's increasing
pressure on soundbar manufacturers to
produce slim sound bars that also sound
great now you can also take advantage of
something called true play tuning on all
three where as long as you have an ios
device or you can borrow one if you
don't have one you can acoustically
optimize each soundbar for the
environment that they're in by telling
sonos where your seating position is and
walking around the room to measure the
room's acoustic now that's really great
added value by sonos and within the app
you can also change things like bass and
treble if you have particular
preferences there as well
starting off with the internals for the
sonos array there now you get a total of
four class d amplifiers which are
powering two tweeters for the vocals and
high frequencies and two midwifers for
the mid-range now you also get this
proprietary bass reflex system on each
end of the soundbar which will amp up
those lower frequencies and make the
bass a little bit more distortion free
which i have to say it really does quite
well now a big thing to note about the
ray is that this is classed as a stereo
sound bar so that means all of your
content is going to be passed through
either the left or the right channel as
it doesn't have a dedicated center
channel itself
and that means you can achieve up to a
maximum of 4.1 dolby digital once you've
added a pair of sonos speakers for your
surrounds and a sonos sub now all of the
drivers are facing the same direction
which is directly in front so the ray is
great for sliding into a tv stand or a
media cabinet or in a cavity where the
sides are enclosed in the beam we take
it up a notch and you now get five class
d amplifiers which are powering a single
tweeter and four full range woofers now
two of those woofers at the end are
actually outwardly facing almost 45
degrees for a wider sound stage you also
get three passive radiators which again
really helps the bass and the lower
frequencies achieve more impact and boom
without sounding distorted now a big
difference between this and the ray is
that the beam is a 3.0 sound bar in its
own right so that means it has a front
left and right channel as well as a
dedicated center built in
from a sound perspective you also unlock
dolby atmos support and the beam will
use its internal processing to give you
the illusion that the sound is coming
from above the tv or to the side which
it does a really great job in doing
despite not having dedicated sideways
and upward firing channels
in simple terms that means the sound has
more places to go so the level of
separation and the detail is higher on
the beam than the ray however the arc
really steps up a few gears now as the
number of drivers increases up to 11
class d amplifiers which are powering
three silk dome tweeters and eight
elliptical woofers to create a 5.0.2
configuration on its own now unlike the
beam and the ray two of those woofers
are sideways firing which is actually
quite rare to find on a soundbar and
another two are upward firing which you
can actually adjust the
intensity of in the sonos app so these
are really useful for atmos content and
projecting the sound much further and
wider than its physical form and sort of
bounces the sound around the room so if
you'd like to get the best of the best
for what sonos can do and the
advancements in atmos these days then
the arc has been crafted with you in
mind
so without further ado let's show you
how they sound then using our binaural
microphone so make sure you grab a pair
of headphones so hopefully the
differences between each one are then
clearer now of course the sound quality
is not going to translate 100 accurately
over youtube but hopefully i can give
you an indication of the differences
[Music]
here we go again huh
[Music]
hello girl kick your ass
[Music]
here we go again huh
so
[Music]
here we go again huh
[Music]
hello girl kick your ass
[Music]
tears
oh
[Music]
so i hope the differences translated
across there for you guys my general
summary is that all three sound bars
have excellent vocal clarity you should
have been able to really make out the
singer's lyrics and the dialogue i think
sonos had done a fantastic job in making
the sound profile of each soundbar
almost the same but it's put on a larger
scale as you go up the range now as you
upgrade from the ray to the beam or from
the beam to the arc the mid-range the
bass and the size of the soundstage are
noticeably more impressive from the ray
to the beam you can notice it straight
away the sound is more encompassing it
has sort of more bass impact and the
level of detail is higher
of course this is just taken to another
level with the arc because of those
sideways and upward firing drivers now
the microphone might not have been able
to capture it i don't know as it is only
two channel but the sound can really
reach areas in your room that you never
thought were possible if a helicopter
was to fly over you actually get the
impression that it's going above the tv
which you just don't get as much with
the ray and the beam those three
tweeters as well instead of one also
help the vocals to sound as clear as
they possibly can be
one thing i think is good to highlight
actually is that all three of these
sound bars offer what's called speech
enhancement and night mode in the sonos
app the speech enhancement essentially
boosts the audio frequencies that are
associated with the human voice which
basically means your dialogue is boosted
and then night mode is handy when you're
listening at low volumes if it's late at
night things like that and what it will
do is reduce the intensity of those
louder sounds while slightly increasing
quieter sound so that means you're not
going to have to turn up the volume when
you're listening to quieter dialogue
heavy scenes
so as you can see i've added in a sonos
sub and a sonos rear now if you're not
familiar with sonos or you need a
refresher you can add rear surround
speakers and or a sonos sub to all three
of these sonos soundbars a great little
perk is that if you do decide to add
surrounds or a sub to your sonos
soundbar they will free up some of the
processing power for your sonos soundbar
by offloading some of those channels in
coding now i'd say for the beam and the
ray most of you are first going to want
to add surrounds first but not only
because this is the next affordable
upgrade but also because this has a
significant impact to the dynamics of
your system we have done a full video on
adding sonos surrounds to a sonos
soundbar so do check that out for our
recommendations but the essentials to
know is that adding those surrounds will
work to bridge the gap between the front
and the rear which will then put you in
the center of the action a great example
of this is if you're watching sport you
actually feel like you're in the stands
with the fans due to the nature of the
sound
and then the serp is usually the last
element to be added primarily because it
comes with a higher price tag of course
and we usually find that the beam and
the ray could be used in rooms which
might not need extra bass or you might
have bought them on the premise that you
can listen without having to worry about
disturbing your neighbors if you do
choose to add a sub to the beam then
that's a really nice combo for those who
listen to bass heavy tracks or lots of
action movies if i'm being honest i
wouldn't recommend adding the sub to the
ray because it will most likely be
overpowering and that extra budget can
then be better used elsewhere now if
rumors of a sub mini ever came true then
i think that'll be a great combination
with the ray for the ark you may wish to
add a sub or surrounds first depending
on what you're looking for so if you're
going for a more cinematic feel then the
sub brings you closer to actually being
at the cinema using that deep rumbling
bass
if you're looking for more immersion
from having the audio all around you
then of course the rears will be a good
addition
what will be a very interesting
comparison is the beam and 1sl setup
versus the ray and sub mini if that
option ever came so i think my job here
is to make your decision easier about
which soundbar to choose so in order to
do that the first question i think you
should ask yourself is are you
interested in atmos support and pursuing
the best sound quality available at the
moment if so i think you can discount
the ray straight away of course not
forgetting the raid doesn't offer voice
support either
this is really a no-fuss soundbar for
those that would like to enhance their
tv audio make the vocals crystal clear
and add a new dimension of sound to
their viewing experience now where we
find the ray really useful is for those
people that want to fill a room with
great sounding music but also for a tv
so it can double up as a sound bar for
your tv and a speaker to stream music to
and that's why this is a great soundbar
for a bedroom a gaming setup or a snug
area and as i mentioned earlier is the
only one you can use if the soundbar is
going to be enclosed in a shelf or in a
recessed area really in fact it might be
that the ray is a great first or second
sound bar for your home depending on
your requirements now the beam versus
the arc debate is not quite so
straightforward and really
i'd love to have a conversation with
each and every one of you so i don't
need to make general comparisons
ultimately which one you should go for
here should largely depend on how
seriously you take your movies and music
yes the arc is better there is no doubt
there but the being does offer more
performance per pound so the budget you
have and the space you're looking to
fill really play a large part in the
beam or the arc debate the arc has also
been designed with atmos at the
forefront with those dedicated upwards
and sideways firing drivers to really
get the most out of atmos content
however the arc's physical dimensions
means you do have to consider your
current tv setup and room size to make
it worth it as well as how much you're
pushing your budget of course
so if there are any limitations here the
beam gen 2 is an excellent middle ground
option as it can still give you that
atmos experience but at a smaller
footprint and budget now we do actually
have a dedicated video on choosing
between the arc and the beam which will
be in the description below if you'll
find that useful now guys if you do want
any other comparisons of different
setups and combinations then comment
them down below and i'll try to help you
out so i hope you found this showdown
useful remember the links to each
product are in the description below
where you can find the latest pricing
and take advantage of our six year
warranty if you wanted to now let me
know in the comments which one you'll be
choosing i'm really interested to hear
your thoughts thanks for watching as
ever and i'll see you very soon