So with the Sonos roam right around the corner I’d thought that we’d get to check out Sonos a
little bit cause I’ve never featured any of their products on the channel before. So today we’re
going to check out the Sonos Beam, their entry-level sound bar. And you know,
even though you can get a great 4K tv these days for not all that much…
if you’re still using your TV’s built in speakers you’re really missing out on a lot.
So first there’s price. The Sonos Beam retails for $400 which isn’t too bad. Now for the purpose of
this review we’re going to be looking at the Beam by itself. But if you want to you can always get
the Sonos Sub which retails for $700 which I feel is a little pricey… So yeah I don’t think a lot
of people are going to be pairing the Sub to the Beam cause the Sub costs almost twice as much as
the Sound Bar itself. Nonetheless if you want to pick this sound bar up it’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about the design of this speaker. I feel the Beam has a cozy
look to it mainly cause it has this fabric mesh wrapping its body and it has this concaved top.
Where as a lot of other sound bars will might have a more industrial look to them cuase they’ll
opt for a metal grill on the front and just be all around flat. Now the beam has a rather
small foot print featuring a length of 25 and a half inches and a width of 4 inches… But I can’t
help but notice that this sound bar is a little thick coming in at 2 and three quarter inches.
Now there aren’t any display panels on this sound bar which I think is great… sound bars
should just be heard not seen, but there are two indicator lights on the top of this
sound bar which thankfully you can turn off through this sound bar’s app. Now on
top of this sound bar there are a few capacitive buttons to control your music playback. You
can adjust the volume by tapping on either side and you can skip through your music by swiping.
Now personally I think its great when sound bars have built in control buttons cause a lot of
people like to use their sound bar and play music when they’re entertaining guests… So I think its
great that you or your guests at least have the option of controlling your media directly from
the sound bar without having to alway use your phone or TV remote. But
over all the Sonos Beam is a compact sound bar that you’re not really going to notice
too much which is what we want from a sound bar.
But now lets talk about tech specs. Regarding ports the beam is pretty simple, we’ve got our
AC port for power, we’ve got an HDMI port, there’s an ethernet port if you want to hook this Soundbar
directly into your network and finally there’s this paring button if you decide to pick up the
Sonos Sub. Now I want to quickly bring some attention to the included cables here. These
cables feel very premium, specifically they’re very flexible and they’re pretty long. Making it
easier to wire this Soundbar up into your set up. Its not a big deal but its a nice touch.
However there is one very important thing to point out here and thats this Soundbar
doesn’t have an optical port. Now you do get this Optical port to HDMI adaptor
just in case your TV doesn’t have an HDMI ARC port… but its pretty clear that Sonos
would much rather you use an HDMI connection with the Beam. But I also gotta point out that the Beam
does come included with an HDMI cable which is a very nice touch cuase a lot of other Soundbar
still come included with an optical cable, and if you want to use an HDMI connection…
and you should use an HDMI connection… you gotta get your own HDMI cable.
Now continuing on the topic of connectivity, the Beam has wifi and it has Airplay 2 support. Which
is great if you’re an iPhone user cause as long as you’re connected to your wifi you can stream music
to your beam from any of your apple devices. And if you’re signed into your Sonos account
on either an iPhone or Android device you can stream music to your beam.
But unfortunately the Beam doesn’t have bluetooth, so lets say your friend is
coming over and they want to DJ they can’t just easily pair up to this sound bar using
a Bluetooth connection. I just feel that this over reliance on the Sonos App and wifi to stream
music to your Soundbar does have a bit of a walled garden effect which im not a fan of.
Now while we’re on the topic of Wifi I do want to mention voice assistants
cause it is tangentially connected. The Beam has support for both google
assistant and Alexa. So if you want to you can always use this sound bar
as a smart speaker and you can always use voice commands to control your music playback.
But if you don’t want to you don’t have to use a voice assistant on this smart bar.
Some people don’t like using voice assistants cause of security concerns… but personally
I don’t like using voice assistants on my sound bars cuase sometimes there can be accidental
activations while im watching something which can be a little annoying.
Now when it comes to speaker set ups there’s actually a lot going on under here. The Beam
has a single tweeter right in the center, there are two frontward firing woofers flanking either
sides of the tweeter… theres also a second pair of woofers on either end cap of this sound bar
that shoot out at like a 45 degree angle and then there’s a pair of
frontward firing radiators and there’s a third radiator that shoots out the back.
So there’s definitely a lot going on under the hood here. Now through Sonos’s app you can adjust
the EQ of this Soundbar. Now just as a heads up before we jump into the sound test we are
using my EQ settings here where I raised the bass and lowered
the treble a little. Cause out of the box this Soundbar those skew a little on
the brighter side. But with all that being said lets jump into the sound test.
So like you may have just heard, obviously the sound bar is going to sound way better
then your Tv’s built in speakers. Your Tv most likely has a pair of downward firing transducers
that bounces sound off of your table. Now besides your TV’s built in speakers just not sound as open
or as loud as a sound bar… the biggest issue for your TV’s built in speakers is bass. Like you may
have heard in this sound test when the bass really got going you heard whole lot of rattling.
Where as with the Beam there is no rattling. Now over all the Beam sounds good and its definitely
going to add an extra level of immerseivness… But like I mentioned before the sound test,
the beam does skew a little towards the brighter side. Now having a brighter sound signature is
good cause it puts an emphasis on vocals and dialog… but when it comes to bass and actually
feeling what’s on TV this sound bar does leave you wanting more.
Now in general you shouldn’t expect a whole lot of wall shaking bass from your
sound bar by itself… and if you really want a lot of bass you can always pick up the Sonos
Sub. But when compared to other sound bars in the same price range and similar speaker
set up… The beam just isn’t pumping out at much wall shaking bass as its competition.
So over all, the Beam sounds good and its definitely going to be an upgrade over your
TV’s built in speakers… But the beam doesn’t sound as full when compared to similarly priced
and designed sound bars on the market cause it does lack a little bit when it comes to bass.
Now you can always spring for the Sonos Sub and thats going to be a whole other story…
But for the purpose of this review we are evaluating the Sonos Beam by itself.
So with all that being said, the Sonos Beam is a decent Soundbar thats obviously going to sound way
better than your TV’s built in speakers. Its compact and has a very subtle design to it so
this sound bar is simply heard and not seen. If you want you can either user Alexa or the Google
assistant with this sound bar and through its app you can adjust how this sound bar sounds.
Now even though the Beam Sounds decent, this sound bar does skew a little towards the brighter side
and its bass can leave you wanting more. Now even though its great the Beam has Airplay 2
support which could be very useful for iPhone users… I feel that its over reliance on Wifi
and lack of bluetooth could be a quirk for some fringe cases to look out for.