Sonos beam review6/13/2023 Yes… What about the Playbar? The older sister. Once the Google Assistant comes to Sonos we’ll be excited to use it with the Google Chromecast which is definitely more popular in Australia. The Sonos Beam is always listening (unless you mute the mics) so you can continue to use it when the TV is off, we loved it for getting a Flash Briefing in the morning or starting our Roomba vacuum. “Alexa, play this through the whole house” (this works if you have other Sonos speakers in the house) Outside of the TV controls you can also use it for music functions “Alexa, turn the lights down” (this works if you have smart lights)Īnd after some chill, “Alexa, order an Uber”. “Alexa, play House of Cards on Netflix” (this only works if you also have an Amazon Fire TV stick ($60) connected to the TV) As tested Amazon Alexa is simple to setup on the Beam and this is where you wonder how you would use such a feature in the lounge-room. Today it supports Amazon Alexa and soon it will give you an option to use Google Assistant instead. With five microphones built into the Beam your voice is easily detected from across the room without yelling. Moving away from audio from the Beam, speaking to your soundbar is now a thing. Keen for a bit of extra bass? The Sonos Sub will work with the Beam too, so technically you can build a home theatre slowly if money is tight or go big bang and load a room with power. Two Sonos One’s will do the job and all they need is power, the app will do the rest and make it all work for you. While the Beam will be fine alone you might want to add a left and right rear speaker pair. What we love about Sonos systems is how they can work together. To create true Atmos you need a heck of a lot more speakers and a much larger investment. It won’t for a minute fool you into performing Dolby Atmos like sound and it is simply because it is not designed for it. From a television and movie experience it performs very well to bring audio cleanly to your ears. When music is flowing from the Beam people will ask you “Is it just that speaker producing that level of sound?” and “all that from such a small soundbar?” Yes, it is impressive. The Beam will play music in an average sized lounge room with ease, it will be the centrepiece for audio in your home if you let it. *The Sonos Beam is not huge, it does not pack as many speakers as a Playbar, it also costs less. So, does the Sonos Beam sound good? Yeah* It’s amazing how many people invest in amazing televisions yet ignore how much of a difference audio makes to the total experience. You’ve bought it because televisions today are so thin that they leave little room for good speakers. The most important part of a soundbar is in the name. You’ll also need to set your TV to start firing audio out of the HDMI ARC port (or optical) to ensure you’re using the Beam and not fooled by the TV speakers. This will however limit functionality beyond the audio which we’ll address later. For those customers you’ll be able to use the Optical connection from your TV into a supplied adapter. Rewinding a little, HDMI ARC is not available on all televisions and not all televisions will have a HDMI output. The rest is in the Sonos app on iOS/Android/PC/Mac, it takes seconds to name the room it is in, setup Amazon Alexa and use TruePlay to tune the sound of your new speaker in the room it belongs to. We unboxed, plonked it in front of the TV, HDMI to HDMI (ARC) on the TV and one connection to power. If you’re privy to Sonos, you know it is almost entirely plug and play. Fortunately, everything was still well protected and easy to unpack. With the Beam, and likely future products, you’ll have less waste and the focus is on what is inside. Their prior products were luxurious from the moment you left the store, it was theatre to unbox a Sonos product. Sonos has opted for a much more sustainable, environmentally friendly approach to the packaging of the Sonos Beam. Given we already had some Sonos gear it was perfect to not only test it for what it is but also add items to the system to compliment it while also pitching it against existing Sonos products such as the PlayBar. When we were first introduced to the Sonos Beam, we experienced it, spoke to the people around the product and drank the Kool-Aid. In the case of the Sonos Beam, a simple looking soundbar, the devil really is in the detail and you absolutely discover new ways to use a soundbar the more you spend time with it. Some products are immediately obvious in how you’ll use them and sometimes the more you use something, the more uses you find for it. Sometimes the devil is in the detail and sometimes it is smacking you right in the face. It isn’t everyday that a product makes you sit up and pay attention.
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