Sonos - Beam (Gen 1)

I started with a beam…then a sub…then era 100 surrounds. I was happy. Then I found a killer deal to buy a 2nd hand arc with sub. Now I have an arc, surrounds and 2 subs. It’s a slippery slope my friend.

Compared to TV speakers? Absolutely.

Honestly. You’ll love it. Get the beam, enjoy it for a few months. Then get the surrounds. You can get used and refurb ones quite cheap now as I don’t think they make them anymore? Could be wrong.

I’m running a Gen 1 Beam in my main bedroom with 2 x Play:1s as rears, and it’s a great soundbar for that size space. The Beam tends to struggle a bit in larger spaces though, so depending on how big your room is, thats something to keep in mind.

Dedicated front/center speakers are always going to be better than a soundbar. BUT I just sold my Klipsch 5.1.2 system and purchased 2 era 300s to go with a not yet purchased Arc Ultra. In the mean time I’m using an existing Beam that we had in another room and the 300s as surrounds. I’m amazed at how good it is for our use cases (TV, Movies, Music, but we have a young child so never super loud) to the point that I’m delaying purchasing the Arc Ultra and sub until they come down in price a little. I am also someone who has struggled with app issues but this was a breeze to set up and I love all the control I have. I can set the 300s to play music at full instead of as surrounds _automatically_ which is something my old system couldn’t do. And they’re all wireless. I’m genuinely surprised.

Get the beam mate!

It works because it’s hardwired into the TV. But it will not connect to my Sonos system anymore. And to clarify, they often connect, but they disconnect within a day or two

The beam is still a great piece of equipment. I’m happy with mine. I’m even happier with the set up after I got the mini sub though. If you can get one on sale I think it’s worth it. I don’t think the surrounds are as much of an improvement though.

SONOS My living room set up: 65" C4, Sonos Arc, Sub 3, two Era 100's as surrounds, Hue lights. My partner's bedroom set up: 55" C5, Sonos Beam, mini Sub Hue lights. It depends how big your room is. For a smaller room the Beam 2 and mini Sub, maybe some Era 100's for rear surrounds will be more than plenty. I actually prefer playing in the bedroom sometimes cause I get to sit closer to the TV and soundbar so everything is clear as day, but the big sub in the living room also gives a cinema like experience, been considering getting a second Sub for the living room for a true cinema bass experience.

I've got the sc9s and have discovered i can't get rear speakers as they don't make them which is annoying as i wanted surround sound. It sounds great for movies with the Sub and Dolby atmosphere, for other stuff though my gen 1 Beam sounds as good. If I could have my time again id go Sonos so I could get rears mind you that was way over my budget as well as adding a sonos Sub and I got a great deal on LG bar bundled with tv. Wow Orchestra is ok. I guess 'it depends' is the answer.

Sonos beam stinks. Id honestly get an old playbar off of marketplace if you want Sonos or ARC ULTRA. The playbar is still there best soundbar for music and movies IMO. Ive graduated to a full tilt boogy home theater but use the beam in a bedroom. My least fav sonos speaker.

I%20haven%e2%80%99t%20set%20up%20Trueplay%20yet%20so%20it%20might%20lock%20out%20the%20feature.%20When%20setting%20the%20300s%20as%20surrounds%20there%20is%20an%20option%20for%20%e2%80%9dMusic%20Playback%e2%80%9d%20which%20allows%20changing I’m not sure of the limitations but I don’t need to toggle anything when changing from TV to music (tested playing through the app and Spotify) whereas I did with my Onkyo AVR. https://preview.redd.it/v9g4v6qk52be1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87c6159aa100fde67d51cefda823d3ec0f0effaa

Audio wise Sonos will be life changing honestly. Depending your budget and what you’re looking for, even their beam soundbars push out incredible levels of sound.

I’d use the long return windows to compare the two. Music sounds incredible on the beam.

Sonos has been a nightmare for me. For years I loved them and then it all stopped working. I’m about to buy a home pod or two. Keeping my beam soundbar for the tv.

My bedroom has 2 fives and a gen 1 beam. Reasonable for the television (I have a “real” home theater in the living room) .. and great for music.

You can totally go for the Arc Ultra, I have one, plus both generations of the Beam and the Beam is great, man. I’ve said this before on this sub and I’ll say it again, the Arc Ultra costs double the Beam, and it’s not even close to double the sound. The Arc (both versions) is largely considered to be even worse for music. I’d say the same thing for the sub and sub mini. This isn’t a dig on Sonos, necessarily, it’s something that’s pervasive in audio. Double the money, maybe get 25% improvement. Double it again, maybe get 15%, etc.

Miles better with my Beam and my LG bar with sub..watching shows without it seems hollow. If just watching tv with the news or something tv sound would be ok but anything else need better sound

I have the first gen beam with rear surround speakers and it’s a huge upgrade compared to tv speakers or even other cheaper soundbars I’ve heard. The gen 2 is supposed to be even better so I would say it’d definitely be worth it.

with that budget why not look at 2nd hand, you could get a sonos gen 1 and that would be 10 times bettet?

I have the Ray, Beam, and Arc. While there is a noticeable difference between the Ray and the others, the Ray is in a smaller room and it works just fine (and is much better than the built in tv speakers).

I've been building my setup slowly in fb market. I picked up the gen 1 sound bar for 50$, and I just picked up 2 era 100s for 115$ a piece. I have several other speakers around the house that I've picked up locally for 75-100 a piece. Just waiting on a sub to show up within a reasonable distance. If you don't need the latest and greatest, this is pretty effective, and still sounds awesome.

Sonos Beam would fit, but if you have it recessed at all the side firing speakers are going to bounce off the insides and sound might feel like it's coming from where it shouldn't be. It's about 28" wide so it would only have 2 inches on each side to fire the sound sideway - not sure how good it would sound. But it would be better than the TV speakers alone. and I think it's currently on sale.

Not true. I have an Arc and Beam and I agree that the Beam clearly has advantages outside of the power. Especially with music which not sure why the Arc doesn’t handle it as well.

It’s a very good sound bar. But honestly, the Beam is also, and much cheaper. The Beam has more bass, and a ‘fuller’ sound . I have both.

Go to best buy you can compare the ultra and beam. It’s day and night.

Sonos Beam Soundbar, super simple setup, great sound and price point. I've seen it sub $420ish recently. Solid 9/10. Can be paired with their wireless sub too.

Not sure if you have a sub, but I would get the sub mini with the Beam over just an Arc by itself.

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but the other commenters are right. Sound bars are pretty bottom-tier. Their designed to be a cheap and easy upgrade from TV speakers because flat screens have abysmal sound quality (back in the day, you could actually get pretty decent sound from CRTs since there was room for it). I'm not anti-soundbar. I think they have a place (very tight budget or small secondary setups like bedrooms where loudspeakers often aren't at all practical). I got my girlfriend a Sonos Beam + Sub for her bedroom years ago and it has filled that role very nicely. In a living room...they're really a last resort to me (besides TV speakers of course). Let me explain why: Of course, the biggest and most obvious reason is performance. It doesn't take much of a stereo or home theater system to blow most sound bars out of the water. Sure, if you compare a total garbage system to a very high-end soundbar setup, then yes, the sound bar might be better, but that's an extreme example. As far as why the performance is better, it's a combination of components and acoustics. You can't really do much when it comes to acoustics with a soundbar. Just get it at the right height, adjust the subwoofer level, and position any satellite speakers as best as you can. Most sound bars are fairly narrow, so that will limit the width of your stereo image. It's always worth pointing out that speaker placement/setup and acoustics play a huge part in how a system performs. It's actually very easy to make very high-end systems costing many thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars sound like garbage with a poor setup or room acoustics (for example, giant speakers in a tiny room will usually end in bad results). So now for the other big reason, and I actually think this one is more relevant to more people: longevity. Good quality audio equipment tends to last a very long time (often decades). Not only that, with traditional gear, you can mix and match components as you'd like or need to. For starting your system out, that means you don't have to go straight into your final goal. You can start small and affordable and upgrade as your finances allow. The components are typically built better and will last longer (plus if something does break, it might be worth the cost of repair instead of replacing it, outside of low-end gear). If you do end up wanting or needing to replace a single component, you can do just that without having to replace your entire system as you do with all-in-one systems like soundbars. Above all, a traditional home audio setup is a great long-term investment. A soundbar is just for getting by. I'd strongly suggest you get yourself some passive speakers, and a home theater receiver. If your budget allows, throw an active subwoofer in there as well. As time goes on, as I said, you can upgrade or add components as you'd like, such as getting better or more speakers, adding a center channel, etc. I'll take a good 2.1 or even a 2.0 channel setup over a soundbar almost every time. To answer your specific questions if you do decide you'd still rather get a sound bar: * If the sound bar is wide enough, a 3.1 isn't a bad idea over 2.1, but still not necessary. If it's any more channels, I'd only care if the rear channels are actual rears, not virtual from the bar itself. Similar to what I said above, less total but higher quality channels will usually be better than more total but lower quality channels. * A subwoofer is pretty much essential for decent bass out of a soundbar. Traditional loudspeakers can often get away without one (even if this isn't ideal), but soundbars are typically too small for this. This is especially true for larger rooms, and you said you're trying to fill up a mid-sized living room. * I don't know what "too much" is to you. Audio equipment has a MASSIVE price range (I can show you speakers, amps, turntables, etc. that cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars each; granted, these are boutique and extreme examples, but you get the point). You'll want to provide an actual budget/number (even if it's not a hard limit, a ballpark number is totally fine). Words like "cheap" and "expensive" can have very different meanings to different people with such a wide price range to deal with. * I don't have a ton of first-hand soundbar brand testing experience. My girlfriend's Sonos has proven to be good. Sonos had a rough patch where their app was pretty much ruined, but in her case, it rarely gets used, so it wasn't a big deal. Those issues have largely been addressed at this point. So I can overall recommend Sonos. Beyond that, Samsung has generally been pretty well-regarded. Here is RTings ratings for your reference: https://www.rtings.com/soundbar/reviews/best/soundbar. No matter what route you go down, be sure to get something that supports HDMI eARC, as that is the current standard for connecting audio setups. That means that the device needs to support at least HDMI 2.1. This is actually one of the few areas of audio equipment that can age-out somewhat quickly, which can be really annoying. You can have a high-performance receiver that still sounds amazing but is a struggle to use because it lacks the connectivity you need. Some high-end amplifiers from brands like Marantz and NAD actually put the HDMI I/O on upgradeable daughter boards (assuming they offer upgrades of course) to help future-proof those higher-end options, but high-end amps aren't worth considering unless you have good enough speakers to justify the cost. So definitely don't get caught in this situation with a soundbar as you can't upgrade it, and try to avoid it with a receiver, though at least you can upgrade it without anything else if needed.

Best quality in clarity is devialet but not sure if there is a sub woofer to buy. Samsung is ok but one sub or woofer goes bad you have to buy the whole thing again (based on experience with one) sonos is pretty good and you can always replace the speakers for rears and subs or soundbar plus can add more to the home for a full absence sound in the home and possibly outside backyard anf host bbq or family parties. So something you can build and add to an ecosystem definitely sonos and is really good quality. (I have a sonos arc, sub 3, ones, and sub mini with beam) best quality in sound for a soundbar is devialet. Other brands are ok but Samsung is a closed system bose is kinda complicated and wants to be like sonos

Just a thought: I don’t know the construction method or date of your building, but having lived in 1930s builds with plaster and wood walls/floors, I can tell you a sub and any rear-firing speakers are gonna carry through to another unit if your building isn’t good at sound dampening already. Or if you luck out and the wall cavity isn’t near another dwelling space. Bass travels. And they tend to build more cheaply these days. If you currently can’t hear neighbors above or below in daily life, maybe that’ll be fine. Not much one can do except have sound dampening products like rugs and fabric in your space, and be considerate after hours. On your actual query: I’d go soundbar. I have a Bose 600 with sub now and it’s great. I had a Sonos Beam and sub before. Also good but Sonos kept having garbage software updates and dropped connection to WiFi.

The beam is definitely a great soundbar, and it definitely fills a small room, which in this case was my bedroom(11x13). But it felt like even with all the atmos virtualization and whatnot like the sound was still coming out of a little box under my TV(which it was). Definitely at least some of it is in my head, but I feel like the left and right channels feel more separated, I feel a lot more immersed in my movies and TV, and overall the sound quality just feels better.

My beam wasn’t turned on for all of about 10 minutes just due to a firmware update or something on my TV. I gotta tell you in that 10 minutes. I realized how good that sound bar makes my TV sound.

In no world is the Beam better. When I swapped my beam to the Samsung 990f… just soundbar and nothing else attached yet… I literally giggled at how much better the sound was.

It is large … with 15 foot ceilings. The Trueplay is great for tuning it.