AX700

I can vouch for this. Recently bought the Hisense 5.1+ ax700 from Costco. Hooked everything up with arc but the hdmi connection capped my resolution / refresh rate on the monitor, and added noticeable latency. frankly it sounded horrible. Distorted, weak, flakey audio. Switched to optical and it didn’t sound much different. I’m gonna return them to Costco and replace them with kanto ora4 and sub8. Soundbar was 350 and the new equipment cost over 600. Can’t wait to get them.

I just got mine this week. I love it so far. Really easy to setup and the subwoofer is pretty decent. Overall would buy again for the price.

So... don't listen to anyone else. I've had BOTH of these soundbars, and had/heard many IRL. You can find these AX700's open box on Offerup/Facebook for like $150. They're EXCELLENT for the price. In a small/medium room, they are more than sufficient. You get REAL, REAR channels and rear atmos, which the Beam does NOT offer. The subwoofer is also stronger since it's a discreet subwoofer. The atmos effects/quality is good. Not going to compete with a Q990D (my living room), but amazing for the price. The sub won't compete with a $500 sonos sub, but its very sufficient for most people, especially in a small/medium room. Downsides: sub can never get bigger (not that I want it to), no app support - only remote control. But you're not going to mess with your settings that much. The beam gen 2 is a great speaker. It has surprising bass for its size, and the dialogue is crisp. Atmos effects are good, but simulated. It costs more, and has fewer inputs. The advantages for the Beam are: One piece/smaller for space saving if needed, expandable with more speakers (but the AX700 already comes with those speakers). Downsides: expensive. Requires calibration. Sonos ecosystem is both a plus and minus. I went with the AX in my bedroom, sold the sonos, saved some money, and got rear speakers and real atmos speakers. Getting another AX for my gym.

Just set mine up. Worth the 250

Hisense first, Samsung 2nd choice. And that jbl 595 for anyone reading, was the biggest piece of shit I recently tested. Super odd because the JBL 550 & 580 were quite good for what they are.