Sonos - Beam (Gen 1)

I’ve got a beam 1 with surrounds and a sub. Built it slowly over the course of a few Black Fridays/January sales. Sounds great.

Folks, don’t overthink this. For music, 2 of ANY Sonos speakers (apart from the roam), properly configured as a stereo pair, will sound much better than any of the soundbars. For TV’s and movies, especially atmos and DD 5.1 content, a soundbar setup will be more enjoyable. Which soundbar is up for debate, but as an owner of the OG beam and OG arc, the wider sound stage of the arc will be my pick everyday of the week.

I had a really cheap sound system before I got a Beam Gen 1 and I didn’t really get blown away either. I did start enjoying it a lot more once I added surround speakers and other Sonos speakers for each room for multi room audio. I eventually upgraded to the Arc and that was a decent jump in quality.

For another $150 I went with open box Beams I instead. Always wondered how sound compared in person.

I have a beam gen 1, wonder if it’s worth it or not.

I went from a Beam Gen 1 to the normal Arc and one off my grips with the Arc was speech clarity. It's really good on the Beam. It sounds like this is massively improved on the Arc Ultra. Like a lot of people have suggested, room size and layout is an important factor. Even if I'm happy with my Arc I'm far from utilizing all of its potential. Recently I'm in between to houses and in my current rental space I opted for the Beam since I didn't want to set up the surround system with one's and sub. I think the arc works best in an complete setup. My Arc went to storage mostly because the Beam is cleaner with speech by itself.

Last month I've came from a original Beam 1 to the original arc. Sub gen 3 and one's for surround sound. Now sound is so subjective, but after playing with equaliser and voice settings: 1.5.1 is much better than before, larger sound stage with effects filling the room. This is from Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus and TV programs in Dolby 2.0 2.Atmos is great and compared to the Beam 2 that I listened too in demo, sounds better and not stimulated. 3.Never had issues with dialogue with speech enhancement on. Maybe because I sit closer to the TV or something, but I don't regret getting the Arc. I'm planning to get the Era 300s setup soon. The Beam 2 is an excellent speaker that punches above it's weight. However, it does fall down on Atmos, which is one of the main reasons I went with the arc. I also didn't want to go with the Ultra as I didn't want to pay that money for a soundbar!

I don’t have stereo 100 to compare to, but I use a beam 1 for my pc sound in my office. It sounds really good up close. Definitely better than it did from afar when I used to have it in my living room with surrounds. Wouldn’t it just be easier to Bluetooth your music instead of swapping your set up? Don’t get me wrong, the sound swap feature is amazing and really convenient for tv sounds. But wouldn’t you be using your phone or laptop to play the music anyway?

I bought a Sonos Beam around Black Friday 2018. It's pretty awesome for the price. I believe it is still an option. It connects directly with either optical cable or HDMI. The Sonos ecosystem is a bit of a disaster right now, so I'd suggest sticking with just a soundbar and avoid going any further down the Sonos rabbit hole by adding more speakers to a home network.

Sonos beam gen 1 is cheap as chips and sounds better than cheap 2 box solutions out there. For a bedroom will suit 95% of people. If you have the space, racing a pair play 1 or symfonisk to go with it

There is very little between them if you are looking to turn bass right down anyway. Although I will say, if your living room is large, you may find you don't need to turn the bass down, I would likely go for the cheapest option based on your description. That said, why the arc ultra rather just the arc? Or even just a beam if you are looking for voice clarity

The beam was Sonos budget soundbar 10 years ago too. They slightly improved it and kept raising the price. I have 3 beam gen 1s that I paid 300 or less for new. Two were from Costco when they marked them down to $250. At that price alone they sound pretty damn good. I wouldn’t buy a new one at full price. Sonos soundbars are priced too high these days if you have no plans to use them together with other Sonos speakers for whole home audio. Dollar for dollar you can get equivalent sound for less from many other brands, especially since most companies include a sub with soundbar.

got the Arc, a pair of Play 1,3 and 5 gen2, Sub gen 3, Beam gen 1, flawless. Airplay to them, stream from google hw, Broadcast TV and movies, love it all, would get more any time, just don't need any as these just work and sound great. And if the app sjould go funny again, there is homeassistant ;) and also 10 fingers to chose from to push buttons :D

Wait, my og beam is ranked 5th? It's pretty decent, but what? I also have the samsung 990c, and it blows it out of the water by a mile.

Ray didn't have the sweet bass I was looking for! Beam Gen 1 is the minimum soundbar from Sonos that sounds great to my ears, and again, I realize tastes vary, but Ray didn't have the punch even when paired with a Sub Gen3 for my needs.

I’ve had a similar journey to you- moving from a combo Sonos / standing speaker system to an entirely Sonos based system for space reasons. The only difference is that I’ve always had the Beam / Surround / Sub Mini combo which I built over time and never upgraded further (the arc is too big for my TV lol). Anyway, for music - everything from steaming to vinyl to CDs- the sub mini / beam / surround ones- is, dollar for dollar (and even when you don’t take cost into account) the best non standing system you are going to find. It’s great. But this is a problem for Sonos, because if this system works well for the vast majority of music customers, how will Sonos satisfy its investors and demonstrate continued and rapid growth? Thus the fiasco of the last few years, with things that either don’t work (the app, the headphones) or things that work but somehow always seem disappointing when you take the hype and the price into account. I’m mentally preparing for Sonos to someday make my wonderful little system technically obsolete for exactly this reason … but for now I am just enjoying it.

As I said in my comment below, the key differences between your two experiences are (1) music and (2) atmos. Like myself, the OP has an emphasis on music and doesn’t use Atmos much (I don’t use it at all, I’m incapable). Fundamentally, I’ve come to the conclusion that soundbars are best for TV and films, full stop. If you want Sonos for music, even the best soundbars won’t cut it - that’s why you need to supplement them with other speakers, and once you do that, the Beam is as good as anything, and for music, maybe even better.

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 have a beam, a playbar, and an arc. The beam is plenty for a bedroom and would be my choice if I didn’t already have some older playbars for the bedrooms.

The beams are ‘just that good’ I have beam, arc and ultra. I was never impressed with arc. Getting the ultra, for me, just puts it back in the territory it should have held in the first place. But, if someone were really struggling for a decision between beam and ultra? I’d say just get a beam. The beams are just that good.

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.

Not stock tv speakers depending on the sound bar. But I do get that I'm in the home theater subreddit. My sonos beam was great for just upgrading from stock sound. (Not angry just a pov)

In our bedroom, we have an LG OLED B7 TV which only supports ARC, so with an Apple TV 4K as our only source in that room we need to have the Apple TV convert all audio to either Dolby Digital 5.1 or Stereo PCM since the TV won't pass through LPCM or Atmos. We could upgrade the TV, but it still looks fantastic so no reason to spend $2000+ on a replacement yet. We currently use a Sonos Beam with the TV, so we convert all audio to Stereo PCM since there's no good reason to send anything else to the Beam on it's own. If the Arc Ultra had HDMI pass through, then we could send the Apple TV to the soundbar and then to the TV so that the Arc Ultra could take a full Atmos/LPCM audio signal and the TV would still get the full video. I can appreciate that most modern TVs wouldn't have this problem, but I would imagine that a good number of TVs are still in use that don't have eARC.

I was a little disappointed in my ARC compared to my BEAM in the other room. Paired a Sub Mini with the Arc and any bit of disappointment went away instantly.

Honestly, I wouldn't. The beam is great, I mean so is the arc, but id add a mini sub and call it a day and maybe a couple surrounds. I got my play 1s used for cheap.

Returning my beam. Not happy you cannot shut it off without unplugging or disconnecting from WiFi so the soundbar is always on. Sounds great but I don’t want it on all the damn time.

Get a Sonos beam. Game changer.

I only got this to work after iOS 18.1 came out and Sonos updated their apps to finally work. Previously, it would get stuck in the “tuning” phase where it wouldn’t connect to the Beam to start the calibration. I have a small rectangular room and didn’t really notice a difference, though.

We bought the Sonos Beam, Left & Right One SL speakers and the Sub Mini because we heard that Sonos is know for having good voice clarity. My husband and I are not young anymore and find that it is often hard to understand what is being said on TV. (Our hearing is OK, according to the audiologist!) The clarity is better than a regular other branded soundbar. However, we are wondering if we bought an additional set of Sonos speakers and placed them across the room, near our chairs, would it improve the clarity? Or is there another brand that would be better?

We moved the 2 small speakers, as you suggested, and that made an immediate improvement. I turned center speaker up to 9 and we are hearing everything crystal clear. I'm shocked at what a difference this made. For now, we are sticking with the Beam. However, that Arc Ultra is simmering in the back of my mind.......lol......

So the way you get “5.1” without what’s called discrete speakers, the ones in the back and 3 upfront, is something called “psycho acoustics”. Which is a process of directing sound to bounce of walls to simulate sound coming from that direction. It’s been around for a while however there is a lot and I mean a lot of snake oil peddling in the $100-$300 price range especially without discrete speakers. I’m probably a month into my research of soundbars. It’s a lot to sift through. Samsung makes the best overall soundbar in the Q990 but unless you’re getting the EPP discount they are north of $1000. The budget version in their line would be the QS730D at $300-$450 on Amazon. Does a pretty good job with 3 speakers simulating surround with 2 height speakers to provide Atmos effects. Sonos Beam and Bose 600 are the midrange no subwoofer options around $500. Great clarity and do a good job of simulating surround. Height effects aren’t that great on either model. Budgeting lower than these is Vizio M512-H6 and JBL Bar 5.1/500. Both I think are good units that won’t leave you feeling you’ve been duped.

It'll look small but it will probably be plenty loud for your movies or music. Sub and rears will make it even better and totally solid. My MIL has a beam on a 65. It looks a lil funny but there is zero problem with it providing enough juice.

You probably want a beam if you need TV out in a relatively small space.

I bought a Ray and thought it sounded great, made voices much easier to hear, and was plenty loud for my small room and made movies sound great. But, I ended up returning it and getting the Beam because of lack of being able to control it with my remote, it would work 50% of the times, and then would become unsynched and the volume level shown on my TV wouldn't match the actual volume - to the point where the Ray would be loud, but the TV volume interface would show that the volume was at zero and woudln't let me lower it anymore. So I kept having to get up and fiddle with the volume buttons on top of the Ray. Now that I have the Beam, I do hear the sound difference and Beam is far superior. But also was double the cost! I think the Ray would be perfect for someone who doesn't care about the small inconvenience of the remote not synching with the TV.

Sonos Beam

The bigger sub does not thump if you don’t want it to, but has a deeper bass sound then the mini sub when it comes to a Sonos system, I would be going for the Beam if I had a smaller place with a set of 100s but if you want a more immersive sound I would go with the Ark Ultra with a set of 300s. It all up to what you prefer as everyone is different when it comes to sound in a system. Hope this helps

Sonos beam is garbage. No bluetooth and the app sucks. Had so many issues I ended up taking it back to Costco. Sound isn’t bad but it’s not worth the hassle of Sonos.

Sennheiser Ambeo Mini or the Bose Smart Soundbar both will be a million times better than the Beam. I had the Beam & the Bose Smart Soundbar (was the Smart 600 at the time) & the Sonos sounded like literal junk compared to the Bose. Brighter, more detail, more balanced, better surround performance, just better in literally every aspect than the Beam. I can't speak on the Sennheiser Ambeo Mini but I did have a demo of the Ambeo Plus & it's truly in a league of its own, Bose is close behind tho. I'd pick the Bose over the Ambeo mini due to lack of center channel with the Ambeo. Imo the Bose Smart Soundbar is one of the absolute best budget bars out there.

I got the JBL 9.1 and it’s awesome. I had the Sonos beam with two Sonos ones as rears. The JBL I have am has wireless surrounds too that with the sub is perfect for movies and music

I've Beam and 2 One's as my system. Yeah, I know it is entry level but such is what I've. I wonder if it is worth to upgrade to Arc Ultra. I live in a small condo and can't disturb my neighbor. I just want better mid-range and most importantly, cleaner sound.

I have the same setup it’s excellent. I don’t think you can add more speakers (shouldn’t your current One SLs already be behind/next to you). Even if you did the dialogue typically comes from the center channel (sound bar) so it won’t make a difference. Edit: there should be a setting to boost the dialogue clarity. You can also turn the surrounds and the sub down if you find they’re too loud when turning up the volume to hear dialogue better.

In our living room we have a Sonos beam and have a theater room with a dedicated system. I have no need to watch the news in 7.2 surround sound. I also don’t want to look at speakers the time. The Sonos is actually not bad, I want to get the sub but I don’t really need it. A lot of people are not fortunate enough to have a dedicated space for a home theater, a sound bar works perfectly fine.

Just get a Beam. The Arc is massive overkill for a bedroom / alarm clock.

You could look at sennheiser ambeo mini but the sonos beam is probably better. The sony ht-a5000/ht-a7000 are going to be way better than ht-s2000 and depending on your usage; you may prefer them over the sonos beam.

Imagine downgrading from the arc to beam and saying it sounds better. What you’re describing isn’t an arc problem. The arc alone isn’t meant to handle lows just like any soundbar/speaker. It should be used with a sub at the minimum. You just need the top of the line Sonos setup which is the arc, sub gen 3 and era 300s. That setup is night and day better than a beam2 sub mini and 100s. How you dial in the settings also makes a huge difference. Listening to music set on ambient 🤦‍♂️. Talk about not setting up your system properly then complaining about the speakers. Head scratching stuff. If you’re trying to say your arc, sub mini and era 100s barely sounded better than your TV speakers then your settings weren’t right or your ears are clogged. But seeing as how you set your music on ambient I can already imagine what the rest of the settings were like. The definition of ambient straight from Sonos is subtle low volume with a limited frequency range. Why would you want that for music if you’re really trying to experience the speakers? If you want your sound to come more from the center of your soundbar you can still keep the music playback to full but adjust your surround volume. You can put it in the negative while still enjoying a full frequency range. But if you have the era 300s that’s the opposite of what you should be doing. They are the better more powerful speakers compared to the arc so for music playback you want them at like plus 3 and you 100% want music playback to full. Now I see why there’s so many complaints here about Sonos.

The Beam definitely doesn’t have more bass than the Arc Ultra.

I have my Sonos Beam in my family room and a Sonos One SL in my living room kitchen. My favorite feature of the Sonos TV bars is that I can cast the sound to my other speakers. So when I’m cooking I can still listen to the movie/tv from the other room. Seriously amazing tech

That's more helpful. But I have a ray and a beam. In the correct environment I think they are both awesome...

I have an Arc, sub and two ones for the TV and it's very good. In my main living area I have a Beam for the TV and it's very good. I have a one outside and it's very very hit and miss with music, skipping and all the other faults reported with the app at one time or another. Swapped it out with the other ones I have which have been flawless and the fault swaps to the new speaker and the one that was faulty is perfect on the TV. I also have a couple of roams for music which skip etc. I did try the Arc setup with music and it was OK. My Arc is wired with Ethernet. I reckon you'll be all right with the Arc Ultra.

Samsung Q600 or Q800 Or sonos beam

It's funny. For me it was different. I went from TV speaker to beam Gen 2 and was impressed. Then my Dad got a cheaper but not bad "Dolby Atmos" Soundbar. I realized that the true secret sauce is Trueplay. That is what's makes the Sonos Bar better Imho. Overall, if you want to have better surround while not spending to much money, get a pair of Ikea Bookshelves and use them as surrounds. Your Beam will then have more headroom as it doesn't need to simulate the rears anymore

Yep, that spot is just screaming for a Sonos bar.