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.

If reviews are positive I’ll be using using a 15% upgrade on this in the next few months I think. Been using a Beam gen 1 for the past 5+ years and was holding out for a new Arc revision. Looks good. Also haven’t had much of an issue with the app.

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?

No. The beam Gen 1 does not support virtual surround. It doesn’t even support Atmos.

It can’t support 5.1 as you DO NOT have surround speakers. I have done my research for MANY years on this topic.

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

I have a gen1 beam paired with a gen1 sub and a playbar. I actually think the playbar sounds better than the beam even without the sub. So would theoretically replace the beam with an arc ultra in my movie room. One question, how much separation and virtual surround would I notice if my movie room is a 200 sq ft rectangle?

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.

Sonos Ark/Beam or LG S80Q/S90Q. Make sure if you buy a Sonos you add a sub, it really brings them to life.

Do you realize small means it'll sound worse? Physics are hard to beat... Get a Sonos Beam

I have never gotten surround to work with my the frame 2023 + Apple TV + Sonos beam (gen1) to work :(

right now im having a sub mini connected. but it doesnt matter. you should get surround sound even when just using the beam as it has 3 internal speakers and supports virtual surround.

Yes it does. You have to do your research. It does not support atmos, but it supports Dolby digital 5.1

The beam itself is a 3.0 setup. I have a sub aswell which makes it 3.1

correct. but the speakes should be able to decode 5.1 surround even when no rears are connected

I'm getting dolby digital formatted sound when using streaming services directly on my samsung tv, but not from my apple tv. think it has something todo with the apple tv sending some uncompressed format that the beam does not support

Beam and two Ikea Symfonisk as rear satellites. Great combo tbh

I was using a Sonos Beam. It worked great but I decided to switch to HomePods to simplify my setup.

I have a Sonos Beam in the office and then living room I’m still rocking the OG Sonos Playbar. I’d like to get the Sub to go with them or upgrade at some point but they sound good still so I figured why waste money at this point

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 test a lot of audio products but honestly I don't know if this is a category with good contenders. The closest I can think of is the ZVOX brand. Especially for older and non technical folks who are looking for dialog clarity, their products just work and have like 6 levels of selectable dialog clarity enhancement. No fancy smart apps, no CEC drama, minimal audio processing hence minimum lip sync delay..... Maybe this isn't the answer you're looking for but both the Bose 600 and the Sonos Beam are really outstanding bang for the buck in terms of having impressive performance at a value price. Lately, more so the Bose 600.

Yeah soundbars below that Beam/Bose 600 price point, some of them are better than TV speakers for sure but none of them impress in a way that I would even give them mention when inviting a guest to watch something. Despite their recent app debacle, one thing I do really like about Sonos is modular expandability. Start with just a Beam today. Add a sub or maybe add surrounds depending on what’s important to you. Maybe one day you want better Atmos surrounds and now your old surrounds can be kitchen or bathroom speakers. This isn’t a finance Reddit but often times I see folks trying to be frugal by ONLY looking at the price tag today, without thinking about whether their item turns into e-waste or gets traded in for pennies if they outgrow it in the future.

Although I hate the new app update, I love my Beam, with a couple ancient Play:1's for the TV. Thankfully, Sonos on the TV (LG vie eARC HDMI, plus paired surrounds) always "just work" and sound great.

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).

You could entertain any bar under 500 with the same results. All generally mediocre. Spend 500 and be happy with a Sonos Beam add surrounds later and overall be happy every time you watch a movie or listen to music. If you want to spoil yourself go Sonos arc it's $900. I install professionally and anything other than the Sonos bars are a waste of money in my opinion.

I'm a beam, a sub gen 3 and 2x play 1 for surround sound. Living room is 17ft. My sub is overkill on bass. Just don't fully use it and turn it down to -7 to not wake kids or shake the house. Surrounds always feel like they're not really on, but then some intros to movies sound overly 'on'. Never thought that the beam managed a crisp central voice like the movies. Would love an arc ultra but I'm hearing lots of 'more bass' which I totally don't need with a tuned down sub3. The only thing keeping me hanging is the possibility that arc ultra on its own would be better at surround than a beam with play 1s.? I feel like an arc ultra with play 1 surrounds would confuse itself

I’ve owned probably two dozen Sonos products over the years and currently have a beam + sub on our living room TV in addition to a half dozen Ones and Fives in the rest of the house. I’ve had occasional bugs with the new app but overall I’m still very happy with Sonos and they seem to be making improvements to the app.

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.

Ha, what? How is that the conclusion you came to from my post? I was merely agreeing with the person above that those products still sound fantastic. I also own multiple Arcs, 6 Amps connected to Sonos x Sonace speakers, a Beam, gen 3 Sub, Sub mini, and a Play 3 that all sound great and all work just fine on the S2 platform. Any tech company is invariably going to release newer and better products over time. But for a basement TV that is mostly used by the kids to play the Switch or stream some garbage, the above setup is more than OK.

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.

The reality is that anyone who wants to be able to support all audio codecs should be using a traditional AV receiver and passive speakers. I have two Beam setups in my home (family room and bedroom), but when we want to watch movies or games with audio in mind we use the rec room with a traditional 5.1.2 setup. Especially when playing Blu-ray discs, it's the only way to guarantee that the audio codecs are supported.

I completely understand the space constraint, and it's why I use a Beam setup in my family room. It's just that I don't expect to be able to use the full suite of audio codecs in that setup.

With an A95L, don’t cheap out on the audio “that will bring down” your A95L. You want ATMOS. I would say get a Sony soundbar. Or you can build in pieces with a Sonos ARC or Beam at first. Then add the sub and rears later on when your budget allows.

All Sonos speakers require internet to setup. The sales person is ignorant or trying to make a sale. That said, if don't intend to use the Sonos Beam for streaming audio and you have a smart phone that can be used as a hotspot and a tablet. Turn your smart phone hotspot on, use your tablet to setup the speaker, connecting it to the phone hotspot. Let it do all the updates. Make sure it's connected to your TV, do Truplay and once its done, turn the hotspot off. How old and what brand/model is your TV? The audio delay is likely caused by an audio processing delay. Your TV is probably decoding the audio before it gets to the soundbar, causing the delay because TVs usually suck at audio decoding. Look in the TV audio settings to see if there is a setting for audio passthrough. Turn this setting on. It will pass the audio through to your soundbar in whatever format the source is sending it, allowing the soundbar to decode it. You may also need to do the same thing for your source devices. This should eliminate the audio delay.

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.

You technically don’t have to connect the Sonos Beam to wifi, the sync light will just stay flashing, you can’t adjust tone, and can’t do the trueplay room correction.. but eh, it technically works 🤷‍♂️

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.

Sonos beam. Doesn’t need sub

Is it normal to have this many problems with the company? Saturday I decided to go buy a soundbar for my TV so I went to Best Buy and I bought the Sonos Beam. While I was talking to the guy who was selling it to me I asked him if I needed to connect to the internet for it to work because where I live the internet has a firewall preventing those kinds of things from connecting to it. He said all I needed was an HDMI cord and no internet was required. He was wrong. The next day I returned it and traded it in for the JBL bar 500, the only issue was that the closest store that had it to me was an hour away. I went ahead and drove down there and got it because I had nothing else to do. Once I got home I set is up and it sounded great but there was an audio delay and I could not fix it. So I packed it up and took it to a store near me and troubleshot it with me and said the best thing to do was get a new HDMI cord for it, so I did. I get home and there is still an audio delay. I called JBL and they seemed to think it was a defect with the audio sync function feature and told me to make an appointment with Best Buy and they should be able to fix it. So I made the appointment for today to get it looked at in-store. Well, when I showed up Geek Squad told me that this was an in-home problem and told me to make an appointment for that. I asked them why it didn't tell me that when I made the appointment and she just said "I don't know sorry". I did not want to spend $100 for someone to come over and mess with my TV settings so I just opted to exchange it for the same one saying the audio sync is defective. They then told me that since I got the soundbar on sale and it was $200 off I would have to pay them $200 to replace it, which does not sound right at all. They then suggested that I had a site survey done and an someone could see what was wrong with it and go from there so I reluctantly agreed now I am waiting for someone to come look at it. I know I can just use the warranty with JBL to replace it but the employees were saying that I could not do this in-store, is that right? I feel I am being scammed out of my money with how I bought a sound bar, it came out defective, and now they say if I wanna replace it that I would have to pay them $200 since it was on sale. Not only that but the entire time I am trying to get this fixed they just kept trying to get me to buy more crap, the guy who sold it to me in the first place spent 10 minutes trying to sell me an SSD for a PS5 after I said I did not want a Best Buy card. When I was trying to figure out the audio sync the first time they were trying to sell me a TV. What should I do going forward? I love this soundbar, the only issue is the audio sync. Can I really not use the manufacturer warranty in-store? Who can I complain to about this to actually get things rolling?

I have a Vizio D50-F1, when I had the beam it would work on the TV but only for 30 minutes at a time before disconnecting because it wanted to be set up. While it worked it had no syncing issues whatsoever unlike the JBL. I also tried the hotspot thing using a friend's hotspot but the beam could not detect it, we then tried my hotspot and setting it up through her phone and it didn't work either so I don't know what was going on there lol.

When I had the Beam it did work but only for about 30 minutes at a time before shutting off because it wanted to be set up. When it worked it synced well with the TV, the only issue I had with it was it forced HDR on but I just manually turned it off. The guys who did the site survey confirmed it was defective and told me to just go to Best Buy and talk to a manager. The Geek Squad guys were really nice and so was the manager. I ended up exchanging it for a Hisense AX5125H and I can't find many people having issues with it online so I'm optimistic this one will work out. Is there any reason you wouldn't recommend Hisense?

Just my 2 cents. I have a Sonos Beam, so I'm not as familiar with the Arc. Perhaps my gripes are not applicable there, but with my Beam, I love the sound and surround effect, but boy do I hate no pass through, bluetooth, or ability to plug in headphones. It is very limited in terms of configuration. They're basically the Apple of the home theater audio world. Good product, user friendly, but not very rigid in what they want or will allow you to do with their product.

got 4 of these tv's and have the Sonos Arc on 3 of them. the 65 I have a Beam. works flawlessly.

Great, answer. Soundbars will likely hit the low-end better in the next 2-5 years, but they don’t start hitting the outstanding value until you get up to the Beam/Vizio/Bose 600 range. I’d add that I’m not a big fan of LG or JBL bars but some are solid and are often discounted heavily. My personal preference is for “low” end are the Sonos Beam and new, low end Samsungs. Not the S60, that’s trash, but anything 7xx/8xx/9xx. 9xx is never cheap, even with edu/work discount.

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.

I don't think satellites or subwoofer make sense in you usecase. Maybe a JBL Bar 300 would be great in your case. No sub, no satellites but a very good sound projection. And a calibration system which is quite fast. I just got this bar and am very happy with it. Replaced a Sonos Beam with it. Got it on sale at 300€.

Ah if you love deep deeep basses yeah, that's a good idea. In my home we don't like it so we chose a soundbar without sub. Be aware that with most brands you cannot add a sub later. You buy a pack and stay with what isnincluded. Sonos lets you add a sub ... But you really should not buy anything Sonos, they may be bankrupt in some monthes with the app debacle.

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.

I have a TV setup (beam, one SL, sub mini) and a single other speaker, still problems (new app only, old app works fine).

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

Listen, they really messed up but only recently - and are trying to fix it. As for quality, it’s a soundbar my dude. A soundbar. A top tier sound bar. So ya, the quality is not like a traditional setup. If I could start over, I’d have bought an AVR for my living room instead of Sonos. But I’d still have a beam in the bedroom and ones/move around the house!

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.

I have the beam and mini sub. Very happy with them both.

Sonos does have that engagement In learning network and I was thinking about trying to use that, the thing is the ray just kinda sucks and the beam without a sub on top is also just ok. (And Sonos subs aren’t the best anyways).

Sonos Beam

I have a beam, surrounds and sub. No issue at all with them. The beam is connected to my TVs arc port. Once it’s set up I literally never run the Sonos app and I still don’t know why people need to. Once it’s connected to arc port, volume is controlled by your tv device - Roku, tv remote, Apple TV etc. If I stream music I airplay from my phone, I control music through Deezer or Apple Music.

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 have a Sonos beam. Has night mode and speech enhancement and I watch everything with subtitles on so I don’t wake the baby. Had 3 babies since I got the sound bar. I can say the soundbar never woke them. Plenty of other sounds have but not the tv.

Customer support has always been mediocre. From my dealings it’s out sourced and it seems they are reading from a flow chart for technical issues. Don’t let that stop you. The problems people are having are multi room set ups and local libraries. For surrounds and 5.1 Sonos rules. I have both TVs with soundbars and a few devices around the house. I haven’t seen many issues. The old app sucked too. TLDR - you’ll be thrilled with a beam.

I would recommend the sony bravia 8 soundbar. Currently, $699 at Best Buy in US. I have that with a sub and it's over kill in my townhouse. Paired with a Sony A80K OLED. If you're looking for cheaper surround sound system, Vizio M series is great. I think they are $500. Does the job at an affordable price point. I'd also say the sonos beam, but I'd personally pair with a sub.

I have a 55” G3 and a Sonos Beam. Got both for a total of $1000, pretty great setup

With all the bugs going on with Sonos at the moment I would avoid Sonos, but if you do want a Sonos I would go a beam over the ark. Recent software upgrades has changed the arcs sound signature and I sold mine because it was just way too thin and harsh.

Honestly Sonos only really needs WiFi for setup and if you’re using the app; otherwise, once it is set up WiFi is no longer required. Can’t say why the store wouldn’t swap the unit out if it is defective, charging you more money is just a lie and isn’t necessary. They just either don’t know how to do it properly or don’t want to. Anyone telling you that you should’ve paid for set up is being salty. Soundbars are plug and play these days. They either work or they don’t, there isn’t some magical program or knowledge that would fix it if it’s defective.

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 bought a beam and sub mini a few months ago when they had the 30% discount codes. I wasn't sure it would be enough for the room its in as its quite big but I was really happy with the sound of the beam + sub. Unfortunately, last week it stopped working and now just has a flashing white light. I talked to support last night and I have to return it for a replacement. Thankfully it's still under warranty but I'm seriously considering just selling the replacement unit along with my other sonos stuff before this happens again.

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.

I would get it from Best Buy or Costco. You can return it in 30 days if it doesn't work. I bought a used playbase which is very old in the Sonos system a month after the app rollout in May. It looked brand new and I auditioned it at the seller's house. I got it home and reset it and I love it. I have added surrounds a Move 2 and 2 Era 100 s since May. I have experienced volume issues a few weeks ago but never lost my speakers. I had a budget set like you have and I have purchased open box from Amazon and best buy. I have used CC points and bought used also. I have built my system from one speaker to 6 speakers in the past 4 months. Start off with a new returnable beam and keep an eye on the date for return. I have probably weathered the worse time ever in the Sonos system because of forced app rollouts. Maybe I am lucky but I am very happy with my system. I stream music and listen to my TV so my troubles may be less than others the way I use mine. I think you have an easy chance with a return policy to find out for yourself.

I use the Sonos Beam and love it. I also paired it with a subwoofer and two rear Era 100 speakers.

The app works fine and the beam and sub mini are excellent. These people are complainers.

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...

Vizio M AIO is decent for no subwoofer and only like 200 bucks. But I’d get something like the Sonos Beam or another brand that allows you to expand in the future should you chose to do so

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

New to Sonos, having got a house full of big HomePods. Bought the Beam last year and added the sub mini this year. Adding the sub mini has transformed everything. I’m still blown away to this day when watching DA content. Sticking with this setup for now, perfect for my end terrace living room.

For listening to low volume I would recommend you to go for an all in one sound bar. Because the systems with dedicated sub will require you to crank up the volume to get the sub going. So my recommendation is go for all in one sound bar where you can add rear speakers later on to experience surround sound. And in future if you move to bigger place then you can add the sub as well. For all in one either go for sonos Arc/beam or sony’s new bravia theatre bars or if you can get good discount on previous models like A5000/7000

Sonos Beam or Arc

You should avoid LG soundbars in general as they tend to have cec and handshake issues. With this specific model the surround speakers aren’t great, my guess would be that they are below 20w honestly. This soundbar also doesn’t have arc so unless you’re tv has a universal remote function you are going to have to use two remotes just to change volume. If you’re going cheap the only one I recommend is a Samsung 650 soundbar. Best option for a 3.1 on a budget especially because it goes on sale all the time. Samsung soundbars are pretty reliable and pretty easy to troubleshoot. Obviously sound quality differs from model to model but the 650 is “not bad” Like everyone else is saying, Sonos is always a recommendation. Go for the beam but I would actually recommend saving up and going for the Arc. The Sonos Arc is one of the few soundbars I would say you don’t NEED a subwoofer with, although it greatly improves a cinematic and high fidelity audio experience. The good thing about Sonos truly comes from whole home audio. So if this is the only room you’re concerned about you could definitely consider another brand. But Sonos is also buildable. So maybe this year you grab the soundbar. Next year you grab the sub. After that you grab two era 100s for surrounds. If you’re willing to spend money on GOOD sound honestly the Samsung 930d kind of blew me away with its sound quality. It’s not as good as Sonos, but has some of the best surrounds that come in box with the soundbar. Almost all other soundbars that come with “wireless surrounds” actually come with a wireless receiver (small box that receives audio from the soundbar) and then the rears have to be hard wired to the box with speaker cable. Whereas the surrounds in the 930d soundbar only need power and get pretty loud so you can actually hear them. In the end you need to make the decision of what matters more to you. Quality or Money. But I cannot recommend anything below a 650 soundbar. And don’t go with Bose, JBL, or Polk either. They all sound great but have so many issues with compatibility. Source: I’m an in home DA. I’ve installed mostly everything.

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.