Then there’s movies, and that’s where the Beam Gen 2 changes can be found. It’s much the same with jazz and classical, with a balance that is mostly there, though occasionally blows the sound to being bright, though it’ll be track dependent, we found. While the mids felt a little undefined listening to Maroon 5 and the warbling bass in FKA Twigs understated, rock delivers a solid sound, with the Deftones, David Bowie, Paul Simon, and The Beatles all sounding solidly balanced, and an easy listen all around. That aspect of the Sonos Beam’s performance is rare, though. Both Ariana Grande and Mark Ronson deliver a solid recreation with their tracks, while Charlie Puth exhibits the harshness we mentioned earlier, with bright highs that can feel like they fuzz out slightly. The bass isn’t being moved the way it did in the larger Sonos Arc, but that’s to be expected, and it’s much the same feeling in R&B, too. That’s good, because the first was so good, something we noted in our Sonos Beam review back in 2018, and the new one just delivers scores of volume and yet more balance, though we could find at times it was a little on the bright side.įor the most part, though, balance was the key message, with tracks from the Pickr Sound Test noting a noticeable punch on the bass, and a surprisingly spacious soundstage is surprisingly spacious in electronic tracks from Tycho and Daft Punk, certainly bigger than you’d expect from a small speaker. There’s also not a lot new in the technology of the Beam Gen 2 which means much of the performance gets to stay the same. That’s all par for the course for a Sonos soundbar, so there’s not a lot that’s new here. ![]() However, you can also use the touch controls on top to control volume, tracks, and even call up a virtual assistant using the on-board microphone if you so choose. You can set it up to handle volume controlling from your TV or media player, and we used our Apple TV 4K for that, alongside the app. Soundbars are primarily made as a one-speaker sound system for TVs, so while the Beam can be used as a speaker, it’s more likely to sit in front of a TV and work as that TV’s new sound system, taking audio from the set and amplifying it in your world. You’ll use the app for controlling its media services, as you would with every other Sonos, be it a smaller speaker like the Roam or even the larger Sonos Arc, and like the latter, you’ll plug it into an HDMI port to get audio from your TV to feed straight into it. Using the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is much the same as its predecessor, too, with not much having changed there. It’s a look that screams “this isn’t a soundbar that stands out, but one that will offer plenty of sound”, which we suspect is kind of the point. The design looks a little different, as Sonos taps the design potential of the Arc, with its tiny pin-prick grill aesthetic, standing out while also blending in. The biggest change may come from the chip controlling everything inside which has seen an upgrade, and possibly the look of the speaker, as well. On the back, you’ll find three ports, with power, HDMI, and Ethernet, plus a sync button if you need to connect the speaker with a Sonos mesh network device, and there are touch controls up top, too. There are also microphones to listen out for your voice, and support for Sonos’ TruePlay technology, which can use an iOS phone to measure the sound output and calibrate the speaker for the room it sits in, though this was there in the original, too. Inside, there are five Class-D digital amps to talk to the four mid-woofers and one tweeter, with three passive radiators handling the bass reflex, though this is all about the same as it was before. It’s only been a few years since we saw the first Sonos Beam, a departure from the inclusion of the word “bar” with its soundbar technology, and now we’re back with another one. ![]() Adhering to the “if it ain’t broke” philosophy, Sonos hasn’t quite reinvented the wheel with the Beam Gen 2 rather, it has applied modest tweaks and changes to bring the Beam into 2021.ĭoes it work, and is it an upgrade worth considering? Design and features Its latest soundbar isn’t entirely new, though, drawing from Sonos’ work from 2018. But at over a thousand dollars, this long speaker isn’t for everyone, so Sonos has been working on something else. ![]() That was 2018, and in that time, Sonos has also found a way to soup up its soundbar efforts, replacing the big Playbar with the more impressive and Atmos-equipped Arc. It’s been three years since Sonos found a way to package up its first soundbar in something smaller, bundling the large Playbar into the much smaller Beam. ![]() The latest Sonos speaker packs good looks and solid sound in a familiar package, but the addition of Atmos is a little like being in The Matrix, and is pure simulation.
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