*** Official SONOS Thread ***

[Kol]

I'm bitterly pleased about that. I have the playbase and was slightly miffed when it was mentioned further up a new one may be coming out, but thankfully I really don't like the design of that so can continue to be happy with my playbase.

Only thing I really want is HDMI but with my optical switch I'm getting 5.1 across my devices anyway so it's not major.

 

[Minstadave]

It looks really odd, doesn’t really fit with sonos’ design language.

 

[Kol]

Reminds me of a portable speaker (not the size but the design). I, too, can't see how it fits the range, but then the pricing is lower so going for a more budget market?

 

[ChrisD.]

Looks odd and small. HDMI, Alexa and AirPlay is a welcome addition though.

 

[Minstadave]

What Hifi review is underwhelming.

 

[Kol]

There's no additional codec support either, so it's no better than the playbar/base except it now supports hdmi.

Sonos hasn't upgraded the audio codec support, however, so it's PCM stereo, Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital 5.1, with no support for DTS or lossless audio formats. Sonos points to content support and user demand when it comes to DTS, saying it's confident Dolby Digital surround sound is sufficient for the vast majority of people.

Oh dear:

Sonos has naturally taken learnings from the Playbar and Playbase to focus the design and build on delivering the best audio quality possible. But there are always compromises, not least when it comes to making things smaller and cheaper.

Pushed on the differences in sound, Hilmar Lenhart, director of audio systems engineering at Sonos, said: "The Beam has a little less output, and doesn't go quite as deep or quite as wide as Playbar and Playbase." Perhaps unsurprisingly, we came to a similar conclusion from our brief demo.

I don't get it, Sonos is supposed to be a more 'premium' out of the box product. Not especially in terms of being for audiophiles, I know those who have separates are understandably underwhelmed, but for people like me who don't have time/space for this Sonos is a compromise that works great. Watering it down isn't the right path for Sonos, surely.

 

[enfo]

To be fair to Sonos i kind of agree with them that Dolby digital is probably fine for most ( Me )
But as Kol said Sonos is meant to be 'Premium' , if this smaller Beam bar is only DD then you would hope a new playbar would come out with support for Atmos etc

 

[Minstadave]

Yup, doesn’t look good, doesn’t sound great, is still the price of a pretty high end soundbar and hasn’t moved on from standard DTS/DD.

I’d have thought Sonos would be pushing directional audio more with some upward firing Atmos speakers or something more interesting than this.

Edit - slightly late.

 

[DampCat]

I just installed the control APP on my PC, is it possible to output from my PC speakers as well as the 3x Sonos dotted around the house?

 

[Minstadave]

I just installed the control APP on my PC, is it possible to output from my PC speakers as well as the 3x Sonos dotted around the house?

Nope

 

[bfar]

So if you had 400 bucks to spend on a bar for music TV and movie duties, what would you recommend? And if you already had a pair of play 1s in the living room, that can join the beam for surround would that sway you?

 

[bfar]

Aaaand the Mrs just ordered one for my birthday!

Reviews are in. Its pretty decent.

 

[a1ex2001]

Aaaand the Mrs just ordered one for my birthday!

Reviews are in. Its pretty decent.

Good to read that review but it is hardly surprising sonos simply doesn't make bad products yes they are expensive yes they lack some features but they all sound great and are easy to use!

 

[Minstadave]

Good to read that review but it is hardly surprising sonos simply doesn't make bad products yes they are expensive yes they lack some features but they all sound great and are easy to use!

I’d disregard the Whathifi review tbh, their objectivity is suspect. Other reviewers have found it less impressive but not awful.

 

[bfar]

I’d disregard the Whathifi review tbh, their objectivity is suspect. Other reviewers have found it less impressive but not awful.

Techradar - 4.5/5
The Verge - 8/10
Pocketi-lint - 4.5/10
Trusted Reviews - 10/10
CNET - 3.5/5
Engadget - 85%
Wired.com 8/10

 

[Minstadave]

Techradar - 4.5/5
The Verge - 8/10
Pocketi-lint - 4.5/10
Trusted Reviews - 10/10
CNET - 3.5/5
Engadget - 85%
Wired.com 8/10

And your point is? Whathifi’s glowing review isn’t consistent with the rest - Which was my point.

As I said the beam isn’t terrible but it’s not leading the pack which is unusual as Sonos usually put the effort in to have sound quality well rounded. The more realistic reviews have all mentioned the sound quality being the corner cut to get the price down which is a shame as it’s not cheap, and not massively cheaper than the bar/base.

It was also not a massive update in tech, yes finally HDMI is in but no Atmos or hi-res support.

 

[bazzabear]

Can I ask for some advice for someone considering starting up a Sonos collection?

I've not got a Spotify account, or anything else of the type. My intention would be to mostly play from my own collection of music. But how easy is that to do? I assume I can play from a computer on my network if it's switched on? But is there any way I could just connect an external hard drive to my network (either Sonos network or wifi network) and play from that so I don't need an always on computer?

Alternatively, I'm sure I remember one supplier (was it Google music) that uploads all your music to the cloud and allows you to play that anywhere without subscription. Am I right, and would that work?

Basically, I'm trying to avoid paying a subscription for music when almost everything I want to listen to, I already own myself. But should I suck it up and just subscribe to something?


The other question is: If I put a Sonos speaker in the bedroom, do they have the functionality that they would work as an alarm clock, waking me up to playing music?

 

[Minstadave]

To play from an external drive you’d be looking at one with DLNA functionality or a NAS type device. Sonos supports that fine.

Google music does let you upload all your music but I think you need a paid subscription. I’d check though I’ve not used it.

Honestly I’d just get a cheap Deezer/Spotify collection but I don’t have a large collection of music digitally.

Alarm clock does indeed work with Sonos but it’s basic.

 

[bfar]

And your point is? Whathifi’s glowing review isn’t consistent with the rest - Which was my point.

As I said the beam isn’t terrible but it’s not leading the pack which is unusual as Sonos usually put the effort in to have sound quality well rounded. The more realistic reviews have all mentioned the sound quality being the corner cut to get the price down which is a shame as it’s not cheap, and not massively cheaper than the bar/base.

It was also not a massive update in tech, yes finally HDMI is in but no Atmos or hi-res support.

My point is that most respected reviewers found it to be a million miles from "less impressive but not awful". Most indeed pointed out that it has less power and scale than it's older brothers, which should be obvious at nearly half the price. However at its size and price point it seems to have impressed plenty of credible people.

I take your point on hi Res to an extent. Eitherway, blu ray buffs should really be looking at a different kind of home entertainment product.

 

[Minstadave]

My point is that most respected reviewers found it to be a million miles from "less impressive but not awful". Most indeed pointed out that it has less power and scale than it's older brothers, which should be obvious at nearly half the price. However at its size and price point it seems to have impressed plenty of credible people.

I take your point on hi Res to an extent. Eitherway, blu ray buffs should really be looking at a different kind of home entertainment product.

Well not really because all but one of the reviews you posted did find it less impressive than Whathifi but none found it awful. There’s no million miles about it. That’s the case.

My point was that the Whathifi review should be considered somewhat suspect. The product is more than OK but not normally what Sonos achieve sonically.

Also it’s not being reviewed at £600 that the predecessors cost. £400 buys a lot of Soundbar and the Beam is a bit underwhelming going on the reviews.

I’ve not heard it myself, it might be amazing, but I’m not convinced by the reviews.