Features:

  • The Smart compact soundbar for your TV, music, and more
  • Play everything that matters to you with Beam. Control it with your voice, remote, the Sonos app, and more
  • Specially tuned by Oscar-winning sound engineers to emphasize the sound of the human voice
  • Amazon Alexa is built right in so you can play music, check news, set alarms, get your questions answered, and more, completely hands free
  • Go from unboxing to listening in minutes with just two cords and automatic remote detection
Great in a 5.1, 5.0 or 3.1 Setup

I had a Sony receiver with the Polk RM6750 compact speakers and subwoofer which sounded great but I’ve been looking for a soundbar for a few years now for simplicity and visual appeal. I purchased a Sony HT-ST5000 shortly after its release and ended up returning it a couple days later. The dialogue was particularly awful and the lack of surround channels really made it flat sounding. I was originally disappointed that Sonos released a small soundbar instead of a “playbar 2” but decided to try out the Beam with Sub and two One’s after many 3rd party review sites ranked the Beam especially high. It sounds excellent. Together, it sounds just as good and even better than my previous wired system. Movies and music both shine on this. The Beam itself sounds full and produces a wide sound stage although it’s important to note that it produces little bass so I would not use the Beam by itself unless its on a secondary TV in a very small room. Add the One’s and you get much better bass. Add the sub and you get rumbling thunder. If you can only get one, I’d say get the two One’s so you also get the surround. Note: I’m using the system primarily in a 10x12 ft living room but it will easily fill my 700 sqft apartment with music. Dialogue in movies is always very clear and sounds full. I do not use the dialogue enhancer either - no need for it. Night mode works well but I’ll probably never use that. Alexa works well. The microphones can hear me speak in a low tone from 20 ft away in my kitchen around around a corner which was surprising. Big fan of the app. You can adjust all of the speaker levels or turn on enhancements there. You can play iPad music through it. I just wish you could ask Alexa to play XYZ from the iPad like you can with the other music services. You first have to start playing from the iPad in the app and then you can tell Alexa to pause/play or skip the song. I think I’ve been experiencing some audio delay with XBox One X Blu Rays only... I think because its very slight and only noticed in a C movie and then a movie primarily with CGI so I can’t trust either one. But there is no delay when streaming from apps on the XBox, apps from my TV or my FIOS cable box. The Xbox and cable box are both routed separately through my x900e then HDMI to the Beam. Need some more Netflix DVDs to come in to further test that. Its nice being able to adjust the volume of the system using Alexa or your TV remote. All in all - loving the system. Was thinking I’d replace the Beam when Sonos does release a playbar 2 in the following years but there’s really no need. I’m very happy with it. I’d suggest it if you can get it along with two Ones, the sub or most definitely both - alone though, it lacks bass needed for movies and music. Update: 7-31 - I watched another Blu ray on the xbox and there wasn’t a perceivable audio delay on that one... Update: 8-29 - Experienced more audio delay on Blurays through the XBox. Bought a new Bluray player - no audio delay so far. I'm wondering if it was only DTS movies that the Xbox had to convert to Dolby. No converter on the new player tho.

Perfect for bedroom

This model is perfect for the bedroom and mounts to a vesa mount setup very easily with the Sonos Wall mount bracket and Mount-It universal soundbar kit. Mounting and setup from start to finish took 25 minutes. The HDMI ARC connectivity just works.

New SONOS fanboy

This is my first SONOS purchase ever, and I'm glad I made that decision. Here's some background: I have a fairly large living room in my new house and it is already hard wired for surround sound, so I was tempted to get a receiver and wired 5.1 setup (which sure sounds great), but I kept reading into wireless surround systems and every review I read or video I saw, SONOS stood out as one of the best with wireless sound. I decided to go with SONOS and do a 5.1 setup with SONOS phase by phase (it is an expensive product) and start off with just the soundbar and then slowly add a sub and satellites. Hence came the next debate - Playbar, Playbase or wait for upcoming Beam Here's why I went for Beam: 1. Alexa, Airplay and upcoming Google Assistant integration all in one is a game changer. I'm an Apple Music subscriber, but just being able to use Alexa for turning the TV on or off and skip tracks or change volume is very convenient. Then I can send music to the Beam from any of my apple devices on Airplay. I don't need a HomePod in my living room at all and I don't need a separate sound bar either. I killed 2 birds with one stone. 2. This thing sounds incredible. As I stated I have a living room bigger than a medium sized living room and it has high ceiling (2 floor high). And the kitchen+breakfast area is open making it one huge family room. I set up Beam and did TruPlay tuning right away. The results are fantastic. The audio fills the entire space and even at half the volume, the music is incredibly good. Did not expect such bass from the little thing but it's good enough to make me debate about buying a $700 sub. After adding 2 play ones as satellites, the setup will sounds incredible. 3. No need to worry about any audio/video proprietary formats you are playing. Everything that's playing a sound on your TV will be audible through the SONOS and you just need one remote controller.

Finally the price drops to make it worth it

Sonos has always had great equipment, but the prices have been silly and prevented many people from buying. I've wanted them for some time and with the release of this new soundbar I took the plunge. Bought this bar and 2 of the old Sonos one's without the built in Alexa. No need to have Alexa on more than one speaker in the room. The sound is AWESOME, and the Sonos setup app is as good as anything Apple could put together. I'm now going to get a few more sonos one's for the bedrooms with the alexa built in. The sub-woofer would perfect the sound, but that too is still at a silly price tag. I'll wait and see if they ever drop that as well. I have a suspicion that they will finally be mainstream with this new model and pricing, and they will be more competitive shortly all around. It's also nice they use the HDMI cable instead of the optical to connect to the TV. It's the industry standard now (as much as I hate it) and it makes things simple. You can even tell Alexa to turn on your tv and it does over the HDMI signal. Worth the price... if you are on the fence, don't be. You won't regret it... (unless you are a twisted audiophile with 5k in HiFi equipment and need to hear a cricket fart over your system, in which case, you will never be satisfied).

An Up-To-Date Beam Review (Feb 2019)

I am writing this in late Jan, but it's close to Feb ... so the review is current as of Feb 2019. I just want to point out some key points and updates related to the Beam that get lost in some of the older reviews. 1) Know why you're getting this speaker. It's a great sound quality replacement for your TV's speakers. If you want true surround, buy a true surround system. If you want audiophile quality, go spend more money. This speaker is great for what it was designed to do. I love it. I have a separate Surround, audiophone quality setup in another room but for our Family room, this is perfect. 2) I saw large complaints about the Beam working with ASUS networking gear. Must be old news. I am running a three router ASUS mesh networks. The Beam is working flawlessly. 3) Networking gear matters. If yours is older or not a brand known for reliability you always run the risk of wonky connection issues with WiFi devices. 4) Age of your TV matters. Mine is newer (<2 years old) and the ARC connection works perfectly with the Beam. Inputs change, audio levels change, and voices are in sync with video. I have an older TV with ARC (~6 years old) and got different results. 5) I saw differing comments on Alexa working or not. First, it's clearly published that the Beam is not a replacement for an Amazon Echo. Some features just are not available. Check and make sure what you use is available. Second, others were commenting that the Beam wasn't picking up, "Hey, Alexa." Could have been older firmware. My Beam as of late January's software, has picked up every request from different spots in the room and differing volume levels of my voice. It works. If you're buying the Beam for the right use case, have newer gear (TV and networking) you will have a very good Beam experience. The thing on quality I would note is that deciphering dialogue from TV shows, which was a problem on my Samsung, has massively improved. The Beam is great at isolating dialogue and projecting it while keeps background music and loud sounds in check. This is why I bought the Beam. Good stuff. Feb 11,2019 Update: Still a 5-star purchase bordering 5.5 stars. My 10-year-old son walked out of our exercise room, which has a similar Samsung TV, this past weekend and said, "I am going upstairs. The sound is way better." Alexa is still working flawlessly even if the music is loud. The far-field microphones are rock solid. The room we are in is 15 x 25 (family room + kitchen) and playing the Sonos on about 1/4th - 1/3rd volume is more than enough to fill up the room.

Best Soundbar for the Money!

This is my second soundbar that I’ve owned and my first Sonos product. I must say I am very impressed. For such a small soundbar this thing outputs great sound. The Beam’s sound when playing movies and music is perfect. I have a mid-size living room area and the Beam fills the space with sound quite handedly. I do plan on getting the Sonos SUB at some point but after using the Beam all day I’m confident that I can hold out on the SUB until Black Friday. The addition of Alexa is arguably this soundbar’s biggest selling point and I’m happy to say it works really well. It works just as well as my Echo and Echo Dot and allows me to control my Smart Home devices. I can ask Alexa to play music on Spotify and then ask it to run my Robovac without having to lift a finger. My personal favorite feature is HDMI-ARC which allows you to do things like control the volume of the soundbar with the TV remote or turn on/off the TV with Alexa. If you’re looking for a soundbar with great sound and great smart features, I highly recommend getting the Sonos Beam!

Great speaker! +Reuse old subwoofer tip!

I replaced my legacy Paradigm speaker system and Yamaha receiver that originally cost $$$ with the Sonos Beam and two Sonos Play:1s. I couldn't be happier! I'm using it with an LG oled55b7p (shown in my photo). Audio: It sounds great! The late night setting (voice boost and lower loud noises) is very helpful. The native Apple Airplay streaming without the need for the Sonos app (it allows streaming collectively to the Play:1s also) is a great bonus also. Alexa: For those of you wondering, if you do not wish to integrate with Alexa you just skip that part in the setup and the microphone is never connected. Reuse your old non-Sonos subwoofer tip!! I get that the Sonos ecosystem just works and they want you to buy their subwoofer and thus they have no subwoofer out jack (you need to use their wireless sub). However, if you already have an existing sub woofer, like I do, it's a shame to waste it. I've come up with a great solution. Since the Beam uses HDMI for its audio your TV likely has a free optical out port. Using the optical out port connect a 5.1 Audio Sound Decoder Converter to 5.1CH Analog Audio (6RCA Output). I used this one here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MS0973G All you need to do is connect your RCA cable to subwoofer connection on the box and you have bass for under $50!

Easy setup and great sound

I'm new to Sonos. I just received and setup my Sonos Beam, Sub and 2x Play 1s yesterday. I have a small / medium apartment. I had been using an old cheap 'home theater in a box' sound system that wasn't very good. I'm not much of an audiophile at all. I just like sounds to sound good to my ears. My use case is all streaming content from my AppleTV to a 43" Sony Bravia. Movies, television and music. After much research, I went with Sonos for it's ease of use and setup. I didn't really need a high end audio system. Or one that had too much power for my living space. The sound is glorious :) I had it setup in about an hour. Tuned, adjusted the Sub down a bit as it's a little boomy in here. Apple Music - I have a wide and eclectic taste in music - I was pleasantly surprised how good it sounds. Television - Netflix and other services that can broadcast 5.1 surround come through very well. Hulu - only broadcast in stereo - so the quality is still good, but only through the Beam. No surround, no sub. That's all on Hulu from what I've read. I had thought of just starting with the Beam, but after a day of use, I'm happy I chose to get a Sub and the Play 1's. By itself, I don't think the Beam would have sufficed for movies. I hope my experience helps out others searching for info.

Great full sound quality for a really compact speaker

First, being a professional music with very picky ears, I have to say that Sonos REALLY knows how to make a good sounding speaker. Yes, they're pricey, but you really get what you pay for. I had already purchased two Sonos One speakers for music and loved them. For my TV sound I had a full 5.1 system with AV receiver, subwoofer, front and rear, center speakers. LOTS of stuff taking up LOTS of space. The sound was fantastic, but I have a small condo and it was way too much for the space. I was able to eliminate everything with this little Beam speaker. I paired it with with my two Sonos One speakers and the surround sound is almost as good as my full 5.1 previous system. I am THRILLED with the change. No, the bass isn't as full as it was on my huge Velodyne 12" subwoofer, but it's certainly good enough for my room. I get a nice surround separation with the two Sonos One speakers placed a good distance to my left and right in corners of the room. One KEY thing I also learned was that in the Sonos settings, you can adjust the room settings so that the TV and Music use the speakers differently. When I played music after adding the Beam, it used the same surround separation as the TV, the default setting. I really missed the full deep music sound I used to have when I just had the two Sonos Ones, since the TV sound automatically puts most of the focus on the Beam front speaker. I stumbled across the room adjustment "Ambient" surround setting when you can adjust it for TV and Music separately. I adjusted the balance for Music so it it would come mostly from the Sonos One speakers again. Eureka!! Big full beautiful music sound again. The speakers know when I play the TV, to use the full surround, but when I put music on, it uses the Music setting for more Sonos One use. LOVE IT!! I can't say enough about how fantastic these speakers sound. I LOVE how little space they take but how BIG and full the sound is. Highly recommended!

It Rocks!!!

This speaker has blown me away. I knew it was going to sound good, as my other 5 Sonos speakers sound great, but seriously was astounded by the wide sound field of this mighty little speaker! Listen to a concert or action movie and the room filling “surround sound” fully immerses you... honestly sounds better than my old 6 speaker with receiver system. Our tv room is small though, which helps. One of the best features, to me- you can use this speaker to broadcast your tv sound to all other Sonos in your home/apt, which is major to me. Used to have to use a Connect box to do that. For some reason Sonos doesn’t brag about this ability anywhere I found. One thing that freaked me during connecting it to my 4 yr old TV.... in the Sonos App walk-through, it say’s you need to find an HDMI input on your tv that’s labeled “ARC” (audio return channel), and that if your TV doesn’t have that it won’t support HDMI control of your TV for the speaker. Not so fast Sonos peeps! My Vizio TV has 4 HDMI inputs, and ALL of them support ARC, which I only found out by looking at input menu’s on my TV. Non are explicitly labeled that on back of TV. So my advice is def try out connecting HDMI to your (less than 5 yr old TV) before letting the app dissuade you! I can now turn my tv on and off with the speaker and change volume. So I got rid of (see pic!!) TONS of equipment, clutter, cables, and my Sonos Connect all by getting this magic little powerhouse of a soundbar!

Full Reviews