The Sonos Beam

Let's cut to the chase - the Sonos Beam is a very impressive soundbar that would be a great addition to any home theatre system. 

It's easily one of the smartest and "flexible" soundbars on the market, supporting everything from Alexa to Apple's AirPlay 2.

It's also incredibly easy to use, thanks to its multi-room audio tech.

If there is a critical comment to make, it's probably that it isn't as streamlined as other soundbars on the market.

But if you're willing to look passed its lack of cutting-edge features and instead  focus on what it does right (like its multi-room platform), it's well worth the outlay.

Within the broader Sonos family of products, the Beam would probably be considered the "entry-level soundbar" of the product line-up.

The big attraction though is its size.

The Sonos Beam is a soundbar that will happily fit in front of a 32-inch set up or larger screens.

Coming in at 650 x 100 x 68.5mm, it’s much smaller than the much loved Sonos Playbar, but has the addition of a very useful HDMI connectivity.

Sleek and well designed, the controls can be found on top (touch sensitive and identical to the Sonos One).

The soundbar can be mounted or snugly fitted in front of your screen. Inside the Sonos Beam are four full-range drivers, a center tweeter and three passive radiators which are there to add to the bass.

The Sonos Beam is designed for three-channels, but with it's software feature, Trueplay, it makes those three channels sound like true surround sound. (unfortunately this is only available to iOS users currently).

Flip the device around and the ports are minimal. There’s an ethernet, HDMI slot, power and a Wi-Fi button.

Sonos Beam setup

Setting up the Sonos Beam for your home cinema is fairly simple.

If your TV screen has HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel, look for the symbol near the HDMI slot), then you're pretty much good to go.

HDMI ARC allows the soundbar to sync up audio and picture and have everything working through your TV’s remote in a matter of minutes.(yes really) 

On that note though, as is the case with all Sonos products, it doesn't come with a remote - the thinking being that you use the Sonos app via your phone to control volume, link up speakers etc. 

If your TV isn't HDMI ARC enabled, you'll need to plug in the accompanying optical adaptor into the HDMI cable, allowing you to use the Beam through the optical port.

Sonos Beam voice control

The other way to control the Sonos Beam, thanks to its Alexa integration, is through your voice. 

Here you will need an Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick to get the most out of the Sonos Beam’s voice functionality. Once you're set up, you'll be able to browse Netflix, Spotify etc. using your voice.

Summary

All in all, the Sonos Beam is a practical, efficient soundbar that would be a worthy addition to any home theatre system. We approve.