Sonos Beam test: a compact soundbar, not just for trade shows – Tech News

The Latin word "sonos" means "his" and, 16 years ago, he was found an appropriate name for the Sonos society. A good sound, after all, has been one of the registered trademarks of the network speakers of the company from the beginning.

Now the Californian company is launching an interesting product with impressive versatility: With only 65cm long, the Sonos Beam is very compact for a bar of sound, weighing 2.8 kg.

His body, available in white and black, houses eight speakers: a central tweeter and two full-range woofers on each side are mainly used for dialogue and singing. Two of them are slanted and two others are facing forward, creating a stereo effect. Three pbadive radiators give the bbad an extra punch.

The result is quite impressive. Even in a bigger living room, the television dialogue is crystal clear. And when the dinosaurs crush the screen in movies like Jurbadic Park the Sonos Beam can produce a full sound without external subwoofer

The installation of the camera is very easy especially if your TV supports HDMI ARC. ARC stands for "Audio Return Channel" and synchronizes the picture and sound. And here's what's great: you do not need a second remote for the soundbar. You can adjust the volume using the TV remote control.

The TV must also support inter-device control via CEC, which should be the case with all reasonably recent models of major manufacturers. If your TV does not match the bill, you can opt for an optical adapter.

Unfortunately, Sonos does not support all popular audio codecs. You can choose from PCM, Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital 5.1 stereo formats, but without Dolby Vision, DTS and lossless audio formats. According to Sonos, most of the content is available in the formats supported by the device.

The Sonos Beam contains six built-in microphones that can be used to interact with the virtual badistant of Amazon Alexa. The company has fallen behind on the digital badistant train, but now Sonos wants to integrate with different support systems in a more consistent way than any other manufacturer.

The Beam already includes commands like "Alexa, Turn on TV" or "Alexa, turn off the TV" when using an Amazon Fire TV box and a compatible TV. It also responds to commands like "Alexa, increase volume" or "Alexa, mute".

In the future, Sonos wants to offer access to all major systems, says CEO Patrick Spence. This will also include the Google Assistant. "We are working hard with Google to make this happen," he said. However, Apple users will have to wait for support from Siri.

Like other recent Sonos models, the Beam is compatible with Apple's new AirPlay 2 audio streaming technology, which allows you to transmit sound from an iPhone or iPad. You can start listening to an Apple Music stream on an iPhone and then ask Alexa what song is playing.

Sonos has set up the Beam as a competitor of Apple's HomePod and Bang & Olufsen network speakers. Unlike other sound bars, which are completely focused on playing movies and TV shows, the Sonos Beam wants to be taken seriously as a music player.

When Reading You Do not Know by Leon Bridges For example, the Beam manages to make an expressive drums acoustically heard in the living room. But the Beam sounds even better if you add two smaller speakers (Play: 1 or Sonos One) to the mix.

The new Sonos Beam costs US $ 399 (RM1,614) and will be available from July 17th. – dpa [19659015] [ad_2]
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