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The case with so-called sound bars seems to work well at Sonos. Sound bars, which are usually elongated speakers that you put under the TV or suspends to enhance the sound quality. Sonos already offers two of these devices, Playbase and Playbase.
Both devices cost just under $ 800 and are so wide that they can only be installed on TVs from 55 inches. The new beam, however, is much smaller, shorter, with a price of 449 euros significantly cheaper than the two big models and has even more features. That seems good. To what extent does the beam actually ring and what else can be done, they had to prove it during the test.
It showed the advantage of a compact design. It fits my Samsung 49 inch TV, as if both devices were designed one for the other: The Beam can be pushed just below the TV. The position is perfect because the sound really seems to come out of the TV. Of course, that does not always have to be like that. On weak TVs, the beam could darken the bottom of the screen – just like the other sound bars.
Sonos has installed an HDMI jack for the first time to connect it to the TV. If you have a modern TV with an ARC compatible HDMI connection – which is usually printed next to the jack – the sound is transmitted via the HDMI cable to the speaker. Older TVs come with an adapter that allows you to type the audio signal from the TV into a digital audio output.
However, this gives a function that the beam has on other sonos sound bars: control the TV with voice commands. Because, just like the Sonos One, the beam has a number of microphones for this purpose. At present, only Alexa Alexa can be used, the Google assistant will follow soon.
There is not much to say
So many things are not possible in the ground state. You can turn the TV on and off by voice control and adjust the volume. Only when you connect in addition to a Fire TV or Amazon Fire Fire stick, you can also use commands like: "Search for movies with Audrey Hepburn" or "Games Season 2, Episode 3 by Stranger Things". Of course, the same functions can also be accessed via the voice remote control of Amazon devices.
Apart from this, the Beam Sound Bar allows you to use all the features of Alexa that other Alexa devices offer. So you can ask questions about the weather, control the networked devices or just ask the soundbar: "Alexa, tell me a joke."
The configuration of the Beam Sound Bar is quick and easy with the Sonos app. If you already have other Sonos speakers in the house, you tap on "Add speakers" and a few seconds later, the beam is built into the system. With a full reinstallation, a few extra clicks are needed, but it does not take more than a few minutes.
There is a significant difference between setting up the soundbar with an Android device or an iPhone or iPad. Only with Apple devices, the feature mentioned by Sonos Trueplay is available, with which the sound characteristics of the speakers can be adapted to the respective room.
This is done with his iPad slowly across the room, while the speaker plays a series of test tones. The software records the sound recorded by the microphones and calculates a specific sound profile for that speaker at this point in this room.
The result is consistent with the Beam with my experience of other speakers Sonos: After optimization through the iPad application, the sound is denser, drier, clearer. If you do not have an iPad or iPhone, you can rent one of these devices to friends to enhance the sound of their Sonos speakers. This only takes a few minutes per speaker and usually only needs to be done once.
Five loudspeakers and three followers
With or without Trueplay: The sound produced by the Beam is incredible for such a clean, clear little box, far from the sound of some cheap sound bars. You can not expect to depress bass from such a small box because the three passive heatsinks, which add to the five speakers of the holster, are also not useful. Although they ensure that the beam can seem very fat and warm, but the limits of physics can not overcome them.
The main work anyway four broadband speakers, two of which radiate towards the front and two laterally and therefore broad enough to build a stereo scene. For television, however, the centrally mounted tweeter is especially important. It ensures very good speech intelligibility.
If you do not want to do without the really big bass, you have to buy the subwoofer Sonos Sub. Then, the whole costs 1248 euros, but it seems really huge. With two additional Sonos One as return boxes, it will be a 5.1 system that does not have to hide – but with 1606 euros at its price.
Conclusion
Advantages and Disadvantages
Very Good Sound
Easy Installation
Very Many Uses
Intelligent Speaker Functions
Extensible to Other Sonos Speakers [19659086] No Trueplay Works on Android Devices
Compared to Sonos' largest sound bars, the sound of the beam is a little thinner, but not bad at all. Functionally, it is better equipped than Playbar and Playbase. After all, she is not only good as a TV speaker and mini stereo system, but also as a smart speaker. In combination, the beam almost makes this market not only in the ecosystem of Sonos.
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