Sonos Beam or something else?

In an effort to declutter I have got shot of my old 5.1 system and but now would like a soundbar to link to an older 50" LG TV.

It will go into a small 10m x 4m room so doesn't need to be massively powerful.

I have done a bit a searching and the Beam comes up with some good reviews. I don't think I'll add the Play Ones but I will play Spotify through it.

I see there has been some concern over how Sonos has stopped support for their older products. Should this be of concern for the future or would I be better of buying something else and if so what would you recommend?

Budget of £500.

Many thanks

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Originally Posted by Eddiex

In an effort to declutter I have got shot of my old 5.1 system and but now would like a soundbar to link to an older 50" LG TV.

It will go into a small 10m x 4m room so doesn't need to be massively powerful.

I have done a bit a searching and the Beam comes up with some good reviews. I don't think I'll add the Play Ones but I will play Spotify through it.

I see there has been some concern over how Sonos has stopped support for their older products. Should this be of concern for the future or would I be better of buying something else and if so what would you recommend?

Budget of £500.

Many thanks

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We’ve got a beam on one of our TVs and it’s a pretty good all rounder on its own Coupled with playones and a sub it’s superb, there are better standalone soundbars Yamaha for example. The best thing I did was go into richer sounds and have a listen to a few

I did the same as you a few months back. The Beam is good but no substitute for the 5.1. I tend to use mine for music as well as tv sound.

It’s a fairly new product for Sonos so no obsolescence/app issues (yet)

Ian

Tried a bar, didn't compare to a proper 5.1 so ended up back but with smaller monitor audio speakers (radius 90s x 4, 270 (?) centre and W12 sub), works great plus wife friendly.

Found for us that the sound loss wasn't worth the cleanliness, including SHMBO.

Yamaha YSP5600 or 2700 still the best out there.

Thanks for the replies.

I agree that a sound bar will not be as good as my old 5.1 system but on balance I think I just want something simply to boost the sound of my TV a little. I can't be bothered with all the cabling and black boxes dotted around the room anymore! :tears_of_joy: It's funny how you change - years ago I had hi fi everywhere!

I have looked at some of the offerings from Yamaha and they do review well - even the cheaper models. I'll pop over to Richer sounds and have a listen although in the past that has made me up my budget!

If you have or plan to get other Sonos kit for me this makes the Beam a no-brainer.

I bought a beam recently and was underwhelmed by it on its own. I added the play one speakers and it is now far better.

I am tempted to recycle our old play 5 , get the 30 percent discount off a new sub and arc.

I’ve got a YSP2500 in one room and a Beam with Play Ones in the other. The Yamaha is very hit and miss on the surround sound due to the room limitation and when the sub is off just sounds shit. But overall it is a lovely sound. The Beam I found is much much better with the Play Ones it just gives a richer deeper sound. On its own it was pretty good but you can improve it so much more. Whether there is something better for the combined outlay is more the key. Though I added the Play Ones during their sale a number of months later so you can at least build up the system. The newer stuff has a lot more ram in it which was the issue with the old stuff. Though it was supported for a very long time compared to other brands.

To add: I think the OP said the room was 'small' at 10x4m, I'd check the Beam output for this size room.

Really enjoy our beam, more than enough for our smallish room though I'm still considering a pair of symfonisks from ikea for surround sound

I wouldn’t worry about obsolescence with Sonos. Yes, they stopped developing new features for their oldest products, but they’re around 10-years old and still fully functional. By modern standards that’s remarkable.

Watching this thread with interest as I've sold my surround sound system and looking for a replacement with a sound bar.

I've narrowed the list down to three at the moment....

Yamaha YAS-209
Sonos Beam
Yamaha YSP-2700

Each has its advantages and disadvantages....

YAS-209 gets great reviews in terms of sonic performance and has lots of built in options - wireless, bluetooth, Alexa, 2 HDMI ports, 4K Passthgough etc
Sonos Beam is more compact and would fit the TV table well better.
YSP-2700 comes highly recommended, is highly specced and is currently well discounted.

but

YAS-209 only has DTS 'virtual' X which, according to reviews, can be a bit hit & miss in respect of sound stage.
Sonos Beam doesn't have a Sub Woofer and adding one would take me over budget. It would also come up to the very bottom of the TV screen.
YSP-2700 is above budget, is an 'old' model and the Sub Woofer is a bit big for where I want to put it. Also not sure it will handle the room layout.


Having the TV in a corner doesn't help, but with the new room layout we really have no choice!

One thing to consider re Sonos is if you listen to music or radio it's really nice to have coming out of the soundbar and even control via a virtual assistant either plugged in or from your phone.

Great sound quality compared to my Play1 and Play3 units. No idea on how good it is at surround sound though as I've never set it up, happy enough with the Playbar alone.

I do however really enjoy the speech enhancement (always leave it on) and the night mode function which takes the bass out so you can still watch TV/movies at night while your other half sleeps.

Not a sound bar but a sound base.

I recently bought a Canton DM 76 Sound Base to go under my bedroom TV as shown here https://www.richersounds.com/tv-home...ack-glass.html

I didn't buy it from Richer Sounds as they were out of stock, I bought it here https://www.simplysoundandvision.co....e/28829_p.html
I tried it out in my lounge and it has very good sound quality, obviously not as good as my Quad Lite 5.1 surround sound system but never the less it was damn good. I decided to watch the Hobbit films again,(Blu-ray version) Its some years since I first watched them and the Canton delivered a sound quality I could easily live with permanently if I didn't have the Quad system.
If you are after a sound bar or sound base I highly recommend the Canton DM 76.

Thanks again for the replies - they've all been very helpful.

Good point about the addition of the Play 1's to the Beam for a better experience. I am trying to avoid the additional extra boxes dotted around the room but that may be a sacrifice worth making.

I've not hear of the Canton model suggested but I see it has good reviews and Richer Sounds has that and the Beam in stock.

I also see good feedback for that Yamaha YSP2700 mentioned although it has another extra box in the form of the sub, but as my TV is in the corner, I guess it could be placed behind the TV??

This gives me a good selection to audition - thanks very much for your ideas!

Love my Beam. It is paired with my now slightly older Panasonic TV to enhance the sound. Obviously a massive improvement on the TV but it also gets used with my PlayOne for music. Was tempted to add the Ikea lamp speaker too which would be cool but haven't pulled the trigger yet. My Beam performs really well in the small space that it is in but Sonos absolutely killed my wifi connection (Sky router) and I experienced dropouts when gaming online (PS4) so had to hardwire the PS4.

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Originally Posted by MattOmega

My Beam performs really well in the small space that it is in but Sonos absolutely killed my wifi connection (Sky router) and I experienced dropouts when gaming online (PS4) so had to hardwire the PS4.

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Is this an issue just because you use a PS4 and the games you play use too much bandwidth that interferes with the Sonos system?

The reason I ask is that I also have a Sky Q router - I don't use a gaming console but my son does. He uses a X Box and has a Sky Mini box in his room with a Sky booster. It all works well but your comment makes me wonder if I might have the same problem. Any thoughts?

Just to add we’ve been using a Canton sound base for many years now and it’s never missed a beat with far better sound quality than the TV provided.

I’m guessing ours is the model before the one linked above as it doesn’t have a glass top to the case. It fits perfectly under the Sony TV which is a big plus point compared to some of the other sound bar options.

We have a Beam in the Sun Room paired with a Samsung TV, its very good for it small footprint and price point and the added benefit of Alexa is great, for my Daughter at least!

It's no replacement for a true setup though.

In our lounge I ditched our Bose 5.1 system and went for a Sennheiser Ambeo paired with a BK sub, WOW, it's amazing! Well above your price point but if you want a proper replacement I would highly recommend it.

Cheers