Is Sonas beam gen 2 really meet its hype?


Hi,

I wanted to setup home theater system,I  decided to replace my independent hifi b&w speakers and amplifier...I wanted to have home theater system but wanted to use a single setup for both movie & music...I decided to go with Sonos beam gen 2 after reading online reviews...On first day, I was excited and it sounds good as well due to it's surround as compare to my previous stereo setup...But it's low & mids are not at all clear or audiophile...I felt like just average some low cost speakers...I tried all different settings, switching on speech enhancement,it increased the mids but it also increased the vocal high which was not pleasant to hear balanced frequencies...Tried different EQ settings but still was average....I wanted to keep it and wished to hear neutral from this speaker,but after trying many different settings I gave up,It's very disappointing and I can't listen it for more time,it's harsh on my ears..Dolby Atmos is not at all useful it's just Spec but I felt not much useful in real world listening to me. 

 


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2 replies

It is a shame that you are disappointed, but I am not sure what ‘hype’ you are referring to.  It is not realistic to expect an ‘audiophile’ experience on music - or anything remotely resembling audiophile - from a relatively inexpensive soundbar-based system.  I don’t think Sonos or any reviewer is likely to have claimed that.

Given your requirements, it would seem that a better soluton would be a Sonos Amp instead of a Beam and to use your B&W speakers for the front speakers.  (I note from your profile that you have symfonisks as surrounds. )

 

 

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Not sure where you are getting your Sonos information, what I’ve gotten from Sonos over the years has been pretty accurate.

I replaced a very nice home theater setup with a Beam and there was no question it sounded worse. Of course with going from five large tower/center speakers and a big sub to that little Beam bar I expected just that. My center channel alone had more speakers!

I quickly decided that adding a Sonos Sub was going to be a necessity to keep my ears happy. The spouse however was perfectly happy with just the Beam.

After a while I realized I was asking too much (too big/tall a room) from the Beam and switched to an Arc. The Arc and Sub combo nicely fills the room, the Play 1 surrounds do nicely for TV surround or ambient music too.

We still have Beams in two smaller rooms, spouse as a stand-alone and mine with a Sub, and they are perfectly adequate. Mine replaced a nice but smaller AVR setup while the spouses was just to replace the weak TV speakers.