Beam or Ray on a cabinet shelf?

  • 7 June 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 1173 views

I'm considering a soundbar (likely Sonos Beam due to extra cost of the Arc) and due to the limited height of my TV on it's stand, I'm thinking the soundbar would need to sit at the front of this shelf as pictured below. I'd move the Tivo behind the TV and get rid of the DVD player in the pic.

Would this cause any issues with sound quality coming from the soundbar at all?

TV in the pic is 65”, the width of the shelf as shown is 107cm and there is 7cm behind each of the small posts at either end of the shelf.

 

 


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3 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +14

I would say the Ray is better as the Beam has side facing speakers, which need to be able to fire sounds out in the open, so to speak, rather than just to the sides of your cabinet 😊

They even sell the Ray as being able to be placed on a shelf, in a cabinet like yours.

Userlevel 7
Badge +22

I’d be tempted to go with the Arc. that looks like a big room.

Arc or Beam you might consider putting the TV on a stand and raising it high enough to clear the speaker. I did that here and am much happier with the sound compared to my Beam sitting on a shelf, a bit smaller than yours.

I have this one and love it. The swivel it provides is great for minimizing window reflections too.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_051WSTV1/Sanus-WSTV1.html

I would agree.  Although the Beam is 65 cm wide, meaning you have about 20 cm on each side for the side firing speakers...it should be ok.  I just think the placement in the corner isn’t going go be as ideal for sound bouncing off walls,  trueplay tuning, atmos effects, etc, so Ray will work well for your setup.  

Full disclosure though, I have not heard the Ray, and really haven’t heard the Gen 2 Beam either, so I’m going off what Sonos has stated and others on here have experienced.