Good evening all
I am going to be getting a Sonos Beam shortly and having had a trial run with a Panasonic soundbar I am certain that the Beam will assist my partner who does not have great hearing. However she does struggle with the loud crash and bang stuff that goes on in the background and the TV volume is constantly going up and down, so am looking forward to giving the Speech/nighttime options a whirl - but a couple of questions:-
1 - Is there a noticeable improvement in the clarify of speech and reduction in background audio when this function is enabled? The Panasonic soundbar we have tested has a speech function but marginal difference.
I think so, but it's really a subjective question. It's best to test it out yourself and see if it meets your needs. if you haven't already purchased it, you might want to do so directly from Sonos as they have a pretty good return policy.
2 - I understand the Beam can be grouped with other sonos speakers to play the TV audio (not surround sound) - does the speech/nighttime mode settings get replicated in the other speaker (play 1 in my case)?
Pretty sure the answer is no to this one.
3 - Would it be weird to my partner if the grouped speaker was adjacent to her listening position playing the TV audio - so she would have BEAM audio from in front of her and then also replicated to the side of her? Would this help or make the experience weird for her?
Just after some opinions/view - TIA
This actually will not not work. In order to handle multiroom audio, speaker groups, Sonos buffers the audio to make sure all speakers get the signal and play in sync when playing music. For TV audio, the speaker that's connected to the TV will play immediately in order to stay in sync with video, while other grouped speakers are buffered in delayed.
So, basically you don't want to have a grouped speaker in the same room as your Beam, as you'll hear an echo effect. It will not sound good. The feature is designed for placing speakers in different rooms where you can't see or hear the TV+beam, and thus being slightly out of sync doesn't matter.
In case you're wondering, using speakers as surround sound bonds the speakers to the beam. Communication is over 5 GHz wireless and avoids the delay.(the rest of the of the system is at 2.4GHz for better communication over distances). It would be idea for your situation if the surround speakers could be set to just play the front speakers for those who just want a near by speaker for hearing concerns...but that's not an option. It has been requested before.
That’s an awesome response and I am glad I asked as you have definitely helped me understand the set up a little clearer, and I now understand my options. I would defo consider the bonding option with surround speakers if there was then the option to distribute the audio in a non traditional way.
Many thanks indeed, it’s appreciated.
thanks very much for the reply and the recommendation. I need to consider my options carefully but the Sonos returns policy does make this a little easier to plunge in. The play bar and play base are considerations but the size of the Beam appeals for my set up. Not really fussed on airplay2 and Alexa functionality.
Many thanks
