Sonos Beam optimum room size

Hi, jwmcb. There is not really an ideal room size, as such. I first heard it demonstrated in a presentation hall and subsequently heard it in a buddy's (very small, Dutch) living room. Both sounded good to me. We are not in the habit of recommending how large people's living rooms should be, in order to be allowed to buy a product, as it were.

In all seriousness though, we have not stated what the perfect dimensions of its ideal living space would theoretically be. What do you have in mind? Can you add a little context so others can jump in? Thanks!

Edward,

I was holding off getting the Sonos Playbar knowing a new device was coming out. I was hoping it would just be the playbar with an updated HDMI cord but the Sonos Beam came out instead.

I have the Sonos Bass and two Sonos 1s ready to complete the surround sound setup but just not sure if I need the extra sound the Playbar can put out vs the functionality of the beam. Think I will just have to wait until they are in the stores to listen to both. I have a feeling the Beam will be just fine for my needs.

Yea I have 2 play 1's and im planning to add the beam and a sub to complete my 5.1, It should be fine? I just want the hdmi and the voice functionality of the beam. I think it should be plenty for my living room its 13' from front wall to back wall and 16' wide I believe or close to that maybe a tad bigger.

My living room is 4m (TV to sofa) by 5m with a wall opening on the right.
I am wondering the same.
Is it considered a large room?

I was actually wondering the same thing. My living room is 13' x 15'. Is that considered small, medium, or large? It's large for me! But I'm choosing between this and the playbase, and it seems to come down to room size. But what size is my room!?

abg5043 wrote:

I was actually wondering the same thing. My living room is 13' x 15'. Is that considered small, medium, or large? It's large for me! But I'm choosing between this and the playbase, and it seems to come down to room size. But what size is my room!?

I think it falls under the small to medium personally, I went ahead and pre-ordered the beam all of the reviews have been excellent and one of them was in a much bigger room then yours or mine.

Here's the review I read today https://www.whathifi.com/features/sonos-beam-vs-sonos-playbar-vs-sonos-playbase and sealed the beam for me, I feel like the playbar is going to be refreshed very soon,possibly even the playbase with HDMI but at any rate definitely getting the beam for now.

jwmcb,

I had the opportunity today to listen to the Beam next to a Playbase and a Playbar for comparison. First let me say that I was very impressed, while the Playbar and the Playbase did outperform the Beam it was a lot closer than I had expected. The playbar had a slightly wider soundstage and both the Playbar and the Playbase had a little more bass response and range. Now if you are planning on pairing a sub with the system the Playbar and Playbase advantage almost evaporates. In my opinion the soundstage difference is minimal and not worth the difference in price. It's there, but i'm not sure you'd even notice when they are not side by side. As an audiophile I can tell you that the Beam isn't perfect but it is competing with products that are almost twice it's price and that should tell you something. I think it would be a perfect addition to your room (I wouldn't hesitate to put it into a room up to 20' x 20' with a sub and surrounds) and have no trouble integrating into your current setup, it's what I chose for my setup after I listened to all three.

I'm also debating on trying out a Beam in my 5 x 4 meter room. It's main use will be a standard T.V. soundbar and as part of a multi room music speaker (we have a few Play:1's and a 3. We hardly watch action films so I'm hoping that a Beam without a Sub will suffice. I've heard the Playbar and that seemed fine for our intended use.

Has anyone heard a Beam being used with a TV without a Sub? If so, what do you think?

Richard_96,

The Beam without the sub held up quite well when I was listening to it. I watched a scene from Skyfall that I use for reference, I am a huge JB fan and know what it should sound like. While the room shaking explosions weren't there, I was really happy with the overall reproduction. I would put it on par with a stereo pair of play threes placed at the edge of your television. I'd go with the Beam still honestly, worse case if you don't like it you can return it and get the bigger playbar, but I think you will be pleasantly impressed.

nkunstle wrote:

jwmcb,
The playbar had a slightly wider soundstage and both the Playbar and the Playbase had a little more bass response and range. Now if you are planning on pairing a sub with the system the Playbar and Playbase advantage almost evaporates. In my opinion the soundstage difference is minimal and not worth the difference in price.

Thanks for this. I was also planning on getting the sub & a couple of One's. So it's nice to hear that the differences evaporate once you add those in. This lines up with some other reviews that I heard as well, and saves me 300 bucks!

I was planning on using the beam with 2 play 1's for rears. I know it won't really increase the bass response (it seems like the beam does a great job of that anyway) but interested on how that setup sounds overall. I will have the play 1's setup as a stereo pair prior, hoping it will be fairly easy to switch over to the 5.0 setup once the beam arrives?

Since the BEAM isn't due until next week, it would be hard for anyone to tell you how well that sounds overall. But speaking from prior experience with a pair of PLAY:1s and a PLAYBAR, it should take about 3 minutes to get it set up to 5.0. OK, maybe slightly longer, but not much.

I have the beam in a pretty big 6.5m x 5m (21ft x 16ft) room and it is awesome. I have paired with two Play:1 as rear satellites for surround sound but even without, the Beam is seriously impressive and a huge improvement over the TV audio. For music it’s similar to my Play:5 and again, the rear Play:1s add a lot of depth. I will not bother with the SONOS sub as it is more expensive than the beam and I read that it’s “all or nothing” power is probably overkill in this room.

Hi User, thanks for that. Am planning on putting a Beam into an area slightly smaller than yours. If it's "awesome" in yours it should be fine in mine.
Brannaman.

I added the beam to my bedroom which had two play 1's already installed. Our bedroom is about 20 x 16 and it sounds great. Also connected it to my bedroom lights which are Philips Hue's. Really impressed with the beam.

I called Sonos and they had exact dimensions for what classified as small/medium/large room. I didn't write them down so don't know exactly what they were, but remember thinking that what they called medium I would consider to be very large for the average living room. If still curious, just give them a call.

I have a Beam and 2 Play:1s in a large (for New York City!) living room (well, really living room/dining room combo): about 20 x 25 feet. I would love a SW, but don't think it would be fair to the neighbors in my building. I have been impressed with the sound so far. This setup replaces two AudioEngine 5+. For music, the AudioEngines might have a slight edge, but for TV/movies they were terrible. I had to have the remote in my hand at all times to turn it up and down AND, I often had to turn on subtitles because I couldn't hear dialogue. It's nice not to have to do that anymore. AND, music sounds great. I'm new to Sonos so it took me awhile to get the settings right. I am not on my home network now, but in advanced audio settings you want to set music to "full" not "ambient." And for TV sound I moved the slider from Middle to about 75%. With the default settings for both TV and music I could barely hear anything from the satellite speakers.

I have apartment living room 12 X 20 Feet . will Sonos Beam will sound good with TV connect.DO I need to buy any other thing along with beam
This is room setting with TV
https://www.99acres.com/magarpatta-city-sylvania-magarpatta-pune-npxid-r499#UnitDetails