Anyone have a beam in a bigger room?
Currently using a Playbar, Sub, and 2 Play 3's in my great room - 20" X 20' with 18' ceilings and open to kitchen, etc... Current setup sounds excellent.. Use for both music and TV.
I would like to buy a Beam for and swap it with the play Bar in great room, (to utilize HDMI ARC and Apple play) and then move the Playbar to my bedroom 14' X 14' with 8' ceiling (TV in there does not have HDMI ARC) for TV use with a couple play 1's I have.
Would the Beam still sound good in my Great room, or will I have significant loss of sound quality? (I'm sure I could turn down sub and surrounds to balance volumes, but what about quality? Will the sub make up for the less bass of the beam, or will I miss the mids that the Play Bar offers?
Adversely, would the Play Bar, with 2 Sonos Play 1's in my bedroom be too much?
If I could swap the features of the Playbar and Beam this would be easy, but now I have a quagmire on my hands.
Anyone have 1st hand experience with a Beam in a bigger room?
This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.
The Beam is not going to feel like a replacement for the playbar. You may feel like it's enough, but not as good as you had it.
I did actually test the beam where my playbar is now, back when I first got a beam, but I wasn't actually paying attention to the sound quality as I was the setup on that TV. I don't think you really need to decide this ahead of time though. You can buy the Beam direct from this website with a 45 day return policy, no questions. I suspect you'll want to use it in the bedroom if not in the Great room. The beam works with HDMI-ARC or optical with an adapter.
HDMI-ARC is great, but it's advantages over optical connections is mostly around use of CEC controls. And these controls are fairly easy to replicate with things like Amazon's firetv cube or a logitech harmony remote. Apple airplay 2 likely wouldn't be much of an issue as you can stream to your Beam (or a Sonos One) based room and then group it with your playbar.
I did actually test the beam where my playbar is now, back when I first got a beam, but I wasn't actually paying attention to the sound quality as I was the setup on that TV. I don't think you really need to decide this ahead of time though. You can buy the Beam direct from this website with a 45 day return policy, no questions. I suspect you'll want to use it in the bedroom if not in the Great room. The beam works with HDMI-ARC or optical with an adapter.
HDMI-ARC is great, but it's advantages over optical connections is mostly around use of CEC controls. And these controls are fairly easy to replicate with things like Amazon's firetv cube or a logitech harmony remote. Apple airplay 2 likely wouldn't be much of an issue as you can stream to your Beam (or a Sonos One) based room and then group it with your playbar.
Thanks Danny! I appreciate your reply. I'll be putting the Beam into my bedroom and leaving my great room as is!
I had a Beam In my larger living room, with the sub and two play 1s. Was OK but seemed like it was slightly weak for the room size. I upgraded it to the Playbar, and it’s been a noticeable difference with a full sound and wider sound stage.
Music especially - but movies too. It’s not night and day, but the playbar does put out more sound. I don’t miss HDMI arc at all, optical works perfectly and my TV remote works just as well.
Music especially - but movies too. It’s not night and day, but the playbar does put out more sound. I don’t miss HDMI arc at all, optical works perfectly and my TV remote works just as well.
Enter your username or e-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.