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Beam to Beam + rear Play 1 OR ARC?

  • 7 October 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 534 views

I have a superb LG CX 65inches TV that works with my Sonos beam. I would like to have better sounds but without throwing infinite amount of money.

Is adding rear play 1 to my Beam would be overall better sounds investment than switching to Sonos ARC? Going the play 1 route would be also cheaper.

Atmos content for me seems to be poor yet so it wouldn't be a good reason for me now.

What do you think guys?

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Best answer by GuitarSuperstar 7 October 2021, 15:39

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Userlevel 7

If you don’t care about Dolby Atmos audio or higher resolution audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and multichannel PCM, then consider adding the Sonos Sub and/or Play:1s or One SLs to the Beam rather than upgrading to the Arc. Most people would recommend adding the Sub before the surround speakers. Every good home theater system needs a good subwoofer to produce the low frequency sounds that give you a rich, more balanced, and powerful audio experience.

But if you watch a lot of Blu-ray discs or want to enjoy Dolby Atmos content including Dolby Atmos music, consider upgrading to the Arc. Lossless audio from Blu-ray discs sound pretty incredible from the Arc.

The new Beam (Gen 2) is another option to consider although it won’t be as dramatic of an upgrade as the Arc.

Others factors to consider is room size, ceiling height, and distance you are seated from the soundbar. The Beam is more suitable for smaller spaces. The Arc is more suitable for larger rooms. If you have really high ceilings, vaulted ceilings, or if your main seating position is 8 or more feet away from the soundbar, you will not really hear the height effects produced by the two upward firing drivers when listening to Dolby Atmos content.

For HT use, I started with a stand-alone Sonos Beam with an LG TV and thought it sounded great. I then added two Sonos One SL’s and that brought about much improvement for both TV audio and music audio (with the surrounds set to ‘Full’), but then I went that step further and added a Sonos Sub and that really made a huge difference - It really is a great all round TV HT audio experience having a setup with both the ‘surrounds’ and a ‘Sub’ - I definitely don’t regret getting any of the products and I think buying them in the order I chose, made me appreciate that there is a need for all of the HT devices… each ‘addition’ was a real noticeable step-up in the audio experience.
 

It’s quite ‘addictive’ once you get started with Sonos, I find.

Ahaha nice. Yeah we all are in the same boat 😀 I have 6 Sonos in my house and I'm gonna add some more overtime.

Ok so I'll found some Play 1. Any good reason to get the One? Play 1 are supported by S2. I may miss a good reason to add one over 1. They are easier to find in the used market.

Userlevel 7

Ahaha nice. Yeah we all are in the same boat 😀 I have 6 Sonos in my house and I'm gonna add some more overtime.

Ok so I'll found some Play 1. Any good reason to get the One? Play 1 are supported by S2. I may miss a good reason to add one over 1. They are easier to find in the used market.

When using them as surrounds, there really isn’t any advantage to using the One SL over the older Play:1. They both sound exactly the same. The biggest difference is the outer appearance.