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I'm new to Sonos.

I just received and setup my Sonos Beam, Sub and 2x Play 1s yesterday. I have a small / medium apartment. I had been using an old cheap 'home theater in a box' sound system that wasn't very good. I'm not much of an audiophile at all. I just like sounds to sound good to my ears. My use case is all streaming content from my AppleTV to a 43" Sony Bravia. Movies, television and music.



After much research, I went with Sonos for it's ease of use and setup. I didn't really need a high end audio system. Or one that had too much power for my living space.



The sound is glorious :) I had it setup in about an hour. Tuned, adjusted the Sub down a bit as it's a little boomy in here.

Apple Music - I have a wide and eclectic taste in music - I was pleasantly surprised how good it sounds.

Television - Netflix and other services that can broadcast 5.1 surround come through very well. Hulu - only broadcast in stereo - so the quality is still good, but only through the Beam. No surround, no sub. That's all on Hulu from what I've read.



I had thought of just starting with the Beam, but after a day of use, I'm happy I chose to get a Sub and the Play 1's. By itself, I don't think the Beam would have sufficed for movies.



I hope my experience helps out others searching for info.
Hi there, chrobison. Welcome to the community and thanks for sharing your experiences! If you need any help, you need only ask. Enjoy your system.
Thank you Edward R.



Having used the Sonos Beam and speakers now for a week, I can appreciate the Sonos system even more.



I found one interesting thing using the AppleTV as the main source for video / audio. If I leave the audio output setting to "AppleTV" instead of "Living Room" I get much better sound quality through the apps on the AppleTV. Even Hulu with their stereo only broadcast gets much improvement.



Over all, I am genuinely impressed by the sound and the ease of use.
That’s fascinating. Given that we are talking about a digital signal, I’m at a loss to understand it.
Ah, maybe additional processing by the TV before it hits the Beam.
That’s fascinating. Given that we are talking about a digital signal, I’m at a loss to understand it.

When you're sending from the AppleTV to the Beam using AirPlay 2, it's a stereo audio signal that's sent to Beam, and it's treated as a music source, so the audio isn't put through any processing. Home theater audio, coming in through HDMI gets a bit of a conversion and is played differently, also if you're sending Dolby Digital, it can be a pretty big difference compared with the stereo signal.
Yes, I thought of that as well. It's a direct HDMI connection from the AppleTV to the Sony and then to the Beam with the HDMI Arc. I have the AppleTV set to use DD5.1 instead of "Best Available".



So for it's doing what I expected of it. So, no complaints 🙂
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