Review on Sonos Beam - Smart TV Sound Bar with Built-in Amazon Alexa - Black by Brian Kingsford

This is a Sonos Beam review. Before I got Beam, I had a Samsung HW-FM45C 2.1 soundbar. It had great sound and bass because it had wireless and a separate subwoofer module. The subwoofer is what really made this soundbar stand out for me and what I hated most about it because it was just another device that had to fit somewhere in my room. The strength of the Samsung Soundbar was not only that it had an optical input, but also a Bluetooth connection, which I used all the time. But we moved, and during the move and teardown I never plugged in the soundbar in our new apartment. The time is running. I bought 4 Sonos One speakers in December 2017. I was and still am disappointed that there are no line inputs for the speakers because with a line in I could have used them with my HDTV without having to order additional Sonos components. allow such a connection. And of course, the Sonos One doesn't have Bluetooth. They operate over Wi-Fi and use either your router or their own mesh network to connect. In a recent development, Sonos allowed my Sonos One to use AirPlay2. This somewhat alleviated the no line-in issue I had after using AirPlay2, and I was now able to stream music and other audio files (e.g. YouTube videos) to my Sonos One speakers. Beam can also use Airplay2. Most of the time I don't notice any lag when streaming movies from Netflix or YouTube. I'm experiencing significant lag when playing screencasts in Screenflow v8 (for Mac). We're talking about a significant delay, maybe 2.5 seconds. I don't understand why there is such a significant delay. The MP4s I play on my laptop don't suffer from lag. It could just be something in Screenflow that is causing the lag, as there hasn't been any lag in all other situations so far. I've made the decision that the Beam might be a good choice for me as far as my HDTV sound goes. It pairs well with my other Sonos One speakers, not only will it be a soundbar for my HDTV but I can use it just like the Sonos One speaker with the added bonus that it's a stereo speaker and not a mono speaker like a single Sonos. The other big plus is that Alexa is built in and I love using Alexa to stream Spotify music. So I got Beam. Connecting was easy. The Sonos app walks you through the entire process and it only took a few minutes to get connected and up and running. Since I received the speaker on the day of release, I had to hope that the sound would be satisfactory and at least as good as the Sonos One. There weren't many reviews before I got the Beam so I just took a chance. Luckily the sound turned out to be as good as I expected and I'm pretty happy with the soundbar. I was hoping for a sound very close to the Sonos One. It's actually better since it's a stereo speaker. The Sonos One's dual speakers offer a fuller sound than the Beam, and the stereo imaging (soundstage) can be adjusted depending on how far apart each Sonos One is located. Still, the Beam has a decent soundstage, especially considering you're usually seated in front of it, more or less away from your HDTV. All in all I am very satisfied with this soundbar. I find that the sound you get from two Sonos One speakers is superior to that from a single beam. But you can't just connect two Sonos One speakers to an HDTV. It's great to have Alexa integration, and it's also great that since it's a Sonos, it integrates with other Sonos speakers I own. Any other concerns I might have aren't related to the Beam, but to the limitations Sonos imposes on not including Aux In. , Bluetooth, etc., as well as limitations in Alexa integration that can be attributed to Revain and not Sonos. The great thing is that if you have multiple Alexa-enabled Sonos speakers grouped together, you can talk to Alexa on one of them and only that specific speaker will play Alexa's response. A final thought is that unless you consider it a soundbar, it's only intended for use with an HDTV. You might be amazed that you can have a great sounding stereo speaker that's slim, well built and can be placed in places you wouldn't immediately think of, like the roof of a cage or maybe a wall. high up on the wall. The possibilities are fascinating.