One of the best, more affordable soundbars in recent years has been the Sonos Beam Gen 2, which brings some great performance across a wide range of content and also works well as a Sonos WiFi speaker for wireless playback and a smart speaker with Google Assistant and Amazon Aleza power. At the moment, its price is steady at £399 at a number of retailers and hasn’t changed for some time. However, with the code Maypay15You can buy the Beam Gen 2 in white (black isn’t available) from the Peter Tyson eBay store for £339 – that’s a good saving off the usual list price.
We actually use the Beam Gen 2 at home, and have owned a Sonos soundbar for the past three years – I still use my original as a PC speaker, and it works well over the optical port. The Gen 2 brings with it some worthwhile upgrades, most notably the addition of Dolby Atmos. While this isn’t achieved by true upward-firing speakers and is more related to ‘psychoacoustics’, the Beam Gen 2’s Atmos performance is excellent across supported content, delivering immersive audio with a fantastic sense of depth and positioning. For an Atmos experience it’s pretty much unrivalled in its price point, and is a great step towards upgrading your audio setup.
Aside from Atmos, the Beam Gen 2 also has a small but important aesthetic upgrade, with a change to a plastic grille instead of a cloth one. This might seem insignificant at first, but it makes the Beam Gen 2 look a lot cleaner, and also makes it easier to clean. Otherwise, it looks the same, with a smaller form factor, which makes it easier to place anywhere. For us, it’s really the only soundbar that can fit into the small alcove we found for a TV and soundbar, and it’s paired with the smallest 42-inch LG C2 OLED, which is a great combo for the combined price. Otherwise, it has the same touch buttons on top, which feel solid, and the same minimalist interface – the Beam Gen 2 is easy to work with, provided you have the corresponding Sonos app – just follow the instructions on the screen, and be sure to use TruePlay if you have an iOS device for the most optimized experience, where the app and your iPhone’s microphone will ‘listen’ to the room you’re placing the Beam in and adapt its profile accordingly.
The audio on the Beam Gen 2 is also quite rich and detailed, with enough volume that it could certainly fill our small living room and the whole downstairs. If you have a small or medium-sized room, the Beam Gen 2 will easily fill it and give you a fair amount of punch for the price. It’s definitely an increase over the first-generation option, with a surprising amount of low end and a better sense of scale for such a small unit. It’s just as impressive with music as it is with movies and other content, making the Beam Gen 2 a treat for anything you watch or listen to.
Of course, it’s not ‘just’ a soundbar, and it integrates well with Sonos’ acclaimed WiFi speaker system, and you can play music from any device with the Sonos app installed. There’s also AirPlay 2 support for convenient operation with Apple devices, and smart assistant support in the form of both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for searching for content on streaming services or answering any questions you might have. You can also connect everything to a Sonos Sub Mini for more bass, or add a pair of Sonos Era 100s behind you as rear channel speakers to create a seamless surround sound system that all integrates very well. The beauty of the Sonos system is that you can upgrade it at your leisure, and its modularity – you can add all sorts with the Beam Gen 2.
The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is a really excellent Dolby Atmos soundbar for the price, and if you’re looking to upgrade your TV or PC speaker setup with an easy all-in-one solution, it’s an amazing option.
