Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

The Beam comes of age with an excellent Dolby Atmos interpretation

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It's no secret that we are ardent admirers of Sonos's Beam. Since its launch in 2018, that 3.0 channel soundbar won the What Hi-Fi? Award for the best soundbar in its price category every year until this Atmos-approximating Gen 2 knocked it off its pedestal. Key to its success is a simplicity of design and streamlined functionality that, remarkably for its size, has been able to overcome two of the usual limitations of compact speakers: sonic scale and weight.

With the arrival of the Beam’s larger sibling, the Arc, in 2020, Sonos proved that it can convincingly deliver Dolby Atmos audio in a larger chassis. But we had to admit to being a little apprehensive about whether the technology could justify its inclusion in a compact bar, especially when there are no upward-firing speakers to be found in the Beam Gen 2.

The quintet of front-facing drivers are configured into five separate arrays. When watching Atmos content, two of these arrays are dedicated to reproducing overhead and surround sounds. With enhanced processor power, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 uses psychoacoustic HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology to give the impression of height without needing to get vertical.

We have experienced Dolby Atmos delivery through processing wizardry before, and the results have been mixed, frequently veering toward synthetic and ineffectual. Still, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is priced significantly lower than the Arc and newer Arc Ultra, with their upfiring ‘true’ height speakers. If you want to use Beam Gen 2 in a larger surround system it can be expanded most logically through the addition of two One SL rear speakers and a Sub.

Multi-room integration