Each of the Beam’s five drivers gets its own discrete class D amplifier.Ībsent from the Beam’s driver array are any upfiring drivers, which many Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbars employ to bounce height cues off the ceiling (a cheaper and easier alternative to installing height speakers in your ceiling). But while it’s good to know that you can upgrade the Beam with additional hardware, all those Sonos speakers will cost you, with the total package (a Beam, two Sonos Ones, and the Sub) going for a steep $1,636.Īs far as its internals go, the second-gen Beam is (with the exception of the new CPU) identical to the first, including four elliptical midwoofers (with the two midwoofers on the ends angled for surround and virtual height cues), a center tweeter for dialogue, and three passive radiators, which deliver (as I’ll describe later) a surprising amount of bass. You can also add the Sonos Sub ($749) to bolster the Beam’s low-frequency effects. That would also remove any potential trueplay tuning.If you do ultimately decide you want physical surround speakers, you can always add a couple of Sonos Ones ($219 each), which can act as surrounds once paired with the Beam. They should be removed, if needed, from the Sonos ‘room’ for the proper test. It would keep playing as if the other speakers were there, which could easily result in the lack of bass you experienced. If the Arc had been previously setup with sub and surrounds, then simply unplugging sub and surrounds would not return bass and surround duty to the Arc. I’d be concerned about this test, as I wouldn’t trust the technician to setup the scenario properly. I will probably go for a beam with two sonos one SLs for surround To be honest i thought that the Arc would be much better in all aspects but its not at least in the music department. It felt like the beam gen 2 was 20% better for music and the arc 20% better for movies. Here again the beam had better punch and the speech was much more clear and direct but the spread and effects was better on arc but not by much. Then the technician switched to a dolby atmos movie at 75%. The arc spreads the sound better but does not have the same punch and direct sound. As soon as the sound technician switched the music to the arc i noticed that the base just dissapeared. The Beam Gen2 had more direct sound pointing att the listener and much more base. First off we compared the arc and the beam without subs and without ones for surround. ![]() I wanted to feel it in person. The demo room was a square 6 meters x 6 meters. ![]() Today i went to a local shop for a Sonos Arc vs Sonos Beam Gen2 demo. The answer to your 2nd question is “yes” (IMO). Bedroom_Beam Gen2 bonded with Sub x 1 and Sonos One x 2.Theater Room_Arc bonded with Sub x 2 and Sonos One x 2.Adding surround speakers to the rear with either the Arc or Beam Gen2 will compensate for large open areas. Dolby Atmos material relies heavily on reflected sound_left, right and overhead. IMO neither speaker performs to its potential in an open environment such as a great room open to a kitchen or dining area. That being said I wouldn’t use the Beam Gen2 with a TV larger than 65 inches which slightly exceeds the recommended use parameters. The Beam Gen2 IMO is better suited for a bedroom or small den.īoth the Arc and Beam Gen2 will perform better when bonded with a Sonos sub. The sweet spot for most TV dimensions in home theater is 55-65 inches. This creates a “bubble” that encompasses the listener for a more engrossing movie sound experience. The Arc has upward firing speakers designed for that purpose the Beam Gen2 does not. ![]() The Arc having 11 and the Beam Gen2 with 5.ĭolby Atmos audio also has channels dedicated to sounds that can be projected upward to a ceiling at an angle (approximately 8 to 10 feet) and bounced back to the listener. If you look at the info in the link below the most notable difference is the number of speakers. Great advice by own both but they are used in rooms of different dimensions.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |