Ah, the joys of moving house. It might be one of the most stressful yet brain-numbingly mundane tasks you face in adult life, and somehow it never gets easier.
But once all the boxes are moved away and the dust has settled, you finally feel that you can call this new place your home.
I have just about finished my own moving ordeal (I never want to see a roll of packing tape again), but I face the fresh challenge of setting up my own AV system. My new flat doesn’t have the space for a multi-speaker surround sound system, nor do I have the budget. That makes a soundbar the best option for me right now, and there’s one brand I am keen to bring into my living room.
If you have ever hunted for a soundbar yourself, you will probably have seen Sonos soundbars at the top of any suggested list. And that is because they are really very good.
We have reviewed all of Sonos’s current soundbar range, and every model (bar one) has scored five stars in our test room. For those unfamiliar with the brand’s offerings, here’s a quick run-through.
The cheapest and smallest of the bunch is the four-star Sonos Ray (£199 / $199), which we like for its assertive and punchy sound performance. In a rather old-fashioned move by Sonos, though, the soundbar has only an optical input and no eARC connectivity.
Introducing surround-sound support to the range is the step-up Sonos Beam (Gen 2) (£449 / $449), which has won multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards and is the benchmark for entry-level Dolby Atmos soundbars. As with the rest of the more expensive entries, Sonos has included one HDMI eARC port.
Then there’s the newest Sonos soundbar to join the team – meet the mid-range Beam Ultra. The bar offers a 7.1.2-channel arrangement and will set you back £699 / $699. In our review, we say, “It delivers a substantial upgrade over the Beam (Gen 2) while retaining much of the compactness and simplicity that makes that model so appealing.”
Finally, the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra (£999 / $999) is the premium Atmos entry. We praise this for its clean, precise, spacious and three-dimensional sound.
With all those tempting options, I have been struggling to decide which one works best for me. The Ray is of course the cheapest and would offer the most compact solution for my cosy living room, but the lack of HDMI support is a big drawback.
And, though the Arc Ultra is the best-performing of the group, it’s simply not in my budget.
That leaves the Beam (Gen 2) and the Beam Ultra, each of which is a five-star performer.
Even though the Gen 2 model delivers an impressively room-filling sound, it lacks up-firing drivers where the Beam Ultra boasts one on each end. As you would hope, this makes for an even more immersive experience than from its cheaper sibling. But I would still get a detailed and expressive sound from the less expensive Beam Gen 2.
To be frank, I’m stuck in the middle. The convenience of the Sonos Ray speaks to me, and it is by far the cheapest option. But the AV enthusiast in me craves the Dolby Atmos support and the inclusion of an HDMI eARC port that comes with the Beam Ultra or Beam (Gen 2) despite their higher price tags.
So, Sonos, if you are working on an upgraded version of the Ray, I’ve got a message. I’m a realist, so I know not to expect true Dolby Atmos from such a low-priced soundbar. But it would be great to have better connectivity options from the Ray to make the most of its sound performance.
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