If space and budget are limited in your hunt for one of the best soundbars on the market, there's one Dolby Atmos soundbar that we love to recommend – and right now, it's down to an excellent price.
The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) can be yours for just £349 at Amazon, a lovely £100 saving on both the Black and White models.
It's not quite the cheapest we've ever seen it, dropping to just £329 back in January, but it's the best deal we've seen in a while.
The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) may be considered an older pick, launching in October 2021, but it's still one we absolutely love to recommend.
It takes everything that the original Beam had to offer, but adds in genuinely convincing Dolby Atmos without changing the overall design or adding dedicated upward-firing drivers.
And it's all done through clever processing using psychoacoustic HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology to deliver a sense of height using two of the unit's five front-facing drivers.
Years on from launch, the Gen 2 remains the best Dolby Atmos soundbar in its size and price categories, holding pride of place amongst the best soundbars we've ever tested.
While Sonos has released the Sonos Ray and the Sonos Arc Ultra since, the Ray doesn't support Dolby Atmos, meaning the Gen 2 is still your entry-level pick if you want a Sonos with immersive 3D audio that won't cost you too much.
And it's the Dolby Atmos that is really the headline feature here, handling the format better than any similarly priced soundbar, producing spacious sound with good tracking of audio objects.
This being a Sonos product, you also get the ability to build a wireless multi-room system. You'll need the (free) Sonos S2 app to get the most out of your purchase, and this also comes with access to Trueplay room calibration technology and a two-band EQ.
On top of that, there's Wi-Fi, which means you can also stream to the Gen 2 from a handheld device using Apple AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect is built in too. It even now supports hi-res 24-bit/48kHz 'Ultra HD' tracks from Amazon Music.
For audio formats, the Beam Gen 2 supports stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos (both the Digital+ and TrueHD versions), multichannel PCM and Dolby Multichannel PCM.
Decoding for DTS digital surround has now been added to this and other Sonos products, but this unfortunately doesn't extend to DTS:X.
In terms of sound, during testing, we paired the Beam Gen 2 with TVs ranging from 43 inches to 65 inches, and confirmed that "it enhances the cinematic scale and viewing experience", urging you not to discount this little soundbar if you've got a big TV.
And our expert testers said: "The Beam Gen 2 not only lives up to the high bar set by its predecessor but exceeds it by a margin that more than justifies its new feature set and higher cost."
Ultimately, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is the bar for you if you're looking for a small, affordable soundbar that can deliver convincing Dolby Atmos. And right now, it's even cheaper, dropping to just £349 at Amazon for a limited time.
MORE:
Read our full Sonos Beam Gen 2 review
And check out the best budget soundbars
As well as our list of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars
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