Sonos Beam Gen 2 Soundbar: Big Sound in a Surprisingly Small Package
You know that moment when you sit down to watch a film, press play, and within the first thirty seconds you think to yourself, “this sounds absolutely incredible”? That is the Sonos Beam Gen 2 experience summed up as simply as possible.
This is not a soundbar that announces itself loudly with a flashy design or a long list of numbers that sound impressive but mean nothing in practice. The Beam Gen 2 is quiet in its confidence. It is compact, understated, and elegant. And then it opens its mouth and you immediately understand why it has been sitting at the top of best soundbar lists for years with no sign of moving.
Four years on from its launch, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 remains the best Dolby Atmos soundbar in its size and price categories, combining impressively spacious movie sound with clarity and punch that works just as well with music, making it an affordable, all-in-one device of rare ability.
That is not a marketing claim. That is the consensus of professional audio reviewers who have tested it against every credible competitor. And when you hear it yourself, you will understand exactly why.
The First Thing You Notice: It Is Beautifully Small
Most soundbars are big. They are wide, sometimes deep, and they dominate the space in front of your television whether you want them to or not. The Beam Gen 2 takes a different approach entirely.
It is compact, measuring only 25.6 inches wide, meaning that it fits comfortably on any TV stand, even in front of smaller TVs. It is 3.9 inches deep and 2.3 inches tall. For anyone who lives in an apartment, has a smaller living room, or simply does not want a piece of audio equipment dominating their furniture, that compact footprint is genuinely valuable.
The precision-perforated grille is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, allowing audio to pass through unobstructed while creating a seamless look. In black or white, the Beam Gen 2 looks like it was designed to disappear below your television in the best possible way. Tidy, considered, and quietly confident about its own quality without needing to show off about it.
What Is Actually Inside This Thing?
Here is where the story gets interesting because what Sonos has packed into something this small is genuinely impressive.
A total of five active drivers and three passive radiators are used in the Beam Gen 2. A dome tweeter is located in the center of the front panel and can reasonably be credited for the focused clarity of dialogue. It is flanked to the left and right by a pair of active elliptical cone drivers, while a pair of passive radiators to enhance bass output are located at the front outer edges, with a third on the back baffle. Lastly, a second pair of active elliptical drivers are located at the soundbar’s outer edges and partially angled forward.
The new Beam provides five speaker arrays compared to the original’s three, features a much faster processor, and supports HDMI eARC in addition to the standard ARC. The side-angled drivers are particularly important because they are what allows the Beam to create a sense of width and space that goes well beyond what a forward-firing only soundbar can achieve. Sound does not just come at you from one direction. It feels like it fills the room.
Dolby Atmos: Honest Impressions From Real-World Testing
Let us have an honest conversation about Dolby Atmos in the Beam Gen 2 because this is the feature most people have questions about, and it deserves a straight answer rather than marketing language.
The Beam Gen 2 does not have upward-firing drivers. The Sonos Arc has them. The Beam does not. Instead, it uses psychoacoustics and electronic processing thanks to the new processor to convince you that you are hearing height effects in Dolby Atmos movies.
Does it work?
Yes, meaningfully so. When listening to Atmos films with the Beam Gen 2 there is tangible motion, depth and space, which heightens the drama and sense of immersion. The soundstage is expansive. You get a genuinely wider and more three-dimensional audio experience than any standard soundbar provides, and the sense of space and movement around the screen is immediately noticeable when switching from television speakers to the Beam.
Is it identical to an Arc or a ceiling speaker Atmos setup? No, and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise. Genuine overhead sounds are perhaps a stretch too far, but there is more to Dolby Atmos than aeroplanes and helicopters, and the Beam Gen 2 handles the format better than any similarly priced soundbar.
For its size and price, the Dolby Atmos performance is genuinely impressive and meaningfully better than what you get from a non-Atmos soundbar. If you want the absolute maximum Atmos experience and budget allows, the Arc is the answer. If you want the best possible Atmos experience in a compact soundbar for a small to medium-sized room, the Beam Gen 2 is the clear leader.
The Thing That Surprises People Most: Dialogue Clarity
Ask anyone who has owned a Beam Gen 2 for a few weeks what feature they talk about most with friends, and the answer is almost always dialogue clarity. Not the bass. Not the Dolby Atmos. The fact that they can finally hear every single word that characters say on screen.
The vocals and centre channel clarity are phenomenal on the Beam and are undoubtedly this soundbar’s standout features. Having tested the Beam Gen 2 with a variety of different content ranging from action-packed blockbusters to contemplative character-driven dramas, the way the centre channel clarity and dialogue help to cut through the noise and deliver depth and details to scenes is something you would not necessarily hear on many other soundbars of this size and price.
Sonos takes the approach of focusing on intrinsic audio quality rather than artificially accentuating dialogue, and the resultant clarity also yields benefits with lead vocals on music. This is an important distinction. The Beam does not just boost the mid frequencies to make voices seem louder. It reproduces voice with genuine accuracy and clarity, which means dialogue sounds natural and present rather than processed and artificial.
There is also a Speech Enhancement mode in the Sonos app that pushes voices even further forward for anyone who particularly struggles with quiet or mumbled dialogue. It is a simple toggle that makes a noticeable difference and is especially useful for late-night viewing or for anyone with mild hearing sensitivity.
Trueplay Room Calibration: Run It, Love It, Never Skip It
Every room in every home sounds different. The Beam Gen 2 knows this, and it does something about it.
Sonos Trueplay in the Beam Gen 2 offers effective room correction, a feature that most soundbars lack. The response at the primary listening position was exceptionally smooth and resembled a proper house curve with a slight downward slope as frequencies increase.
Setting up the Beam Gen 2 is a breeze through the Sonos S2 app, and Trueplay makes a genuine difference to the sound, calibrating the soundbar’s audio to your room’s dimensions. It is worth doing even if it means borrowing a friend’s iPhone for the setup process.
The calibration process takes about three minutes. You walk around your room with your iOS device while the Beam plays test tones, and the app uses your phone’s microphone to measure how sound interacts with your specific space. When it is done, the Beam sounds noticeably more balanced, wider, and better integrated with your room than it did before. It is one of those features that sounds technical until you experience it, and then it becomes one of the things you would never want to give up.
HDMI eARC: The Upgrade That Actually Matters
The original Sonos Beam used HDMI ARC for television connection. The Gen 2 upgrades this to HDMI eARC, and it is a meaningful improvement rather than just a specification tick.
HDMI eARC compatibility brings a richer, more immersive, and higher definition sound experience. Compared to the HDMI ARC connectivity found on the original Beam, eARC can handle more advanced audio formats and deliver superior audio quality. This includes Dolby TrueHD and lossless Dolby Atmos from sources that support it, giving you the highest possible audio quality from your television, streaming devices, and 4K Blu-ray players.
For those whose televisions do not have HDMI ARC at all, Sonos includes an optical digital-to-HDMI adapter in the box, so you are covered regardless of your TV’s connection options. And because the Beam connects over HDMI, your existing TV remote automatically controls the volume without any additional setup or programming required.
Smart Speaker Functionality Built Right In
One of the things that separates the Sonos Beam Gen 2 from most soundbars is that it is also a genuinely capable smart speaker, not just a TV audio device.
The Beam Gen 2 features voice control built-in via Sonos Voice, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Whether you want to turn the TV on and off, shuffle through your favourite tracks, or play your favourite podcast, you can do it all without lifting a finger.
Apple AirPlay 2 is fully supported, which means any Apple device in your home can stream audio directly to the Beam without opening the Sonos app. iPhone, iPad, Mac they all work seamlessly and instantly. You can stream directly from the Sonos S2 app or via streaming platforms like Spotify Connect and Apple AirPlay 2.
The far-field microphones built into the Beam pick up voice commands clearly from across the room, even with the television playing at a normal volume. The Sonos was at least as good as a third-generation Amazon Echo in picking up voice commands, even when playing music or movie soundtracks. If you want to skip a track, pause playback, ask a question, or control your smart home devices, you can do all of it just by speaking.
If you prefer privacy over convenience, a physical microphone mute button lets you disable the microphones completely with the reassurance of a hardware-level switch rather than just a software setting.
Night Sound and Speech Enhancement: The Practical Features Nobody Talks About Enough
Alongside Trueplay and Dolby Atmos, the Sonos app includes two practical features that many Beam owners end up using every single day without even thinking about them.
Night Sound mode intelligently compresses the dynamic range of whatever you are watching, lowering the loud moments and raising the quiet ones. For late-night viewing in an apartment, in a house where others are sleeping, or anywhere that you want to watch at lower volume without missing quiet dialogue during loud scenes, Night Sound is genuinely invaluable. It transforms the experience of watching films after midnight from a compromise into something that still feels satisfying and complete.
Speech Enhancement works alongside Night Sound for those moments where voices just need to be clearer. Together these two features address the two most common frustrations people have with television audio in a way that is simple, effective, and available with a single tap in the app.
Music: A Soundbar That Is Also a Proper Speaker
Films and television are where most people start with the Beam Gen 2. Music is where many of them end up spending as much time.
Along with being impressive for movies, TV and gaming, the Beam Gen 2 is also a very musical soundbar in its own right. The centre channel clarity delivers vocals that feel both pure and pronounced, and Dolby Atmos and spatial audio tracks deliver a lifelike, rich and immersive experience.
When the television is off and you just want music in your living room, the Beam becomes a wireless smart speaker connected to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, and over 100 other services through the Sonos app. You can group it with other Sonos speakers throughout your home for whole-house audio, or use it as the single speaker in the room it lives in. Either way, it fills the space with sound that is genuinely musical and enjoyable rather than simply functional.
Bass-heavy tracks like Kanye West and Jay-Z’s No Church in the Wild thump infectiously just like they should, causing a compact living room to vibrate and complementing the song’s cinematic style. That is high praise for something the size of the Beam, and it is entirely deserved.
Setting It Up: Genuinely the Easiest Part
Setting up the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is an absolute breeze. Simply open up the app, tap Add Product, then follow the on-screen instructions. The app will have you plug the soundbar in, then tap the phone to the soundbar’s NFC chip, which automates the rest of the setup process.
From opening the box to hearing your first sound typically takes under ten minutes. The NFC chip on the Beam makes the initial pairing instant. The Sonos app then walks you through Wi-Fi connection, voice assistant setup, and Trueplay calibration with clear instructions at every step. There is nothing complicated, nothing requiring a manual, and nothing that feels like it was designed by engineers who forgot that real people have to set these things up.
Your TV remote automatically controls the volume over HDMI CEC once connected. The touch controls on top of the Beam handle basic playback. And the Sonos app manages everything else from EQ settings to streaming service connections to system configuration.
Building Bigger Over Time
One of the most genuinely clever things about the Beam Gen 2 is that it is designed to grow with you. It is a great standalone soundbar today, and it is an equally great foundation for a full surround sound system whenever you are ready to take things further.
For home theater use it is hard not to recommend pairing it with a subwoofer at least eventually. For most rooms the Sub Mini pairs perfectly with the Beam. If you want even more convincing surround effects you can also add a pair of satellite speakers.
Add a Sonos Sub Mini and the bass performance transforms completely. Add a pair of Era 100 speakers as rear surrounds and you have a full wireless 5.1 surround system that connects entirely through the Sonos app with no additional cables between units. Integration with the Sonos network gives the Beam Gen 2 something many other soundbars do not have: an easy and clearly defined way to upgrade your home cinema system over time.
Every component connects wirelessly, every expansion happens through the same app you already know, and nothing you buy becomes obsolete because the whole Sonos ecosystem evolves together through regular software updates.
Who Is the Sonos Beam Gen 2 Actually For?
The honest answer is a wider group of people than you might initially assume.
It is an obvious fit for people in apartments or smaller homes who want serious audio performance without a soundbar that takes over the room. It is perfect for anyone upgrading a medium-sized television setup and wanting a single compact product that handles films, television, and music equally well.
It works brilliantly for people who want smart speaker functionality and voice control built into their TV audio system without a separate smart speaker sitting beside the television. It is an ideal starting point for anyone who wants to build a full Sonos home audio ecosystem room by room over time.
And it is a genuinely excellent choice for anyone who has simply had enough of not being able to hear what characters are saying on screen. That last use case alone sells this soundbar to more people than any specification sheet ever could.
Music, films, games, TV shows whatever task you throw at it, this speaker seems capable of it all. The fact that it performs so well despite its more compact size also makes this a pretty obvious choice for those with less space in their home.
The Bottom Line
The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is one of those rare products where everything comes together exactly right. The sound is excellent for its size. The design is clean and considered. The smart features are genuinely useful rather than gimmicky. The setup is effortless. The dialogue clarity is remarkable. And the ability to build a full surround system around it over time means it never has a ceiling on what it can become.
Featuring a five-driver multidirectional array, Dolby Atmos, HDMI eARC support, and a sleek and stylish design, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is a more than convincing sequel that has well and truly earned its place in compact soundbar history.
If you have been looking for a soundbar that punches significantly above its weight, fits into your space without dominating it, sounds wonderful with everything you throw at it, and gets better over time through software updates, this is the one. Stop looking. You have found it.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Q1. How many drivers does the Sonos Beam Gen 2 have? The Sonos Beam Gen 2 has five active drivers and three passive radiators. These include one dome tweeter for crisp dialogue and high frequencies, four elliptical woofers with two forward-firing and two side-angled for a wide soundstage, and three passive radiators that enhance the bass response for a soundbar of this compact size.
Q2. Does the Sonos Beam Gen 2 genuinely support Dolby Atmos? Yes. The Beam Gen 2 fully supports Dolby Atmos using psychoacoustic processing and its upgraded processor to create a sense of height and three-dimensional space from Dolby Atmos content. While it does not have physical upward-firing drivers like the Sonos Arc, it handles Dolby Atmos better than any similarly priced compact soundbar on the market.
Q3. What is the difference between the Sonos Beam Gen 2 and the original Beam? The Gen 2 adds Dolby Atmos support, upgrades the HDMI connection from ARC to eARC for higher quality audio formats, features a faster processor for improved spatial audio processing, adds a new precision-perforated grille that is more durable than the original fabric finish, and delivers improved dialogue clarity through a retuned center channel.
Q4. What cable does the Beam Gen 2 use to connect to a TV? The Beam Gen 2 connects via HDMI eARC, which is available on most modern televisions. If your TV does not have HDMI ARC, Sonos includes an optical digital-to-HDMI adapter in the box so you can still connect via your TV’s optical output.
Q5. Does my TV remote control the Beam Gen 2 volume? Yes. Once connected via HDMI, your existing TV remote automatically controls the Beam Gen 2’s volume through HDMI-CEC without any additional setup or programming required.
Q6. What is Trueplay and do I need an iPhone to use it? Trueplay is Sonos’s room calibration technology that analyzes how sound behaves in your specific room and adjusts the Beam’s EQ accordingly. It currently requires an iOS device to run, as it uses the iPhone or iPad’s microphone for room measurement. The calibration takes about three minutes and makes an audible, meaningful improvement in sound quality.Q7. Can I use the Beam Gen 2 as a music speaker when the TV is off? Absolutely. The Beam Gen 2 is a fully featured wireless smart speaker with access to over 100 streaming services through the Sonos app including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal. It also supports Apple AirPlay 2 for direct streaming