Sonos unveils second-gen Beam soundbar

Sonos has announced the Beam (Gen 2), a new version of its compact smart soundbar for TVs. The new Beam delivers an upgraded, more immersive sound experience with greater depth and clarity, as well as support for Dolby Atmos. It will be available globally starting 5 October for $449. Sonos also revealed plans to offer both Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos Music later this year via Amazon Music, giving listeners the ability to experience the highest quality streaming music and immersive audio.

“We often talk about ‘Hollywood at Home’ being a real catalyst for our business, and Beam has played a huge part in this as one of the top-selling soundbars in its category,” says Patrick Spence, Sonos CEO. “Taking what we’ve learned over the years about great listening and home theatre, we’ve found a way to bring new features and significantly better sound to Beam, all in the same compact size that has proven extremely popular with customers.”

Experience panoramic sound on the latest generation of Beam, now with support for Dolby Atmos

Just in time for the influx of the most anticipated movies and shows, the new Beam is upgrading the home theatre experience. Compatible with more than 100 streaming services available in the Sonos app, users can expect exciting improvements across sound, design and packaging, including:

• Dolby Atmos: Immersive sound technology that places users in the center of the action, whether it’s experiencing planes as if they were flying overhead, hearing footsteps moving across the room, or feeling the being in the middle of an orchestra.
• Enhanced sound, same size: With more processing power and newly developed phased speaker arrays, Beam steers and localises sound around the room for a lifelike experience. The speaker is also now compatible with HDMI eARC on your TV, so users can experience movies and games in higher definition sound, with support for new audio formats.
• Sleeker design: An updated polycarbonate grille that’s precisely perforated allows the speaker to sound great and blend into one’s décor.
• Faster set-up: With two cables and new NFC capabilities, setup is straightforward and will have users listening in minutes. To set it up, open the Sonos app, follow a few prompts, and tap an NFC-enabled phone to the Beam.

Launching later this year in select markets, Sonos plans to support Amazon Music’s Ultra High Definition audio, which will allow listeners to hear tracks in lossless audio up to 24-bit / 48kHz on their Sonos speakers, as well as Dolby Atmos Music. Available at no extra cost to Amazon Music Unlimited customers, Ultra HD will be available to listen on all S2 devices, except the Play:1, Play:3, Playbase, and Playbar, while Dolby Atmos Music will be available to listen on the Arc and Beam (Gen 2). Sonos also announced plans to add support for decoding DTS Digital Surround later this year via the S2 platform on the Playbar, Playbase, Amp, both generations of Beam and Arc.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) will be available starting 5 October for $449 on sonos.com.