Sonos Beam

Sonos is not a company that throws out new products willynilly, nor does it update its hardware every year, preferring to delight existing owners by adding new abilities via firmware update. This has its limits, of course — the ability to have voice control, say, requires a microphone, though Sonos has been quietly building those in since the Play:5 refresh in 2015. One of the headlines for this Beam release is AirPlay 2 compatibility, again rolling out also to a limited number of existing Sonos models.

The company has obviously taken a liking to the TV audio space, the Beam bringing the number of TV-centric Sonos models to three — the existing Playbar and Playbase, and now the Beam, which is smaller and cheaper than either. Sonos suggests the Beam to be suitable for smaller rooms, while the higher driver count of the Playbar and Playbase are capable of filling larger