This sublime Sonos Beam Gen 2 is just ?304 for Black Friday from Very
A brilliant soundbar with Atmos smarts.
One of the best, more affordable soundbars in recent years has been the Sonos Beam Gen 2, which brings with it some great performance across a variety of content and also doubles nicely as a Sonos WiFi speaker for wireless playback and smart speaker with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa powers. For Black Friday, Very has knocked it down to £338, but with code W74L8, you can nab 10 percent off to bring it down to £304, which is one of the best prices we'vec seen on this soundbar in 2024.
We actually use a Beam Gen 2 at home, and have been a family of Sonos soundbar owners for the last four years nearly - I still use our original one as a PC speaker, and it works well over an optical port. The Gen 2 brings with it some worthwhile upgrades, most notably the addition of Dolby Atmos. While it isn't achieved by actual upwards-firing speakers and is more to do with 'psychoacoustics', the Beam Gen 2's Atmos performance is excellent in supported content, offering immersive audio with a great sense of depth and positioning. It's pretty much unmatched in its price point for the Atmos experience, and is a great step towards upgrading your audio setup.
Beyond the addition of Atmos, the Beam Gen 2 also features a small but important aesthetic upgrade, with the changeover from a fabric to a plastic grille. This may seem unimportant at first, but it makes the Beam Gen 2 look a lot cleaner, and it also makes it easier to wipe clean, too. Otherwise, it looks the same, with a small form factor that makes it easy to position anywhere you want to. For us, it's actually the only soundbar we could fit into the small alcove we've got for a TV and soundbar, and it's paired with the smallest 42-inch LG C2 OLED, which is a fantastic combo for the combined price. Otherwise, it's got the same touch buttons on the top, which feel solid, and the same minimal interface - a single HDMI eARC port (Another small, but convenient upgrade), an Ethernet port, power socket and pairing button. Getting up and running with the Beam Gen 2 is easy, as long as you've got the associated Sonos app - simply follow the instructions on screen, and also make sure to use TruePlay if you've got an iOS device for the most optimised experience where the app and your iPhone's microphone will 'listen' to the room you're placing the Beam in and optimise its profile to suit.
The Beam Gen 2's audio is also quite rich and detailed, with enough volume that can certainly fill our smaller living room, and also the entire downstairs. If you've got a small to medium sized room, the Beam Gen 2 will easily fill it and provide you with a fair amount of punch for the price. It's certainly an enhancement over the first gen option, with a surprising amount of low end for such a small unit, and a better sense of scale. It's also as impressive with music as it is for films and other content, which makes the Beam Gen 2 a treat for pretty much anything you choose to watch or listen to.
Of course, this isn't 'just' a soundbar, and integrates well with Sonos' acclaimed system of WiFi speakers, and you can play music from virtually any device with the Sonos app installed to it. There is also support for AirPlay 2 for convenient operation with Apple devices, and smart assistant support in the form of both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for searching for content on streaming services, or answering any questions you may have, for instance. You can also add everything from a Sonos Sub Mini for more bass, or a pair of Sonos Era 100s behind you as rear channel speakers to create a seamless surround sound system that all integrates rather nicely. The beauty of the Sonos system is that you can upgrade it at your leisure, and the modularity of it - you can pair all sorts with the Beam Gen 2.
The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is a truly excellent Dolby Atmos soundbar for the price, and if you want to upgrade your TV or PC speaker setup with a handy all-in-one solution, it's an amazing choice.