Last year Sonos brought Dolby Atmos to living rooms with its full-size premium soundbar, the Arc. Now the company’s compact and more affordable soundbar is getting the premium 3D audio upgrade. And in addition to Dolby Atmos support, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 comes with HDMI eARC, upgraded processing power with a new speaker array and improved sound, sleeker design, NFC for seamless setup, AirPlay 2, and more.
Sonos detailed the Beam Gen 2 in a press release this morning:
Sonos today announced Beam (Gen 2), a new version of its industry-leading compact smart soundbar for TV, music, gaming and more. The new Beam delivers an upgraded, more immersive sound experience with greater depth and clarity, as well as support for Dolby Atmos.
Here are the Beam Gen 2 features and benefits:
- 3D Audio with Dolby Atmos: Immersive sound technology that places you 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 score all around you.
- Enhanced Sound, Same Size: With more processing power and a newly developed phased speaker array, Beam steers and localizes sound around the room for a lifelike experience. The speaker is also now compatible with HDMI eARC on your TV, so you can experience your favorite movies and games in even 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 seamlessly into your home, just like Sonos Arc.
- Easy, More Secure Set-Up: With just two cables and new NFC capabilities, setup is seamless and will have you listening in minutes. Simply open the Sonos app, follow a few prompts, and tap your phone to Beam.
- Sustainable Sound: The new Beam features sustainable packaging, including a premium uncoated kraft paper, a gift box made of 97% sustainable paper, and no single use foam.
The Beam Gen 2 also includes Sonos’ Trueplay smart auto EQ as well as AirPlay 2 support making it a great option for Apple users.
The Beam Gen 2 is available for preorder starting today at $449 direct from Sonos and select retailers with the new soundbar arriving from October 5.
Sonos also teased bringing “Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos Music later this year via Amazon Music.”
We were hoping the new Beam would work with Apple Music’s Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio content out of the box but Sonos confirmed to 9to5Mac that is not the case for now. Fingers crossed we’ll see Sonos partner with Apple on that in the near future.
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