Sonos Beam
Bought the Sonos Beam during Shopee 5/5 sale. The usual price is S$699, but during the sale, it was discounted to S$539. On top of that, I have a S$30 bank voucher from Shopee. So I ended up paying just S$509 for the Sonos Beam. Delivery is free within Singapore. It is a super good deal.
My current soundbar is the Samsung 320W 2.1 Ch Soundbar (J551) that comes free with my Samsung Series 5 55″ SUHD Smart LED TV (UA55JS7200).
Sadly, Samsung TV is really bad, and it decided to give up on me after four years despite costing so much. So I ended up getting the Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4S 55.
I decided to give the J551 soundbar to my parents as their place is still using a Samsung TV without a soundbar.
Samsung soundbar uses a proprietary technology called TV SoundConnect to connect to its own brand of TV wirelessly. The experience is seamless compared to using a Samsung soundbar via HDMI ARC on other TV brands (Mi TV in my case).
So the J551 soundbar will benefit my parents better and give me an excuse to get a new Sonos Beam!
An HDMI cable is provided in the box for you to connect to your television.
If you are using optical output from your television, Sonos Beam also includes an HDMI to Optical Audio adapter.
I love the overall matte black design. It doesn’t attract fingerprints, and it goes well with my white TV cabinet.
Sonos Beam only has three ports, HDMI port, 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port, and a power port. You just have to connect an HDMI cable to your TV’s HDMI ARC input.
Sonos Beam connects directly to your home’s wi-fi network and supports Apple AirPlay 2.
One thing I am going to miss from the J551 soundbar is the volume indicator. I am using my Apple TV remote to control the volume via HDMI’s Consumer Electronics Control (CEC). So there will not be any volume indicator shown on the television.
Previously, for my J551 soundbar, the volume indicator is on the soundbar itself, which doesn’t exist on the Sonos Beam.
Audio quality-wise, it is good. The bass is punchy but not thumpy, and hence I think it can be improved on with a Sonos Sub.