Closer Examination and Build Quality

With rounded edges and a nice plastic mesh grille which wraps around the soundbar, the Beam Gen 2 looks very elegant in both available colors, black and white. Its unassuming, sleek exterior should make it easy to fit into any room design. As I've mentioned in the introduction, the plastic grille is one of the points of differentiation between the original Beam and its successor. Compared to the fabric grille of the original Beam, this plastic one is much easier to clean, and it looks better too—you'll only know it's not made out of metal if you touch it.


The upper side of the Sonos Beam Gen 2 feels very smooth. Here, you'll find a set of discrete touch controls, which can be used for pausing and playing music, adjusting the volume, and quick grouping with the nearest Sonos speaker groups. The touch controls react quickly and precisely and are practically indistinguishable from physical controls. On the top of the soundbar, Sonos integrated a far-field microphone array, which, according to the manufacturer, uses advanced beamforming and multi-channel echo cancellation for accurate voice control. Unfortunately, as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa aren't officially available where I live (Croatia), I wasn't able to test this functionality of the Beam Gen 2.


There's not much to see on the back of the Beam Gen 2. There are only three connectors here: power, Ethernet (100 Mbps), and HDMI eARC. The color of the power cord matches the exterior of the soundbar. The HDMI eARC input is of course also compatible with TVs that have a regular HDMI ARC output. However, if you plan to use Dolby Atmos, your TV must be equipped with an HDMI eARC output as it is the only way to meet Atmos' need for higher HDMI bandwidth.


There are two mounting holes on the bottom of the soundbar, and an IR receiver to control its volume when you're using the TOSLINK connection instead of HDMI ARC/eARC.


Should you happen to own an older TV with no HDMI ARC functionality, you can still deliver sound to the Sonos Beam Gen 2. That's where the supplied HDMI-to-TOSLINK adapter kicks in. What's even better, while many other soundbars would leave you without the ability to adjust the volume with the TV remote control when using TOSLINK, Sonos thought of that detail. With the built-in infrared sensor, the Beam Gen 2 can "learn" the volume controls of your TVs remote.

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 also has an integrated 802.11n Wi-Fi card, which operates in both the 2.4 and 5 GHz frequency bands. It also supports Apple AirPlay 2 for easy audio playback from Apple devices, as well as Spotify Connect, which means you can select it from the list of available speakers when playing music within Spotify's mobile or desktop app. Bluetooth isn't supported by the Beam Gen 2.