Sonos Beam With Amazon Alexa
The Sonos Beam or should we call it the ‘smart soundbar’ supports Alexa – Amazon’s voice assistant to carry out your instructions as it takes care of your audio needs. Priced at $399 this is one of the first soundbar’s that has been integrated with microphone for Alexa. The Sonos Beam ends the search of those who detest having multiple speakers in their living rooms. Let us know more about the Sonos Beam, here is a review of this sleek soundbar:
Design
It has a svelte look and measures 25.6 x 3.9 x 2.7-inch. Unlike its predecessors and other soundbars that are big in size, the Sonos Beam is much smaller. However, the size shouldn’t befuddle you from what it has to offer. There are 4 woofers and 1 tweeter that produce enough sound to rumble a room. Its controls are laid neatly on a touch-sensitive top. You can adjust the volume, play, stop, pause or mute the audio from here. It also features a small LED light which tells you its status. Given its size and design, it will look perfect in a medium-sized room.
Performance
You can connect your television to the Sonos Beam using an HDMI cable. To stream live audios you can use Wi-Fi to connect to the internet. You can use multiple Sonos speakers by connecting them together with Wi-Fi for a multi-room audio effect. Another mode for connectivity is the Ethernet cable. The Sonos Beam has clearly been designed to function as a TV speaker and works wonderfully with it. But it does sound cool when used to play music too.
You can use your television remote to control it because the manufacturer hasn’t added one for the soundbar. For users whose televisions support HDMI ARC-CEC have the freedom to order Alexa to control it. The Amazon voice assistant does come in handy and is pretty responsive even when given voice instructions from across a big room. You can also use Alexa to control Sonos app if you are using it to play music. There are 5 far-field microphones that sit in the device which ensures that they catch your voice and execute your instructions.
The company has also promised integration of other voice assistants – Siri and Google Assistant. We are yet to see further actions on this.
The Sonos Beam delivers bass, mid-range and balanced treble. Despite the powerful bass, you would still need a subwoofer to rock the floor. You can host a small party with your friends at home and use the Sonos Beam to play your music, but if you want loud music, then you need to add a subwoofer to it.
Final Verdict
It generally works well for a speaker and serves the purpose of delivering good sound. But if your prioritization is music, then this shouldn’t be your first choice. This is a small, slender and smart looking soundbar which will sit perfectly near your television and deliver good sound to you while you enjoy your movies, series or music.
