Sonos or Samsung

[jonwm]

Ok been reading review after review and looking for some PH opinion.

Smallish lounge 4 x5m ISH used to have Samsung TV and soundbar circa 2014 models but have moved that to the kids room (new house means new tech)

Got a Samsung Q80r 55 about a month ago and was in the market for circa £600 sound bar set up, was going to go for the same 2019 models sound bar but the 80r is a bit more than I wanted to pay for a standalone product (have Sonos elsewhere) at £800, I can get through work the 2020 q70t model for £620 which has Atmos and sub but was leaning towards Sonos to spread the music throughout the house, playbar was out as wanted hdmi arc so ordered a beam which came yesterday.

Quite impressed so far, bass is good considering no sub (yet) but feel it's a bit vocal and narrow sounding, options are send this back and get the Samsung or add a sub (can justify the cost as it will add to the Sonos environment) but will have to save a bit and not feed the kids for a few months, or wildcard send the beam back and get the new arc with never getting a sub.

Interested on people's opinions of the beam with a sub, does it add enough to justify?

[VEX]

If you already have Sonos, stick with Sonos it is good when you’re in their eco system, but pushing price boundary’s as far as I am concerned.

Alternatively you could now go traditional bookshelf as Klipsch have just brought out ‘the fives’ which I think is going to be a killer product.

Active, Bluetooth, Optical, USB and HDMI Arc in as well as MM (Turntable) input!

Discounts can be had to bring within budget if you know who to ask

V.

[DoctorX]

I bought a beam and a sub a couple of weeks ago, paired with my two Ones as surrounds it sounds fantastic. Very happy with it, proper loud and excellent bass. The sub is very pricey but it is a lovely bit of kit and I’m glad I took the plunge.

[jonwm]

Thanks for the feedback gents

I'm quite liking the beam, much better sounding than i expected from a small form, its feels quite deep on its own compared to others I've heard.

Not sure its the clarity of the speech on it but cant help feeling its not quite perfect on the lip sync with Sky Q box, no altering of delay on app or box/tv seems to help, will continue on with it and see how i feel, Sub would be a welcome addition due to the wife liking the music side of it more than the TV / film side.

Arc is getting some bad user reviews so think that option is out the door for now.

[Mphila]

I have Beam and two Sonos 1’s as rears and very happy with the setup, have considered a sub but I don’t think there’s much point at the price.

[matjk]

I have a beam and sub with Play5s as rears .
The sub makes a big difference, another thin that makes a big difficult is checking in the app you are actually getting 5.1 audio.
It’s amazing the difference it makes and you normally have to fath about in the tv settings to get it . The app tells you

[HRL]

Mphila said:

I have Beam and two Sonos 1’s as rears and very happy with the setup, have considered a sub but I don’t think there’s much point at the price.

Same setup here along with my 65” C9 OLED.

Considered the sub but short of pissing off the neighbours, I really can’t see the point. Besides, I like my neighbours.

[The Dictator]

I have 7 Sonos 1's around the house, utilising Spotify and 7 Echo Dots to tell them what to do. We all use it (4) and love the flexibility of being able to tell Alexa to play something.

We have 1 matched pair in the sitting room and the rest are individually located in bedrooms, study, kitchen.

I thoroughly recommend Sonos from the last 7yrs or so of use.

[BrundanBianchi]

I have a Sonos thing. I’m not sure of the model, but it’s a smart speaker cube type thing. It’s pretty impressive. I’d recommend it highly if I could remember what it’s called.

[jonwm]

After a couple of weeks of the beam i'm quite impressed, i can tell its lacking the bass of a sub but its great for the shared house music.

Frustrating i can only get PCM not DD from my Sky Q box though, the lip sync is unbearable through HDMI ARC (common problem with Sky Q apparently, it needs a negative sound delay option but diesnt have it), I can connect via Optical to get DD and have no lip sync issues but then I lose the ability to use the apps on the TV as you can only have 1 connection into the Beam.

Waying up now weather I can live with PCM sound for 80% of the stuff we watch or return the Beam and switch to a Samsung sound bar where i can have multiple inputs.

[DoctorX]

jonwm said:

After a couple of weeks of the beam i'm quite impressed, i can tell its lacking the bass of a sub but its great for the shared house music.

Frustrating i can only get PCM not DD from my Sky Q box though, the lip sync is unbearable through HDMI ARC (common problem with Sky Q apparently, it needs a negative sound delay option but diesnt have it), I can connect via Optical to get DD and have no lip sync issues but then I lose the ability to use the apps on the TV as you can only have 1 connection into the Beam.

Waying up now weather I can live with PCM sound for 80% of the stuff we watch or return the Beam and switch to a Samsung sound bar where i can have multiple inputs.

I have some degree of lip sync issues with my Beam too, although its nowhere near as bad as I had with my previous Yamaha soundbar using SkyQ. It may not be just a Sonos thing...