That makes it quite unlike most portable speakers that don’t sound or work well enough to get used at home. Plus it will get many years of software support and the battery can be replaced for a reasonable sum at home, so it won’t end up in landfill when it wears out, unlike your average Bluetooth speaker. One key difference between the new Sonos Beam and its predecessor is the design of the grille, which is now made of plastic rather than a woven fabric. This design choice is more in keeping with the Sonos Arc, and as the company points out, it’s far easier to clean than dust-attracting fabric. We asked Sonos whether the new grille brings any acoustic benefits, but the company told us it’s purely an aesthetic choice. Manufacturers have tried, with varying success, to enhance the audio coming from their televisions. But, if you want to improve TV audio, you need a separate speaker designed for that purpose. Some soundbars will come with pre-programmed modes for different types of content. In our experience, soundbars with cinematic modes often use 'spatial' processing that can introduce high-frequency artefacts. In contrast, 'music' modes will usually have a bass and treble-heavy EQ that can sound a little brash. We tend to favour a flat standard mode, if one is available, that we manually adjust to our liking. But there is no one size fits all approach that will work for every room and listener.

While genuine overhead sounds are perhaps a stretch too far for this petite performer, its virtual delivery of the Atmos format outstrips any similarly priced soundbar and even a few that are more expensive. The Beam Gen 2 offers an enveloping, spatial soundscape with rich, detailed audio as well as tangible motion and depth. As we found when reviewing the latest Beam, "the soundstage is expansive and we try pairing the new Beam both with larger 55-inch and 65-inch screens, as well as a more modest 43-incher, and it enhances the cinematic scale and viewing experience for all three". You’ll also find a small LED light strip on the top of the soundbar, which lights up as you interact with it, and another LED beneath the microphone icon to let you know when the soundbar’s mic is enabled. In terms of wireless connectivity, the Beam (Gen 2) supports Wi-Fi and Apple AirPlay 2 with compatible iOS devices. There’s also the option to hook it up to your router with an Ethernet cable if you want a more stable connection to your home network. Though it costs a little more than we’d like, the Sonos Era 100 looks to be an excellent upgrade on its predecessor, the Sonos One. It’s capable of producing a wider stereo-like soundstage owing to its dual-tweeter arrangement, while it boasts richer bass than the One.Yes, Beam Gen 2 is a wider, more spacious and more substantial listen than the product it replaced. But as far as that sensation of sonic height that Dolby Atmos promises, the Gen 2 can’t really muster it. Ultimately, though, that doesn’t really matter - because what Beam Gen 2 can do, it does really, really well. You can make Sound Sets that require samples, but it takes a few extra steps. Once you've made your master folder, as above, create two subfolders inside it. Give one the same name as the master folder; this subfolder will hold the presets themselves. The other subfolder will hold the samples, so give it some logical name such as 'Sample Files'. Since your samples folder will probably hold a lot of content, create a subfolder structure inside it to organise them; you could, for instance, create a named folder for each preset containing all the samples used in that preset. Then copy or move all of the samples you need into the subfolder structure. For the Presence instrument, samples instead are imported as SoundFonts. Sometimes having audio enhancements on can result in audio issues. Disabling them may resolve your issue. The key thing to know about optical is that it's restricted in bandwidth compared to ARC/eARC. So if you have the choice between the two and opt for optical, you might not be making the most of the audio decoding built into your soundbar. The most advanced immersive formats optical can handle are compressed Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 surround sound, so that means no Dolby Atmos or DTS:X.

Delivering Dolby Atmos from a small chassis is no mean feat, but the 2023 What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Sonos Beam Gen 2 achieves a convincing, immersive performance without so much as a vertical speaker in sight. Instead, when watching Atmos content, two of the soundbar's five front-facing arrays are dedicated to reproducing overhead and surround sounds. With its hefty processing power, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 uses psychoacoustic HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology to give the impression of height without needing to get vertical. The Sony HT-A7000 is an outstanding, future-proofed, all-in-one performer with excellent integration if you have a newer Sony Bravia TV. In our initial review of the Ray, we felt that its bass handling, which resulted in an unusual low-frequency resonant buzz across various movies and music, hampered its overall performance. However, since an update in July 2022, that problem has now been widely alleviated, and as such, we have upped our initial verdict from three to four stars.

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Heard in isolation, the Five (which rather counterintuitively features six speaker drivers - three tweeters and three mid/bass drivers) has more than just sheer scale going for it. Although it goes without any hi-res audio capability, it’s a distinct, information-rich and implacably substantial listen, and can create a soundstage much wider than the box from which the sound emanates. This is the Premium Immersive Set with Arc, which features two Sonos Era 100s, a Sonos Arc and a Sonos Sub. (Image credit: Sonos) REX files are represented in such a way that you can use either the entire file or select only the slices you need.

Manually move the Sound Set file to the physical location of the other Sound Set files. When Sound Set files are added to locations known to Studio One, they will be detected and shown in the Sound Set tab. A Sound Set is a variant on the ZIP file format (as are Musicloops and Audioloops), and you could store just about any kind of data in one, but unless you're going to write an application to read your Sound Sets, it probably makes the most sense to store data that Studio One will recognise. Sound Sets can contain Musicloops and Audioloops, but also presets for plug-ins and virtual instruments from PreSonus and third-party developers, plus Groove Templates, FX Chains, Drum Maps, impulse responses, and more. Sound Set Builder Build quality is predictably good, from materials that are predictably resilient. The 10-hour battery life should be ample, and Bluetooth connectivity (something Sonos had resisted for a long time) lets you leave the range of your wi-fi - essential really, if you want to be ‘portable’. And the Move has been tuned to sound good in the open air - it’s a chunky, quite forceful and undeniably loud loudspeaker. But while there’s plenty of excitement to its sound, it’s not short of subtlety or precision.

The integrated sub, while not up there with the very best subwoofers you can buy, is very impressive for one bundled with a soundbar, with a taut, controlled and powerful performance, "even when we push it to the extremes with the pulsating synths of Blade Runner 2049..." However, this is a speaker with practicality and affordability in mind. Its ultra-compact dimensions, tapered build and forward-facing speakers mean it takes up little space and removes any need for a clear line of sight for upward- and side-firing drivers, making it a practical choice for small rooms and even desktops. The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) also sounds great when playing music. Listening to Little Simz' Woman, the bass sounds deep and well-controlled, while synth strings are warm and rich. Simz's rap vocal comes through with clarity, while Cleo Soul's avant-soul melodies float sumptuously above the mix. Called the Ultimate Immersive Set with Arc, this Sonos setup consists of two Era 300 speakers, a Sonos Arc and a Sonos Sub. (Image credit: Sonos) Yes, it could really do with HDMI passthrough for greater flexibility and no, the promise of Dolby Atmos sound isn’t really fulfilled. Nevertheless, the Beam Gen 2 is the star of the Sonos range.

After all, there are surely situations in which you don’t need your Sonos speaker to be all that smart. When it’s part of a stereo pair, for instance: what’s the point in both speakers being able to respond to your voice when one is plenty? So the One SL deletes that particular specification but leaves all the other good stuff intact. And of course, because it’s a Sonos speaker it’s versatile - just as happy as half of a stereo pair or as part of a multi-room system as it is operating on its lonesome. Its Trueplay auto-calibration software (iOS only) is a very useful feature, too. If your TV doesn’t have an HDMI port, you can connect the Beam via the optical port; Sonos provides all the cables you need in the box. If you are new to the brand and want to know what Sonos is all about, the One is the ideal place to start. With this simpler setup, you can pair two Sonos SLs with a second gen Sonos Beam. (Image credit: Sonos)We have state-of-the-art testing facilities in London, Reading and Bath, where our team of experienced, in-house reviewers test the majority of hi-fi and AV kit that passes through our door and allow for plenty of listening time as well as running them in before we begin reviewing. With its wide range of supported audio formats, the A7000 excels itself and includesDolby Atmos(in both the Digital+ and TrueHD formats),DTS:X, LPCM, hi-res wireless audio and Sony 360 Reality Audio. The app also allows you to pair the Beam with any other Sonos speaker, such as the Sonos Sub, or a pair of Sonos One SL speakers that could be used as left and right rear speakers. We're coming up on the 20th anniversary of Sonos as a company, in August 2022. In that time it’s morphed from being one of the first companies determined to deliver a wireless audio experience to a by-word for seamless, straightforward and utterly stable wireless multi-room audio equipment. Thanks to its combination of judicious product development, the inspired simplicity of its operating system and the generally-pretty-decent value for money its speakers represent, Sonos is well on its way to ubiquity. We’ll confidently state, here and now, that ‘Sonos’ will become a generic term like ‘Biro’ or ‘Sellotape’. For Sonos fans who are light on both funds and space, it’s best to do a mix-and-match setup of individual components. As exciting as the Era 100 speaker is, dropping hundreds on a pair of units before throwing in an added soundbar can’t exactly be described as affordable.