In this comparison, we tested three high-performance soundbars from Sonos — including the new, ultra-compact Sonos Ray, which is a stereo sound bar — plus two Sonos soundbars that integrate Dolby Atmos.
The three Sonos soundbars we are comparing are:
With this guide, you and your family will have everything needed to choose the right high-performance soundbar from Sonos with the best sonic results and features for any room in your home. If you are ready to learn more about a specific soundbar, feel free to skip ahead and click on any of the soundbars above.
It’s hard to believe, but it's now been 20 years since a startup company out of Santa Barbara, California made some waves at trade shows with a new concept of how to deliver audio. Fast forward to today, and Sonos is now considered a premium tech brand of music streaming speakers and components.
Dolby Atmos entered the residential home theater market in 2014 and at Audio Advice, we feel this immersive audio format is by far the most revolutionary surround sound technology we have seen and heard since the introduction of surround sound in the 1980s. So, as you can imagine, the way Sonos thinks about future-proofing their products as technology continues to progress makes us big fans at Audio Advice.
To get the fully immersive sound Dolby Atmos has to offer, the speakers have to steer sound all around you in three dimensions. When it’s done right, the effect is just amazing.
The Sonos Arc was the first Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbar from Sonos and it was an instant hit when it first came out in 2020. The original Sonos Beam was a compact sound bar that came out back in 2018, but after the release of Sonos Arc, they followed up in 2021 with a second-gen refresh and added Dolby Atmos compatibility to the Sonos Beam Gen 2.
For 2022, Sonos came out with an even more compact little brother called the Sonos Ray, which does not offer Dolby Atmos.
The Beam Gen 2 quickly became the best-selling $350-$500 price-range soundbar in the US because of its sound, ease of use, and convenient form factor—and as the new guy on the block, the Ray is poised to do the same.
At Audio Advice, we are noticing a big trend in home theater and whole-house music streaming, so it’s great to see a premium brand like Sonos come out with a new stereo sound bar for a fantastic price point. The new Ray is already resonating with a wide audience of music lovers who are just starting out in home theater, and considering the Sonos ecosystem, but is it the right Sonos bar for you?
This comparison will address that question and more. Whatever your situation, whether it's a bedroom where space is limited, a medium-sized bonus room or entertainment/gaming room for the kids, or even your larger-sized family room, this comparison will help you decide which Sonos sound bar system is the right fit and style for your home.
The first thing you will notice about all of the Sonos sound bars is their low-profile shapes & modern designs. We like how their compact, understated cabinets seamlessly blend in with just about any home’s decor.
At Audio Advice, we build and design custom home theaters for customers all over the nation. Sonos products look fantastic in just about every space, and we love how reliable their technology and overtly minimalistic the design of their cabinets are. All of the Sonos soundbars in this comparison did a great job letting us focus on what’s happening on screen—rather than distracting lights or prominent aesthetics.
In fact, in our over 40 years of experience, delivering happiness to music and movie lovers, we’ve never seen a brand offer a better reliability history than Sonos. From a build quality and reliability point of view, it is just so rare that we ever see problems with anything from Sonos.
Most brands conduct random spot checks to look out for any major issues affecting batches of samples– however, Sonos actually tests every single unit in their production line, which is just unheard of! Not only that, but when designing new models, they put all of their prototypes through all kinds of heat and cold stress tests. They even have a stress test that totally bombards any new design with all types of radio frequencies to make sure no interferences are going to affect the wifi performance.
All three bars in this comparison are built with these standards in mind and they each have the same fit and finishes we have come to expect from Sonos. When Sonos developed their flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar–the Sonos Arc–they came up with a new way to perforate the grille for better sound that also just looks great. It’s nice to see this same type of grille trickle down into their newer, less expensive soundbars–including the Sonos Ray and the Beam Gen 2.
Each model is available in either matte black or matte white finishes, and they are all designed to sit under a TV—either on a cabinet/mantle or mounted to the wall with optional wall brackets.
All of these Sonos soundbars have some important features in common. In this section, we will quickly cover the most important features to consider when choosing between one of these. Then, in the next section, we will dive deeper into each model to uncover the biggest differences in performance that stand out.
First, let’s talk about connectivity options. Newer TVs these days have a new type of HDMI port called HDMI eARC. This is a new technology that allows Dolby Atmos to be transmitted out to compatible devices and the Sonos Beam Gen 2 and Sonos Arc both fit the bill perfectly for this. If your TV supports HDMI eARC technology, all you have to do is connect up the HDMI cable, and you are done. It is important to note that the new Sonos Ray does not have the newer HDMI eARC connection type—since it is a stereo sound bar, the Ray features optical, only.
What could be easier than simply holding your smartphone up close to your sound bar to transfer your wifi settings? It’s that simple! One other interesting benefit of the HDMI ARC connection is that it also sends all of the control signals from your TV back down an HDMI cable connected to your soundbar’s HDMI-ARC output. If your TV supports HDMI-ARC, all you have to do is make the connection and the Sonos Arc and Beam Gen 2 both will know to work with your TV. This lets you control the Arc and the Beam with your TV’s remote control for another level of convenience.
However, if your TV is older, and without an HDMI-ARC connection, the Sonos app will still walk you through a few quick steps that will allow any of the Sonos sound bars to learn the commands of your TV remote—so either way, the operation is a piece of cake—but since the new Sonos Ray is optical only, there is an extra step in getting it synced with your TV’s remote.
The great part about all three solutions is you can add Sonos speakers for surrounds or the Wireless Sonos Sub. Adding the Sub will help recreate the immersive “slam” and “impact” that simply draws you into a great movie or TV show. A pair of surrounds in some rooms will improve the sense of sound being all around you. This also brings up the next important feature to consider when choosing a Sonos soundbar system—the size of your room and the options that will expand your Sonos setup.
The great thing about Sonos is that you don’t have to do much planning ahead. All of the sound bars in this lineup allow you to easily add other Sonos speakers and group them together for whole-house music coverage—or, you could even create a personal Sonos home theater system in your living room.
For example, with Sonos, if you decide you want to hear more surround sound effects all around you, you could add the rear surround speakers later at any point. If you want more bass, just add the sub. You could even go all out and add dual subwoofers for even better bass performance. This is what makes Sonos one of the easiest-to-expand setups on the market—simply add more Sonos speakers and you’re done!
We should point out that you will immediately notice the extra benefits of expanding your system if you choose the Sonos Ray or the Beam Gen 2. Adding the sub and the rears to both of these greatly enhanced the immersion factor with these smaller, compact bars.
On the other hand, the Sonos Arc did not need the surround speakers in our room. The Sonos Arc did such a good job with its dedicated Atmos speakers, we felt they were less necessary in a medium-sized room. But, if you have a larger space that could benefit from the extra coverage, then adding a pair of Sonos One SL Wireless Speakers as the rear surrounds will benefit you more for less than $400. Having said that, the Arc still benefits from having at least one sub even in a smaller-medium-sized room, so the decision comes down to how much space you have in your room.
Regardless of your room size, this is a Sonos-designed software system that can work wonders in taking the problems of your room out of the equation. Truplay technology is a big reason all of their soundbars are such great performers. This feature requires you to use an iOS device, but it is a one-time setup that allows anyone to simply walk around the room while test tones play. The Sonos app then makes the acoustic corrections to remove room problems, and in most cases, this greatly improves the audio.
Speech Enhancement
This is a feature you access using the Sonos app to make the dialog easier to understand and this works well on all of the models.
Night Sound
This is awesome for late-night enjoyment, or if you share walls with neighbors. It compresses and reduces the dynamic bass passages keeping the sound more contained and at the same time raises the level of quiet passages so you can listen at a lower level too!
Audio EQ
These controls allow you to alter the audio to taste so you can custom-tailor your sound. In the Sonos app, there are adjustable EQ settings for dialing in bass, treble, and loudness.
Sonos Ray Compact Soundbar
Sonos Beam (GEN 2)
Sonos Arc Dolby Atmos Soundbar
Standing a little under 3-inches tall, and spanning just 22-inches wide with less than 4-inches of depth across, the new Sonos Ray is the most compact bar out of the three. It easily fits under just about any sized TV–or it could be tucked away inside of a shelf in a small TV cabinet. This setup is super cool and the look reminds us of a center-channel speaker in a home theater setup.
All of Ray’s speaker drivers are forward-facing. This one offers what Sonos calls a “forward-thinking design,” which means all of the acoustic components direct sound at the listener instead of trying to create or approximate an immersive, multi-dimensional surround sound presentation.
With a front-facing 3-way speaker array comprised of two active tweeters and two high-efficiency mid-woofers, the Ray throws out a pretty wide soundstage with good top-end and clear bass that will be suitable for smaller spaces.
Since Sonos Ray is all about delivering a great stereo presentation for music and movies where space is limited, there are no Atmos height-channel speakers in this ultra-compact soundbar. So, with this model, you don’t have to worry about nearby surfaces causing acoustic interferences–or sound waves reflecting against shelving that will cause resonances and distort the sound coming out. In terms of placement, this gives you some more options.
The Ray is the only one where you can put it inside a cabinet and it performs as it should—but like with any speaker—if you can get it on top of the cabinet, it will sound a little better. We recommend placing it on top of a TV stand or wall-mounting it with the optional wall-mounting brackets for the most convenient view and for the easiest access to its touch capacitive controls on the top panel.
The back of the unit is where you will find a few simple connections recessed for easy access. There’s a power button, a power connection, an optical Toslink input for connecting the stereo output from your TV, and an ethernet port for a hardwired connection directly to your WIFI network. There is no HDMI ARC connection, so Ray does not support Dolby Atmos, but you can get great sound through Ray’s optical connection.
Ray is cool in that it can learn your TV remote controls volume and mute, so you can just use one remote.
Overall, Sonos designed the Ray to be a minimalistic standalone bar that will enhance the sound of TV watching with the TV you already own. For anyone tight on space, such as a bedroom, an apartment, or even a gaming setup in a bonus room, the new Ray offers anyone to dip their toes into a convenient home theater solution with the great Sonos ecosystem for a fantastic price point.
As a bonus, it’s nice that this bar will let you build the perfect sound system over time when you mix and match it with other Sonos speakers. You could add a pair of Sonos One SL speakers for the rears and even dual-gen 3 Subs for extended bass!
For comparison, the step-up model and bigger brother–Sonos Beam Gen 2–is about the same height as the Sonos Ray. The Beam Gen 2 is 3.5-inches wider than the Ray with a wing span of 25-inches and almost 4-inches of depth across. Beam Gen 2 is pretty slim, so while this will easily slide underneath just about any TV, we recommend placing it directly in front of your TV for the best sound.
The bass performance does get slightly better here as you move up to the bigger cabinet. Inside Beam Gen 2, there is a 5-channel phased array of active drivers plus side-firing speakers that are designed to deliver more immersion compared to the Sonos Ray.
Inside this slightly larger model, there is one active center tweeter and four active elliptical mid-woofers that present more details hiding in the mid-range—and this presents voices and dialogue with richer clarity and detail compared to the Ray.
It’s important to note, Beam Gen 2 relies on special psychoacoustic techniques to give the sense of virtual upward-firing Atmos channels for a pretty impressive–but albeit–approximated Dolby Atmos experience. Even though Beam Gen 2 does offer Dolby Atmos compatibility, there are no physical up-firing speakers to present the Atmos height channels, so it’s important to note that this is “fake Atmos,” and not a true Dolby Atmos signal.
You will also want to be mindful not to block any of the Beam Gen 2’s side-firing speakers, so while it is dimensionally similar to Sonos Ray, we recommend placing this model on top of your TV cabinet. You could also wall-mount Beam Gen 2 for a nice, clean look that does not obstruct any of the speakers for even better results and acoustic performance on multi-dimensional Dolby Atmos content.
The connection for your TV on this model is upgraded to eARC instead of optical. The HDMI connection is designed for the new HDMI-ARC type of signal, where your TV sends the sound and control signals back down an HDMI cable connected to its HDMI-ARC output. If your TV is older, before HDMI-ARC hit the market, you don’t need to worry. Sonos includes in the box an optical to HDMI converter so you can connect an optical cable from the output of your TV to Beam Gen 2’s HDMI input.
Setting up Beam Gen 2 was super easy since all we had to do was just hold our smartphone near it to transfer our wireless network credentials over to the Beam Gen 2. Being the hard-core home theater enthusiasts that we are, we had to remember that the Beam Gen 2 is all about someone improving the sound of their built-in TV speakers. Similar to the Ray, it’s just not really the best home theater experience out there. But, when you look at it in that context, you can see why this is such a great seller.
For fun, we tested Beam Gen 2 using scenes from Night on Earth, Stranger Things, and The Irishman. In all cases, the thing that impressed us the most about Beam Gen 2 was how well it presented dialog. We felt it produced as good—if not a little better—dialogue than the Arc! Voices had a rich, full sound, which surprised us considering the size of the Sonos Beam.
This, alone, makes the Sonos Beam Gen 2 worth the price of admission over TV speakers. You will be able to understand the dialog far better and it will sound much more realistic. Because of this, Beam Gen 2 is actually the bar we recommend the most to people who tell us they have trouble understanding or hearing the dialog in movies. If you have a family member or know someone who is always asking you to turn up the volume because they can’t understand the dialog, then the Beam Gen 2 is a fantastic gift!
To learn more about Beam Gen 2, watch our Sonos Beam (Gen 2) Review.
The Arc is Sonos’ flagship Dolby Atmos sound bar. Dimensionally, it is the largest and the longest of the three models, and for good reason. Standing less than 3.5-inches tall, and spanning about 45-inches wide with 4.5-inches of depth across, the Arc is designed to match up best with modern flat-panel TVs.
The enclosure has a stylish, rounded shape with a long, slender look that almost looks like a slightly stretched-out circle from the side view. The newer perforated grille looks fantastic on all of the bars in this comparison, but with the Arc’s super slender form, it just almost disappears into the room—visually, this bar will look great sitting on top of a piece of furniture with TVs that are 55-inches or wider.
You could also wall-mount Arc with an optional wall bracket. In the typical clever way Sonos thinks about things when you mount it to the bracket, the Arc uses magnets to “sense” its position, and then makes electronic adjustments to the sound to adjust its acoustics for the way directly mounting to a wall affects the sound. The Arc has actual Atmos speakers that do fire up to bounce sound off the ceiling and back down to you, so this should be placed on top of a TV cabinet in front of the TV or about 4-inches or more under your TV.
Sonos spent many years developing the acoustics for the Arc and some of that tech trickled down into the other Sonos bars in this comparison. However, what really sets the Arc apart as the flagship model—is not only the physical size difference—but also the size of the immersive sound coming out of its slim enclosure.
Sonos Arc has 11 active speaker drivers all housed inside the unit—each being individually powered—and capable of filling an entire medium-sized room with premium Dolby Atmos surround sound from nothing else but just the Arc soundbar, itself.
The Arc uses a five-channel phased array that teams eight custom elliptical woofers with three silk-dome tweeters to provide the left, center, right, and surround channels. Two actual height channel speakers on top of the bar fire the Atmos effects upward for the immersive Atmos experience.
Sonos then worked with Oscar-winning sound engineers to tune the Arc so that you will hear every nuance in the human voice with special Speech Enhancement technology that pushes the dialog a little further upfront for the easiest-to-understand speech.
In terms of low-end, the ARC does go much deeper in the bass with the extra drivers, but it still benefits from a subwoofer. You can add a Sonos Sub or dual Subs for extended bass and a pair of Sonos One SL for rears and the Arc adjusts itself automatically. If you add the rears, the surround channel drivers change to additional bass drivers for the main left and right channels, which is just super cool!
The connectors on the Arc are all recessed nicely on the rear underneath the unit. There’s an HDMI eARC connection, an ethernet port, and a power connection. Another benefit of HDMI eARC is that it unlocks a much higher bandwidth to support uncompressed audio formats like Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital+, True HD, and more. DTS was added back in November 2021 as a software update, which made a lot of DTS fans here at Audio Advice very happy.
Your TV will need an HDMI eARC connector to get uncompressed Dolby Atmos—however, if it has an older ARC connection, you will still get Dolby Atmos with this true Dolby Atmos model, but it will be compressed. For even older generation TVs that only have an optical out, Sonos includes an optical to HDMI adapter with the Arc, which could be nice to have.
We used some of the exact same scenes we had used when testing the Beam Gen 2, and in our testing, we found the Arc was so good at throwing out a 3-dimensional Atmos soundstage, that adding a pair of rear speakers was only marginally better. We pulled up a series called Night on Earth and cued up the episode called “Jungle Nights.” At about 3:30 into the episode, you will be completely surrounded by jungle sounds with the Arc as a standalone Dolby Atmos soundbar. The job it did to re-create a Dolby Atmos soundstage was really amazing.
If you have a more open, non-rectangular room, then rear surrounds would benefit you more—but you will be much better off taking the money a pair of rear surrounds would cost—and putting that towards a Sonos Sub—or even adding dual Subs if you have the space. While the Arc has ok bass, its small size does limit the deep bass it can put out—so for a much more immersive home theater experience, we highly recommend adding the Sonos Sub.
To learn more about the Arc, watch the Sonos Arc Dolby Atmos Soundbar Review.
So, which one should you choose and how should you expand it? Between these three, the decision comes down to your budget, your needs, and the size of your room. Overall, if you have limited space and want to improve the sound over basic TV speakers, the Sonos Ray is a good choice. We do feel it’s best for a small to a medium-sized room since it did run out of gas trying to fill up a large room during our testing—although it still did far better than the built-in TV speakers.
The Beam Gen 2 is better suited for any sized room and you get even better dialog and deeper bass with the Beam Gen 2—plus a slight feel of Dolby Atmos—but if you want true effects and immersion, then the ARC is the way to go.
All of the models will greatly benefit from adding the Sonos Sub. However, with the price of the Ray being less than half the price of the Sub, it probably does not make sense financially even though each and every model does greatly benefit from adding the Sub. While the Arc has OK bass, its small size does limit the deep bass impact it can put out—so for a much more immersive home theater experience, we highly recommend adding the Sonos Sub for just about any room size.
With dedicated up-firing speakers built-in, the Arc also has the best true Atmos effects by a mile. There really is no comparison between how Atmos effects sounded on the Arc vs the Beam Gen 2. If you have a more open, non-rectangular room, then rear surrounds would benefit you more in this case—but you will be much better off taking the money a pair of rear surrounds would cost—and putting that towards a Sonos Sub—or even adding dual Subs if you have the space!
If you want a sub and the rear speakers bundled into the price, then just go all out and get the Sonos Arc Surround Sound Set. It’s the ideal setup, hands down. But, if you just don’t have the budget or the space to justify the Arc, it’s nice to have these same options to add all the add-ons later for both the Sonos Ray and the Beam.
And if you’re on the fence about the Ray vs the Beam Gen 2, just keep in mind that the new Ray does not support Dolby Atmos. On the other hand, this gives you some more flexibility if you need to place it inside a cabinet. Both the Ray and the Arc painted a better stereo image for 2-channel music than the Beam Gen 2—however, it was the Beam Gen 2 that presented mid-range details such as voices the best.
If you are shopping for a Dolby Atmos compatible soundbar that takes up as little room as possible for either yourself or for someone you know who’s always asking you to raise the volume because they can’t quite hear the dialog, then Sonos Beam Gen 2 should be number one on your list. And if you just don’t care about having Dolby Atmos, the Ray would be the perfect way to enhance the sound coming out of the TV you already have.
| Feature | RAY | Beam Gen 2 | ARC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dolby Atmos | No, Stereo only | Faked | Actual speakers |
| Number of Active Speaker Drivers | 4 two tweeters, two midwoofers | 5, one tweeter, 4 midwoofers | 11, 3 tweeters and 8 midwoofers |
| Number of Passive Speaker Drivers | none, uses bass reflex coupled with the midwoofers | 3, passive radiotors enhance the bass of the midwoofers | none, not needed as every driver is powered |
| Number of Amp Channels | 4 | 5 | 11 |
| Microphones | NO | YES | YES |
| Placement | more options since drivers do not fire up, inside a cabinet, on a wall directly under the tv, or on top of a cabinet | Has side firing speakers so its better on top of a cabinet or mounted under a TV, no limiit has to how close since no drivers fire up | Has Atmos speakers that do fire up, should be on top of a cabinet or 4 inches or more on a wall under a TV, benefit is you get actual Atmos effects that work incredibly well for a soundbar |
| Audio Connection | Optical | HDMI eARC | HDMI eARC |
| Remote Control | Unit learns TV remote | HDMI control from TV | HDMI control from TV |
| Voice Control | NO | YES | YES |
| Trueplay | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Speech Enhancement | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Night Sound | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio EQ | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Can add Sonos surround speakers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Can add Sonos Subwoofer | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Music Streaming | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Sonos Ray Compact Soundbar
Sonos Beam (GEN 2)
Sonos Arc Dolby Atmos Soundbar
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