You really have to love Sonos and their attempt at making home theater equipment.  It’s almost a comedy routine in that their speakers sound good but never seem to catch up to where the rest of the industry is.  Enter the Sonos Beam, another example of Sonos forgetting that this is 2018.

To be fair, the Beam isn’t even out yet.  It just got announced two days ago.  But the announcement was enough for me to shake my head and wonder, “what are they doing?”  Sonos, for its part, has had some decent sound equipment for the home theater for a while.  They offer a sound bar, satellite speakers, a subwoofer, etc…and it’s all wireless.  The speakers themselves never sounded that bad but the thing that prevented me from ever buying a package from them is its lack of Audio Return Channel (ARC).

ARC is a must nowadays for anyone who is a home theater enthusiast.  Not only does it make connecting audio a breeze, but its ability to deliver uncompressed audio makes it a must-have for home theater enthusiasts who want that true theater sound.  Dolby Atmos is one such example of modern audio that ARC is really made for.  Fortunately for Sonos, they added ARC functionality.  Unfortunately, it’s not Atmos compatible.  And therein lies the problem.

Atmos may not be widely adopted but it is coming.  I have several movies that are Atmos encoded and I actually own an Atmos 5.1.4 surround sound system.  The audio quality is fantastic.  The audio is delivered uncompressed through my 4K HDR TV and every movie sounds like a theater experience.  However, in order for Atmos to function correctly, you need speakers that are correctly configured and the Beam doesn’t have those speakers.  And at a price of $399, it just seams not worth it as an home theater device, especially considering how much audio you can get from even midrange home theaters-in-a-box.

The main draw of the Beam, however, isn’t necessarily the audio quality.  The company is touting the Beam as a “smart” speaker.  With built-in Alexa functionality, Sonos is going after the high-end smart speaker audio segment.  For music, I have zero doubt that this is going to be a winner.  The sound quality that Sonos usually delivers is quite premium given the size.  But for home theater enthusiasts? I wonder if this is truly made for us.

Unfortunately, I have yet to get my hands on this nor have I had the chance to give the product a listen.  As soon as they are available, I will pick one up and give it a thorough review.  But if I was a betting man, I’m not sure that Sonos will have a hit on their hands.  While I expect the audio quality to be good for music and the smart functionality to be perfect for home automation, I would say, given the price, that it may be worth passing up for anything home theater related.