Do you need a 4K TV to use a Sonos Beam?

Sonos Beam is a smart and compact soundbar for your TV. Unlike the Sonos One, the Beam is specifically made to be used with your TV, rather than a standalone speaker.

Once the Sonos Beam is plugged into the HDMI-ARC port, it should automatically pair with your TV and remote without any other setup. The Sonos Beam also comes with Amazon Alexa voice control, so you can control the Beam with your voice. It's also compatible with AirPlay 2, so you can ask Siri to play sound from your Apple devices on the Beam. Both Alexa and Siri work interchangeably.

If you choose to use the Sonos Beam for streaming music from services like Spotify and Apple Music, the TV doesn't need to be turned on. The Beam also works great for Fire TV and other video streaming services, which you can connect to directly in the Sonos app. We have a guide for all of your Sonos setup needs here.

The Sonos Beam uses full-range woofers and harmonizes low and high frequencies in the tweeters, so it delivers premium sound in small to medium size rooms (the Playbar is designed for larger rooms, but doesn't work with AirPlay 2). It also has a Speech Enhancement feature, which means you'll never miss another word during your movies or television shows.

Sonos includes an optical audio adapter with the Beam so that it hooks up to TVs without an HDMI-ARC port, or TVs that are older and lack these connections.

However, be warned that if you need to use the optical audio adapter, the Amazon Alexa TV voice commands will not work.

Not necessarily. Unless your 4K TV has something like Dolby Atmos, then the sound quality that comes from the Sonos Beam will sound about the same, regardless of the kind of TV you own. That's because the Beam itself has powerful woofers and tweeters built-in, providing you with high-quality, premium sound that fills small and medium-sized rooms.

Yes! If you have a Sonos One, it can be paired with the Beam for an immersive sound experience. If you have two Sonos Ones, they can be used to create stereo surround sound with the Beam, which would be the optical setup.

All pairing would be done in the Sonos app. If you purchase the Sonos Surround Set with Beam (Beam and two Sonos One speakers) for $697, you save about $100.