I compared the Sonos Beam Ultra to the Beam (Gen 2), and was pretty surprised by what I heard

The Sonos Beam Ultra is a big release in my household, as someone who's had one Sonos Beam or another beneath his TV since 2018 – quite an innings for Sonos' compact soundbar. The first-gen version graced my flat for a very, very long time, and I was thrilled to upgrade it to the Beam (Gen 2) last year, hearing the upgrade immediately.

When Sonos announced the Beam Ultra, I was eager to see how much more of a boost it could give, especially since my living room is arguably the exact sort of space that befits a soundbar of this size; that's a polite way of saying it's not huge.

Well, I've had the Beam Ultra for well over a week now, and I've used it for dozens of hours already, and in the course of that week I've done more A/B testing than you can shake a hat at. That's involved some slightly draining HDMI swapping marathons, but it's what we do for the love of the game.

So, how does the Beam Ultra fare? Is it worth the chunky uplift in price? Read on for a proper comparison of these two compact Sonos soundbars.

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): Pricing

The Beam Ultra comes in to fill a fairly obvious gap in Sonos' lineup of soundbars. The Ray already took care of entry-level buyers, and the Arc Ultra is there for those with huge budgets, but the Beam Ultra comes in below that mark at £699 / $699 / AU$1099 / €699.

That's a decent uplift over the standard Beam (Gen 2), which launched back in 2021 at £449/$449/AU$699. Dropping an extra £250 is nothing to sniff at, and the gap is actually bigger than that given the Beam (Gen 2) regularly goes on sale for a decent chunk less, especially during big events like Black Friday or Prime Day.

Of course, you do get plenty of upgrades for that price, as we'll cover next.

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): Design and features

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) didn't change the footprint of its older sibling, the first-gen Beam, but did ditch its fabric cover in favour of a perforated grille around the outside of the soundbar. It paired this with a smooth plastic top that gave away its secret – there were no upfiring drivers here.

That meant that, while its big upgrade over its predecessor was the addition of Dolby Atmos sound, much of that sound was virtualised. Of course, we agreed with everyone else at the time of its launch that this virtualisation was really impressive, and we stand by that.

Now, though, the Beam Ultra brings actual, honest-to-goodness upfiring drivers, and that means an obvious change to its design to stop them from being muffled. The top of the soundbar is now perforated, too, with its touch controls therefore moved into some sections around its edge, which also features a slightly raised bump that looks quite funky.

The Beam Ultra is also bigger – and this surprised me in person. When I read that it was 10cm wider (which is the only meaningful difference in its dimensions), I thought that would look like nothing, but it's quite noticeable. Don't get me wrong, the Beam Ultra remains a compact solution of a soundbar, but it's less compact than before, and that could matter in tight spaces.

On the features side, those upfiring drivers are the single biggest thing for Sonos to shout about on the Beam Ultra, and they make a difference, as I'll cover in the sound quality section down below. That said, there are now nine drivers to the older Beam's five, so it's a more comprehensive refit than just adding a couple of new bits and pieces.

The Beam Ultra also adds Bluetooth, which the Beam (Gen 2) lacks, and that makes it more welcoming to those who might be in your home and fancy taking control of the playlist without being attached to your whole Sonos system. It also gets an upgrade to its Speech Enhancement feature, which gets AI feeding into it for better clarity compared to the older system. Finally, Wi-Fi 6 is here instead of the older Wi-Fi 4.

The longer list, though, covers what the soundbars both do. They both have TruePlay for room tuning; Night Sound to dampen bass when needed; voice controls for smart assistant use; and TV Audio Swap with Sonos Ace or Ace Ultra headphones.

So, on the features side, you're basically choosing between a slightly more compact 5.1.2 soundbar, or an ever so slightly bigger 7.1.2 one in the newer Beam Ultra – at a chunkier cost, but with a deal more future-proofing to keep it in the running for longer.

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): Sound quality

So, the soundbars look pretty similar but have a gulf in price – is that something that's immediately explained away when you start listening to the Beam Ultra?

Well, frankly, yes. I've been hugely impressed with the Ultra, whether it's from the point of view of detail, power or (obviously) verticality. I tested the Beam Ultra against the Beam (Gen 2) with some pretty detailed swaps, watching the same material over and over to check the differences.

Samples included various scenes from Blade Runner 2049 on 4K disc, which has a superb Atmos mix with a lot of verticality to it; I also used Top Gun: Maverick, which similarly has a great mix, and a whole heap of channel testing videos to isolate channels where possible.

That testing made it clear that the Beam Ultra is indeed quite a big step up – even if you just start with raw power. I kept the two soundbars on the same volume setting in the Sonos app when swapping between them, and the Ultra was consistently a good chunk louder, which made it booming at times.

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Impressively, though, that added volume didn't muddy things, and detail was actually quite a lot clearer on the Ultra. Sonos says the new soundbar has a redesigned centre channel for clearer dialogue, but I found that even other sound elements were easier to identify and less liable to get lost in the background.

Of course, those vertical channels are also exactly the upgrade I'd hoped for, and they did indeed work a treat in well-mixed scenes. The Beam (Gen 2) remains an impressive virtual performer, but the difference is obvious when you have the real thing to play with.

That said, the Beam (Gen 2) remains a brilliant performer, and there were plenty of occasions when, despite the Beam Ultra's advantage, I was reminded by how great the older bar can sound. I've happily used this for nearly a year in my setup, and I would have no real issue with continuing that way.

It's still got plenty of headroom in terms of power, and detail isn't a real issue, either. It only suffers by comparison to a newer bar that costs £250 more, and I'd say that's a really good result for a soundbar that's been on the market since 2021.

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): Verdict

This is a complicated one – Sonos has made the buying journey a bit of a ladder now, since you can basically talk yourself into an upgrade all the way from the Ray up to the Arc Ultra. The Beam Ultra now looks like an obvious upsell from the Beam (Gen 2), and I do think you feel and hear the difference.

The simple fact is that I think the Beam (Gen 2) remains a superb choice for anyone looking to spend less than £500 on a soundbar that won't take up much space. Most of Sonos' new features work on it, and it's a looker, too.

However, if you do have a bigger budget, then the Beam Ultra clearly wins in terms of sound quality. It's an evolution of the Beam, and while I'd have loved to see it be the Gen 3, with a lower price, the world of tech pricing means that was always unlikely.

Whether that makes the Beam Ultra the overall winner might be in the eye of the beholder, but I think it confirms that Sonos' approach to its soundbar lineup is a sensible one. Filling in the gaps has, in this case, delivered a bit of a beauty.