I just upgraded my Sonos Beam with surround sound on the cheap

Sonos Era 100 SL used as rear speakers in home cinema setup — (Image credit: Sonos)

Having recently acquired the Sonos Beam Ultra soundbar as part of my audio-visual suite, I was fortunate enough to already have the brand's Sub to make for bigger bass.

But there was one key ingredient missing: true surround sound. Fortunately, by virtue of the Amazon Prime Day sale this October, I've just managed to upgrade that too!

Check out the Era 100 SL deal on Amazon

That's because the Sonos Era 100 SL just got its biggest price cut to date. Buy a pair and you, too, can pair them with your Sonos soundbar for true rear channels – and a surround sound upgrade that makes a huge difference!

Sonos' smallest wired speaker – you'll need a plug socket available for each – is a quality standalone product, no matter where you place it in your home.

It's even better used as a stereo pair. But it becomes something else entirely when paired with a Sonos soundbar – whether Beam or Arc, or the Ultra variants of either – for a true surround sound setup capable of handling true Dolby 5.1, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X mixes.

Now that these speakers are cheaper than ever before, this is a home-cinema upgrade bargain – and better value than the original Era 100 models (which include voice control, unlike the SL – hence their lower price overall).

While the new Beam Ultra did add a very cool feature, enabling you to use wireless speakers – namely the Move 2 or newer Play model – as part of a surround setup, those are much pricier speakers.

If you're looking for that Sonos soundbar upgrade on the cheap – or certainly cheaper – then my advice is to nab a pair of SL speakers instead. Two of them will cost you less than either of the portable products above!

What's particularly great about such a setup is that when you're not using the Era 100 SL pair as rear surrounds, you can use them as a stereo pair for music – if you don't fancy outputting tunes through a full soundbar in tandem (which you can also do, of course).

If this upgrade is your first stepping stone towards better TV audio then I'd also strongly suggest considering adding a Sonos Sub Mini if you don't have one. The Sonos Sub 4 is huge and expensive and likely overkill – unless you have a huge screen and room with a Sonos Arc Ultra.

Or if you can't have a subwoofer in your home setup, as it'd be too problematic for your neighbours or even your own family or cohabitants, then the SL upgrade is a really big step in changing TV and movie audio for the better. You won't regret it.

There is a likely time limit to this deal, though, as Amazon's October sale is over at the end of today (Wednesday 7 October) and, as before, the price may jump back up to regular levels thereafter.

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Mike is T3's Tech Editor. He's been writing about consumer technology for 15 years and his beat covers phones – of which he's seen hundreds of handsets over the years – laptops, gaming, TV & audio, and more. There's little consumer tech he's not had a hand at trying, and with extensive commissioning and editing experience, he knows the industry inside out. As the former Reviews Editor at Pocket-lint for 10 years where he furthered his knowledge and expertise, whilst writing about literally thousands of products, he's also provided work for publications such as Wired, The Guardian, Metro, and more.