I love the Beam Ultra – but this is the Sonos soundbar (and surrounds) I'd buy right now

Amazon has swooped into action this week, likely because it wants its own slice of the pie compared to Black Friday, when every retailer in the world is competing to offer deals on tech. So, in early October, we now get Prime Big Deal Days, giving extremely impressive discounts to Prime members.

I'm trawling through the thousands of offers available, and with the event only a few hours old, the first big deal to jump out at me on Amazon should come as no surprise, given my recent reviews – it's a Sonos device.

I just reviewed the five-star Sonos Beam Ultra, a stunning new soundbar that pushes the price of the Beam line higher than it's ever been, but it's the older (and still fabulous) Beam Gen 2 that I think would be my personal purchase this week if I were in the market for something.

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Sonos Beam Gen 2: was £449 now £350 at Amazon

The Beam Gen 2 does regularly get discounted now that it's no longer the newest, but its sound quality hasn't changed – it's a phenomenal addition to your TV that will upgrade literally any system's sound. Most retailers have it at £429 right now, so knocking a further £79 off that standard price is really something to grab hold of.

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The main difference between the Beam Gen 2 and the newer Beam Ultra is that the latter has real upfiring drivers for overhead audio in surround-sound settings, but I really think the majority of users won't find fault with the older, substantially cheaper Beam's sound.

It's superb, after all, and I happily used it for years before the Ultra came along – and this deal makes the Beam Gen 2 literally half the price of the Ultra. When that's the arithmetic, I think there's no contest: almost anyone would be better off saving their cash and buying the cheaper soundbar.

After all, this might leave you with leftover budget to pick up some rear surrounds – and how lucky are you? The Sonos Era 100 SL is also discounted for this Prime event, so you could pick up a Beam Gen 2 with two Era 100 SLs, all for less than the cost of just the Beam Ultra.

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Sonos Era 100 SL: was £169 now £141 at Amazon

It might not be as substantial a saving, but given the very sensible price of the Era 100 SL in the first place, this is a tidy little discount to make a Sonos surround-sound system for your TV impressively affordable.

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Picking up a Beam Gen 2 and a couple of Era 100 SLs will basically get you the surround system that I've been using for the past couple of years – and that means I can vouch for how great it is.

Sound quality is crisp and powerful, but you also get nice amounts of subtlety, and Sonos' features like night mode and dialogue boost can be lifesavers if you're trying to watch something obnoxiously loud without making your neighbours hate you.

This sale only lasts for a couple of days, so expect these prices to bounce back up at the end of 7 October – don't hang around if you're thinking of pulling the trigger.