Sonos Beam Gen 2 as a PC gaming speaker

Can you use the Sonos Beam as a PC speaker and game convincingly? Let's find out today!

Watch out for the gaming clip at the end recorded using a binaural microphone setup and exactly what I am hearing!

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[JN-yseq]

The benefits of gaming with a mouse/keyboard/monitor setup but with home theater sound. I love it!

[dangavin]

Plug and play! I have a SPDIF port on my motherboard on my pc. The optical cable works in this case, and choosing the native audio output for the pc controls the Sonos.

[angxlmoreno]

It only took 3 seconds of listening to that binaural sound test to make me purchase this over dedicated desktop speakers. great video! keep up the amazing work :^)

[giz]

Im so glad i found this channel.Can i ask, if i have a creative soundcard on my PC, can i connect directly using the optical cable? Thank you

[racingpixel]

been running this setup with my Gen 1 for months now and the sonos beam will always be my go to setup when I set up a new system.

[samsassoli]

Hey Peter, how do you get Dolby Digital 5.1 ? I am using the Sonos ARC with optical HDMI adapter and I am stuck in stereo mode . Should I install the Dolby Access for Windows ?

[fluidz]

Great sounding speaker, the sound is rich and almost perfect for gaming but I had to return mine because when sitting up close (speaker on my pc desk), the centre channel was louder on the left. Gun fire / speech in games / singing all sounded louder on the left side. I tested with a mic, placing the mic 2cm in front of the beam gen 2, and the mic picked up the inbalance. This was a problem with / without trueplay and with / without dolby. I found someone else who had the same problem on reddit, and they returned theirs to find the replacement had the same issue.

[AlexanderAndersson-ur]

Used beam gen 2 for pc 1 year and 0 problems. After latest app update beam gen 2 dosent work for pc anymore. Ideas how to fix this? Beam is connected with the cable+optical converter thats in the beam box. Tried turning wifi of and on and nothing i tried helps

[pvtcmyers]

I just found your channel and I love this stuff you go over! Thank you so much for all of this really in depth information for all of your videos man.

[ryochaniago]

Hi Peter,
I just found you channel when trying to figure out how to connect my Beam to PC.
Unfortunately not like your set up where just plug the optical output into PC and stick the HDMI into beam then windows will automatically detect and able to play sound directly to beam.
My set up somehow doesn't get the audio come out from my beam, do you have any clue if I'm missing some settings that I needed to check?
Really appreciate if you could give some hint ;)

[sheiken]

Hey I have a question... I have a sonos beam connected to my pc via optical... Directly to mu motherboard so my question is how you made it work 5.1? Context the sonos app with the beam connected via optical it only shows PCM it does not show dd5.1 like in your video... Did you changed some settings? I could not find any option to enable 5.1 via optical please I need your help.

[DamageMelody]

Will it work with HDMI 2.0 port on my GPU? I mean not atmos, but other surround variant if possible, for me even stereo is ok

[battygaming]

Quick question: on the same mode of connection: optical digital output on PC, is beam gen 2 better sounding than ray?

[LesterOnce]

Hi, i have some trouble. My monitor doesnt have optical connection which my pc does. How do i connect the soundbar to both the ps5 and pc (which can connect through digital)?

[JO-dcpl]

Quick question... the hdmi cable that is connected to the beam, the other end of it is connected to the monitor or the PC itself? I'm trying to set it up according to your configurations.

[dantist]

Great video, thank you! Is there a noticable audio-delay like with the Sonos Connect, or did they improve on that?

[chienbm]

I bought a beam gen 2 and used the included cable to try connecting it to the NVIDIA 4070Ti or the optical port on the mainboard but I can't hear sound. Can you give me more information about the setup you are using?

[unearth]

Really considering this. With optical, does It still simulate 5.1 on pc? I'm thinking of pairing it with a sub mini. Thanks!

[EVERON.]

You sure you cant use hdmi audio either to gpu hdmi port or motherboard hdmi port? They both have a sound codec (even if atmos doesnt work i would like to know) i have an samsung Oddysey G7 monitor witch could act as sound pass through im going to study that option and it might work.

[furynotes]

Did you try the dolby access app. I'm using it with my headphones. Maybe it will work if you use the app.