Sonos Beam Soundbar (2018) vs Yamaha SR-C20A Soundbar

The Sonos Beam Soundbar (2018) (BEAM1US1BLK) makes for an outstanding Soundbar at $448. The Yamaha SR-C20A Soundbar, however, while overall a good product for its asking price, doesn't quite manage to stand out from its competition - there are better Soundbars that can be found for around $140 available here.

The Sonos Beam Soundbar (2018) (BEAM1US1BLK) managed to impress reviewers from many of the internet's most highly trusted sources, including Tom's Guide, TechGearLab, AVForums, CNET, and Consumer Reports. It performed really well in their Soundbar roundups - it was named "The best Alexa compatible soundbar" by Tom's Guide, "Best for Small Spaces" by TechGearLab, and "Best Soundbar Under £1,000 2018" by AVForums. That's high praise coming from sources that conduct in-depth hands-on testing.

As for the Yamaha SR-C20A Soundbar - it was really well-received by reviewers at CNET, a great source that's known for conducting high-quality in-depth testing. It performed great in its "Best Budget Soundbars for 2023: Vizio, Roku and More" roundup and was named its "Best for dialogue", which, on its own, makes it a product that warrants a closer look.

When we thoroughly analyzed their review scores, we learned that all of the sources that tested both Soundbars, including CNET, preferred the Sonos Beam Soundbar (2018) (BEAM1US1BLK) over the Yamaha SR-C20A Soundbar.

We also took a look at which sources they managed to impress the most. The Sonos Beam Soundbar (2018) (BEAM1US1BLK) was liked best by What Hi-Fi?, which gave it a score of 10, while the Yamaha SR-C20A Soundbar got its highest, 7.5, score from CNET.

Lastly, we averaged out all of their review ratings and observed that the Sonos Beam Soundbar (2018) (BEAM1US1BLK), with its 8.7 average, performed considerably better than most Soundbars - the mean score for the product category being 7.6 out of 10 - while the Yamaha SR-C20A Soundbar managed an average of 7.5.

There's one caveat here - it might not be entirely justifiable to do a direct Sonos Beam Soundbar (2018) (BEAM1US1BLK) vs. Yamaha SR-C20A Soundbar review average comparison since they aren't priced the same and more expensive products tend to get higher review scores from some sources.