Jalen Sigh Tech

Verdict

A genuine improvement on the original, the Sound Motion woofer adds more detailed bass, but the entire soundscape is better, while dialogue is much clearer and easier to here. There’s still only an HDMI eARC input, and only support for basic DTS, so this is a soundbar better for streamers or those locked into Dolby Atmos. Those limitations aside, this soundbar sounds phenomenal and can be expanded with up to two subs and wireless rear speakers.

Introduction

The Sonos Arc was a jump forward for Sonos, repositioning the company as a serious player for home cinema, and making the most of its multi-room, multi-speaker capability. While the Arc remains an impressive soundbar, the Sonos Arc Ultra is a step up.

Sure, it has some of the same drawbacks as its predecessor (where’s DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS:X support, or the HDMI inputs?), but more drivers and Sound Motion tech, producing a more balanced, impressive soundstage makes this a brilliant choice for any home.

Design

• Similar design to the old model
• Single HDMI eARC port
• New button layout

Unboxing the Sonos Arc Ultra, I couldn’t immediately see the differences between this model and the original Arc. Both are available in black, which I have on review, and white. Like its predecessor, the Sonos Arc Ultra, is a long bar covered in uninterrupted mesh.

It’s an impressive looking soundbar, and feels weighty and chunky, too. There’s no doubt in my mind that Sonos hasn’t lost its eye for detail or desire to produce quality speakers.

The Sonos Arc Ultra is a little longer than the previous model, so you’ll either need a chunky AV stand or go for the wall-mount option. If you go for the latter, the Sonos Arc Ultra does at least use the same wallmount as the original Arc. To install the new model all I had to do was lift the old model off, swap the mounting screws and then drop the Arc Ultra into place.

In a recess, Sonos has housed the Ethernet port (not needed in wireless systems, and the Arc Ultra has Wi-Fi 6 built-in), the HDMI eARC input and the Microphone switch.

A single HDMI eARC input is perhaps a touch disappointing, particularly if you don’t have a TV or projector that supports this. While the Arc Ultra will work with standard ARC, and streaming video services don’t exceed the bandwidth that ARC uses, eARC is required if you want lossless audio or multi-channel PCM from an external source. And, eARC is far better when it comes to lip sync issues, particularly with a system like Sky Q.

There are workarounds if your TV doesn’t have eARC, but it does mean buying extra hardware and adding an extra layer of complexity.

Having a physical microphone switch is useful if you don’t want your soundbar to listen in, but turn this off and you can’t use the Trueplay quick tuning, and you won’t be able to use the Sonos or Alexa voice assistants.

On the top of the soundbar are the redefined touch controls. The Arc, like other Sonos speakers, used one set of controls: play/pause in the middle, volume on either side, and slide actions to skip tracks. The Sonos Arc Ultra has redefined controls, with play/pause in the same place, but track skip buttons on either side of this.

Volume controls have been moved to the right-hand side of the control panel and can be activated with a swipe or a tap.

Features

• Works with other Sonos speakers for full surround
• 13 drivers, one woofer and 9.1.4 sound
• Basic DTS support

While the Sonos Arc Ultra may not look that different on the outside, the inside has been completely redesigned. The Arc had 11 drivers, the Arc Ultra has seven tweeters (two firing upwards for height channels), six midwoofers and a woofer, powered by fifteen Class-D digital amplifiers. All of this means the Arc Ultra is capable of 9.1.4 channels of audio, compared to the 5.0.2 on the original Arc.

One significant change is the addition of the Sound Motion woofer. Sound Motion uses a four-motor, dual-membrane woofer, to give deeper bass in a flat, compact design. It’s quite an advancement, and it should mean that the Arc Ultra can produce a realistic surround sound effect without any external speakers required.

That said, there are options. If you want to boost sound further, you can pair a single Sub or, opt for the new Sub 4, and you can have two. And if you want more positional sound behind you, a pair of any speakers can be added to the system to act as rears, with Sonos recommending the Era 300 speakers.

Setup is via the S2 app, which has recently gone through a disastrous and confusing overhaul. Sonos is slowly fixing the issues, and the app is getting better (well, back to how it used to be). As with other Sonos speakers, the Arc can act like any other music player in the system, playing music stand-alone or in part of a group.

We’re all used to sending audio from our phones to speakers, and that’s possible here with Spotify Connect and AirPlay 2. However, there’s a good reason to use the Sonos app instead, as doing so means that you can use a single streaming service account (Apple Music, Spotify and so on), and play different music in different rooms at the same time.

Beam music from your phone, and you can play the same music in multiple rooms or a single room, but that’s your limit. This does make Sonos more powerful, and potentially cheaper to use, than its rivals.

Via the app, I was asked to use TruePlay to tune the system. This can be the quick option, which uses the onboard microphone to automatically tune sound, or the Advanced option, which uses your phone’s microphone for tuning, placed where you normally sit to watch TV. The latter becomes the only choice if you add extras, such as a Sub or surround sound speakers.

Whichever route you go down, it’s very important to use TruePlay, as it makes a huge difference and ensures that your Arc Ultra is properly tuned for your room and listening position.

Dolby Atmos is supported, via either Dolby Digital Plus or Dolby TrueHD, the latter of which requires HDMI eARC and a suitable source, such as an Ultra HD Blu-ray player; steaming services all use the lossy Dolby Digital Plus format.

Basic DTS support is available, but there’s still no support for DTS-HD MA or DTS:X. I get that Sonos is primarily aiming this speaker at those who stream content, but it’s expensive enough that Sonos should just pay the license fees and offer support for a wider choice of audio formats.

The lack of high-end DTS support is particularly annoying if you have a lot of physical media, as many Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray discs use DTS-HD MA (both 5.1 and as the transport for Virtual:X).

A workaround for regular DTS-HD MA is to set your Blu-ray player to output the audio as multi-channel PCM; that does require an HDMI eARC output. Virtual:X soundtracks can be converted to multi-channel PCM, but they lose height information and become standard 5.1 audio.

Of course, the Sonos Arc Ultra is compatible with the Sonos Ace headphones. With the headphones you can beam audio from the soundbar to your ears, with a virtual surround effect, as detailed in our Sonos Ace review. Functionally, there’s no difference between using the Sonos Ace headphones with the original Arc and the Arc Ultra.

If you don’t have headphones, then the Night Mode option, available from the playback screen, helps balance audio so you don’t get peaks and troughs between loud and quiet parts of a soundtrack.

The playback screen also gives you volume control, but the Arc can also have its volume controlled via an IR remote or through your TV’s remote via HDMI CEC.

Sound Quality

• Clear audio
• Clean and defined soundstage
• Deep bass

Perhaps one of the biggest changes with the Sonos Arc Ultra is in its speech delivery, with the centre channel optimised to deliver clear dialogue. It definitely does. There would be times with the old Arc where I’d struggle to hear some bits of a film or a TV series, and the Arc Ultra is noticeably cleaner and clearer.

It’s a subtle change, too. It’s not as though Sonos has just pushed vocal frequencies at the expense of cohesion; the Arc Ultra delivers clearer dialogue without upsetting the balance.

That’s true to the point where I didn’t feel the need to use the Speech Enhancement option from the app (handily available in the playback control screen, along with a display that shows the current audio format). This feature now has three levels, so if you do need Speech Enhancement, you can at least tune it to work for you.

The listening experience is much improved here over the Arc, and that’s largely down to the bass. It’s not, per se, that the Arc Ultra is necessarily capable of much deeper bass, but it is capable of more precision.

The Arc’s bass was a bit of a blunt tool, in comparison: rumbly and loud, but also quite distinct. With the Arc Ultra, the bass melds into the soundstage, so there are smooth transitions from low-frequency to high-frequency. It sounds like a unified platform, rather than distinct bits of audio.

Positionally, the Sonos Arc Ultra is better than its predecessor, too. Watching the opening of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, as the bomber comes overhead, it sounds as though it’s just above you.

Watching the bridge fight scene in Black Panther Wakanda Forever, the spears swoop and dash around the sound stage, and you feel every impact. What the Arc Ultra isn’t so good at is mimicking rear channels. The gunshots in the background don’t sound like they’re coming from behind, but they do sound like they’re off in the distance somewhere you can’t quite place.

In that regard, then, the Sonos Arc is fully immersive and it pulls you into what you’re watching, while its balance, range and poise deliver everything from subtlety to impactful bass.

Add in a pair of surround sound speakers, and the change is noticeable. I’ve got a pair of One SL speakers, and they help fill in the gaps in the soundstage, pushing audio all around. That’s great for general effects, but they also add positional information. That bridge fight in Wakanda Forever, for example, sees the off-camera gunshots move the back-right.

I’m less taken with the idea of adding a sub into the mix. I used a Sub 4 for some testing. As Sonos knows the audio profile of all of its speakers, the Sub 4 and Arc Ultra are automatically tuned for volume and crossover.

While the Sub 4 adds some extra deep impact, really grounding out the lower frequencies, it’s a more subtle addition to the mix. I don’t think you necessarily need it (or two of them), whereas the rear speakers really do add something.

Move away from streaming and break out an Ultra HD Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos delivered via the lossless Dolby TrueHD, and the Arc Ultra is arguably even better. I watched the fireworks scene in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and it’s incredible. The fireworks burst around you, and then the dragon sweeps down and towards the rear.

The Arc Ultra is capable of going to very high audio levels: too loud for most rooms to comfortably handle. It does this without distortion or getting too bright. Similarly, at low volumes, the soundbar manages to maintain its balance and impact.

I also listened to music on the Sonos Arc Ultra. After all, this is as much a multi-room music player as any other Sonos speaker. It handles all genres of music well.

Listening to the bass heavy This Too Shall Pass by OK Go, many speakers will distort at the intro, but the Arc Ultra pushes out every hit from the bass drum, clear and defined. Enough Space by the Foo Fighters opens with a beautiful swirling guitar that sweeps around the room without losing clarity.

For subtlety, the Arc Ultra excels. Listening to Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence, the soundbar can present the track in its haunting beauty, managing the harmony, while able to clearly present both Simon and Garfunkel’s individual voices.

If you want to listen to music, then you definitely don’t need to have another music player in the same room as this soundbar.

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