Sonos Arc Ultra Review: Rich Spatial Sound In A Premium Soundbar
The Sonos Arc Ultra Offers Premium Sound And Build Quality In An Attractive Package
| Sonos Arc Ultra: $999 MSRP The Sonos Arc Ultra is a big upgrade over built-in TV speakers, that offers premium sound quality and a number of enhancements over its predecessor.
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The Sonos Arc Ultra is one of the acompany's signature products, but was unfortunately introduced during a tumultuous year. Plagued by a variety of issues around its app, Sonos has since brought in a new CEO and worked to fix everything that went awry. It has also reportedly squashed a streaming set top box it was looking to launch this year.
When a company struggles in mulitple areas like this, it tends to refocus and coalesce around its core competencies. The Arc Ultra very much fits with that scenario, as a premium soundbar that’s designed to deliver a sonic experience your ears will appreciate whether watching TV or listening to music.
Sonos Arc Ultra: Design And Build Quality
Granted, these are marginal changes on paper, but when you’re dealing with a soundbar of this size, the extra real estate matters. Despite the changes, the Arc Ultra weighs the same 13 pounds, which is generally good for the kind of product you set down and leave, as is. You could also wall-mount it so long as you pay extra to get the brackets for it.
Its minimalist looks will fit in nicely in pretty much any home décor — hardly a surprise for any Sonos product at this point — and does so equally in either black or white. Minimalism extends to the onboard ports in the rear where you get one HDMI port (ARC but without passthrough) and an Ethernet port. There’s no USB or Aux-In. Nor is there a Toslink optical port, though you can buy a separate adapter to make that work as well. There is a Bluetooth button, however, plus a microphone mute switch.
Touch-based buttons on top include a play/pause button flanked by forward and back controls. Slide your finger either way on the touch panel and you can raise or lower volume. While voice controls are limited by the fact that there’s no Google Assistant or Gemini integration, you can toggle on voice access on top as well.
The outside aesthetics are just window dressing for the real changes inside. Sonos reconfigured the Arc Ultra to produce a 9.1.4 virtual surround sound setup, which is considerable when comparing it to the 5.0 layout in the previous Arc. All told, you get 15 Class D amplifiers along with seven tweeters, six mid-range drivers, and a “Sound Motion” woofer that is the primary driver for the deeper bass in this soundbar.
Front, side, and up-firing drivers spread sound out to bounce off walls and the ceiling to deliver spatial audio effects. It's just that Dolby Atmos content is really the only way you’ll truly experience it because there’s no support for DTS.
Sonos Arc Ultra: Setup And Calibration
It’s not hard to set up the Arc Ultra by following the steps laid out in the Sonos app. Nor is there a real difference in doing it with an iOS or Android phone. As with the previous Arc, you can expand the Arc Ultra by pairing it with two Era 100 or Era 300 speakers to act as rear left and right channels, as well as a Sonos Sub or Sub Mini subwoofer to beef up the bass.
The only catch is that if you’re replacing the Arc (or another Sonos soundbar) but want to keep the existing system intact, you need to go through the pairing process again in the app. We’ve run into problems with this before when moving from one home to another, which necessitated using the Sonos desktop app on a PC or Mac to get past the connectivity issues. You likely won’t have to worry about that if you’re setting up the Arc Ultra within the same Wi-Fi network, but it’s not as simple as just slotting it in place of an older Sonos soundbar.
The Arc Ultra supports Bluetooth (the previous Arc doesn’t) to provide another audio playback option, even if it is limited to just the SBC and AAC codecs. That’s on top of the standard Wi-Fi playback and AirPlay 2 for higher throughput.
Sonos only offers a barebones bass-and-treble EQ in its app because it relies more on its own automated Trueplay tuning system to calibrate for the room. That still works the same way with an iPhone, though now also works with Android devices. It’s not a perfect system and may not be as effective if you’re using the Arc Ultra in a room with a lot of windows, but you can always pump up the bass or treble after the fact if need be.
On the opposite end, a key home theater perk is how the Arc Ultra works with the Sonos Ace headphones. Pair the two together in the app and you can swap audio over to the Ace with a single button — always nice when you want to watch something or do some gaming without disturbing others in the house.
Voice control is another one of those nuances. You can use Amazon Alexa to control playback and even smart home devices through the Arc Ultra, except the lack of Google Assistant or Gemini terribly limits voice utility for those in that ecosystem. Sonos Voice Control mostly focuses on specific features or settings for the device, so you can tell it to adjust volume, play audio on multiple Sonos speakers, or turn on/off things like Speech Enhancement or Night mode. If you want more bass, just say so. If you want to play music from supported streaming apps, it can tie into those too.
Sonos Arc Ultra: Sound Quality
The previous Arc already delivered great sound, yet we noticed clearly audible improvements with the Arc Ultra. The biggest bump lies with the bass, which is not only more resounding, but also carries further on top of that. Sonos claims the Sound Motion driver is most directly responsible, which is probably true given how resonant it is in comparison. Even so, pairing it with the $800 Sonos Sub 4 transforms bass response into something far more cinematic.
The bigger picture here is that the architecture inside the soundbar produces a more substantial sound profile. As much as the bass delivers a thicker rumble, it also does it with real verve. Mids and highs get a nice boost as well. It’s not as evident unless you watch or listen to Dolby Atmos content, though the Arc Ultra outputs clearer tones and improved dialogue without it too.
It's telling that we didn’t have to make as many adjustments with this soundbar by comparison. Shows and movies, regardless of genre, seem a little more lively here. Whether it’s an action movie with gunfire and explosions or a thriller with gripping and dramatic music, you’ll hear and feel the difference the louder you go.
Music benefits from the same conditions, making the Arc Ultra more than capable of serenading you in a quieter setting or handling a party with a bigger crowd. Play tracks from sources that support Dolby Atmos and you can hear more of a spatial audio effect, though in fairness, we find it more impactful when the Arc Ultra is paired with Era speakers as rears.
Sonos Arc Ultra: Our Final Analysis
At $999, the Sonos Arc Ultra isn’t a cheap proposition, and the final price tag could increase considerably if you want to expand it with the other components, like a dedicated subwoofer or left / right rear channels. That said, the Sonos Arc Ultra is sounds great on its own and is a clear upgrade over its predecessor in our opinion. If you come to a point where you feel the Arc Ultra needs something more, you always have that option within Sonos’ expansive ecosystem.
Although it sounds better overall, we wouldn’t necessarilly recommend upgrading if you already have the previous Arc. Despite the Ultra's improvements, adding a Sub Mini or two Era 100s to the original to enhance the overall sound would save you quite a few bucks. But if you’re on the hunt for something new to enhance your home theater, you won’t go wrong with the Arc Ultra. It's an attractive, premium soundbar, with useful features that sounds great and offers an excellent experience.
