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Title: Sonos Arc Ultra review: New tech powers a big audio upgrade

Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2024 13:00:11 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/sonos...

2024 has been a rough year for Sonos. The companyΓÇÖs would-be triumphant
entry into the crowded headphones market was overshadowed by a disastrous app
redesign. In the fallout of the botched software update, the company decided
to delay products that were ready to be shipped to give itself more time to
right the course. Consumer trust eroded, and people who already owned Sonos
gear were living in a cycle of constant frustration.

Thanks to a number of rumors, we already knew that one of the pending product
releases was the Arc Ultra ($999). A few weeks ago the company decided not to
wait any longer to reveal it. While the design is mostly unchanged from the
Arc that debuted in 2020, there are several key changes on the inside that
make this a better all-in-one solution for people who donΓÇÖt want to add
more speakers to their living room setup. Sonos is promising better bass
performance thanks to new speaker tech thatΓÇÖs debuting in the Arc Ultra,
but just how good can it be?

Design

The refined design of the original Arc was a massive upgrade from that of the
Playbar, and showed a progression from SonosΓÇÖ compact Beam soundbar.
Honestly, the aesthetic is pretty timeless, in my opinion, and itΓÇÖs a look
that should age well for years to come. That said, it makes sense that Sonos
would keep the design for the Arc Ultra, only making some minor changes to
the exterior.

The Arc Ultra still comes in both black and white options, allowing you to
choose what looks best in your living room or home theater. Sonos updated the
controls to mirror whatΓÇÖs available on the newer Era 100 and Era 300
speakers, moving them to a top-facing bar at the back. ThereΓÇÖs a volume
slider on the right with play/pause and skip controls in the center. On the
left side, Sonos gives you a microphone control so you can mute the built-in
mics as needed.

And thatΓÇÖs really it in terms of design changes that you can see. The Arc
Ultra is slightly shorter height-wise than the Arc, and itΓÇÖs a little wider
than its predecessor. Neither of which make a huge difference, and they
wonΓÇÖt drastically change how you position the speaker beneath your TV.

Sonos' new sound motion woofer is situated on the right side of the soundbar
Sonos

Inside, Sonos has re-engineered the Arc Ultra to improve audio performance.
The biggest piece of this overhaul is the new Sound Motion woofer that
enables better bass performance before you add a standalone wireless sub. The
achievement here, thanks to the acquisition of audio company Mayht, is that
the new component lays flat, taking up less room than a traditional cone-
shaped woofer. The Sound Motion driver also helps deliver increased clarity
and depth, on top of doubling the bass output of the original Arc.

Sonos redesigned the entire acoustic architecture of the Arc Ultra during the
process of adding the Sound Motion woofer. The soundbar now houses three more
drivers than the arc, a list that includes seven tweeters (two of which are
upfiring), six mid-range drivers (midwoofers, as Sonos calls them) and the
aforementioned woofer for a total of 14. The company also employs 15 Class-D
digital amplifiers along with far-field mics for tuning and voice control.

ThereΓÇÖs still only a single HDMI (eARC) port, which allows most modern TVs
the ability to control the soundbarΓÇÖs volume and mute options from your TV
remote. Moreover, the Arc Ultra is compatible with Wi-Fi 6 and newly-added
Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity allows you to stream from any device. And of
course, AirPlay 2 is still on the spec sheet. One last thing IΓÇÖll mention
here is that the Arc Ultra doesnΓÇÖt ship with an optical adapter if you
prefer that connection. The company will sell you one for $25.

Software and features

Since the Arc Ultra is a Sonos product, there are a lot of core features that
are the same as they are on the companyΓÇÖs other devices. You can use the
soundbar as part of a multiroom setup and Trueplay tuning is here to adjust
the audio to the acoustics of the room. ThereΓÇÖs still an adjustable EQ with
options for bass, treble and loudness and a Night Sound mode makes things
less boomy when someone in your house may be trying to work or sleep.

While Trueplay will give you the best sound customization for the sonic
characteristics of your living room, Sonos is enabling a Quick Tune feature
for the first time on the Arc Ultra. Here, the soundbar will use its internal
mics, as opposed to your phone, to offer a certain degree of improvement. The
company says it wanted to give people the option of something quicker than
Trueplay, although the full-fledged tuning process doesnΓÇÖt take very long
at all.

Speech Enhancement has been a handy feature on Sonos soundbars for a while,
giving you the ability to improve dialog clarity as needed. Before now, it
was an all-or-nothing feature, but on the Arc Ultra, the company introduced
three levels of speech boost to give you more options to better suit your
needs. This means the soundbar can help you hear clearly over background
noise or simply follow along better by elevating dialog above the rest of the
soundtrack mix.

Sonos moved the controls to a bar along the back Billy Steele for Engadget

The trademark feature of SonosΓÇÖ Ace headphones is the ability to beam the
audio from a compatible soundbar to the cans for a private home theater. That
TV Audio Swap tool is available on the Arc Ultra, so you can instantly send
the sound to the headphones with the press of a button. In fact, Sonos
bundles the Arc Ultra and Ace headphones in a $1,373 set. WhatΓÇÖs more, the
Ace supports spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, so you can count on
immersive sound even when youΓÇÖre employing it on an individual basis.

Despite all of the problems that Sonos has had with its app, some of which
it's still working to resolve, I didn't encounter any issues during my
testing. The software crashed on me once when the Trueplay tuning process
completed, but everything had already run its course and I didnΓÇÖt have to
repeat it. Other than that, the app has worked reliably over the last week
while IΓÇÖve been putting the Arc Ultra through its paces. Most importantly,
the software is stable and the full suite of controls for the new soundbar is
available at launch.

Sound performance

The original Arc already sounded great, so Sonos really had its work cut out
for it to further improve the audio quality for the Arc Ultra. Thanks to the
improved bass of the Sound Motion tech, a change that also takes up less
space, the company says it had the ability to then overhaul the mid-range and
high-frequency components as well. By using multiple sizes of mid-range
drivers and tweeters, Sonos was able to tweak the speaker positioning inside
of the soundbar for improved projection and more immersive sound.

In addition to the enhanced bass performance, the second thing that was
immediately apparent on the Arc Ultra was those improvements to the
dimensional sound. Whether it was a quidditch match in a Harry Potter movie
or zooming F1 cars in Drive to Survive, the soundbar now has better
directional, immersive sound than its predecessor. Sonos says the Arc Ultra
now renders Dolby Atmos content in a 9.1.4-channel setup, versus 5.0.2 with
the Arc, which further contributes to the enveloping audio. Interestingly, I
havenΓÇÖt seen any of the competition claim four up-firing channels from the
soundbar like Sonos does here (those that do are usually accounting for up-
firing drivers in the rear speakers). You can really hear the difference from
the second you fire up the Arc Ultra, and the effect is consistent across
content sources.

There's still just one HDMI port, but Bluetooth connectivity is now included
Billy Steele for Engadget

The increased bass performance makes the Arc Ultra a much better speaker for
music without a separate subwoofer. You wonΓÇÖt get the bombastic low-end
tone the newly updated Sonos Sub 4 can produce, but thereΓÇÖs enough from the
soundbar to give KaytranadaΓÇÖs Timeless, PhantogramΓÇÖs Memory of a Day and
BilmuriΓÇÖs American Motor Sports plenty of booming backbone when a track
demands it. ThereΓÇÖs also still the trademark Sonos clarity IΓÇÖve come to
expect over the years, which means finer details like the texture of synths,
layered guitars and the nuance of acoustic instruments cut through the mix
cleanly.

And speaking of clarity, the companyΓÇÖs new Speech Enhancement settings are
also a big improvement. Being able to select how much of a boost this feature
offered depending on either my needs right then or based on the overall
tuning of the content is really nice. It allowed me to max out the dialog
when watching movies after my toddler was asleep so that speech didnΓÇÖt
suffer when sound effects were louder during intense scenes of The Hobbit: An
Unexpected Journey.

The competition

ThereΓÇÖs no doubt the Arc Ultra packs in deeper, more immersive sound than
its predecessor, but some people will still want a more robust setup to wring
every ounce of audio out of a Sonos living room setup. The high-end choice
for this is what Sonos calls the Ultimate Immersive Set, which includes the
Arc Ultra, two Era 300s and the Sub 4. Right now, that will cost you $2,561.
For something less expensive, you can get the Arc Ultra and the new Sub 4
(normally $799) for $1,708 (Premium Entertainment Set). And therein lies the
biggest problem with Sonos soundbars: expanding your living room setup to get
the most immersive experience gets very pricey very quickly when the
centerpiece is already $999.

If you can live without all the conveniences of Sonos products, you can get
an all-in-one package from Samsung for $1,500. With the Q990D, youΓÇÖll get
the soundbar, two rear speakers and a wireless subwoofer in the same box. The
setup offers 11.1.4 audio for excellent Atmos sound, thanks in part to up-
firing drivers in the rear speakers. Samsung offers a host of handy features,
from Q-Symphony audio with TV speakers, SpaceFit Sound Pro room calibration,
Adaptive Sound audio enhancement, a dedicated gaming mode and more. The Q990D
remains my top pick for the best soundbars for a lot of reasons, a key one
being everything you could need comes in one all-inclusive package.

Wrap-up

The Arc Ultra is an obvious improvement over the Arc in the sonic department.
New technology delivers on its promise to boost bass, clarity and immersive
before you start adding extra components. Expanded features like Speech
Enhancements and a quick-tune option offer new tools for dialing in the
sound, while the stock Sonos experience remains intact. And thankfully, that
includes an app thatΓÇÖs more stable than it was a few months ago. The Arc
Ultra is still pricey at $999, but it exhibits a lot more sonic prowess than
its predecessor for only $100 more.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/sonos...
powers-a-big-audio-upgrade-130011149.html?src=rss

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