Sonos has finally released its new soundbar, the Arc Ultra. The original Sonos Arc came out in 2020, and it still is one of the best soundbars in 2024. Sonos claims that the Arc Ultra has amazing Dolby Atmos performance, double the bass compared to the original Sonos Arc, and the best vocal clarity in its class. In this review, we will take a deep dive into the features of the Sonos Arc Ultra, and find out if it lives up to its hype.
Review
The Sonos Arc Ultra is a 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos soundbar. It looks very similar to the original Arc, it’s ½ inch shorter and about a pound lighter too. It has a new control panel on the top which has a voice control button, a volume slider, and playback controls.
The Sonos Arc Ultra introduces Sonos’s new technology called Sound Motion. This reduces the size of the transducer, while also giving a big boost to the bass. The design places four motors in each corner, allowing the cones to move more air and improve bass. Both the Sonos Arc Ultra and the original Arc can go down to 50 Hz, but the Ultra will have almost double the impact because of the Sound Motion technology.
It has 14 drivers, which include seven silk dome tweeters for the highs, six woofers for the midrange, and a Sound Motion woofer handling the low range. We also get side-firing and upwards-firing drivers that project the sound and make it bounce off the walls and ceilings for a more immersive experience. On the back, there is an HDMI eARC port, an Ethernet port, a microphone switch, and a Bluetooth button. You can also get an optical adapter if you need it for your TV.
With the Sonos Arc Ultra, you can use TruePlay Room Correction to improve your listening experience. This was also available on the original Arc, but only for iPhone users. Now, people with Android phones can also use this feature. For iPhone users, TruePlay will use your phone’s microphone to analyze the unique acoustics of your space and optimize the equalizer settings of your soundbar to deliver better sound. For Android users, the Arc Ultra’s built-in microphone will do this.
You can connect the Sonos Arc Ultra to the Sonos app using WiFi. The app has a speech enhancement feature that improves the clarity of vocals, along with equalizer settings and music streaming. The Arc Ultra has Bluetooth 5.3, and it is compatible with Apple Airplay and Spotify Connect. If you have the Sonos Ace headphones, you can send your TV audio from the Arc Ultra directly to your headphones. With this, you get Dynamic Head Tracking, which adjusts the sound based on how you move your head.
The Sonos Arc Ultra shines in every aspect. It fully takes advantage of its drivers and gives you full, rich sound with so much clarity and detail. Even without a subwoofer, the bass has incredible depth and impact. When listening to songs, the instruments and vocals are clear, and the listening experience feels like one you would get from a proper two-channel setup.
Verdict
The Sonos Arc Ultra retails for $999.99, and it has impressed me and so many others who have tried it. It connects easily to the app, and the Dynamic Head Tracking feature with the Sonos Ace headphones is a bonus. It is one of the best-sounding Dolby Atmos soundbars, and I would recommend this soundbar to everyone. Sonos have outdone themselves with this soundbar, and it is a worthy successor to the original Arc.