Sonos Arc Ultra Review: The Best Dolby Atmos Soundbar Just Got Better

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: The New Sonos Arc Ultra

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Sonos Arc Ultra

4.0/5 Buy on Amazon

Sonos is trying to regain some of its former luster with the Arc Ultra soundbar — and from what we've seen so far, it's doing a great job of rebuilding the brand's image.

Recently, Sonos came under fire for the terrible launch of its new mobile app. It was seriously buggy and lacked some features that were offered in previous versions.

We won't even get into how bad the company's response to complaints was.

Either way, this huge oversight put the audio company in a rare negative light. Rumor has it that the app fiasco was the reason for the delay of the Arc Ultra.

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So the Arc Ultra has some catching up to do. It was officially unveiled in November 2024, alongside the updated Sub 4.

By the end of 2024, the supported Sonos lineup now includes Ray, Beam Gen 2, Arc, and Arc Ultra.

The Arc 4 is surprisingly still in the lineup despite their similar price points. Luckily, late-cycle product discounts make them more competitive with each other.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: High-Level Specs

The Arc Ultra is a 46-inch soundbar. It’s slightly wider than the original Arc, which looks great on living room TVs.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: Arc (left) vs. the new Arc Ultra (right)

It’s also slightly more compact, thanks to the new Sound Motion technology. We’ll talk about that in a bit.

It supports Dolby Atmos and virtual 3D surround sound. It's now a 9.1.4-channel configuration, up from the original arc's 5.0.2.

Included in the box is a power cable and HDMI cable for connecting the eArc. There’s also Wi-Fi and, for the first time, Bluetooth support.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: Stream audio via Bluetooth or AirPlay

For Apple users, you can also easily stream audio via AirPlay. It shows up as an audio address, similar to the HomePod.

Another change with this model is the updated controls. The original Arc had controls in the center, but the new one has moved them to the back.

For example, you have media controls in the center on the back, and volume on the right. We really like the new volume slider, and it’s more in line with other recent Sonos speakers.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: Part of a Larger Ecosystem

As many people know, you can pair other speakers with Sonos soundbars. You can use them standalone, but you can pair a pair of Sonos era 100 or Era 300 as rear speakers.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: The Era 300 can be paired with the Sonos Arc Ultra, like other Sonos speakers

This can greatly improve the spatial sound and overall performance of your speaker. Due to our listening environment, rear speakers are not possible.

We primarily tested the Arc Ultra on its own, without rear speakers. The aforementioned Sonos Sub 4 was also paired wirelessly.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: The New Sonos Sub 4

When you pair a subwoofer with the Arc Ultra — whether it's the Sub 4 or the Sub Mini — the nice thing is that it frees up some of the speakers to focus on the mids and highs instead of the lows. You get a better, more balanced sound overall.

Of course, by the time you add rear speakers and a subwoofer, your setup is going to be pretty pricey. A fully loaded system can set you back $2,700 before taxes.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: New Sound Motion Technology

As we mentioned in the insert, the Arc Ultra comes with Sonos' newly acquired Sound Motion technology. While it's not visually noticeable, it's a pretty impressive setup.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: Sound Motion Technology Allows for Smaller Components

The high end is that it basically allows them to have the same or better sound quality from smaller components. That's what ultimately matters.

The drivers and subwoofers can be made smaller without affecting the sound quality. The Arc Ultra is more compact than before, but it still has better, more accurate sound.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: A detailed look at the internals of the Sonos Arc Ultra

There are 15 Class D amplifiers inside, up from 11 in the Arc. There are 7 tweeters and 6 midwoofers, up from 3 tweeters and 8 midwoofers before.

It's not very flashy and probably took a lot of work during development, but it will certainly show up in all future Sonos speakers.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: Sound Quality

Back to the sound quality, the Sonos Arc Ultra sounds amazing. It's very impressive.

Perhaps one of the most impressive aspects is how good it sounds even without rear speakers. Users who choose not to add them will still get an extremely immersive audio experience.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: The Sonos Arc Ultra Has Great Spatial Sound

If you have a Sonos Arc with rear speakers, it doesn’t sound all that different from the Arc Ultra with rear speakers. The rear speakers are the same, which minimizes the overall improvement.

Its ability to place sound in a three-dimensional space is just too cool when listening to Dolby Atmos content. There are times when you’re watching a movie and you hear a noise behind you and quickly turn around.

We noticed that it was quick to watch movies like Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. These dinosaurs really were trying to sneak up on us.

The thing that gets to you the most while watching is the ambient background noise. It pulls you into the movie.

Ambient noises like cities or rain sound like they’re coming from all around you. There’s a lot more detail that you might not pick up on with a smaller soundbar or without spatial audio.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: How to turn on dialogue enhancement in the Sonos app

Speaking of details, Sonos has a new dialogue enhancement mode. It’s called speech enhancement, and it helps you hear dialogue more clearly.

Compared to the Arc, the best we can describe it as sounding similar to the Arc, but you can turn down the overall volume. Increasing the overall volume on the Arc gives you a similar volume in the center channel with the old speech enhancement turned on.

Apple actually built a similar effect into the Apple TV, but you need an Apple TV to use it. Plus, whatever you're watching must use its own video player.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: Apple TV Has Native Dialogue Enhancement

If your streaming app uses its own player and interface, it won’t have this dialogue enhancement. Having it directly on the soundbar gives you this feature regardless of the source or device.

It works very well, and I think it’s a compelling reason to buy the Arc Ultra over competing soundbars.

Sonos Arc Ultra Review: App Updates Continue

We should at least touch on the Sonos app briefly when reviewing the Arc Ultra. How often you use the app will ultimately determine how important it is to you.

As Apple users, we rarely looked at the Sonos app. It offers things like sleep timers, pairing, and a few music streaming services.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: The Sonos app keeps getting updates

We prefer to just stream audio using AirPlay or using the options on our Apple TV. For us, the app’s downfall was mainly the background noise.

However, if you use it regularly, like many, many people do, that could be a deal breaker. Still, the app has improved significantly.

Sonos continues to release updates every two weeks, fixing bugs and restoring features that were initially missing. The app feels much more robust than before, though there’s still some work to be done.

We're not inclined to trust brands when they make promises, but Sonos has been very good about following its updates and schedule when it comes to this app.

Should You Buy the Sonos Arc Ultra?

There are two questions about the Arc Ultra.

One: Should you buy it if you already have an Arc.

The other is: Should you buy it at all.

If you already have an Arc, it's probably not worth the extra cost. It's better, but it's not worth the price for a small upgrade.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: The Arc Ultra is a fantastic premium speaker

You get Bluetooth, an improved design, better sound, better dialogue, and better spatial sound. It's all great, but it's not a significant enough step up from the still-exceptional Arc.

If you're upgrading from another speaker, we can't recommend the Sonos Arc Ultra as a premium solution, especially compared to a pair of Apple HomePods.

It's so easy to set up and get going. You have a ton of playback options from the Sonos app, AirPlay, Bluetooth, and everything through your TV.

The spatial sound is just too cool and we can't go back to watching movies without it. It makes such a huge difference compared to our other TV with the Sonos Beam.

The soundstage is so much bigger that it feels more cinematic. As someone who loves movies but doesn't want to deal with a partially wired spatial surround setup, you can't ask for more than the Arc Ultra.