By Julie Clover
Sonos today announced the launch of two new products: the Arc Ultra soundbar and the Sonos Sub 4 subwoofer. The Sonos Arc Ultra is a new high-end soundbar priced at $999, while the $799 Sonos Sub 4 is Sonos’ latest subwoofer, featuring an improved design and internal components.
The Arc Ultra delivers twice the bass of its predecessor, thanks to new Sound Motion transducer technology. Sound Motion reduces the size of the transducer and improves bass for better sound from smaller devices. The system features 14 Sonos speakers, a Sound Motion subwoofer, and a waveguide tweeter cluster to deliver 9.1.4 surround sound.
The new center channel architecture delivers maximum vocal clarity for easier dialogue tracking, and there’s a speech enhancement feature for customization. Trueplay can be used to customize the sound for a specific space.
Compared to the previous Sonos Arc, the Arc Ultra features a curved design, matte finish, and a slimmer build that doesn’t obscure the bezels of your TV. There are touch controls behind the soundbar, as well as a simple setup process via HDMI eARC.
The Sub 4 has a similar design to the Sub 3, but has a new matte finish and a profile that allows it to stand upright, lie on its side, or fit under furniture. Sonos has increased the Sub 4’s processing power and memory, and added new Wi-Fi radios for improved connectivity. Sonos says the Sub 4 was built with inward-firing woofers to reduce distortion, and the new model is compatible with the Arc Ultra, Arc, or Beam, as well as older versions of the Sub.
These are the first two products Sonos has introduced since its ill-received app redesign in May. Sonos decided to delay the launch of the new devices until early 2024 to make improvements to the Sonos app, which included bug fixes and feature additions to match the functionality of the original Sonos app. Sonos has delayed the launch of new products, but CEO Patrick Spence said the company now believes the app has improved enough to roll out new devices.
“We’ve worked tirelessly to address the most critical issues with the app and the most requested legacy features. We’ve reached a level of quality that gives us confidence in launching our outstanding new products,” said Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos. “As we outlined in our commitment, we will continue to regularly improve the software and are committed to making the Sonos experience better than ever.”
Earlier this month, Sonos reaffirmed its commitment to software quality and customer experience, promising to focus more on the customer experience and to test future app changes with customers before rolling them out.
Along with the new devices, Sonos plans to release a new app update that “superiors the performance of the previous app” in metrics like system identification, new device setup, and grouping multiple Sonos devices. Sonos claims the update “will restore 90 percent of the missing features in the new app.”
The Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4 will be available on the Sonos website on October 29.
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