The Breaker Times

Sonos Arc Ultra

MSRP $999.00

“The Arc Ultra improves just about every aspect of Sonos’ flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar.”

Pros

• Big, powerful bass
• Clear and intelligible dialogue
• Immersive Dolby Atmos
• Great for music and movies
• Lost of expansion options
• Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay

Cons

• No HDMI input
• No remote
• Highs can be slightly harsh
• Sonos app is still buggy

By any measure, it’s been a lousy year for Sonos. The company’s much-anticipated entry into wireless headphones — the Sonos Ace — should have been a triumphant moment (the Ace are very good). Unfortunately, the Ace’s debut was overshadowed by the company’s botched app update, which continues to dog the company despite a slew of patches that have largely (but not totally) fixed the problems.

The app fiasco cast such a pall over the company’s normally ebullient new product launches that Sonos announced its new flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar — the $999 Sonos Arc Ultra — not with a splashy in-person press event, but with a press release.

I know that Sonos’ wounds are 100% self-inflicted, but I can’t help feeling bad for the folks who brought the Arc Ultra into existence because, just like the Sonos Ace, it’s a really good audio product.

It’s not perfect — I’ll touch on some of its weaknesses in a moment — and it’s not a massive step up from the original Arc (which it replaces), but there’s an undeniable improvement in sound quality that makes the Ultra worth the extra $100 — especially if you’re already all-in on Sonos.

If you’re familiar with the Sonos Arc, the Arc Ultra is nearly identical. It comes in the two standard Sonos colors (black and white) and its dimensions make it hard to tell the two apart at a distance. At 46.3 inches in width, the Ultra is only about two inches wider than the Arc, and yet it’s shorter, with a height of 2.9 inches instead of the original’s 3.4 inches. The Ultra is even a little shallower.

The all-matte-plastic, cylindrical body and integrated grille preserve what is arguably one of the best-looking soundbar designs. Where most people will notice a difference is the new central housing. It acts as a plinth, creating the effect — when seen from the front — that the cylinder’s “wings” are floating a few millimeters above the surface.

That housing is also where you’ll find the touch controls. In keeping with Sonos’ most recent speakers (the Era 100, Era 300, and Move 2), these now include a dedicated volume slider, which some may find easier or more intuitive than the previous dual-function volume/track skipping controls. I didn’t mind the previous layout, but having them on the very top surface resulted in a lot of accidental touches. So far, that hasn’t been the case with the Ultra’s controls.

The specs

The Arc Ultra gains Bluetooth connectivity, something the Arc lacked. When friends drop by, it’s a handy feature that gives them the ability to stream to the speaker without needing your Wi-Fi password or the Sonos app. Better yet, turning on Bluetooth and pairing a phone doesn’t interrupt Wi-Fi features like using the Sonos app or streaming via AirPlay — the two can coexist. Just keep in mind that Bluetooth streaming won’t sound quite as good as streaming via the app.

Unfortunately, the placement of the Bluetooth button is awkward. Unlike the same buttons on the Era 100, Era 300, and Move 2, which are positioned for easy reach at the top of the speaker’s rear surface, it’s nestled in the same small rear cavity that houses the HDMI and power connections, as well as the Ethernet port and physical microphone switch. The Sonos-supplied HDMI cable is thinner and more flexible than most, which may help with the crowding, but if your setup requires a third-party cable, things could get tight. It’s a good thing you only need to press it when pairing a new device — navigating that space blind is tricky.

If you wall mount the Ultra (which you can do with an original Arc wall mount if you’re upgrading), it’s easier to get to those controls — the cavity has a bottom opening designed for doing so.

It would be great if Sonos added at least one HDMI input to its flagship soundbar, but the company is clearly opposed to doing so. To be fair, there are only two reasons for wanting an HDMI input: Your TV’s remaining three HDMI inputs aren’t enough to cope with your collection of connected devices, and/or you prefer to send a signal directly to your soundbar because your TV is older and can’t passthrough formats like Dolby Atmos. If you don’t fall into these categories, move along — nothing to see here.

In the box, you’ll find the soundbar, a power cable, and an HDMI cable — essentially everything you need to get going. What you won’t find is the optical-to-HDMI adapter that used to ship with the Ultra. Sonos still sells them, but it reckons (rightly I suspect) that most folks won’t need one. Besides, if you use an optical connection, you’ll miss out on Dolby Atmos.

Despite the recent headaches with the Sonos app, I set up the Ultra just as quickly and painlessly as any other recent Sonos product. The app recognized the speaker almost as soon as I plugged it in.

Within a few minutes, it added it to my Wi-Fi, performed the first software update, and gave me a brief tour of its features. It then encouraged me to perform Sonos’ TruePlay room tuning and gave me the option of enabling one or both optional voice assistants (Sonos Voice Control and Amazon Alexa).

Google fans take note: Unlike the Sonos Arc, the Ultra doesn’t offer Google Assistant for direct voice control, however, it’s still controllable from Sonos’ older Google Assistant-compatible products. You can also control it via Apple’s Siri.

Sonos app struggles

It’s been seven months since the new app design rolled out. Glitches aside (oh, so many glitches), my biggest criticism is that I still have trouble navigating its interface.

The app used to have separate tabs that let you jump between what you were listening to, what you were looking for, and a view of the Sonos speakers in your home. At first, I didn’t mind their absence, but the more I use it, the more I miss them.

Now, these formerly separate functions slide over each other, layering one view over another. Previously, even if you’d never used the Sonos app, you could intuit your way through it. The new design has a steeper learning curve that rewards memorization, not intuition. I still struggle with it, as does my family.

I bring this up for three reasons. First, Sonos has always made good wireless speakers. But it was the software that made them great. It made the potentially daunting task of managing and controlling multiple speakers and music sources easy. This new app design is a step backward, and it makes Sonos products a little harder to recommend as a result.

Second, the Arc Ultra doesn’t come with a remote control. The Sonos app is the remote.

Except for power, volume, and muting, which can be controlled via your TV’s remote, all other settings must be done with the app. The app is also the only way to confirm the sound format the Ultra is playing. You may think you’re listening to Dolby Atmos content, but unless you see the Atmos logo in the Sonos app, there’s no other confirmation.

Finally, if you want to get the best sound quality from the Ultra when streaming music, you must use the Sonos app. The speaker supports Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay, and while both are convenient, both are lossy connections. You can also play directly from Spotify and Tidal apps, but again, these aren’t high-quality streams. For lossless audio, hi-res, or Dolby Atmos Music, you must add your subscription service to the Sonos app.

OK, I’m done picking on the app. Besides, if you’re already a Sonos owner, I’m preaching to the choir.

Now for the real reason you’re here: the sound.

All about that bass (and treble)

Under the grille is a totally new driver arrangement. The Arc’s 5.1.2-channel, three-tweeter/eight-woofer/11-amp configuration has been replaced with a seven-tweeter/six-mid-woofer/13-amp combo, plus the star of the show, Sonos’ new Sound Motion dual-membrane, quad-motor, bi-amped woofer.

It’s a remarkable bit of tech. Even though the Ultra is shorter and shallower than the Arc, and has more drivers taking up its interior room, it produces far more low-end. Place your hand in front of the speaker grille (just to the left of the volume controls) and you can feel the air being pushed out by that driver, even at moderate volume levels.

It’s not just louder or more powerful — it’s more articulate, too. With the Sound Motion driver taking the lead on lows, the mid-woofers focus their energy on the midrange, something the Arc’s woofers were never free to do. This balance creates an audible improvement in precision and clarity.

With this level of bass on tap, the Arc Ultra becomes a true all-in-one soundbar, joining the ranks of the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus and Sony’s Bravia Home Theater Bar 8. You can still significantly enhance bass performance by adding a subwoofer (or two), but it’s not mandatory. In fact, I’m sure a lot of folks — especially those with smaller rooms or condo dwellers — will question whether they need a sub at all.

I’ll admit, I said something similar in my review of the original Arc, when it debuted in 2020. At the time, I think it was a fair assessment — few soundbars back then could improve on the Arc’s bass without the help of a subwoofer. In the four years since, however, soundbar bass has improved a lot — and the Ultra means that Sonos has kept pace.

The Ultra’s increased number of tweeters produces a noticeable difference in clarity, especially for dialogue. The all-important center channel is cohesive and voices are more intelligible, even without experimenting with the Ultra’s new three-level Speech Enhancement settings.

Before my Ultra review unit arrived, my wife and I watched Netflix’s Kaos— a quirky, Jeff Goldblum-led reimagining of Greek gods in modern times — using the Sonos Arc. But I had a hard time understanding many of Dionysus’ lines. As is often the case, a combination of accent and audio quality had me reaching for my Apple TV remote to do the “what did he say?” trick where it repeats the last few lines with subtitles turned on.

Going back to the same problematic lines with the Arc Ultra was like pulling away layers of gauze — suddenly there was clarity.

Turning on Speech Enhancement will likely help those who need greater separation of voices from background sounds, but you may not like what it does to the rest of the soundtrack, especially at its highest level. This is where Sonos could benefit from a physical remote. It would be handy to quickly switch Speech Enhancement on or off (or change the level) without reaching for my phone.

Multichannel and Dolby Atmos are both improved on the Arc Ultra. The new driver arrangement provides a more defined sense of width, depth, and height, plus better precision for individual sound effects. But once again, the extra bass from the Sound Motion driver caught my attention.

Running through my usual test clips, I thoroughly enjoyed the additional impact — literally. In the iconic first set piece from No Time To Die, where James Bond sits calmly inside his vintage Aston Martin as the car is slowly turned into Swiss cheese by a hail of bullets, you can feel each shot viscerally.

There’s a similarly thrilling vibe to the roar of engines in Mad Max: Fury Road and Ford v Ferrari.

There’s no question that the Ultra can process 9.1.4-channel audio — I ran it through a series of test tones to verify — but you should probably temper your expectations on this front. As with any single-speaker setup, volume is your friend. The louder the Ultra gets, the more vibrant and immersive the experience.

The Ultra, like the Arc before it, does a decent job of height channel reproduction, but it’s still not as accomplished at recreating a sense of width and depth as the Bose Ultra Smart Soundbar (previously known as the Bose Smart Soundbar 900) or the Sony Bravia Home Theater Bar 8.

On its own, it doesn’t replace a discrete speaker home theater system or even a multispeaker soundbar package like the Samsung HW-Q990D. For that kind of performance, you’ll need a set of Sonos Era 300 as rear speakers and a Sonos Sub.

Adding these to the mix creates that missing sense of width and depth, improves height effects, and delivers powerful levels of bass. It’s a superb setup, but it’s far from a budget-friendly investment at $2,696.

My one critique of the Ultra’s sound is that it tends to exhibit some harshness and sibilance in the higher frequencies. It’s most noticeable when playing Atmos content — both for movies and music. My unscientific belief is that using tweeters for both the up-firing and side-firing drivers (instead of the Arc’s full-range/tweeter combo) means that some sounds that need more midrange aren’t getting it.

My test case for this is the superb Atmos mix of The Doors’ Riders on the Storm. Some of Jim Morrison’s lyrics are echoed ethereally by the height channels. It’s supposed to sound like the eerie whispers of disembodied voices, but instead, they sound shrill … like cartoon ghosts trying to scare you.

You can mitigate this a little using the EQ settings (moving the treble slider into the negative values), but since this also affects the rest of the mix, it’s an imperfect solution.

This is partially because Atmos Music is a hit-and-miss format. There’s an Atmos version of Diana Ross’ I’m Coming Out that sounds crazy good on the Ultra. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was mixed for the Arc Ultra: no trace of sibilance, the snare and cymbal hits are tight, and the horns (plus Ross’ distinctive voice) are very clear. It’s not surprising that Sonos recommended it as a sample track for Arc Ultra reviewers.

I also didn’t detect any harshness when the Ultra rendered stereo. Where the Arc’s tuning favored vibrant highs and deep lows — somewhat undermining its musicality — the Arc Ultra has more nuance and detail through the mids and creates a natural, relaxed sound. It’s a balancing act you’ll appreciate if you use the Ultra for more than just TV audio.

One quick note on using the Sonos Ace headphones with the Arc Ultra via TV Audio Swap. Just like with the Arc, the Ace can receive a fully rendered Dolby Atmos mix from the Ultra, along with head tracking to help with the realism of hearing speakers in a room. However, the Ultra doesn’t mimic its own 9.1.4 processing for the Ace’s mix. Instead, it gets the same 7.1.4 mix as the Arc delivered. That’s hardly a problem. It sounds just fine and I’m not sure I’d be able to distinguish another two channels in the mix.

Moreover, we’ll probably hear a bigger improvement when Sonos releases its TrueCinema feature for the Ace, which attempts to mimic your room’s real-world acoustics. When it launched the Ace, Sonos said TrueCinema was coming later this year (2024). But that was before the company had to reassign virtually all of its engineering talent to the epic task of fixing the broken Sonos app.

My only gripe is that Sonos doesn’t offer much flexibility when using the Ace and Arc Ultra. “Swap” is exactly what happens — you trade soundbar audio for headphones audio. That’s not helpful when you want to watch in a group setting, but one person needs headphones. And, for now, while you can set up more than one Sonos Ace to do TV Audio Swap with the Ultra, only one set of headphones at a time can receive the signal.

The future is Ultra

Now that it has been replaced by the slightly more expensive Arc Ultra, the Sonos Arc will only remain available while supplies last. If you can score a big discount — say 30% or more — it’s still a great soundbar. But the Arc Ultra is better in almost every way that counts.

With new Bluetooth streaming, clearer dialogue, more precision and detail, and that extra punch of low-end bass, it’s a better speaker for TV audio and music.

The lack of an HDMI input (especially now that Sonos is asking $999) or a physical remote are small, but notable drawbacks. The real cause for hesitation, especially if you’ve never owned a Sonos product, is the company’s ongoing app woes. You may want to wait for things to improve before taking the plunge. But if you’re already all-in on Sonos, the Arc Ultra makes a great addition to your TV setup, whether it’s your first Sonos soundbar or an upgrade.