End of the psychodrama at Sonos. After a year 2024 weighed down by the botched overhaul of its application (and the justified discontent, for months, of users of its products), the American manufacturer wants to restore a little luster to its image with good sound. Solution: a device that aims to be impeccable, the Sonos Arc Ultra. To be reserved for televisions from 55 inches (140 cm) this soundbar premium is intended to be as efficient with video and audio content. 20 Minutes checked it.
For large TVs
No need to be a Sonos product user to equip yourself with the Arc Ultra. If this soundbar is obviously designed to integrate the eco system of the audio brand’s devices (such as the Era 300 speakers or the Ace headphones), it can be attached to any television equipped with an HDMI Arc/ eArc. Once connected, the soundbar is configured using the Sonos application, the same one which, riddled with bugs after its redesign in May 2024, had cast shame on the American manufacturer. Who took months to correct the situation.
Imposing with its 118 cm in length (for 7.5 cm in thickness), the Sonos Arc Ultra is dedicated to televisions with a beautiful diagonal, from 55 inches, those that are particularly fond of the French, who are increasingly fans of very big pictures.
Warning: thickness requires, it will be difficult to install the soundbar under most screens mounted on stands. Better to reserve it for wall installation with kit optional mounting. Then, its configuration and calibration go through the manufacturer’s famous application, the nerve center which aggregates the brand’s different products. Rest assured: once plugged into the HDMI Arc/eArc socket on your television, it is then possible to only use the classic TV remote control (or the touch buttons located on the top of the soundbar). The soundbar being Bluetooth 5.3 (but also AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect), you can also use it as a classic speaker.
Sound Motion, techno for 100 million
Equipped with fourteen speakers, the Sonos Arc Ultra highlights its woofer (or bass speaker) built-in. This is the result of Sound Motion technology that Sonos is using for the very first time. Initially developed under the name Heartmotion by the Dutch company Mayt (bought by Sonos for $100 million in April 2022), Sound Motion changes everything.
Schematically, it consists of two rectangular speakers, flat and mounted back to back, whose four motors are installed on the sides of the membrane and not below. This allows it greater travel, with bass rendering “twice as powerful as that of the Sonos Arc”, according to the manufacturer, in reference to the soundbar that it launched more than a year ago. four years. That’s understandable. With significant progress.
An unsuspected scale
From our first listens, the Sonos Arc Ultra was able to reveal this little extra something which immediately gives its sound reproduction an unsuspected breadth and depth for such a sound bar, ultimately compact. The idea here is obviously to offer more bass to the music and soundtracks broadcast, but above all to give them more thickness, texture and balance.
With, as a bonus, Dolby Atmos compatibility which allows vertical sound effects (which can be controlled here from the application). If the power is there, the virtualized 3D effects create a beautiful sound atmosphere. But only the addition of the brand’s rear speakers will create a real sound “bubble”, like in a cinema.
With or without subwoofer?
So, question: does the Sonos Arc Ultra’s Sound Motion technology make it possible to avoid adding a subwoofer? Yes and no. Yes, if the room in which the soundbar is installed does not exceed around thirty square meters. No, if the surface area of your loft go beyond! And… yes, no, because the Sonos Sub wireless subwoofer that we were able to use with the Arc Ultra really adds a layer (of bass)! But it’s also a question of budget…
At 999 euros, the Arc Ultra (available in black or white) is not cheap. It is as expensive as high-performance soundbars sold with a subwoofer, or even rear speakers, like the Sony HT-A3000 (sold for 899 euros with its subwoofer), or the LG S95TR set (soundbar + woofer + surround speakers, sold for 990 euros). Not to mention the optional wall hanging which is still worth a whopping 89 euros and which, frankly, could have been offered at no extra cost.
To save, you will have to spend more! The different packs offered by Sonos around its new soundbar allow, depending on the associated products (subwoofer, surround speakers, headphones, etc.) to save up to 290 euros. Unless you prefer the “old” Sonos Arc soundbar, already very convincing, the price of which has just gone from 999 to 799 euros.