The Sonos Arc is an outstanding soundbar, on its own or with friends

Basics

The Sonos Arc is a soundbar that can be wirelessly integrated into your Sonos home audio system and accepts audio from your TV or A / V receiver via the HDMI Audio Return Channel (ARC). Almost every modern television should have at least one HDMI ARC connection. Basically, this just means that it not only functions as a standard HDMI input for video sources, but also offers an audio output for a connected speaker or stereo system.

The Arc also comes with an HDMI to optics digital audio adapter if your setup doesn’t support ARC (if a TV doesn’t have it, it almost certainly has a TOSLINK digital audio output) to all To cover bases. It also works as a wireless speaker that connects Sonos Dedicated mesh network technology for other Sonos speakers, so you may have another addressable multiroom speaker in a wireless home audio setup.

Arc can also be combined with other Sonos speakers, including Sonos Sub and Sonos One, One SL, Play: 1 and others, to create a more complete Wireless 5.1 setup with a subwoofer and two rears. However, this is an optional upgrade and not required to take advantage of the Sonos Arc’s excellent virtual surround rendering, which for the first time also includes Dolby Atmos surround sound coding on a Sonos soundbar with this new hardware.

design

The Sonos Arc really comes from the modern design family tree that Sonos has included in its hardware releases since the Sonos One debuted. This means monoblock colors (either black or white), smooth lines, and grill designs with rounded holes that look much more contemporary than the contrast color grills on the Play: 1 for example.

Arc looks like a spiritual successor to the Sonos Beam, the first Sonos soundbar with built-in microphone and support for virtual speech assistants, including Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. But it’s also much larger than the 45-inch Sonos Beam – much more like the Sonos Playbar and Playbase, which marked the company’s entry into the category.

To see how long it takes, it runs almost the entire length of my LG 65 ″ C7 OLED TV. It is also slightly larger than the Sonos Beam and comes with 3.4 inches. For me, that was still short enough not to cover up the TV’s display when it sits on a TV bench in front of the TV from my normal angle of view, but your mileage may vary, and if you had a similar one, consider setting it up with the Beam that you need a little more space with the arc.

The larger size isn’t just for shows – it helps Sonos deliver a much better sound than the cheaper beam. There are 11 drivers inside the arch, including two upward and two pointing outward at both ends of the long cylindrical soundbar. The bottom line of all these drivers and the real distance separation made possible by the long profile is a much more effective sound separation from left / right / back.

There is a vent rod on the back, which offers additional improvements in sound quality and includes the mounting outlets for mounting the Arc on a compatible wall bracket. The Arc is an attractive piece of hardware that is either wall-mounted or resting on furniture. With just two cables required for power and TV, it’s a minimal home theater clutter solution that should go well with most home decorations.

performance

I briefly mentioned this above, but it’s amazing what the Sonos Arc can do in terms of sound separation and virtual immersion with just a single speaker. It is certainly the best sound reproduction that I have experienced with a Sonos soundbar and probably the best audio quality with a soundbar that I have heard.

Stereo sound field tests show that audio tracks from left to right are very good, and Dolby Atmos support really shows its benefits when you have content that it offers. Speech intelligibility is also really fantastic alone on the soundbar, while on the Beam I have found that it can suffer in some situations unless you have added a Sonos Sub to your system to take care of the low frequencies and that Allow soundbar Better clarity in the upper range.

The Arc definitely benefits from the combination with a Sonos Sub and other Sonos speakers that act as rears. However, the soundbar alone is a much better performance than anything Sonos has offered so far, in case you want to save some money or just want to focus on a minimal sound setup that isn’t just terribly built-in TV speakers.

Sonos also has a microphone built into the Arc that you can use with either Alexa or Google Assistant to play music, turn on the TV, and more. It’s a great feature that is optional if you’d rather leave the microphone off or don’t want to connect assistants. For me, however, it is perfect for a device that is essentially the focus of the living room experience. The microphone appears to be very well able to record commands even in a large room when you are far away. Therefore, it could be the only voice-controlled smart speaker you need even in a large open-plan living / dining / kitchen area.

The Arc also functions as an Apple AirPlay 2 speaker. For minimalists, this is another selling point because, for example, you can use it wirelessly with an Apple TV attached to the back of your TV. If you want, you can free yourself from another cable. It is also super easy to stream music or audio from your phone to the Arc without opening the Sonos app.

The updated Sonos app

Speaking of the app: The Sonos Arc is exclusively compatible with the new, upcoming mobile app from Sonos, which will be available on June 8th. This app will be available alongside the existing app, which will continue to be available to support older, older Sonos hardware, which will not work with the more modern version.

This new Sonos app that I used as a beta for the Sonos Arc during the trial period is not as dramatic a change as I expected. The app definitely offers a better, clearer, and more modern user interface, but everything is still pretty much where you’d expect it to be if you were a user of the existing version. Most of the changes are likely to take place under the hood, where the app was probably designed to work with more modern chipsets, more memory, and updated wireless technology from newer Sonos speakers and accessories.

In short, the new app is a pleasant, fresh version of a familiar control system that is both more powerful and aesthetically more suitable for modern Sonos speakers like the Arc. Even in beta, there were no problems during my two-week Arc test and it worked perfectly with all of my services and voice assistants.

Bottom line

The Sonos Arc is definitely a premium soundbar with a price tag of $ 799 and excellent audio quality. It’s a fantastic successor to the Playbar and Playbase, which surpasses both in every way, and a great companion to the Beam, which means that Sonos’ home theater program now offers great options for a range of budgets.

If you are looking for the best, most versatile and best designed wireless soundbar on the market, the Sonos Arc is the speaker for you.