Sonos Arc Ultra review: The best way to watch your movies just got better

The original Sonos Arc has been one of the best soundbars around for some time now. It’s smart, sounds great, and the slick Sonos design language makes sure that it slips effortlessly into any kind of home decor. Now, four years after the release of the first model, Sonos has unleashed the new Arc Ultra upon the world, and it comes with some big updates that make it a massive upgrade for Arc users — and the perfect starting point if you want to build a Sonos TV surround sound system in 2024.

While you can tell that it’s the successor to the Arc, the design has been updated inside and out. It now features 9.1.4 virtual Dolby Atmos surround, for example, rather than the 5.1.2 setup of the old model. There’s a new control bar on the back, straight off the Era 300 and Era 100 smart speakers, and there’s a Bluetooth connection for fresh ways to connect. Inside, there’s a new ‘sound motion’ driver for deeper, more impactful bass, and more speakers for that massive, spacious surround sound effect.

I’ve spent a week testing the Sonos Arc Ultra, watching movies, devouring TV shows and playing games — and now I have a good idea of just how well the new soundbar performs. In a word: Good. In a few more: This is the best soundbar that you can buy right now. Here’s all the pros and cons in my Sonos Arc Ultra review.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: Cheat Sheet

What is it? A smart soundbar to replace the Sonos Arc.

What does it cost? $999 / AU$1,799 (Sub 4 $799 / AU$1,299)

Who is it for? Those looking to upgrade their aging Arc soundbar, and those who want to start a new surround sound setup based around Sonos equipment.

What do we like? The way that it looks, the incredible Dolby Atmos performance, the spacious virtual surround.

What don’t we like? The price, and music performance could be slightly better.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: Price and availability

• Not a cheap device

The Sonos Arc Ultra has bumped up the price with this new model. While the original Sonos Arc cost $899, the new version is $999 (£999 in the UK, and AU$1,799 in Australia). That puts it towards the more expensive end of the soundbar spectrum, although it does bring some extra features.

The similarly sized Bose Smart Soundbar Ultra, for example, costs $100 less at $899, although its Dolby Atmos performance isn’t quite as impressive. If you want to spend less, then the Sonos Beam and Sonos Ray cost $499 and $279 respectively, so there are other options for smaller rooms and tighter budgets.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: Design

• Simple, clean design
• It’s quite large
• All the design changes are on the back

Sonos’ design language is well known at this point. There’s an effortless simplicity to the company's products that exudes a kind of modern tech minimalism, and I really like it. The Sonos Era 300 is one of my favorite-looking smart speakers that you’ll find in the local HiFi section of Best Buy, and the original Arc is still a very attractive piece of home tech. The Arc Ultra brings that same design pizazz, and adds in some nice extras for a good-looking, functional sound bar.

But let's get one thing out of the way first — this is not a small soundbar. The Arc Ultra measures almost four feet long and weighs 13 pounds, and if I stand it up on its side it dwarfs most small children. This is a sound bar that’s best placed out of reach of little ones, and if you can, fixed to the surface on which it lives. Even better, wall mount it under your TV with the screw holes on the back.

Once placed or mounted, the Arc Ultra should blend in perfectly with your room decor. Despite its otherwise impressive size, it's not particularly tall, so it’ll fit easily under most TVs. With anything smaller than a 50” display it’s going to look big, so if your TV is slightly smaller then you’ll want the more compact Sonos Beam or the even smaller Ray.

Otherwise, the Arc Ultra just a long, white (or black) tube covered with little tiny holes and a Sonos logo. Or at least the old one was. The new Arc Ultra brings more control options to the table in the form of touch buttons across a panel along the top of the soundbar. It’s on top of a larger box section that makes up part of the rear of the soundbar, and the new controls are more similar to those of the Sonos Era speakers rather than the older Sonos Arc.

I was also sent the brand new Sonos Sub 4 to go with the Sonos Arc, and it’s about as subtle as a bass-making box can be. The white color does stand out more in my room decor, so if you want something that blends in better you might want to opt for the black options. Otherwise, it’s an attractive, matte-finished box with a hole in the middle that backs in the bass drivers. Thanks to its wireless connection there is only one cable on the bottom for power, so you don’t have to worry about cable mess.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: Connectivity and control

• New Era style touch controls
• Alexa and Sonos voice control
• Only HDMI for physical connection

There is only one way to connect a TV to the Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar — the HDMI port on the back. It’s inset into the side of the opening on the back, and works with an eARC (enhanced Audio Return Channel) HDMI on the back of your TV. There’s no USB port, and no optical port either. There is an Ethernet connector for better internet connectivity for the smart features of the soundbar though, in addition to the Wi-Fi connection.

That Wi-Fi connection allows you to use the internet-enabled portions of the speaker. In terms of streaming music to your Arc Ultra, there’s only AirPlay 2 support. There’s also Sonos App connectivity, which is going to be one of the best ways to get Dolby Atmos music streamed to the soundbar. The app, which has now had most of its problems ironed out, allows you to control various other different elements of the Arc Ultra, alongside its media streaming duties.

You can change the EQ of the sound bar, for example, although there are only two different frequency bands that you can manipulate. You can group the soundbar with other Sonos devices in the same room as well, which is useful. There are controls for the device’s features, too, so you can enable Speech Enhancement, Night Mode, TV Autoplay and more. Now that there are far fewer problems with the Sonos app, It’s a great way to control the soundbar and its extensive list of features.

There’s two options for voice assistants. You’ve got Sonos’ Voice Assistant, which isn’t particularly strong but is useful for volume manipulation, and Amazon’s Alexa, which is much more versatile.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: Setting up

• Sonos App works well now
• Trueplay is useful, but needs work

Setting up the Arc Ultra was easy, even with the addition of the Sub 4. You plug the soundbar into your TV and the wall, open up the app, and it takes over from there. Once that’s all set up and good to go, you plug in the sub and follow the steps in the app. From there it just kind of… works, which is useful. In my case, I didn’t even have to go into the TV settings of my display, although you might have to do a little more work on that end depending on your TV.

Once you’re all plugged in, you might want to fine-tune the way that the Soundbar sounds. Sonos’ Trueplay audio tuning is available for both iOS and Android this time around, although there were some problems that I found with the results of the tuning. The simple option, which lets you stay in one spot while the speaker pumps out bizarre sci-fi noises to map out your room, works ok, but underestimates the amount of bass that you might need in your space.

The Advanced tuning, on the other hand, was problematic in my experience. It doesn’t do much to improve the Spatial Audio Dolby Atmos bubble, but it does tank the amount of bass that comes out of the soundbar and your separate subwoofer. It’s not a big problem — you can easily dial it in with the EQ settings, but it’s annoying that it doesn’t do as good a job as it could.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: Performance

• Incredible Spatial Audio performance
• Great dialogue clarity
• The sub 4 adds plenty of extra bass

The weakest part of the sound profile in the original Sonos Arc was the dialogue. It was thin, ill-defined, and you really needed to use the Speech enhancement feature if you wanted to hear voices properly when watching ‘normal’ TV content like the news. I am happy to report that not only is the dialogue quality of the Arc Ultra much better than the previous model, but it’s downright excellent. It’s crisp, clear, and the center channel does a great job of placing it in the middle of the mix. It performs well for movies and cinematic TV shows, but it’s also great for making sure you can hear the voices of newscasters and documentarians.

Of course, the bread and butter of the Sonos Arc Ultra is movies — and it does a stellar job of filling your listening room with incredible movie magic. Even when not watching Dolby Atmos content, the soundbar has an expansive sound stage, thanks to its two virtual surrounds. The two drivers on the side of the Arc Ultra bounce sound off your walls instead of a pair of surround speakers, and it works remarkably well. The Nostromo slowly rumbles past you in the opening moments of Alien, for example, instantly placing you firmly into the movie. The car chase in The Matrix 2 features cars zooming around you, as the characters leap from machine to machine. The soundbar does a great job of following Neo and the twins as they fight around you, surrounding you in the car chase better than a stereo setup ever could.

Spatial Audio performance is where it's really at though with the Arc Ultra. The upwards-firing drivers add some extra dimensionality to the sound and make a very impressive Dolby Atmos bubble in front of the speaker. The Star Destroyer chasing down the Tantive IV in a New Hope cruises over your head, each laser blast placeable with your eyes closed. It’s very impressive coming from a single device. Pterodactyls whoosh overhead in Prehistoric Planet, as David Attenborough’s dulcet tones talk you through their hunting rituals. This is even further enhanced if you add a pair of Era 300 speakers to the rear, although that does add an extra $900 to your financial outlay.

There’s some great bass in the standalone Arc Ultra as well, thanks to the SoundMotion driver on the inside of the bar. That’s a new method of adding bass drivers to the soundbar, and it means there’s more low-end than you might find in the competition. In other words — don’t feel too bad if you can’t afford to add a Sub 4 or Sub mini.

Now, having said that, adding in one of Sonos’s subwoofers takes the experience to the next level. The Sub really brings the rumble, enough to make the windows shake and the floor pulsate. Anakin and Obi-Wan rush around space in the opening moments of Revenge of the Sith, the engines of the star destroyer below them bringing some incredible low-end growl. It’s an incredible addition, and while expensive, it's definitely worth the extra $799 if you can swing it.

Sonos Arc Ultra review: Verdict

It’s no great secret that TV speakers are woeful, and if you want a substantial audio upgrade then there are ways to do it that don’t cost upwards of $1,000. The best cheap soundbars are a great place to start, with some great options — some of which don’t even breach $100. But that’s probably not why you’re looking at the Sonos Arc Ultra. You’re looking for either a replacement to your older Arc soundbar and want to know if you should upgrade, or you’ve got a grand to spend on a soundbar to make your movies sound excellent.

You’ll be happy to know that the Arc Ultra is well worth the upgrade over the older model. It sounds more expansive, with much better Spatial Audio and top-notch dialogue processing. It has better bass inside thanks to the new SoundMotion driver, although you should add in one of Sonos’s subwoofers if you really want as much bass as you can handle.

Even without the Sub 4 though, the Arc Ultra is an excellent package that brings a new dimension to your movies. No, it’s not cheap, but it is incredibly impressive — and easily our new pick for the best soundbar.