Sonos Arc Ultra first impressions: much bigger bass

My information Sonos Arc Ultra arrived yesterday afternoon. Normally, I’d return my clip pinch nan unboxing, nan setup, documenting each measurement pinch photos, and past I’d statesman nan multiday process of performing a afloat review. But this hasn’t been a normal Sonos merchandise launch, and I cognize that galore of you conscionable want to cognize 1 thing: How does it sound?

So while I’m perfectly going to constitute a afloat reappraisal of nan Arc Ultra, pinch each of nan accustomed details, for now, I want to supply you pinch my contiguous thoughts aft spending conscionable a fewer hours pinch it.

First, nan caveats.

I plowed done nan setup arsenic accelerated arsenic I could. I plugged it into power, connected it to my Sonos system, did nan accustomed first package update, and past plugged successful my TV’s HDMI cable. I didn’t alteration nan EQ aliases nan tallness transmission level. I ignored nan prompts to group up sound assistants. I didn’t tune it pinch Sonos’ TruePlay room calibration tool, and I didn’t link it to my Sonos Sub 3 aliases Era 300 surrounds.

In fact, I disconnected my existing Sonos Arc from these speakers too, and reset it backmost to its mill settings, truthful I could perceive nan quality betwixt these 2 soundbars earlier immoderate tweaks had been made.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

And what a quality it is. The Ultra produces a noticeably clearer and better-defined sound than nan regular Arc. For some euphony and movie content, there’s an audible precision to nan measurement mid- to high-frequency sounds are projected guardant and to nan sides. Dialogue is crisper and much intelligible, and that’s without enabling nan Ultra’s reside enhancement mode (which has 3 selectable levels).

But what you’re really wondering is whether that fancy caller “Sound Motion” driver — nan 1 pinch nan 4 motors, dual diaphragms, and dual amps — delivers nan equipment erstwhile it comes to bass. It does.

That caller driver thumps.

I still haven’t tally nan Ultra done each of my accustomed Dolby Atmos trial scenes, but I did watercourse immoderate of my dense rotation low-end-heavy tracks, for illustration Billie Eilish’s bad guy, Hans Zimmer’s Warming Up My Instruments, positive 2 caller additions to nan arsenal: Shaboozey’s Bar Song and Bad Bunny’s Tití Me Preguntó.

That caller driver thumps. It’s notable not conscionable for really large it gets compared to nan Arc but besides for its definition. You tin really show there’s a abstracted constituent punching retired those bass notes, and not a bid of full-range drivers being asked to screen everything from upper-mids to nan lowest lows.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Is it for illustration having a dedicated subwoofer? No — I don’t deliberation this point is ever going to rattle your windows. However, nan Ultra now joins a very exclusive club: soundbars that are improved by discrete subs, but that don’t require 1 to present a really satisfying sound experience.

OK, that’s a wrap connected my first impressions, but there’s overmuch much to come. My afloat reappraisal will see evaluations of:

• Stereo and spatial audio euphony rendering
• The Ultra’s claimed 9.1.4 processing — tin 1 speaker really create that galore discrete channels?
• The Sound Motion driver’s limits — really large tin that bass get?
• Speech enhancement mode
• Controls — some beingness and voice-based
• Adding a Sub 3 and Era 300 surrounds
• The Sonos app — is it yet fixed?

Stay tuned!