Plugging in the Sonos Arc Ultra for the first time at home, I knew what to expect. I had a preview a month ago at a local retailer and the flagship soundbar from the streaming audio company had impressed.
Yet, the first movie I fired up didn’t move me with its loud special effects but with the clarity of its dialogue. The Killer, streaming on Netflix, centres on the thoughts of an assassin played by Michael Fassbender and his voice is chilling yet comforting at the same time. This is possible thanks to the clear dialogue projected by the soundbar.
Speaking of that, a more rousing speech comes from a key scene in Dune Part Two, when Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides forcefully takes control of the Fremen by declaring himself their saviour.
The terrible holy war he is about to embark on begins in a cave echoing his clarion call to find a green paradise in the desert. It energises thousands in the crowd, who answer with chants for their new messiah. It’s quite a scene to experience with good speakers.
Indeed, Dune parts one and two are movies that showcase the capabilities of good sound systems. Big scenes that need emotional depth draw on audio to make the point and none is more obvious than the revealing of the sandworm for the first time.
Here, the sheer scale of the scene is conveyed dramatically by the excellent control and bass extension on the Sonos Arc Ultra.
From dropping to near silence when Paul experiences the hallucinatory spice for the first time to the music rising to a crescendo as the huge sandworm appears on screen to swallow a harvester machine in the desert, the soundbar does an excellent job through its precision and low-level reach.
To be sure, bass is something you’d expect from a soundbar, but Sonos’ new top-end model impresses with its punchiness and slam, while retaining a keen focus during busy scenes with multiple sound sources.
Part of this is down to the new Sound Motion woofer setup, which now comes with three more drivers than the earlier Arc soundbar to offer deeper, richer bass. The Arc Ultra, says, Sonos, is capable of double the bass output and it sounds like it.
Over the years, the company famous for streaming audio devices has improved on its multiple-speaker tuning. Fired up, the speakers inside the Arc Ultra sound like they act in unison rather than a mere sum of their parts.
It helps to have no fewer than 15 Class-D amplifiers driving the 14 speakers, which include seven tweeters (two firing upward), six mid-range woofers and the the Sound Motion woofer for low-level notes.
If that’s not enough, you can also add a subwoofer and surround speakers, which Sonos will be keen to sell you separately.
Frankly, for most small Singapore homes playing the occasional movie, the Arc Ultra soundbar on its own is already a huge audio upgrade for home theatre.
And this goes beyond the bass performance, which is apparent for any movie source. You also get accurate and multi-layered audio in movies, such as 13 Hours.
In urban battles throughout, the zing of bullets flying through the air followed by them clashing into the metal body of a car or an unfortunate human being is fast, detailed and laser-focused, amid the chaos of war.
Other movies I played on the Sonos soundbar include Roma, which has a seaside scene that showcases the speaker’s depth and scale through the loud waves smashing into view, as well as Kong: Skull Island, which has a great surround-sound scene with helicopters circling the giant ape.
In TV shows or movies that support Dolby Atmos, you also feel audio coming from the top of the room, thanks to two up-firing speakers that bounce sound off the ceiling.
One scene I always go to is from The Old Guard, where you hear a low-flying jetliner rumble slowly over your head. Here, the Arc Ultra does a decent job of playing the height audio.
Even in non-Dolby Atmos content, the new Sonos soundbar does well. I played the classic The Book of Eli scene where Denzel Washington’s character fires his guns against a number of assailants in a shootout, and the surround effects of the bullets whizzing around him were highly engrossing and drew me into the movie.
These effects are possible if you own a TV purchased in the last five years or so that supports the eARC connection over an HDMI cable. If not, you are tied to older, non-Atmos effects, which are still great but not as immersive.
What about music? I’d say the Arc Ultra does admirably well, even though it’s not meant for critical listening. The bass, invariably, overshadows other details in musical tracks, though you can dial that down on the Sonos app when playing your favourite jazz tracks.
That said, the stereo image has improved on soundbars in recent years and the timbre of many tracks I played on the Sonos soundbar impressed me.
Small speakers in plastic enclosures have come a long way and the Arc Ultra will be right at home for casual listening or being in the background for a dinner party, for example.
Design-wise, the Sonos soundbar itself follows the same look and feel of earlier versions from the company. Plastic mesh forms most of the outer shell that allows sound signals to move about freely.
The nearly-1.2m long soundbar is pretty long – it extends beyond my bedroom’s 50-inch TV – so make sure you have enough space on your console table. You can also mount the soundbar on the wall as well.
On the soundbar, you’d find a Bluetooth button. Yes, now, you can let your friends stream their music easily to the soundbar, when they are over for a visit.
There’s also a mic switch button, which is handy for folks who want their privacy protected. It lets you disconnect power to the soundbar’s microphones if you don’t want to use voice assistants like Alexa.
Most people, I suspect, will end up using the Sonos app to set up and control the soundbar. Here, you can say things are a bit of a mixed bag.
If you’re considering a Sonos speaker, you might have known that the company has taken quite a beating from painful user interface issues this year and it’s tried to improve things with the current app.
Other than taking a while to log on to my Wi-Fi network, the setup for the Arc Ultra was relatively glitch-free for me. However, I do find the interface now is somewhat plain and functional compared to something from, say, Sennheiser or Bowers & Wilkins.
Still, on the whole, I’d say the Arc Ultra is another good piece of kit from Sonos. The company has been coming up with excellent soundbars for a while and this new flagship soundbar offers top-notch audio performance.
What might give potential buyers pause is the S$1,899 price tag in Singapore. That’s substantially higher than the US$999 (S$1,345) in the United States, due to costs in Singapore, according to the local distributor.
What this also means is that the new Sonos flagship, while great sounding, might be less attractive to those buying a premium soundbar this holiday season.
The Arc Ultra will cost more than the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus that’s been discounted to S$1,529 during this holiday season. It’s also priced higher than a B&W Panorama 3, which can be had for under S$1,500 in Singapore. Both are excellent soundbars for movies.
I’d say give the new Sonos Arc Ultra a listen at a showroom. Compare with other high-end offerings in this price range and see if it’s worth the extra cost. I do wish the Sonos soundbar is priced more competitively, though.
