Which soundbar should you buy?

Sonos has unveiled a new premium soundbar. Named the Arc Ultra, the soundbar introduces a new transducer technology called Sound Motion for up to double the bass of its predecessor. 

So how else does the Sonos Arc Ultra compare to the popular Sonos Arc? Keep reading to discover all the big differences between these two high-end soundbars. 

Price 

The Sonos Arc is priced at $999/£999. The soundbar is available to buy from October 29, with preorders open now. 

The Sonos Arc is the cheaper option priced at $899/£899 at launch in 2020. The soundbar has since seen its price discounted by £180, taking the Arc down to a tempting £719 in its UK store. 

This makes the Sonos Arc £280 cheaper than the Sonos Arc. 

The Sonos Arc Ultra has more drivers

The Sonos Arc Ultra features an all-new architecture with a total of 14 Sonos-engineered drivers to create a 9.1.4 spatial audio experience. This includes the new Sound Motion woofer, six mid-woofers and seven tweeters.

The Sonos Arc, meanwhile, is equipped with eleven drivers, including eight elliptical mid-woofers to handle midrange and bass and three silk-dome tweeters for 5.1 audio.

Both soundbars feature two dedicated height channels, designed to fire sound in all directions.

The Sonos Arc Ultra features Sound Motion

One of the biggest upgrades announced alongside the Arc Ultra is the new Sound Motion transducer technology.

Sound Motion aims to reduce the physical size of the transducer while also increasing the bass. In fact, according to Sonos, the Arc Ultra delivers up to twice the bass of the Sonos Arc thanks to this new technology.

That said, you’ll have to wait for our review to hear how the bass truly compares to that of the Sonos Arc.

The Sonos Arc Ultra benefits from Advanced Speech Enhancement 

Another perk arriving with the Sonos Arc Ultra is Advanced Speech Enhancement.

The Sonos Arc already featured Speech Enhancement designed to offer crystal clear dialogue when characters speak quietly.

Advanced Speech Enhancement on the Arc Ultra allows you to select your preferred level of dialogue clarity in the Sonos app, giving you more control over what you hear.

The Sonos Arc Ultra includes Bluetooth line-in

Finally, the Sonos Arc Ultra now supports Bluetooth line-in, making it easier to stream music and podcasts through the soundbar.

The Sonos Arc did not support Bluetooth at all, with Sonos instead sticking with connectivity options like HDMI eARC, Wi-Fi and Apple AirPlay 2.

Early verdict

The Sonos Arc Ultra is an upgrade over the 2020 Arc, offering more drivers, bigger bass, increased control over Speech Enhancement and more ways to connect to the soundbar. However, these updates do come at a £280 premium, taking the price of the new soundbar up to a grand (or £1 short of it).