Which soundbar should you go for?

Sonos has recently launched its “most powerful soundbar” yet with the Arc Ultra. Question is, how does it compare to the excellent Sonos Beam (Gen 2)?

Although we haven’t reviewed the new Arc Ultra yet, we have reviewed the Beam – giving it a near-perfect 4.5-star rating. 

To help you decide which soundbar comes out on top in the Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Beam (gen 2) bout, we’ve compared the two below. We’ll be revisiting this article once we’ve had a chance to go hands on with the Arc Ultra. 

Price

Available now, the Arc Ultra has an RRP of £999/€999/$999 and comes in a choice of two colours: Black or White.

The latest Sonos Beam is much cheaper than the Arc Ultra, with an RRP of £449/€499/$449. While it’s also available in Black or White, it is likely to be subject to more regular price drops due to the fact it’s a slightly older soundbar than the Arc.

The Arc Ultra has Sound Motion

The Arc Ultra features the newly designed Sound Motion woofer, which Sonos explains marks a “revolutionary leap forward for home cinema sound.” The four-motor, dual-membrane woofer uses Sound Motion technology which can deliver clear “booming bass frequencies” with “no mechanical vibration”.

However it’s not just bass that Sound Motion helps deliver. In fact, the technology promises “bigger and better sound across the full audio spectrum” as the Arc Ultra itself has three different types of transducers for high, mid and low frequencies for a more balanced, natural sound. 

The Arc Ultra is powered by 14 drivers 

The Arc Ultra’s architecture appears to be seriously impressive, so we’re keen to put it to the test in our review. 

Powered by 14 Sonos-engineered drivers, the Arc Ultra boasts seven silk-dome tweeters for high frequencies and clear dialogue, two of which fire upward and create height channels for spatial audio.

The Arc Ultra also packs in six mid woofers to ensure faithful playback of mid-range frequencies alongside the Sound Motion woofer.

That’s not to say the Beam isn’t a powerful soundbar. Its own architecture is made up of a centre tweeter for crisp, high-frequency response, four elliptical midwoofers for the mid-range and three passive radiators which enhance low frequencies too. 

Both support TV Audio Swap

Both the Arc Ultra and the Beam support the Sonos’ clever TV Audio Swap feature. This tool allows you to seamlessly swap TV audio between the soundbar and Sonos Ace headphones.

Listening to TV audio through the Sonos Ace enables spatial audio and dynamic head tracking too, with the latter creating the effect that your home theatre audio is coming from a multitude of directions within the room.

The Sonos Beam is smaller

Although both the Arc Ultra and Beam are a fairly similar height at 2.95-inches and 2.68-inch respectively, the Arc Ultra is much wider at 46.38-inches whereas the Beam is just 25.63-inches.

With this in mind, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the Arc Ultra is also over double the weight of the Beam, at 5.9kg compared to 2.88kg. 

Having said that, the Arc Ultra sports a low-profile and compact finish which Sonos explains is “thoughtfully crafted to look great in your home and keep the focus on the entertainment.” 

The Beam is better suited to a smaller or secondary TV

We found in our review that although the Beam is “loud, nicely balanced and capable of bringing a cinematic experience” it’s generally better paired with a smaller TV up to 49-inches.

For larger TVs and spaces, the Arc Ultra should be much better suited to provide a truly immersive soundscape where the Beam may struggle. 

Early verdict

Deciding between the two soundbars may depend on your current home entertainment setup. As touched upon earlier, a larger TV and space will require a more powerful soundbar like the Arc Ultra whereas the Sonos Beam should suffice for smaller areas. 

We’ll be sure to update this article and give a final verdict once we finishing reviewing the Sonos Arc Ultra.