Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Beam 2: Which Sonos soundbar should you choose?

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Sonos announced a new flagship soundbar in October, joining the Sonos Arc, Sonos Beam 2 and the Sonos Ray. The Sonos Arc Ultra, as it has been called, sits at the top of the company’s soundbar offering, featuring a similar design to the Arc but with a couple of adjustments and a new sound architecture. 

That in turn means it looks quite different to the Sonos Beam 2 and offers quite a different proposition. We’ve compared the Sonos Arc Ultra and the Sonos Arc in a separate feature, but here we are looking at how the flagship Sonos Arc Ultra and the middle of the range Sonos Beam 2 compare.

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Beam 2: Price

The Sonos Arc Ultra is the more expensive of the two soundbars being compared here. It costs $999 / £999 and it is currently available to pre-order. It comes in black and white colour options and it will be delivered from 29 October.

The Sonos Beam 2 meanwhile, is quite a bit cheaper. It too comes in black and white colour options, but it is half the price of the Arc Ultra at $499 / £449. It launched in 2021 and is available to buy from Sonos, as well as multiple retailers.

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Beam 2: Design

The Sonos Arc Ultra and the Sonos Beam 2 differ quite significantly when it comes to design. The Arc Ultra is long and cylindrical in shape, with a slim profile that enables it to fit under your TV. As we mentioned in the intro, it is similar in design to the Arc – and you can read how the Arc compares to the Beam 2 in our separate feature – but it has a ledge at the back. 

The ledge is designed to keep the controls out of sight, allowing for a more seamless look. The controls have changed a little since the Arc too, with a play and pause in the middle and skip and rewind capacitive controls either side, while a volume trough like the Era 100, Era 300 and Move 2 all have, sits on the right edge.

The Sonos Beam 2 takes a boxier approach to its design, with curved edges but a flat top, front and rear. It has capacitive controls on the top, though there is no volume trough so skipping and going back a track requires a swipe across the control pad rather than a tap either side of the play/pause button. 

Ports and connections sit at the back of both the Arc Ultra and Beam 2, with both offering HDMI eARC, though there’s an optical adapter you can buy separately if your TV doesn’t support eARC. They also both have the power port at the back but while the Beam 2 has a pairing button, the Arc Ultra turns this button into a slimmer Bluetooth button – more on that in a second. The Beam 2 also has an ethernet port, while the Arc Ultra doesn’t.

In terms of dimensions, the Arc Ultra measures 46.38-inches in width, 4.35-inches in depth and 2.95-inches in height. It weighs 5.9kg. The Beam 2, meanwhile, measures 25.83-inches in width, 3.94-inches in depth and 2.68-inches in height. It is lighter than the Arc Ultra too, as you would expect, weighing 2.88kg.

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Beam 2: Features

The Sonos Arc Ultra and Beam 2 offer many of the same features. They both connect to a Sonos system, so you can send your TV audio to other Sonos speakers in your home should you want to and you can also use the Arc Ultra and Beam 2 as general speakers when they aren’t being used for your TV audio. 

Both the Arc Ultra and Beam 2 offer Sonos Voice Control and they also both offer Amazon Alexa for voice control too, as well as other Alexa features. Only the Beam 2 has Google Assistant too however, with the Arc Ultra not supporting Google’s assistant, just like the Roam 2, Move 2, Era 100 and Era 300 don’t.

Apple AirPlay 2 is on board both the Arc Ultra and Beam 2, allowing you to send music directly from an Apple device to either soundbar, and there are features like adjustable EQ and Sonos Trueplay on board both too, along with Night Sound. Both also support TV Audio Swap for those of you who have invested in Sonos’ Ace headphones.

There are a few feature differences to note with the Arc Ultra compared to the Beam 2, however. The Speech Enhancement feature that is offered on all current Sonos soundbars has been improved for the Arc Ultra, with more control over selecting your preferred level of dialogue clarity. 

For the Beam 2, you can simply turn Speech Enhancement on or off, but you can’t control the level. The Arc Ultra also offers Bluetooth capabilities, which won’t come as a surprise to many Sonos fans as the company has been including Bluetooth capabilities into its speakers since the Era 100 and Era 300 that launched in 2023. 

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Beam 2: Performance

The Arc Ultra is the first Sonos product to launch with the Mayht sound technology that Sonos is calling Sound Motion. The tech is claimed to be “one of the most significant breakthroughs in audio engineering in nearly 100 years” and it sees the transducers drastically reduce in size, while bigger sound is created from smaller components, allowing for the Arc Ultra’s slimmer profile overall. 

Sonos has said the Arc Ultra will offer clearer dialogue, deeper bass, and more detailed sound compared to the Arc, with “double the bass accuracy” of the 2020 model, which means more than that when it is compared to the Beam 2 as the Arc is bassier than the Beam 2. 

The Arc Ultra supports Dolby Atmos, and it is also claimed to offer a 9.1.4 spatial audio experience. The Beam 2 meanwhile, only supports Dolby Digital so that is something to keep in mind as the sound experience from the Arc Ultra is very likely to be more immersive and more impressive than the Beam 2.

The Arc Ultra has 15 Class-D digital amplifiers, including a Sound Motion woofer, seven precisely angled silk-dome tweeters (two of which fire upwards), and six mid woofers.

The Beam 2 has 5 Class-D digital amplifiers, one centre tweeter and four elliptical woofers so there is a difference in the sound architecture between these two soundbars, as you will probably have expected given the price difference. 

If the new Sound Motion tech is as good as Sonos says it is, the Arc Ultra is on track to be an exceptional soundbar, but we haven’t heard the Arc Ultra yet so we will need to wait until we review it to pass judgement. 

What we will say is the Beam 2 remains an great sounding soundbar so it’s still a very good soundbar to consider if you want to make your TV sound better without spending a fortune.

Elsewhere, the Arc Ultra is compatible with Wi-Fi 6, and supports 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4 GHz/5 GHz broadcast-capable routers. The Beam supports any 2.4 GHz 802.11/b/g/n broadcast-capable routers. For 5 GHz routers, you will need to enable 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n in router settings, or hardwire a Sonos product.

The Arc Ultra also has 2GB RAM, 8GB storage and runs on quad-core 1.9GHz processor, while the Beam 2 has 1GB RAM, 4GB storage and runs on a quad-core 1.4GHz processor.

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Beam 2: Which one is right for you?

The Sonos Arc Ultra is very likely to be the better soundbar out of these two offerings (we will confirm when we have reviewed it), but it is also rather large and very expensive compared to the Beam 2 – double the price in fact. 

For that price, you should get better sound performance from the Arc Ultra and some extra features over the Beam 2 including Dolby Atmos support and more advanced Speech Detection, designed to deliver more distinct vocals. 

The Beam 2 offers access to Google Assistant though and it might be better for your setup depending on how big your TV is and how much room you have.

The right soundbar for you between the Arc Ultra and the Beam 2 will depend on what you want. If you have the money to spend on a high-end soundbar, you’re very unlikely to be disappointed with the Arc Ultra, but the Beam 2 is great as a bedroom soundbar, or for those that have a smaller TV or space.

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