Which is the right premium Sonos soundbar for you?
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Sonos may not have had the best time lately with its redesigned app causing problem after problem, but the company has recently announced two new products in the Sonos Arc Ultra and the Sonos Sub 4, and well, that’s something to be excited about.
The Sonos Arc Ultra sits at the top of the Sonos soundbar offering, and it’s the first device to feature the new Sound Motion technology, which was developed by Mayht – a company Sonos acquired back in 2022. Sonos is continuing to sell the Arc alongside the Arc Ultra and so if you’re in the market for a new high-end Sonos soundbar, there’s a decision to be made.
Here’s how the Sonos Arc Ultra compares to the Sonos Arc so you can understand what the differences are between them and which is the right premium Sonos soundbar for you.
Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Arc: Price
Let’s first talk about price because as you might expect, there is a difference in how much the Sonos Arc and Sonos Arc Ultra both cost. The Sonos Arc Ultra is available to pre-order now and it costs $999 / £999. It will be available to buy from 29 October.
The Sonos Arc cost $899 / £899 when it first launched back in 2020. It has dropped in price since the launch of the Sonos Arc Ultra in the UK, but remained at $899 in the US. At the time of writing, it costs £719 in the UK.
Both the Sonos Arc Ultra and the Sonos Arc come in black and white colour options and both have a matte finish.
Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Arc: Design
The Sonos Arc and Arc Ultra share similar design traits, but they aren’t identical. They both opt for a sleek, cylindrical shape and they are longer and slimmer than the Sonos Beam 2 or the Sonos Ray. The Sonos Arc Ultra is slimmer than the Arc too though, and it features a ledge across the back for the controls, compared to the controls being on the top as they are with the Arc.
The controls on the Arc Ultra also incorporate the volume slider that you’ll find on Sonos’ latest speakers including the Era 100, Era 300 and Move 2. It allows for easier volume control, whilst making it simpler to skip and rewind tracks using the main controls that are positioned in the centre of the soundbar The volume trough meanwhile, sits on the right edge of the ledge on the Arc Ultra.
For the Arc, there are capacitive controls on the top, with a play/pause button in the middle and volume controls either side.
Ports and connections sit at the back of both the Arc and Arc Ultra, 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 Arc has a pairing button, the Arc Ultra turns this button into a slimmer Bluetooth button – more on that in a second. The Arc also has an ethernet port, while the Arc Ultra doesn’t.
In terms of dimensions, the Arc measures 44.96-inches in width, 4.57-inches in depth and 3.43-inches in height. It weighs 6.25kg. The Arc Ultra meanwhile, measures 46.38-inches in width, 4.35-inches in depth and 2.95-inches in height and its that latter element that means it can fit under TVs better than the older Arc. The Arc Ultra is also lighter at 5.9kg.
According to Sonos, Arc Ultra was also designed responsibly with improved serviceability by using more screws and fewer adhesives, halogen-free PCB materials, less silicon material, and a reduced idle power consumption of 20% as a standalone player compared to Arc.
Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Arc: Features
When it comes to features, the Sonos Arc Ultra and Arc offer many of the same. They both connect seamlessly to a Sonos system, as you would expect. That means you can send your TV audio to other Sonos speakers in your home should you want to and you can also use the Arc and Arc Ultra as a general speaker when it isn’t being used for your TV audio.
Both the Arc and the Arc Ultra offer Sonos Voice Control and they also both offer Amazon Alexa for voice control too, as well as other Alexa features. Only the Arc 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 and Arc Ultra, 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 differences to note with the Arc Ultra when it comes to features 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 Arc, 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.
Read for more features: Sonos tips and tricks
Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Arc: Performance
It’s here where we get to the real differences between the Sonos Arc and the Arc Ultra. As we mentioned at the beginning, 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 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” if the 2020 model. Both the Arc and Arc Ultra support Dolby Atmos but the Arc Ultra is claimed to offer a 9.1.4 spatial audio experience compared to the Arc’s 5.1.2.
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 Arc has 11 Class-D digital amplifiers, three tweeters and eight elliptical woofers so there is a difference in the sound architecture between these two soundbars. Sonos is claiming the Arc Ultra is better, and there’s a good chance it is if the new Sound Motion tech is as good as Sonos says it is, 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 Arc remains an excellent sounding soundbar so it’s still a very good soundbar to consider if you’re choosing between them, though there isn’t a huge difference in price if you’re in the US, making us think the Ultra is the better option.
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 Arc 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 Arc has 1GB RAM, 4GB storage and runs on a quad-core 1.4GHz processor.
Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sonos Arc: Which one is right for you?
At the moment, we can’t say for sure whether the Sonos Arc Ultra is better than the Arc, but on paper, it certainly appears that will be the case. You will get a slightly slimmer design, audio improvements based on what Sonos is saying, Bluetooth capabilities and extra features like more advanced Speech Enhancement for clearer dialogue.
The Sonos Arc is cheaper however, and it offers Google Assistant support which the Arc Ultra does not. It also offers great sound performance and many of the same core features as the Arc Ultra, like AirPlay 2, TV Audio Swap if you have the Sonos Ace headphones, Trueplay tuning and seamless integration with other Sonos speakers.
The Arc Ultra will likely be the better choice if you can afford it given it is expected to deliver a more immersive experience from the soundbar itself, even without surrounds, but we will need to wait until we review it in full to know for sure.
FAQs
Yes, the Arc Ultra and the Arc can both be wall-mounted. It is recommend you use the Sonos Arc Ultra Wall Mount (sold separately) if you are wall-mounting the Arc Ultra, or the Arc Wall Mount if you are wall-mounting the Arc. The Arc Wall Mount is compatible with the Arc Ultra but as the soundbars have different dimensions, you might see the bracket if you use the Arc’s one for the Arc Ultra over the specific Arc Ultra mount.
The Arc Ultra works with all generations of Sub, as well as the Sub Mini. A dual Sub setup requires Sub 4 and/or Sub (Gen 3) however so keep that in mind.
