Sonos tries to pick up the pieces with ‘breakthrough’ Arc Ultra soundbar

Sonos’ new Arc Ultra soundbar introduces what could be breakthrough technology in the shape of new Sound Motion speaker design. Can it help salvage its reputation?

A couple of months ago, Sonos CEO, Patrick Spence, said the company was delaying the launch of a couple of new products while it tried to gets its famously misfiring app into the right place. Now it seems that the company is at least happy with progress there, as it has just introduced the brand new $999 Arc Ultra soundbar and is making some fairly hefty claims for it.

It’s $100 more than the Sonos Arc when that was introduced back in 2020, and the price of that is now down to just over $700, so there is a significant difference between the two. So, as both support Dolby Atomos, what do you get? 

New speakers for a start. Arc Original had 11 speakers in a 5.0.2 set up, while the ultra raises the number to 14 and hosts them in a 9.1.4 configuration. You get seven tweeters, six midrange drivers and a single woofer in the Ultra, versus just three tweeters and eight midrange drivers in the Arc. All of which is impressive given that the Ultra takes up 18% less space than its predecessor.

What’s more, it looks like the woofer is where Sonos’ claimed ‘breakthrough’ comes in as this is where it debuts its new ‘Sound Motion’ technology. Essentially this is designed to deliver more bass — double the bass output of the original Arc — and remove the need for a space-hungry subwoofer in most set ups. 

Sound Motion allows Sonos to put a lot of speaker in a small space

The tech comes from a small Dutch startup called Mayht that Sonos acquired for a hefty $100 million in 2022. Basically this throws out the traditional single cone-shaped membrane design of speakers and replaces it with a four-motor, dual-membrane woofer. This means more bass from a smaller design, eliminates the vibrations that can lead to distortions, and has a lot of audio people very interested to hear what this soundbar will sound like in the real world. It could be a significant moment in audio design.

Elsewhere, there are new software elements as well, including new Speech Enhancement and an expansion of the company’s Trueplay audio tuning into Android as well as iOS. That will hopefully help balance out what is disappointing connectivity; Bluetooth has been added but the presence of just a single HDMI eARC port with no passthrough port will limit setups. 

The company has also introduced its latest next generation Sub 4 subwoofer. This $799 unit has been rebuilt, inside and out and includes increased processing power and memory, as well as new WiFi radios for better connectivity.

There’s also a new version of the all-important Sonos app that is expected to surpass the performance of the previous app across several important areas, including the system identification, set up, and ability to group Sonos devices together that are essential to new purchasers.

“For current Sonos customers, the update will reintroduce 90 percent of the new app’s missing features, with further additions on the way as Sonos maintains its ongoing cadence of updates,” says the company.

Will it be enough to rescue the company’s rather battered reputation? If the app continues to work properly and if the new Sound Motion tech is anywhere near as good as Sonos says it is, then many of the events of the past six months may be forgiven. We’ll look out for the first Arc Ultra reviews (the unit should ship by the end of the month) with interest.

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tl;dr

• Sonos has introduced the new $999 Arc Ultra soundbar, featuring new Sound Motion speaker design and an upgraded speaker configuration.
• The Arc Ultra boasts 14 speakers in a 9.1.4 setup, including new Sound Motion technology in the woofer for enhanced bass output
• The company has also launched the next generation Sub 4 subwoofer with improved processing power and memory, as well as a new Sonos app with enhanced features and performance.
• The success of these new products and technologies may play a crucial role in restoring Sonos' reputation, especially if the new app functions well and the Sound Motion technology delivers as promised.