Get Them Here:
Sonos Arc Ultra: https://amzn.to/4frRapf
Sonos Arc: https://amzn.to/4fr50In
Sony Bravia 8: https://amzn.to/40MX5kq
So this is the Sonos Arc Ultra, its the successor to the super popular Sonos Arc… Now at first glance this soundbar looks very similar to the original Sonos Arc, but the Sonos Arc Ultra has actually been completely redesigned on the inside and its a little different from the outside. Now the Sonos Arc Ultra is still doing dumb Sonos things, but lets see what the Sonos Arc Ultra is all about and lets see if its worth upgrading if you already have the original Sonos Arc.
Now first off, both the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sonos Arc are fully self contained systems. As in they don’t need an external subwoofer cause they produce their own bass. Now obviously, having an external sub woofer is always better cause this way you’re going to have a lot more bass and you’re going to get a more movie theater like experience. However, everyone might not have the room for an external subwoofer… or maybe you live in an apartment with thin walls and you don’t want to be that neighbor. So in this video we’re going to be testing the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sonos Arc by themselves.
However, with both of these soundbars you can build them out by either adding an external subwoofer like either the Sonos Sub 4 or Sub Mini and or you can add rear satellite speakers like either a pair of Era 300’s or Era 100’s. But in this video we’re going to be testing these soundbar’s by themselves, and we’re going to be pair them with a Sony Bravia 8 TV, cause I believe that if you’re looking at a premium Soundbar, you probably have a premium tv with all ready pretty decent built in speakers. Nonetheless if you wan to pick any of these products up they’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
So first theres the design of this soundbar. The Sonos Arc Ultra looks very similar to the original. It has this floating cylindrical design to it, and its mostly made out of plastic. And this plastic body does a really good job of not causing any reflections, which I really like cause this soundbar does a good job of disappearing and there’s a small indicator light on the front which you can turn off through the app. Which is good. Now this sound bar does not come included with a remote, which I feel is fine, but it does has built in media controls so you can adjust the volume, and play and pause your music and you can skip through your music directly from the sound bar it self. And through the app you can also deactivate these buttons if you want which I feel is super helpful as well especially if you have kids in the house. And a new feature thats found on the Arc Ultra is that you can manually disconnect the built in microphone, for privacy. And personally, I don’t even use voice assistants on soundbars.
However, the Sonos Arc Ultra is a little smaller than the Original Arc. The Sonos Arc Ultra has a length of 46.4 inches, a hight of 3 inches, and a width of 4.4 inches. And it weighs in at 13 pounds. Where as the original Arc has a length of 45 inches, a height of 3.4 inches and a depth of 4.6 inches and it weighs in at 13.8 pounds. So the Arc Ultra is a little smaller and a little lighter than the original, but both of these soundbars are a little on the heavy side so you’ll might want to be mindful of that if you plan on wall mounting these soundbars. And unfortunately, these soundbars do not come included with a wall mounting kit, thats sold separately, which I feel is a little ridiculous.
But when it comes to ports, these soundbars plug in via an AC port and there is no external power brick that you have to worry about, which is good for wall mounting. And I also really like that the power cable is very long and super flexible. But what I don’t like is that this soundbar only has one HDMI port on it. And personally I feel that a soundbar of this price and size should have at least one HDMI in port so that you can either plug in your Blue ray player or PlayStation. And also, this soundbar does not have an optical port on it, now you can still use this soundbar with an optical connection, but that is an adaptor that you have to buy separately, which I also feel is ridiculous cause the original Sonos Arc came with that adaptor. But something the Arc Ultra does have is an ethernet port so can always hardwire this soundbar into your network, but personally I would rather hardwire my tv than my soundbar to my network. But overall, I feel that Sonos is still being stubborn here cause I feel that they should have added at least one HDMI In port.
But when it comes to wireless connectivity, this soundbar has wifi support, obviously and it has airplay 2 support. So if you’re an iPhone user, as long as youre connected to the same wifi network you can stream music to this sound bar… but honestly I feel that this doesn’t matter cause you can always Airplay or chrome cast to your tv, and your music is still going to come out through your soundbar. However, the Arc Ultra does have bluetooth so you can always share this soundbar with someone, without having to share your wifi password.
Now the Sonos Arc Ultra also has support for Sonos Voice Control and Alexa, so you can use your soundbar as a smart speaker. But personally I don’t like using my soundbar as a smart speaker cause either I don’t want whatever I’m watching to be accidentally activated if someone says Alexa or Hey Sonos… and I don’t like it from a privacy standpoint. So personally I really like the manual switch that the Arc Ultra has so you can completely deactivate the built in microphone. I feel that if I’m going to use a voice assistant, ill just use it on my phone.
Now when it comes to the Sonos App for this soundbar, you can go in and you can adjust the bass and treble on this soundbar. You can also adjust the hight channel if you have really tall ceilings, you can also adjust the speech enhancement setting, and you can also go through the calibration process. Now with the calibration, you are actually going to use your phone’s built in microphone so you can calibrate the sound so that its tailored to your seating position, and Sonons actually makes you walk around your living room and you have to wave your phone around so that they can get a better sense of your living room. And the speech enhancement on the Sonos Arc Ultra now has 3 levels to it, versus the one level on the original Arc. But the thing that I don't like about the Sonos app is that all of these audio configurations are in different pages. I feel that all of these settings should be in one page, easy to find, especially since this is not a first party soundbar… so you’re not going to be able to easily and quickly adjust your audio settings directly from your tv like for example if you were using a Sony Soundbar with your Sony TV, like I have here.
But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound. When it comes to speaker set up, the Arc Ultra is very different from the original. The Arc Ultra has a total of 6 frontward firing speakers, 7 tweeters three of which shoot out the front, two shoot out the sides and 2 shoot upwards and it has a built in subwoofer for your bass. Where as with the Original Arc, it has a total of 8 speakers, but these speakers are oval shaped and they have more surface area to them, and four shoot out the front, two shoot out the sides, and two shoot upwards, and it has a total of 3 frontward firing tweeters. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test, now both of these soundbars are playing at 75% volume, loudness is turned on, their bass is raised by 7 clicks, the treble is raised by 3 clicks, and the high is raised by 3 clicks as well. The Arc Ultra has its speech enhancement set to mid and the original Sonos Arc has its speech enhancement set to on. And we’re also going to be using the built in speakers found on the Sony Bravia 8 and those are going to be playing at max volume so that they can keep up. And today, we’re using the Sony Bravia 8 because I feel that if you’re looking at getting a premium soundbar, you probably have a premium tv that already has some decent built in speakers.
Sound Test
So like you may have just heard, since the Bravia 8 is a more premium tv, it has better sound. It uses its screen as a speaker, plus it has two built in tweeters and theres a built in sub as well. So as a result, the Bravia 8 gets very loud, voices are very well pronounced and this TV has a decent amount of bass that doesn’t bottom out thanks to its built in subwoofer. Where as if you were to go with a more entry level tv, then you’re most likely going to have a pair of downward firing speakers that bounce sound off of the table, they dont get all that loud and at higher volumes the bass bottoms out. But like I have said multiple times already, I think its more likely that if you’re looking at a premium Soundbar, you’re going to have a more premium TV… but even if you have a more premium TV with better sound, you’re still going to be better off upgrading to a soundbar.
Now obviously, if you were to upgrade to any soundbar, you’re going to get a lot more volume, a lot better instrument separation, a lot better detail and a lot more bass. And if we were to compare the Sonos Arc Ultra to the Sonos Arc… I feel the Sonos Arc Ultra is brighter, and it sounds more open. Where as with the Original Sonos Arc, instrument separation isn’t a good, and theres a little less detail in the highs, but I did notice that the original Sonos Arc had more phsycialty in its bass. Overall, I feel that if you already have a the original Sonos Arc, if you were to upgrade to the Sonos Arc Ultra, you’re not going to notice a huge performance difference. Yes the Arc Ultra sound a little more open, but its not a night and day difference and you’re only going to be able to somewhat tell if you’re listening to these soundbars back to back. And Personally, I kind of prefer the sound of the Original Arc over the Arc Ultra cause it has more physicality in its bass.
With the Arc Ultra, this is a very bright sounding soundbar, its very vocals forward and it sounds more open. However, with the reduced bass that coming out of this sound bar, you’ll might not feel the scene as much as you would with the Original Sonos Arc. But with the Sonos Arc Ultra, the thing about this soundbar is that you can choose by how much to emphasis people’s voices, which is a big deal these days, so if you dont want it to sound so bright, you can always bring it down. But theres still the matter of that bass, the Ultra just doesn’t kick the walls as much as the original. But overall, with the Sonos Arc Ultra, this soundbar has improved instrument separation over the original, so it sounds more open, its has better details in the highs and people’s voices are more pronounced if you want them to be. And from a max volume standpoint, these two soundbars are very similar and they are going to have no problem filling a large living room with sound and you can even use them to host parties with. I just wish the Arc Ultra had more kick in its bass and I also wish that it has an HDMI in port so that you can plug in your blue ray player or PlayStation.