So the Sonos Beam Gen 2 isn’t all that different from the original, but the Sonos Arc Ultra has been completely redesigned on the inside from its predecessor and its going to give you much better openess and immersion. Now obviously, the Arc Ultra is going to give you much better overall performance over the Sonos Beam Gen 2, but today we’re going to see by how much and if its worth it for you to upgrade.
Now first off, both of these soundbars are fully self contained systems, as in they dont 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 these soundbars 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 pairing them with a Sony Bravia 8 TV, cause I feel that if you’re looking at a premium soundbar like the Arc Ultra, then you’ll might already have a premium TV. Where as with the Sonos Beam Gen 2, you’ll might have a more entry level tv that doesn’t sound as good.
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So first theres the design of these soundbars, the Arc Ultra is a lot larger and a lot better looking than the Beam 2. The arc ultra has a length of 46 and a half inches and it weighs in at 13 pounds where as the Beam 2 has a length of 25 and a half inches and it weighs in at 6.4 pounds. So if you plan on wall mounting your soundbar, then you’ll might want to go with the Beam 2 cause it smaller, and both of these soundbars just plug in via an AC port and theres not external power brick that you have to worry about hiding. And I also want to point out that I really like the cables that come with Sonos sounders cause they are very long and they are very flexible. However, I dont like that these soundbars dont come with wall mounting kits cause those are sold separately which I do feel is ridiculous.
But if you plan on just placing these soundbars on a table… I feel the Arc Ultra looks a lot better than the Beam 2 cause the arc ultra has this floating affect to it. But more importantly, from a materials standpoint, both of these soundbars have a mostly plastic body which do a great job of not causing any reflections. They both have an indicator light on the front which can be deactivated through the app, which I really like. And they both have built in media controls buttons which you can also deactivate through the app which I also really like.
But when it comes to ports, these soundbars are a little too similar for their own good. Now both of these soundbars have an ethernet port… so you can hard wire them into your network. But I think thats pointless cause I would rather hard wire my tv into my network and whatever soundbar that is connected is going to enjoy the benefits… but more importantly both of these soundbars have a single HDMI port.
Now for the Beam 2, a single HDMI port is expected cause of its price range… but for the Arc Ultra, I would have liked to have seen an HDMI in port so that you can directly plug in your blue ray player or playstation… and Sonos is just being stubborn as always cause a lot of people were asking for this on the original Sonos Arc.
Now with both of soundbars you can also use them as smart speakers if you want. But personally I dont like using my soundbar as a smart speaker cause I dont want my content to be interrupted if someone says Alexa, or hey Sonos. Maybe they do it on purpose, maybe they do it by accident. And I dont like it from a privacy standpoint. If im going to use a voice assistant, ill use it on my phone. But the thing that I really like about the Sonos Arc ultra is that it has a physical button on it so that you can physically disconnect the mic on this sound bar. Where as the beam 2 doesn’t.
Now when it comes to the Apps for these soundbars, you can go in and adjust the sound to your liking, and both of these soundbars also go through the same calibration process where they will use your phone’s mic to measure your seating position, and you also have to walk around so that the calibration process is tuned to the shape and surfaces in your room. But the thing that I dont like about this app is that it so cluttered cause all of the different settings that you have to get into are in different pages. And since these are third party soundbars, you’re going to have to reach for you phone all of the time if you want to adjust your sound. Cause now with all of these different streaming services everything has different mixing. So I constantly have to grab my phone and adjust the sound. Where as if you were to get a first party soundbar for your tv, in this case we have a sony soundbar with a sony tv, a lot of these sound settings are easy to adjust directly from the tv it self. Which is very nice. So I really feel that Sonos needs to declutter their app if they want to better compete against first party soundbars.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up, these soundbars are super different. Now the Beam Gen 2 has a total of 4 speakers. 2 that shoot out the front and two that shoot out the sides. It also has a single frontward firing tweeter and it has a total of 3 passive radiators. Two on the front and one on the back. But most importantly, this soundbar does not have any upward firing drivers. Where as with the Sonos Arc Ultra, this soundbar 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. But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest, both of these soundbars are playing at 75% volume so that you can get a sense of the volume difference and they’re both playing with their bass raised by 7 clicks and the table raised by 3 clicks and they both have their speech enhancement turned on. And we’re also going to be using the built in speakers found on the Sony Bravia 8 but those are going to be running at max volume.
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, since the Sonos Arc Ultra is larger and it has a lot more hardware going for it. This sound bar gets a lot louder than the Sonos Beam Gen 2. The Sonos Arc ultra is going to have no problem filling a large living room with sound, and I would even go as far to say that you can use it to hold host parties with while at home. Small parties though. Where as with the Beam gen 2. This soundbar is going to be better suited for a medium or small living room or for your bedroom. And if you do plan on having lots of people over with this sound bar, dont be suprsied if the Beam 2 gets drowned out with your gust’s talking. But long story short, yeah the Arc Ultra gets a lot louder than the Beam 2.
But more importantly from a sound quality standpoint, the Arc Ultra sounds a lot more open than the Beam 2 thanks to the additional tweeters giving you better operation between the mids and highs. The Arc Ultra also sounds a lot more immersive thanks to the upwards firing speakers that just aren’t present on the Beam 2, so that Arc Ultra gives you a better sense of verticality. Which is super important for dolby Atmos. And finally theres the bass, surprisingly the Beam 2 does an impressive job of keeping up with the bass found on the Arc Ultra, thanks to all of its passive radiators. But the Arc Ultra has more bass than the Beam 2… but not by as much as I want to. I wish the Arc Ultra had more bass.
But when it comes to the overall sound signature of these two soundbars, I actually prefer the Sonos Beam 2 over the Arc Ultra. With the Arc Ultra, this soundbar is a lot more vocals forward than the Beam 2. And ive found that at higher volumes the Arc ultra can get a little ear pricing. Where as the beam 2 sounds a little more balanced by comparison and the vocals dont get at bright. So with the Arc Ultra, you do want to go in and lower the treble and play around with the voice enhancement.
But with all of that being said, obviously if you were to go with the Arc Ultra over the Beam gen 2, you’re going to get a lot more volume, and your media is going to sound a lot more open thanks to the additional tweeters and speakers. My main critique is that the Arc Ultra can sound a little too bright sometimes, and I wish that it had more bass. Nonetheless the Arc Ultra is a decent option for your large living room where as the Beam 2 is better suited for your smaller living room or bedroom. However, if your TV manufacturer makes first party soundbars for your tv, then I think you should consider those options before going with a third party option like one of these. If you have a first party sound bar, your going to get benefits like being able to quickly and easily adjust your sound setting directly from your TV, and your tv’s built in speakers will work in conjunction with your soundbar to give you a stronger center channel. Where as if you go with a third party option like with one of these, you’re not going to get any of those benefits, and if you’re going to adjust your sound setting then you’re going to have to dig through Sonos’s cluttered app.