Review: The Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar is the closest I’ve gotten to movie theater sound at home

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Dune has become my go-to movie for testing soundbars. You can really judge TV speakers based on how that primal scream in the Dune score (you know the one) makes you feel.

“Huuh-hhhhh-yaaah, gohh-hyeh-ahhhhh!”

Does it enhance your enjoyment of the movie, or does it make you want to drop to your knees and pledge your allegiance to the Lisan al Gaib?

The Sonos Arc Ultra is a $999 premium soundbar from the smart home audio brand, and it promises unmatched surround sound thanks to the brand’s new Sound Motion technology, which works with Dolby Atmos to fill the room with realistic, perfectly realized sound. Ah, but does it live up to that promise and justify the high price tag? I believe it does. Let’s break it down.

Testing the Sonos Arc Ultra premium smart soundbar.
Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar specs

Sonos’s new flagship soundbar, released in 2024, doesn’t shy away from its premium status. It’s an impressive piece of hardware, inside and out.

• Surround sound: 9.1.4 channel spatial audio

• Drivers: 14 (seven tweeters, six mid-woofers, one woofer)

• Amplifiers: 15 Class-D digital amplifiers

• Dolby Atmos sound: Yes

• HDMI eARC connection: Yes

• Microphone on/off switch: Yes

• Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth 5.3, Apple AirPlay 2

• Dimensions: 2.95 x 46.38 x 4.35 inches

• Weight: 13.01 pounds

Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar audio performance

I recently reviewed the $499 Bose Smart Soundbar, and in my review, I called Bose the audio equivalent of a boring Windows laptop from HP or Dell. It does the job, but you have to wonder about the branding and design, or lack thereof. If Bose is Windows, then that makes Sonos the Apple of the home audio world, even if it doesn’t quite rise to the level of everyone’s favorite fruit company.

In terms of audio performance, the Arc Ultra impressed me. I tested this soundbar with sound-focused movies, including A Quiet Place: Day One, Dune, and Dune: Part 2. (Dune won the Oscar for Best Sound, and Dune: Part 2 was nominated for the same in the upcoming 97th Academy Awards.) While a single soundbar can’t compete with the booming speakers you’ll hear in a movie theater, this speaker gave me the closest match to that experience I’ve ever had in my living room.

Testing the Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar.
Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

The Arc Ultra is almost as wide as my 65-inch TV.
Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

Now, I wanted to test this soundbar without additional components. If you want the ultimate Arc Ultra experience, you’ll need to pair it with a subwoofer and other Sonos speakers. (You can buy a bundle with these components for $2,396 at the Sonos online store.) But even without extra audio firepower, I could feel the bass in my chest. It really felt like sandworms were exploding out of the desert all around me. Still, if you consider yourself a cinephile or audiophile and want to go full bore, you’ll need to fork over an extra $1,000 or more for the full home theater experience.

I also test new soundbars with my personal music testing playlist, listening to highly layered tracks from Michael Jackson, Florence and the Machine, and Radiohead. The overall sound clarity and balance were so good that I’ll be using this as my home party speaker from now on. Thanks to two upward-facing drivers, this speaker really did fill my living room with sound, though it’s not designed to deliver true 360-degree sound.

What about the dialogue enhancement mode? This is the only area where I wasn’t 100 percent satisfied. To be clear, it absolutely did make dialogue clearer and easier to understand, and even the “Low” enhancement setting was good enough. However, I felt the overall sound balance when using this mode with TV was better with the Bose Smart Soundbar I recently tested.

Using the Sonos Speech Enhancement feature.

Credit: Screenshot: Sonos

Credit: Screenshot: Sonos

Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar design: Pros and cons

Now, in terms of aesthetics, the Arc Ultra puts other soundbars to shame. Because of its size, you’ll need a wide TV stand for it (it’s also really hard to photograph, though that’s more of a me problem).

I’ve written before that soundbars don’t leave much opportunity for design, but Sonos proved me wrong. This is an attractive piece of hardware that cuts an impressive figure on my entertainment stand. I do have one quibble. As you can see in the photos below, this is taller than the average soundbar, and it comes just even with the bottom bevel of my Samsung flatscreen, which is not ideal.

I’d recommend mounting the Arc Ultra soundbar.
Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

I did encounter one big problem while testing this soundbar. When I tried to use the touch controls (on the left-hand side of the speaker, there’s a touch-enabled volume slider), the soundbar flew up to max volume, and by the time I figured out how to turn it down, my ear drums were pounding. Of course, who’s really using the touch controls on a soundbar?

Testing the touch controls…
Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

…and I’d recommend avoiding them.
Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

Sonos Arc Ultra is super user-friendly

These days, anyone with a teensy bit of tech savviness should be able to set up a gadget like this in minutes. Even by modern standards, the Arc Ultra was effortless to connect. Unlike the Bose Smart Soundbar (which came with its own remote), it instantly synced with my TV and remote. This process literally required a single tap on the screen. Connecting Spotify, Amazon Music, and Alexa took just a couple of clicks in the Sonos app.

This speaker also adjusts its audio to match the architecture and acoustics of the room, a process Sonos calls Trueplay. Following the directions on the app, I was able to set this up effortlessly. The Sonos Arc Ultra is also compatible with the brand’s Ace headphones, so you can easily swap the audio back and forth between the two with the press of a button.

I connected the soundbar to my TV with a single tap on my iPhone.
Credit: Screenshot: Sonos

Syncing third-party apps can be done with a few clicks.
Credit: Screenshot: Sonos

I like that this soundbar doubles as a smart speaker. Even when the TV is off, I can use the voice control to check the weather or set timers. And for security-minded folks, a physical microphone on/off switch lets you cut power to the microphone, although I can’t verify this with 100 percent certainty.

Besides the touch control boo-boo I mentioned already, I haven’t had any issues using this speaker, which is why it got the highest user-friendliness score I’ve ever given a product as a Mashable reviewer: 4.9/5.

Unboxing the Sonos Arc Ultra.
Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

Connecting the HDMI and power cables.
Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

Is the Sonos Arc Ultra really worth $999?

I’m the perfect person to review Sonos’s fancy new soundbar for a simple reason: I’m not a big Sonos fan at the moment. I had a very mid experience with the original Sonos Roam portable Bluetooth speaker, which had a tinny sound. I’ve also had problems with Sonos smart home speakers dropping WiFi connections for no reason.

So, I came into my Sonos Arc Ultra review very skeptical, but this soundbar won me over.

In the “Bang for your buck” category, I rated this product as a 4.7/5. That’s because I actually think you need to spend more on a soundbar. If you aren’t spending at least $400 to $500, then you might as well stick with your TV’s speakers. And if you want a true home theater experience — and why else would you buy a soundbar — then you should be prepared to spend even more on a premium Sennheiser or Sonos system like this.

If you’re already in the Sonos ecosystem (and even if you’re not), the Arc Ultra offers movie theater-like sound in your living room. And thanks to the smart features and easy connectivity, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to set it up and start listening. You can buy the Arc Ultra for $999 at Amazon, Sonos, and other retailers.