Meet Arc, Brilliant sound for your TV

Related products: Hardware News
Meet Arc, Brilliant sound for your TV

Available on June 10th, Sonos Arc is the premium smart soundbar for TV, movies, music, gaming, and more. Arc brings brilliant surround sound in 3D, along with immersive music, elegant design, and voice control built in. Experience shows, films, and games with the precise and immersive sound of Dolby Atmos, and enjoy incredible sound streaming music, podcasts, and audiobooks. 

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Extraordinary sound meets elegant design

Eleven high-performance drivers, including custom elliptical woofers and precisely angled side tweeters, produce vivid detail and impressive bass for home cinema and music streaming. Arc's upward-firing drivers create a multi-dimensional soundstage that moves around you, rendering every whisper and explosion with dramatic clarity, detail, and depth. 

 

With its elongated shape, soft profile, and seamless façade, Arc discreetly mounts to the wall or sits beneath the TV without pulling focus. When mounted, a magnetic sensor detects the orientation and smartly adjusts the EQ to temper bass resonance.

 

Arc’s sound was specially tuned with the help of Oscar-winning sound engineers to emphasize the human voice so you can always follow the story. The advanced processing creates five phased-array channels that masterfully deliver sound to your ears from all directions at the exact right moment. Use enhanced Trueplay tuning technology to optimize the sound for the unique acoustics of your room, even calibrating the height channels for precise localization. 

 

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You can also make a surround sound setup with a pair of our surround capable Sonos speakers, such as a pair of Sonos Ones, or amplify it all with a Sub for an extraordinary surround experience. 

 

Some more details on Sonos Arc:

  • Simple to set-up. Plug Arc into power and then connect it to your TV using the HDMI-ARC cord. Bring your phone up to Arc to automatically pair and securely transfer WiFi credentials using near-field communication (NFC).

  • HDMI eARC. Increased bandwidth supports high-quality audio and has lip-sync compensation built in.

  • Dolby Atmos. Play Atmos and Atmos-encoded audio to play from your collection and favorite services through your TV’s HDMI ARC or eARC connection.

  • Ambient light sensor. Arc detects how bright the room is and automatically adjusts the brightness of the LEDs to be visible but not distracting.

  • Automatic remote sync. Arc connects to your TV's HDMI eARC port with a single cable and automatically syncs with your remote.

  • Control your way. Control Sonos Arc with your voice, the Sonos app, your existing TV remote, your favorite music service’s app, or AirPlay 2. Capacitive touch controls for play, pause, skip tracks, adjust the volume, and group rooms just by tapping or swiping the top of the soundbar. LED indicates status, mute status and voice feedback.

  • Smart voice recognition. A four far-field microphone array used for advanced beamforming and multichannel echo cancellation makes sure you’re heard, even when the music is blasting, even when playing in immersive surround sound. For privacy, turn the microphone off with a tap. The LED light is hardwired and will always indicate if the microphones are enabled or if your voice assistant of choice isn't listening.

  • Optimized for your listening. From within the Sonos App, tap Speech Enhancement so you never miss a word, or Night Sound to amplify quiet noises and reduce loud ones so you can enjoy late night TV without waking the entire house.

  • Tune with Trueplay. Trueplay puts the speaker-tuning capability of the pros in the palm of your hands, adapting and optimising the sound of the speaker to the unique acoustics of the room. iOS device required.

  • Low profile and compact size. The dimensions are 3.4 x 45 x 4.5 inches (87 x 1141.7 x 115.7 mm) H x W x D and Arc weighs 13.78 lbs (6.25 kg).

Pre-order today on Sonos.com in stunning black with matte finish or white with matte finish for $799 US (€899 EUR, €799).

We’ve announced details for the Sonos Five and new Sonos Sub. You can also check out our blog for some great stories.

Any news about Atmos-support being rolled out to the Sonos AMP and/or Beam?


I wouldn’t expect it, the hardware is not designed with upward firing speakers. 


Any news about Atmos-support being rolled out to the Sonos AMP and/or Beam?

 

Neither of them has the circuitry, nor the hardware needed.  The Amp has only two channels.and can’t possibly carry an Atmos signal to upward firing speakers while also powering the two fronts. And the Beam has no upward firing speakers.


While I appreciate that the hardware is different,  I believe it would make sense to enable support for the new audio format. There are several receivers and sound bars out here that can make use of an Atmos signal - at least interpret it - without up-firing speakers. 
 

I can only assume that the Arc was already in development when developing the Sonos Amp so I would be surprised if support for Atmos was not considered for the Amp. Intended for installers willing to pay for more expensive speakers and installments, for instance using three Amps to make use of an Atmos signal probably would make sense for some as many are already prepared to use two amps for 5.1. 
 

@Ryan S: Any official word on this?


I was about to pre order one until I saw it won't work with the play:1s  I'm currently using as rears with my beam.  Quite disappointed since I only brought it as set around 9 months ago.

 

Moderator edit for clarification: A matched pair of Play:1s or any other pair of Sonos players that support Sonos S2 are able to become a surrounds with Arc.


Any news about Atmos-support being rolled out to the Sonos AMP and/or Beam?

DD+ would be nice.


No news to share today about bringing support for Dolby Atmos to Beam or Amp, but I’ll share your interest with the team. Atmos itself does require upward firing speakers, or ceiling mounted ones, which as Airgetlam and jgatie suggest, aren’t available today for Beam or the Amp.

 


I was about to pre order one until I saw it won't work with the play:1s  I'm currently using as rears with my beam.  Quite disappointed since I only brought it as set around 9 months ago.

 

Not so sure that is the case. Sonos mentions the One because this is essentially a sales announcement, and Play:1’s are no longer on sale.   The fact they say “a pair of our surround capable Sonos speakers, such as a pair of Sonos Ones” probably means the Play:1s will work, for they have always been surround capable.


Wow.  I like it.

 

Given that it is eARC capable, does this mean that it supports the codecs Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital TrueHD?  (Going to answer my own question from the product page)

 

Sonos Arc can connect to TVs with eARC, ARC, or optical outputs. For greatest compatibility, eARC is recommended.

 

If you connect to a TV with eARC, the Dolby audio formats supported include Dolby Atmos, TrueHD, MAT, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby Digital.

 

If you connect to a TV using ARC, the Dolby audio formats supported are dependent on your TV model and manufacturer. The TV may be capable of sending Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby Digital. An ARC connection cannot support TrueHD or MAT.

 

If you connect to a TV using the optical adapter, the Dolby audio formats supported are dependent on your TV model and manufacturer. The TV may be capable of sending Dolby Digital. An optical connection cannot support Dolby Atmos, TrueHD, MAT, or Dolby Digital Plus.

 

Is a separate wall mounting bracket required for wall mounting?

 


@jgatie I hope so, but the ordering page has the following on it.

 

 


No news to share today about bringing support for Dolby Atmos to Beam or Amp, but I’ll share your interest with the team. Atmos itself does require upward firing speakers, or ceiling mounted ones, which as Airgetlam and jgatie suggest, aren’t available today for Beam or the Amp.

 

Thank you for the honest reply @Ryan S. Being such new products as both the Beam and the Amp are (the Amp in particular), it is a shame to see them already being held back by inferior hardware such as HDMI Arc vs eArc. Disappointing to now have the whole lineup updated and already seeing essential hardware gaps in the lineup.
 

If I am understanding things right, this also means that the Arc is the only product which support Dolby Digital Plus which has been a significant issue with the previous speakers. This is a big difference and surely a disappointment to all owners of the Beam and Amp.
 

On topic, the Arc seems like a cool achievement though. If I was not moving to a build-in system, it would definitely be on my buy-list. 


Today I use two Play:3 as surround to my Playbar. Would the Arc have comparable sound as this setup, or is my setup today better? Sadly the Play:3 are not compatible with the Arc for surround use.. 


Is a separate wall mounting bracket required for wall mounting?

Yes, there is a separate wall mount bracket, or you can use the Playbar wall mount if you have one.

 

EDIT

The above is incorrect. The Playbar wall mount is not compatible with the Arc. You can use the same drill holes when exchanging the mounts, but Arc has a smaller footprint than Playbar. My apologies for getting this wrong. Arc is only compatible with the Arc wall mount available at: https://www.sonos.com/shop/wall-mount-for-arc.html


@Ryan S Can you confirm my understanding on Dolby DD Plus - that this is also exclusively supported by the Arc and not by the other recent products?


Today I use two Play:3 as surround to my Playbar. Would the Arc have comparable sound as this setup, or is my setup today better? Sadly the Play:3 are not compatible with the Arc for surround use.. 

The Play:3s are compatible as surrounds for the Arc. And it will be a pretty big improvement from the Playbar to the Arc.


@Codefish, those are the only ones sold currently by Sonos. As there isn’t a disclaimer in the announcement, I’d take the assumption that it will work with existing PLAY:1s. 


@Ryan S Can you confirm my understanding on Dolby DD Plus - that this is also exclusively supported by the Arc and not by the other recent products?

We haven’t shared any details on adding new formats to Beam or other home theater products. Just the Arc coming with new support. I’ll make sure the team knows you’re interested, but don’t have any news to share today.


@Ryan S Thanks! Then I’ll pre-order one, especially if the Play:3 are compatible. They weren’t mentioned on the product page. But as mentioned above, it’s probably just because they aren’t sold as of right now. 


DTS :joy:


With Ryan confirming the Play:3 will work as surrounds … .you could then conclude the Play:1s (released after the Play:3s) will work fine as well for surrounds.

Interesting note that Ryan mentions how the surrounds become much more part of the sound with the Arc (I assume that has to do with Dolby Atmos).

 


@jgatie I hope so, but the ordering page has the following on it.

 

 

 

Ryan S confirmed above that the Play:3 can be used for surrounds, so the much newer Play:1 is probably good to go. 

 


@jgatie I hope so, but the ordering page has the following on it.

 

Ryan S confirmed above that the Play:3 can be used for surrounds, so the much newer Play:1 is probably good to go. 

 

Sorry for the confusion @Codefish and @lucasSWE, they’re looking into that FAQ right now. Generally they don’t include products on the Sales FAQ that we don’t sell currently. 


@Ryan S Can you confirm my understanding on Dolby DD Plus - that this is also exclusively supported by the Arc and not by the other recent products?

We haven’t shared any details on adding new formats to Beam or other home theater products. Just the Arc coming with new support. I’ll make sure the team knows you’re interested, but don’t have any news to share today.

 

It is too bad really. 
 

I had been planning well for this release and the S2-update. Managed to sell my Playbar, Play 3s and Playbase before any of the announcements as everything was pointing to all of these significant upgrades. Made good resale value on all of it and was just sitting tight for the release. 
 

However, as great as the Arc seems it is no use to me as I am doing a whole installation setup in a new house I’m building. Ihad my eyes set on the new Amp and was almost confident that any updated codec support coming with the new soundbar (the Arc) would surely also be supported by the almost completely new Amp. 

I was really not expecting for Sonos to have three completely new TV products with such fragmented codec support.

Given Sonos’ history of not updating their codec support, I simply don’t dare making the big investment on multiple Amps with no clear indication of DD Plus, Atmos or the like. Seems like 3rd party receivers for me and the expected arm wrestle with getting a Port to work. 
 

For any new Sonos buyers out there looking for TV-speakers my advice is simple: get the Arc or don’t get Sonos at all. 


Ryan, do the upfiring speakers play a role with non-dolby atoms content?  For example, when streaming music or playing dolby digitial content?


Hi 

will the arc be included in your trade up programme if you already own the playbar?