Dissapointing Atmos on Arc

The streaming platforms are fine. Won't be as good as true hd but there's not a massive difference. 

Shame you can't add the rears even the IKEA ones downstairs just for that bit extra. 

Yep - I would probably add One SLs if I had the option although I’m really impressed with Symfonisk. IKEA suggests cheap and cheerful but they are nice little units. I must admit I’m selling my One to pay for the Symfonisks. Sacrilege I know but the Alexa integration is ******** awful, it stops playing after a few songs unless on AirPlay and again the sound is OK but doesn’t blow me away. I’ll still miss it though, nice build quality.

If you can add them I highly recommend it. Really does make it miles better as does adding the sub, but then it does get pricey. Best demo for testing rears if you ever do add is get the movie Gravity with the Dolby Atmos true HD sound track. Probably one of the best sounding movies ever made. The difference of that movie without the rears is really huge. 

I dont own a sonos arc but i have demo’ed it. It’s also threads like these that steered me away from the ARC because i was heavily considering buying it. I went the Ambeo route, and i have a 15x12 room with 8ft popcorn ceiling (bad kind of textured ceiling for atmos) and the Ambeo dances all over it and my room with no problem. 

Another option to consider is the Ikea Symfonisk lamp speaker which is a One SL speaker unit for the rears. Sounds pretty good but I agree, not blown away by Atmos although the Arc is a pretty good soundbar

For me the ARC is nice to look at and ease of use is the best. Sound wise it’s suffered due to design I think, I’ve not been blown away with it since I’ve had mine, it’s just an ok sounding soundbar, Sonos need to bring some overhead rear speakers and allow control of the upfiring speakers on the ARC to give it some help.

Yep, I agree with the above comments which concur with my original post. The Arc is a nice product in the usual Sonos way...but Atmos it ain’t. It looks good, sounds good and is a joy to use but Atmos is a bit of an oversell. You need the grunt of something like the Ambeo I suppose (Garnetts43 - lucky you, it’s 3x the price, I couldn’t stretch to that!) Bit annoyed at Sonos though for mis-marketing this.

A sound bar all by itself can only do so much. If you want to experience full audio immersion with any home theater system, you must also include a subwoofer and a pair of rear surround speakers at the very least. And if you want to experience convincing height effects from Dolby Atmos, invest in a system with actual ceiling speakers. I think some people’s expectations are way too high using a piece of equipment that is very limited. 

Whilst I agree and did say earlier in the chat that I thought it might be too go to be true, I think responsibility also falls with the manufacturers to not over promise. Bear in mind too that folks have said they are getting quite good results with one box systems from other brands so it seems it can done to a degree. Just seems to me the Arc was bad choice on my part in some respects.

I would expect very little from a one box “solution”. When combined with rears and bass unit it sounds very good. The sound is far superior to the previous Sonos soundbar.

I guess it depends upon room placement and all the settings on the TV being correct (what fun that can be! - fortunately I have moved from the mess that Samsung persisted in being to LG which is a dream.

P.S. i listened to the most expensive in-store Samsung surround “system”. It sucked compared to the in-store Sonos setup.