Sonos Amp Home theater vs Sonos Arc, my impressions for music and movies

  • 14 June 2020
  • 8 replies
  • 9351 views

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

I wanted to revist my Sonos Amp setup vs my Sonos Arc setup, and give you guys a few thoughts. I posted a few days ago comparing some initial thoughts vs the Beam, Playbar and Amp, and I had a few more thoughts on the Amp vs Arc specifically.

 

Setup 1:

Sonos Amp

Rel Sub

BW 685 Speakers

Sonos Play:1 left and right

Connected via Optical Adapter (HDMI Arc makes the Rel Sub hum)

 

Setup 2:

Sonos Arc

Sonos Sub

Play One left and Right

 

A few quick notes on some questions people may have:

 

1.) Is the Arc worth it over the Beam and Playbar? I think it is, especially considering it will be around for years. It has noticeable improvements vs both. Beam Vs Playbar depends on your room size, but Arc vs everything else is more clear for me because the Arc has in general a better sound, sound stage, and atmos.

 

2.) Do you need to add a Sub or rear speakers?

a.) If you have to choose, I'd add the rear speakers first, they will get you more of a surround sound experience in movies

 

b.) The Sub helps to balance your sound, and it removes some of the work from the soundbar so it can do the higher ranges more freely and not worry about the bass as well.

 

C.) The answer is yes, if you want the full experience, I'd complete the setup. You can get a very nice experience with just the Arc, too, but you're missing some immersion. You can add little by little as your budget allows too, but ultimately I'd recommend the entire setup.

 

3.) If you're a big music listener, I'd definitely go towards an Amp setup, or the very least get some Play:5s in there, that will do you more justice than just a soundbar for music. (But for home theater the soundbars are great)

 

For Home theater:

 

Sonos Amp setup:

 

1.) The Amp in a home theater setup is surprisingly good, even with the phantom center channel.

2.) Feels closer to a traditional home theater setup with a receiver, here's how I describe this:

a.) Very good separation between the left and right speakers, it has clear, and very punchy sound in action movies. Things like glass breaking are super crisp. Dialog and center channel are very clear as well, does a great job.

 

3. The Amp setup does much better in a large room vs the Arc. The Arc works best in a room with 4 walls so the sound can bounce. The Amp setup has a wider sound stage so it can handle an open room better, it's not as reliant on the walls as the Arc.

 

The Arc setup:

1.) Obviously you get Atmos, when the movie has the effect, you do get more of a "from above" and around you feeling vs the Amp setup, but usually this only happens like 2-3 times in a movie. Aside from that, feels slightly less punchy and crisp vs the Amp setup with the BW 685.

2.) In a large open room, Amp is better like I said. But in a room with 4 closer walls, the Arc has some advantages with Atmos.

 

Which would I choose if I had to keep one?

 

1.) If i'm a serious music listener, the Amp setup is far superior for musical fidelity and sound stage, and it does a great job at home theater too; surprisingly good. If I only had a large open room, I'd choose this, too.

 

2.) if I have a room with 4 walls that's more enclosed, and music is secondary, the Arc will be fantastic as it provides a great home theater experience.

 

3.) Both setups have more than enough power for anything, even the Arc in a large room. (Though I still prefer the Amp in a large room, due to the wider sound stage.) But in terms of power and volume, both setups will satisfy most imo. I generally prefer a full, well rounded sound at a more reasonable volume, especially for night listening though.

 

For music:

The Amp setup is substantially better for certain music in terms of a clean, tonally pleasant sound. Here are my impressions, basically a 2.1 setup with the rears set to ambient.

1.) Wider sound stage, things like Jazz and Classical Piano music have a beautiful singing and "ring" that is very pleasant, due impart to the BW speakers I'd say. Very open, beautiful sound

2.) Lots of "energy" with punchy music and tight bass

 

How is the Arc setup for music?

1.) For Dolby Atmos music, i.e via Tidal on Apple TV 4k, you definitely get some great surround effects depending on the track. A nice, full sound. More immersive than the Amp setup, if that's what you want.

 

2. For regular music listening, still sounds great, but is missing some of that magic the Amp setup has - things like piano music don't sound nearly as wide in terms of sound stage, and doesn't have that crsip and clear tonality like the Amp does - makes sense, we're talking 2 speakers here vs the Soundbar which is more concentrated in one area.

 


This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

8 replies

Interesting read.  I’ve had the Amp and it was good with sub, rear ones but so is the Arc/sub/ones which is what I use for home theater..  For music I have two fives on either side of my TV.  The Arc combination does true play and works very well for HT but not good enough for music to me.  The Amp didn’t give me the cohesive feel for home theater that the Arc does and dialog was good but not nearly as good as the Arc.  So I opted for the best of both worlds :-)

Userlevel 1
Badge

Thank you very much for this. I was just deciding between an ARC or the exact same setup as you bar BW686s2 instead of 685 (I have the speakers and REL sub already). The 30% discount makes a big difference too but seems like as I listen to music more and have a beam 5.0 installed in front room this would cover both areas in the bedroom and save myself £180. Advantage of that is I can keep my play 5 gen1 pair too as they only run on the S1 app.

I have a home theater setup with the Sonos amp powering left and right sonance in wall speakers, a sonos sub and back left and right sonos ones. 4.1 setup but with phantom center it sounds just as good as 5.1. 
 

pros:  wide sound stage. One remote via hdmi arc to adjust sound. Can also easily use sonos app to play music. Incredible sound quality all around with tv audio and movies. 
 

cons: lip sync issues with my LG tv using native apps. Figured out a setting on the LG that seems to work 90% of the time, but still causes issues with some things like certain YoutubeTV channels. Only able to process DD 5.1. No Atmos or DTS at all. 
 

For me the sound quality and ease of use for my family (one remote) was worth the cons. I’m also probably going to invest in a HD Fury Arcana in the future which strips the audio signal into a separate hdmi stream for the amp (the lip sync issues are caused by the LG tv processing video too slow). I’ve read this clears up all lip sync issues instantly. 
 

Most people I have over are blown away by the sound. Unless you had atmos soundtrack side by side it would be tough to notice a difference. But in the future when sonos makes an amp that works with atmos (not a soundbar like the arc) I’ll probably spring for that. 

Userlevel 1

So is the consensus to go with the Amp (with a good set  of speakers), Sub, and two Ones for both movies and music if you have a preference for music listening?

My wife has a hard time with dialog so I am worried that the Amp route may cause a problem with it having a phantom center channel.  Is the phantom channel extremely clear with dialog (conversations)?

Does anyone feel the Amp is too bright once the volume is turned up?

 

 

Dialogue with amp is very good. Phantom channel is quite solid. There is a tv dialogue enhancer you can turn on, which you can also do with the other sonos sound bars as well. 

It can be a bit bright, yes. But you get greater clarity and sound separation between L and R compared with a sound bar.

The amp cannot do Dolby atmos or DTS. The arc can do atmos. For some that is a game changer. 
 

 

Userlevel 1
Badge +2

I swapped out my Playbar from my 5.1set up with a Sub and two Play One’s for an Amp with large Paradigm floor standing reference speakers about a year ago and it’s been a big step up in terms overall  sound quality in my opinion. Music concerts in 5.1 now have much more power and depth. Movies are similar enhanced.

I don't find the phantom centre channel to be a problem and I’ve adjusted the EQ to tame some of the brightness which was apparent when I used the Amp in it’s previous use as 2 channel music playback. It’s debatable whether I still need the Sub with the speakers I’m using and I’ve had not knock back the EQ slightly as the bottom end sound reproduction is immense.

TV dialogue is easily enhanced using the Sonos App as others have mentioned.

My only niggle is the lack of obvious Atmos capability. I’m hoping that Sonos develop an upwards firing rear speaker but may go for a complete change of emphasis with a different HT set up in time if this is not forthcoming as I don't believe the Arc will match the music playback of my current speaker set up. 

Userlevel 1
Badge +2

An interesting review here as well

https://allhomecinema.com/review-sonos-amp-2019-as-a-tv-solution/

 

Not exactly similar, but I’m about to dive into a Sonos set up….and if you have another area of community--happy to hit that, but saw comments around the AMP versus ARC and wanted to get that addressed with my scenarios below.

600 sq. foot outdoor patio-covered - pitched roof about 12 feet

3 sides are part of the house and the back side to backyard is open.

Outdoor tv to be mounted on fire place and here’s what I’m trying to figure out…(amp and sub) would be well covered; likely in a small rack

  1. ARC+SUB+2 SL1’s for both music and TV  (About $1900)
  2. AMP+SUB+4 ceiling (Sonance w/SONOS) for both music and TV (About $2600)

I don’t need top of the line surround for outside, but we will be watching movies and sports and would like something to give a good boost. I have a passive soundbar with subwoofer upstairs (powered by a Yamaha V685), and that does great with movies.

I also want to make sure the music sounds great.  Not tinny, not as if it's not getting enough power.

So, if the AMP’s phantom center can deliver well, I might lean that way (which is option #2); albeit more expensive.

 

Thanks!