sonos arc ultra and beam 2 low volume

Both work equally well at ‘low”volumes. Percentages are relatively meaningless, unfortunately, but with either device, if you want greater bass, I’d recommend adding a Subwoofer. It can be a Sonos mini sub, or a full sized one, either would fit the bill.

If you don’t want to go with a sub (and you should), you can look in the EQ settings and turn on “Loudness”. That will give you a little bass boost at lower volumes. You can also adjust bass and treble from there. Running Trueplay will adjust for your environment, which can help. It works well for some. Others prefer it turned off.

But you can’t go wrong with either soundbar.

Choosing isn't related to sound levels, at least not directly, the Arc will play louder if that mattered.

More important is your room and listening position where the Arc does better with larger rooms and more distant listening positions, the up-firing Atmos drivers are alsoa nice addition over the Beam.

Get the Arc Ultra and a Sub 4 and you will be very happy.

Get the Beam and a mini-Sub and you will also be happy.

If you could compare the two directly you would prefer the Arc set, unless your room is small and you sit close.

I haven’t used the beam but I run the Ultra at pretty low volumes and it’s fine. The special driver in it also gives a bit more low end than a regular sound bar would and a good replacement for my Playbase that had a ported woofer. 

Hey all,

Firstly thanks to all for previous comments on my queries.

I managed to go to a shop that put me in a demo room to check out some netflix. I tried the arc ultra and beam 2. 

From my opinion they both had good vocals and bass but arc had more mid range. These is more appealing to me. But having a guess. When at home I think I will be hitting 20% volume on arc ultra. My question and concern is arc ultra does not fully shine until 25-30% upwards. Neighbours unfortunately will make it harder to go 30% up. At home I will be about 9-10 feet from soundbar. I would hate to spend all the money on arc and not be able to fully appreciate and utilise the arc as intended. Anyone with user feedback on arc between 15-20% sound optimisation at this level and optimal lowest i need to meet. Also same questions for the beam. 

Thanks all

I think you are overthinking this too much.  No sound system is going to be optimum at lower volumes (“lower” being relative) because in general the human ear is less sensitive to highs/lows at lower volumes.  That’s why the Loudness control was invented, and why salespeople have been duping the public by bumping the volume on the more expensive components since Edison first waxed a cylinder.

But anything is better than the tinny sound coming out of TV speakers, and Trueplay should optimize for the room so that it sounds optimal for each volume setting, even if you aren’t listening at reference levels.  Would reference level be better?  Sure, but as you stated, reference level is out of the question for your situation.  So stop chasing it and be happy with what you get. 

I’ve noticed that Trueplay runs at 50 of volume, so if you don’t will listening higher than 20 of volume you could try to set the maximum level of volume to 50, then Trueplay will tune at 25 of volume (real, 50% of 50%) and with lower levels of volume you will hear better. As all says turn on the loudness setting, jgatie already said why.

That’s exactly what I did with my Beam that mostly plays at low volumes.