Skip to main content
Ryan S
Retired Sonos Staff
May 6, 2020

Meet Arc, Brilliant sound for your TV

Related content:Hardware
  • May 6, 2020
  • 550 replies
  • 51464 views
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. 

bYRNZl3l6ouXNXqPq--kJwL9X4Hsv5-iWNYinpacIU-5-FY3CgN6-7PcbJzxeMMbhqV40WebxzfCCVxoPgDObYdrZGNH_A0jIsJW9i0KwiWmaDBvKcs7p5Yh-sOBZcHkximkoWu6

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. 

 

DQWhTCGCPaVFcDCO4zOsuR-17Tzj5o4vyWB8BxrHc4zOUbI7yrY_onZ6gcY9jIM62ejbLPlCWNndBrda3lKOZe5UUZvmbdr-z98sFkpGtoghniW9hJiRdIEV1CLNri7K-Cnwj4o0

 

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.

    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.

    550 replies

    Avid Contributor III
    June 12, 2020

    I received mine yesterday and set it up with 2 Ikea Sonos Symponisk lamps as rear speakers in a surround system.

    First of all, the sound is silky smooth and it puts out a nice rich bass even without sub. For music I have set the surround system to "full sound" in the app. The Symphonisk lamps just disappear when set to "ambient" surround setting and the music becomes very front-loaded. In some ways I actually preferred the music from just the two lamps paired for stereo, before I added the Arc to the system. I really like being able to differentiate all the left and right stereo goblins in music, and the surround system makes that much harder. There might be a way to expand the stereophonic effect of music in the app but I am still getting familiarise with the app.

    At the moment I am disappointed that I can't seem to get Dolby Atmos out of my Xbox One to pass through my TV into the sound bar. This seems strange to me and I am not sure how to remedy it. Xbox One is my blu ray player as well as a game console, so if I cannot find a workaround this will be tragedy (I fear that Sonos not including an HDMI out in the Arc could be this device's undoing)

    My preferred film streaming platform is Disney+ but they have unfortunately stopped streaming in Atmos due to the COVID pandemic (in Europe, anyway) so without a blu ray player, an Xbox or Disney+ I have yet to really put the Dolby Atmos feature to the test. I guess i will have to upgrade to Netflix 4k to give Atmos a proper go. (Personally I feel Netflix UK lacks the catalogue of big films that most benefit from 4K and home theatre sound -  whilst Tiger King is great, I really don't need to hear it in 3D surround sound)

    Does anybody know for sure if those YouTube Dolby Atmos demo videos actually put out Atmos sound?

    jgatie
    June 12, 2020

    YouTube is all 2.0 stereo.  Download the demos from the Dolby site and play from a thumb drive.  You will be impressed.

    Also, you can set surrounds to Full for music sources in the surround settings for the room.  This will give full volume to the surrounds for non-TV sources.

    Trending Lyricist I
    June 12, 2020

    Arrived earlier today and sounds superb. No issues getting it set up other than having to wait for the Remote Control config step to time out (no option to skip).

    I was caught out by the optical adapter - I’d been assuming it would be female tso to male hdmi and would plug into the Arc, but it’s the other way around and plugs into the audio source. As such I had to unexpectedly lay hdmi cable as I’d been planning on using the existing optical cabling until an HDMI audio to eARC converter is available.

    (white Arc, ordered May 9th, California)

    Enthusiast II
    June 14, 2020

    Finally got my new LG C9 set up with the Arc. Done quite a bit of testing  and I can happily confirm that I get Atmos and have zero lip sync issues with the Arc connected to the TV via eARC (passthrough enables) using the following:

    Internal Apps (Netflix,Disney+, Amazon)

    Apple TV (Netflix, Disney+, Amazon)

    Xbox One  X 

    PS4 Pro (Only have DD content at the moment)

    Samsung UHD Player

    Very pleased with this as the audio delay from my old Panasonic TV via Arc was awful. Finally got rid of all my optical cables and switches from behind the TV.

    Atmos soundtracks sound amazing, filling the whole room. The S2 update also seems to have improved the sound coming out of my Play 1 rears. Overall very pleased with the upgrade. 
     

     

    Enthusiast II
    June 14, 2020

    At the moment I am disappointed that I can't seem to get Dolby Atmos out of my Xbox One to pass through my TV into the sound bar. This seems strange to me and I am not sure how to remedy it. Xbox One is my blu ray player as well as a game console, so if I cannot find a workaround this will be tragedy (I fear that Sonos not including an HDMI out in the Arc could be this device's undoing)

    My preferred film streaming platform is Disney+ but they have unfortunately stopped streaming in Atmos due to the COVID pandemic (in Europe, anyway) so without a blu ray player, an Xbox or Disney+ I have yet to really put the Dolby Atmos feature to the test. I guess i will have to upgrade to Netflix 4k to give Atmos a proper go. (Personally I feel Netflix UK lacks the catalogue of big films that most benefit from 4K and home theatre sound -  whilst Tiger King is great, I really don't need to hear it in 3D surround sound)

    Does anybody know for sure if those YouTube Dolby Atmos demo videos actually put out Atmos sound?

    Have you downloaded the Atmos app onto your  Xbox ? You need it to enable Atmos in the settings. 
    Im in the UK and I get Atmos from Disney+ via my AppleTV and also via the internal App in my TV. 

    Trending Lyricist I
    June 17, 2020

    Hoping someone might be able to help.  I just updated my Palybase with an Arc and using two Play 1’s for surrounds.  The Arc is connected via the supplied HDMI cable to the HDMI/ARC channel on my LGB7 OLED TV.  The audio settings on the TV are correct as far as I can tell. I have tried natives apps, apps from a 4k firestick and an Xbox.  None of them will play Atmos.  I have seen other say that they gave gotten it work and others who say that it doesn’t.  The LG’s firmware is up to date.  Not sure what to try next.

    Contributor I
    June 21, 2020

    I have an LG OLED B8P hooked up via ARC and can confirm I’m seeing Dolby Atmos sent to the Arc. However I’m seeing the audio lip sync lag which I’ve seen mentioned. Does anyone if there is a fix or whether it’s only via certain sources (e.g. AppleTV vs TV app). I’m having trouble finding Amazon Prime Video Atmos content to test the TV app vs the AppleTV app.

    TIA

    Renowned Enthusiast II
    June 26, 2020

    Had the ARC for a few about a week now, along with a sub and 2 rears. Previously had a Beam. At the moment im a bit underwhelmed by the ARC, its lacking a lot of mid sound and sounds tinny at times.  

    The Beam had a better overall sound to it. At the moment im more impressed by the sub. I previously had Samsung Q90r which did have a great sound, but had lots of issues in regards to disconnections etc. The Q90r had a great overall sound which this doesn't seem to have at the moment. I am hoping Sonos can improve the sound of it, as its not a cheap soundbar.

    Lyricist II
    July 1, 2020

    Some time ago I posted that HDFURY were working on a eARC solution. Its now in preorder : https://www.hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/ 

    I have a appletv, projector, Sonos Arc setup and this should fix all Dolby Atmos issues etc… Sounds super cool. I have nothing to do with HDFURY but i have spent so many hours trying to find a setup that would work with Sonos ARC (EARC solution). Hope it helps and please let me know if someone has a cheaper solution. Thanks

    Trending Lyricist I
    September 15, 2020

    Just one more HDMI socket on the Arc is all I would’ve needed to make this an easy buy.

    In the interests of simplicity they’ve nice again crippled their product and made it 100x more complicated than it should be.

    My use case;

    • LG C6 TV with ARC only (not changing this anytime soon as still want 3D)
    • Oppo UltraHD disc player itching to let loose with some full bandwidth Atmos via seperate audio only HDMI
    • Apple TV 4K (arggggh!)
    • Xbox One Pro ready to output Atmos
    • If I use ARC out from TV will only get downscaled DD+ and will run out of HDMI inputs

    I’m already looking for extra HDMI eARC splitters/switchers and I can’t see a way to get the full benefit of the upgrade from my Playbase. I did not intend becoming an expert on ARC and eARC this week but now thinking of buying an Sonos Arc I have to factor this into my decision.

    How much simpler it would have been to have another input on the Arc! I hope this wasn’t just about saving a couple of dollars in manufacture…..

    I think you hit it square on the head, Sonos’s objective was simplicity, but in pursuit of that simplicity it has cornered customers into figuring out how to make do with limited connectivity (hdmi), lack of DTS (again), and trying to find work arounds for eARC to avoid buying a brand new tv, since that is what over 90% of all customers are equipped with with their current TV’s.

    Sonos, you have created more hoops for many of us to jump through rather than make our lives simpler, and at a premium cost, bravo. 

     

    Still, one hell of a great sounding sound bar.