Sonos Reveals Arc Ultra, The New Soundbar Featuring Sound Motion™
Today we are announcing the introduction of Sonos Arc Ultra, a new premium soundbar that also debuts the brand’s revolutionary transducer technology called Sound Motion™. A significant breakthrough in audio engineering, Sound Motion™ drastically reduces the size of the transducer while supercharging the bass, opening a new chapter in sound innovation where bigger, better sound can be delivered from smaller products. Arc Ultra delivers up to double the bass of its predecessor, with an unprecedented 9.1.4 spatial audio experience in a sleek, sophisticated design.
We are also introducing Sonos Sub 4, the next generation of our iconic subwoofer with a refreshed design and internals that elevate your favorite movies, hit shows and more with rumbling bass.
Arc Ultra: Breakthrough Sound for Your Home Theater
Built with first-of-its-kind technology and deep industry collaborations, Arc Ultra provides boosted bass, spine-tingling spatial audio with support for Dolby Atmos, and advanced Speech Enhancement for even more levels of control — all in a sleek package that blends into your space and complements large TVs.
Theater Sound in Your Living Room: Arc Ultra delivers a massive sound stage that precisely places every detail of sound in your room to envelop you in content. The all-new architecture features 14 Sonos-engineered drivers, including a Sound Motion™ woofer and a cluster of tweeters with waveguides on both ends to deliver a 9.1.4 spatial audio experience. Tune with Trueplay™ to pinpoint the best sound for your space, now available for both iOS and Android.
Never Miss a Word or Whisper: With a new center channel architecture, Arc Ultra maximizes vocal clarity so it’s easier to follow dialogue. An all-new advanced Speech Enhancement feature lets you choose your preferred level of dialogue clarity in the Sonos app.
Cinematic Collaborations: Arc Ultra is the product of deepened Sonos Soundboard relationships.We worked with veteran movie producers and creators like Chris Jenkins and Onnalee Blank to fine-tune Dolby Atmos content and assemble a studio-worthy experience that rivals professional sound systems.
Design Worthy of Your Home: Arc Ultra is thoughtfully crafted with a distinctive curved profile, matte finish, and a slimmer appearance that looks elegant when mounted and doesn’t obstruct TV bezels when placed on a credenza. Its wrap-around grille extends around the back of the speaker so sound can travel in every direction to completely surround you.
Seamless Setup and Control: Unlock theater-quality sound in a matter of minutes with a simple HDMI eARC connection and effortlessly control with your TV remote, the Sonos app, Sonos Voice Control, or Amazon Alexa. Touch controls are cleverly housed in a dedicated ledge behind the soundbar to prevent visual distraction. With Bluetooth line-in, Arc Ultra also gives you more ways to stream - whether binging a podcast or setting a playlist before guests arrive.
Committed to Sustainability: Arc Ultra was designed responsibly with improved serviceability by using more screws and fewer adhesives, halogen-free PCB materials, less silicon material, and a reduced idle power consumption by as much as 20% as a standalone player compared to Arc. Its packaging is 100% recyclable and also 18% smaller in volume, making it more efficient to ship.
Sub 4: Our Most Immersive Subwoofer, Revamped
Sub 4 is the next generation subwoofer producing bass you can feel, transforming your home theater experience to draw you closer to the content you love.
Pulse-Pounding Sound: Feel every beat, roar or rumble in your chest with dual custom woofers that generate deep, dynamic low frequencies to enhance your entertainment. No buzz or rattle either — both Sub 4 woofers face inward to create a force-canceling effect that neutralizes distortion.
Rebuilt, Inside and Out: Sonos’ most advanced subwoofer to date, Sub 4 includes increased processing power and memory, as well as new WiFi radios for better connectivity so you never miss a beat.
Same Iconic Design: Sub 4 sports an elegant sculptural shape maintaining much of its predecessor’s aesthetic, with an updated matte finish in Black and White and a profile that’s easy to stand upright, lay on its side, or tuck under the couch. Sub 4 also comes in a more sustainable form through dematerialization efforts and a nearly 50% reduction in idle power consumption.
Breathtaking Home Theater: Add more drama to your movies and shows when you pair Sub 4 with Arc Ultra, Arc or Beam for deeper lows. Pair two subwoofers together for maximum bass that supercharges every scene and song — Sub 4 is compatible with previous generations of Sub.
Arc Ultra and Sub 4 will be available beginning October 29, 2024 for USD 999 (EUR 999, GBP 999) and USD 799 (EUR 899, GBP 799). For more information, visitsonos.com, and follow along on@sonos.
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If I’m running 2 sub woofers would buying the arc ultra make any difference to the sound.
A new product is coming but I still can’t get the Android app update that was released earlier in the week.
At least I know what Sonos’ priorities are.
If I’m running 2 sub woofers would buying the arc ultra make any difference to the sound.
got to be gen3 subs and above for 2subs on ac ultra
Hi @JakeSteed
My TV is set to „HDMI passthrough“ which is pretty much the only available setting there is. After a lot of google research I read that the TV also needs the dts license, even for passthrough. Which my Samsung hasn’t. Of course.
I don’t disbelieve you, but this is strange to me - the very concept of Passthrough is that the device performing it simply does not do anything at all with the audio - it just passes it along. This is why volume control (sometimes) and audio settings (always) on the TV have no effect when Passthrough is set.
This is not the first time that I have heard of TV manufacturers playing a little with the definition of Passthrough, but I really don’t know if it’s legal requirement that they have licenses to Passthrough certain formats or not - if pressed, I would have guessed they’d only need a license to decode the stream. If you’ve done research, however, then that is more than I have done - I’ll take your word for it!
I have heard of some TVs having both Passthrough and Bitstream options (even though they sound like they should be the same) - is Bitstream available on your TV? If so, please try it out.
I hope this helps.
You gave me quite some homework yesterday in your post previous to this one. I did the whole process (again as I believe I have tried this before) but to no avail. I am not a 100% sure what exactly I am getting from a dts disc. I encountered something stereo from only the Arc while the other speakers were silent and I also had dts discs where the Era 300s played something as well. Not sure about the Subs. My knowledge of different dts formats and their upward or downward compatibility is quite limited so I have no idea what that means.
Sonos app always shows „Stereo PCM“ in the TV tab. Unfortunately the new (iOS) app from earlier this year doesn’t show anything at all anymore in the settings section „about my system“ where every speaker is listed individually with serial, hardware version, IP address etc. The Arc has a „Audio in“ entry that used to specify the detailed audio signal received. Atmos TrueHD or Atmos DD+ for example. Now this entry is just blank.
When I said that passthrough is the only option the TV offers when linear PCM is selected I meant that everything else is greyed out. Also when I set the PS5 to linear PCM the audio volume drops significantly and I really have to pump up the volume so that when you switch back to tv you feel like McFly testing Docs guitar amp.
This just doesn’t seem to work. At least not with my current setup. But thank you so much for your time and effort to troubleshoot my stuff. I really appreciate that.
Hi @JakeSteed
It did occur to me last night that McLPCM cannot possibly be licensed - it is the format that all digital audio is in (well, PCM is) when it’s not compressed for transmission to another device. Every digital audio device on the planet uses it.
You gave me quite some homework yesterday in your post previous to this one. I did the whole process (again as I believe I have tried this before) but to no avail. I am not a 100% sure what exactly I am getting from a dts disc. I encountered something stereo from only the Arc while the other speakers were silent and I also had dts discs where the Era 300s played something as well. Not sure about the Subs. My knowledge of different dts formats and their upward or downward compatibility is quite limited so I have no idea what that means.
It’s important that the content you are watching in order to determine if things are working or not actually has plenty of audio coming from the surrounds. RomComs and Dramas would not be good for this - stick a superhero or action movie on, and make sure you are at an “active” part of the movie.
Assuming that’s all good, and if your TV won’t pass DTS, then which version of DTS is in play should be irrelevant - your BluRay player should know that the TV won’t take DTS and provide a different format.
Sonos app always shows „Stereo PCM“ in the TV tab. Unfortunately the new (iOS) app from earlier this year doesn’t show anything at all anymore in the settings section „about my system“ where every speaker is listed individually with serial, hardware version, IP address etc. The Arc has a „Audio in“ entry that used to specify the detailed audio signal received. Atmos TrueHD or Atmos DD+ for example. Now this entry is just blank.
If the Now Playing screen for your Arc shows Stereo PCM, then that is the format that the TV is sending it. About My System is a work in progress, as far as I am aware.
When I said that passthrough is the only option the TV offers when linear PCM is selected I meant that everything else is greyed out. Also when I set the PS5 to linear PCM the audio volume drops significantly and I really have to pump up the volume so that when you switch back to tv you feel like McFly testing Docs guitar amp.
I can’t speak for the PS5 behaviour, but commonly, a TV will only offer more audio output formats when one of them is currently playing - ensure a surround sound track of some kind is playing when you open this setting on the TV.
This just doesn’t seem to work. At least not with my current setup. But thank you so much for your time and effort to troubleshoot my stuff. I really appreciate that.
You’re very welcome! We are straying somewhat from the topic of this thread, however - if you continue to struggle with this issue, I recommend starting a new thread for it.
I hope this helps.
Hi @JakeSteed
My TV is set to „HDMI passthrough“ which is pretty much the only available setting there is. After a lot of google research I read that the TV also needs the dts license, even for passthrough. Which my Samsung hasn’t. Of course.
I don’t disbelieve you, but this is strange to me - the very concept of Passthrough is that the device performing it simply does not do anything at all with the audio - it just passes it along. This is why volume control (sometimes) and audio settings (always) on the TV have no effect when Passthrough is set.
This is not the first time that I have heard of TV manufacturers playing a little with the definition of Passthrough, but I really don’t know if it’s legal requirement that they have licenses to Passthrough certain formats or not - if pressed, I would have guessed they’d only need a license to decode the stream. If you’ve done research, however, then that is more than I have done - I’ll take your word for it!
I have heard of some TVs having both Passthrough and Bitstream options (even though they sound like they should be the same) - is Bitstream available on your TV? If so, please try it out.
I hope this helps.
You gave me quite some homework yesterday in your post previous to this one. I did the whole process (again as I believe I have tried this before) but to no avail. I am not a 100% sure what exactly I am getting from a dts disc. I encountered something stereo from only the Arc while the other speakers were silent and I also had dts discs where the Era 300s played something as well. Not sure about the Subs. My knowledge of different dts formats and their upward or downward compatibility is quite limited so I have no idea what that means.
Sonos app always shows „Stereo PCM“ in the TV tab. Unfortunately the new (iOS) app from earlier this year doesn’t show anything at all anymore in the settings section „about my system“ where every speaker is listed individually with serial, hardware version, IP address etc. The Arc has a „Audio in“ entry that used to specify the detailed audio signal received. Atmos TrueHD or Atmos DD+ for example. Now this entry is just blank.
When I said that passthrough is the only option the TV offers when linear PCM is selected I meant that everything else is greyed out. Also when I set the PS5 to linear PCM the audio volume drops significantly and I really have to pump up the volume so that when you switch back to tv you feel like McFly testing Docs guitar amp.
This just doesn’t seem to work. At least not with my current setup. But thank you so much for your time and effort to troubleshoot my stuff. I really appreciate that.
If you use the PS5 settings below when playing a DTS-encoded disc, what audio format does the Sonos app display?
Output Device: HDMI Device (AV amplifier)
HDMI Device Type: AV amplifier
Number of Channels: 7.1 ch (or 5.1 ch)
Audio Format (Priority): Linear PCM
When watching Blu-ray discs, there is another audio setting that must be adjusted when you start the disc. Tap the Options button on the controller, select the “…” and change the Audio Format setting Linear PCM for all DTS-encoded discs.
Hi @JakeSteed
Audio Format (Priority): Linear PCM
When watching Blu-ray discs, there is another audio setting that must be adjusted when you start the disc. Tap the Options button on the controller, select the “…” and change the Audio Format setting Linear PCM for all DTS-encoded discs.
Thanks. I did exactly that. Switch from bitstream to linear PCM. No effect. Needs to be switched back afterwards to have Atmos again or else it’s stereo all the way regardless of any other settings. The audio format displayed with these settings is always Stereo PCM.
Hi @JakeSteed
Audio Format (Priority): Linear PCM
When watching Blu-ray discs, there is another audio setting that must be adjusted when you start the disc. Tap the Options button on the controller, select the “…” and change the Audio Format setting Linear PCM for all DTS-encoded discs.
Thanks. I did exactly that. Switch from bitstream to linear PCM. No effect. Needs to be switched back afterwards to have Atmos again or else it’s stereo all the way regardless of any other settings. The audio format displayed with these settings is always Stereo PCM.
Did you change BOTH settings to Linear PCM on the PS5?
Hi @JakeSteed
Audio Format (Priority): Linear PCM
When watching Blu-ray discs, there is another audio setting that must be adjusted when you start the disc. Tap the Options button on the controller, select the “…” and change the Audio Format setting Linear PCM for all DTS-encoded discs.
Thanks. I did exactly that. Switch from bitstream to linear PCM. No effect. Needs to be switched back afterwards to have Atmos again or else it’s stereo all the way regardless of any other settings. The audio format displayed with these settings is always Stereo PCM.
Did you change BOTH settings to Linear PCM on the PS5?
Yes. I swear Once in the PS settings in the upper right corner and then in the context menu „…“ of the player app while the disc is playing.
Hi @JakeSteed
Audio Format (Priority): Linear PCM
When watching Blu-ray discs, there is another audio setting that must be adjusted when you start the disc. Tap the Options button on the controller, select the “…” and change the Audio Format setting Linear PCM for all DTS-encoded discs.
Thanks. I did exactly that. Switch from bitstream to linear PCM. No effect. Needs to be switched back afterwards to have Atmos again or else it’s stereo all the way regardless of any other settings. The audio format displayed with these settings is always Stereo PCM.
Did you change BOTH settings to Linear PCM on the PS5?
Yes. I swear Once in the PS settings in the upper right corner and then in the context menu „…“ of the player app while the disc is playing.
And the TV is set to these settings?
HDMI-eARC Mode: Auto
Digital Output Audio Format: Pass-Through
Hi @JakeSteed
Audio Format (Priority): Linear PCM
When watching Blu-ray discs, there is another audio setting that must be adjusted when you start the disc. Tap the Options button on the controller, select the “…” and change the Audio Format setting Linear PCM for all DTS-encoded discs.
Thanks. I did exactly that. Switch from bitstream to linear PCM. No effect. Needs to be switched back afterwards to have Atmos again or else it’s stereo all the way regardless of any other settings. The audio format displayed with these settings is always Stereo PCM.
Did you change BOTH settings to Linear PCM on the PS5?
Yes. I swear Once in the PS settings in the upper right corner and then in the context menu „…“ of the player app while the disc is playing.
And the TV is set to these settings?
HDMI-eARC Mode: Auto
Digital Output Audio Format: Pass-Through
Exactly. The eARC mode can be switched. Passthrough and everything else is greyed out.
Waited for the Arc Ultra and really looked forward to purchasing a complete Sonos home theater with soundbar, surrounds, and sub.
The Arc Ultra not having DTS:X is an immediate no buy for me now. Being a huge movie person and Xbox gamer, no DTS:X is an absolute deal breaker. DTS:X in my opinion, far superior to Dolby.
Very, very sadden to learn of the lack of DTS:X.
Hi @JakeSteed
I’d like expand slightly on @GuitarSuperstar’s excellent answer:
You can set your Blu-ray player to play the DTS audio as lossless Multichannel PCM which likely sounds very similar to DTS-HD Master Audio.
It will actually sound exactly the same - all you are doing is specifying that the player should decode the audio rather than the soundbar. It makes no difference which device does the decoding, and this is the precise reason why we do not increase the price by adding more supported formats - it’s just not necessary. McPCM will require eARC to play, but so does DTS-HD.
I hope this helps.
Thank you so much for the input and clarification. I currently don’t have a TV that supports passthrough since it has no dts licenses either (Samsung Q85R from 2019) so I am getting either something Dolby or 2 channel Stereo. My understanding is that that the TV needs these as well to make passthrough work and a lot of manufacturers don’t have these at all or only in their top model. I am planning on getting a new one like the new Sony Bravia 9 (supporting dts:x) hoping that this will do the trick. As a player I am using a PS5.
I have an Arc, 2 ERA300s, a 2G Sub and a 3G Sub
LG G4 supports DTS:X passthrough.
Samsung has abandoned DTS, so in turn, I have abandodened Samsung TVs. Will never, ever, purchase another Samsung TV until they support DTS:X.
Edit
I love all things Sonos I do enjoy their products love the Arc watching movies is a pleasure the last one I saw was Dune 2 the house rocked the sound was everywhere, calling the new technology the biggest thing that has happened to audio for over a 100 years is a bit rich.
Hi @JakeSteed
My TV is set to „HDMI passthrough“ which is pretty much the only available setting there is. After a lot of google research I read that the TV also needs the dts license, even for passthrough. Which my Samsung hasn’t. Of course.
I don’t disbelieve you, but this is strange to me - the very concept of Passthrough is that the device performing it simply does not do anything at all with the audio - it just passes it along. This is why volume control (sometimes) and audio settings (always) on the TV have no effect when Passthrough is set.
This is not the first time that I have heard of TV manufacturers playing a little with the definition of Passthrough, but I really don’t know if it’s legal requirement that they have licenses to Passthrough certain formats or not - if pressed, I would have guessed they’d only need a license to decode the stream. If you’ve done research, however, then that is more than I have done - I’ll take your word for it!
I have heard of some TVs having both Passthrough and Bitstream options (even though they sound like they should be the same) - is Bitstream available on your TV? If so, please try it out.
I hope this helps.
You gave me quite some homework yesterday in your post previous to this one. I did the whole process (again as I believe I have tried this before) but to no avail. I am not a 100% sure what exactly I am getting from a dts disc. I encountered something stereo from only the Arc while the other speakers were silent and I also had dts discs where the Era 300s played something as well. Not sure about the Subs. My knowledge of different dts formats and their upward or downward compatibility is quite limited so I have no idea what that means.
Sonos app always shows „Stereo PCM“ in the TV tab. Unfortunately the new (iOS) app from earlier this year doesn’t show anything at all anymore in the settings section „about my system“ where every speaker is listed individually with serial, hardware version, IP address etc. The Arc has a „Audio in“ entry that used to specify the detailed audio signal received. Atmos TrueHD or Atmos DD+ for example. Now this entry is just blank.
When I said that passthrough is the only option the TV offers when linear PCM is selected I meant that everything else is greyed out. Also when I set the PS5 to linear PCM the audio volume drops significantly and I really have to pump up the volume so that when you switch back to tv you feel like McFly testing Docs guitar amp.
This just doesn’t seem to work. At least not with my current setup. But thank you so much for your time and effort to troubleshoot my stuff. I really appreciate that.
Which model tv you have?
I had samsung 2019 tv which was suppose to have passthrough. It had but the passthrough in the menu but it couldnt handle 7.1 pcm so it downgraded it 5.1 or something. There was some discussion about this in other forums and samsung had acknowledged the problem. I complained it to my retailer and it took several months for them and samsung to knowledge the problem. In the end the provided me 2021 model tv and that works
No Dts x support? Is this confirmed? If that is the case I guess it's time to shop elsewhere. What a pity.
So your “Unwavering Focus on Customer Experience” lasted about two weeks before you decided to focus on new products again?
Try fixing the app
I pre-ordered the new Arch Ultra and the new Sub 4. I already have the Era 300’s. I’ll be returning my Beam2, which i recently purchased at Best Buy. I’m looking forward to my new Sonos setup.
I had issues with my original setup, which my neighbor helped resolve.
Hey…
Here are some of my thoughts about Arc Ultra, I was wondering nobody else asked about yet.
Why does Arc Ultra product description mention 15 amps but just 14 drivers? The Sonos Blog article about Arc Ultra and the product page tech details tell us why… Arc Ultra has got seven tweeter, six mid range woofers and one woofer (the new sound motion driver). So 14 drivers totally…. Except the sound motion woofer each driver exists of one membrane powered by one amp. But the sound motion woofer has a „force canceling“ double membrane architecture in one chassis using two amps (one per membrane). So imho that‘s the reason for the 15 amps and 14 drivers.
Though there still isn’t an official feedback I‘m pretty sure that Arc Ultra on its own can be called a 9.1.4 system. As before with Arc or Beam2 the „stand alone“ description of the soundbar includes virtualization technology for some channels. These always were and also imo for Arc Ultra are the rear „on ear“ channels. Now it seems Arc Ultra does the step to next generation of virtualization and includes not only one but both „on ear“ rear channels (back and side) and also the rear „top“ (or „hight“) channels. The new sound motion woofer in a stand alone setup imo counts like a sub. So I think in total 6 of 14 channels in such a setup will be virtual. And 7 (center, 2x front, 2x wide, 2x hight) plus 1 (lfe channel) are done by real drivers. That said… what are the 2 more channels that obviously are added in comparison to a 7.1.4 setup? That was my third question asking myself.
So I took a look at Dolbys official documents about Atmos 9.1.4 setup. As you can see there such a setup includes an additional left and right „wide speaker“.
I suppose that at least two of the seven tweeter drivers and maybe also two of the midwoofers are assigned to these „wide“ (side) channels. The next pic just is the left part of the pic abobe and just shows center and left front, side and hight channels.
Maybe I‘m wrong on some thoughts, but that’s my current understanding on how Arc Ultra might work in detail.
Just like to share this…
Has SonosNet connectivity been removed? Are sub setting not going to stick they the current known issues?
Wondering how nice this might sound with two era 300s as rears for Dolby atmospheres content. Thoughts?
Hey…
Maybe I‘m wrong on some thoughts, but that’s my current understanding on how Arc Ultra might work in detail.
“Sonos confirmed that are indeed two up-firing drivers, but the way they work with the rest of the soundbar makes them act like there are actually four upwards firing speakers – at least in theory. "The rear height arrays utilize a very strategic combination of the upfiring, outward firing and forward firing transducers to position it deeper in the room than the front height channels," the company said – so basically, it'll offer virtual rear height channels. However effective this is remains to be seen.”
Wondering how nice this might sound with two era 300s as rears for Dolby atmospheres content. Thoughts?
I‘m sure with the top setup of Arc Ultra, 2x Era300 and even just one Sub 3 or 4 it will sound amazing. But that said, I really assume you have to use Era300 as rearspeakers to achieve a great 3D sound stage, because it’s the only setup working without any virtualization.
Has SonosNet connectivity been removed? Are sub setting not going to stick they the current known issues?
Yes, there is no support of SonosNet for Arc Ultra (confirmed in one of the latest posts from @Corry P). Regarding to Sub issues in the near past imo that wasn’t an issue of Hardware but software. So no direct relation to what hardware (ht device or sub) you use.
Once in the PS settings in the upper right corner and then in the context menu „…“ of the player app while the disc is playing. 
