Is a 1 cm overhang at front of Sonos Arc OK?

The 12 mm overhang will be fine. In fact, it is ideal to place the Arc as close to the front edge as possible to minimize any sound reflecting off of the surface of the unit.

The 75 mm of space should provide just enough clearance for the side-firing drivers too.

Thanks @GuitarSuperstar - that’s very encouraging! The only other issue is maybe waiting for the release of an ARC Gen. 2

What Arc gen 2? All I’ve seen are unfounded rumors, nothing solid. Sonos is very tight lipped about future hardware releases, and they’ve certainly not said anything I’ve seen about the reality of a next generation of the Arc.

At the current pace of technology updates (from any manufacturer), all units are essentially obsolete as they are initially shipped from the factory because “new improved” is already under development. There is an argument that one should never purchase from the first batch of a release because there may be yet to be discovered issues that will require a few months to work through the next update/build/ship cycle. Depending on the speed of a manufacturer’s pipeline, waiting a year after a new model is introduced would minimize the risk of bumping into an early production “glitch”, but you’ll then be even farther behind the leading edge.

The Arc has a curved front end that I am pretty confident has a radius greater than 12mm.  In other words, that first cm or so the Arcs depth isn’t touching the shelf surface at all and not be used to support the units weight.  You are definitely good there. 

I’d only be slightly concerned that people may accidently bump the Arc if it’s in a high traffic area.

@Airgetlam - Yes - thank you! You’re absolutely correct, there’s nothing concrete. Only speculation that I have read here;

1. What HiFi
2. techradar
3. The Verge

You might consider making an extension for the shelf your TV sits on that sticks out into the room far enough the end speakers of the Arc aren’t masked by the recess.

About any good counter/cabinet shop should be able to make you one that blends perfectly with your existing trim. You could test the idea out by just using a ¼ sheet of 1/2” plywood for the shelf or even just putting something on the floor to support the Arc in the exposed position.

Looking at your picture again and had a second thought.

Make an Arc depth shelf that slips into the equipment cutout below the TV shelf and screw it to the top of the cutout. The Arc would sit on it and be high enough that the side drawers could open under it.

That would also avoid having to raise the TV.

@Stanley_4 - Wow - that’s such a creative idea!! Thank you 👋🏽

If you’re going to create a custom piece as a solution, why not have your riser for the TV be the full length of the open space, thus giving you space to place the Arc underneath, or something to that effect?  You would reduce the side clearance, and the height, but you could make adjustments to the riser to provide space for the speakers to operate where they are.

Or, wall mount the TV to the back of the cabinet.  If the cabinet wall isn’t strong enough for that, you can mount through the cabinet to the wall.

I think you have plenty of depth in the cabinet already, and don’t need to extend anything further out. And in my opinion, extensions off the front will look odd.

Having followed Sonos rumors as somewhat of a hobby for a few years now, a couple things to point out.  First thing is that the same information from three different publications does not give weight to the rumor.  It means they all have the same source or just copied each others information.  Second is that rumors that are concrete will almost always be able to tell you some of the functionality of the new device. Rumors that can’t say anything other than a name or that it will replace an existing Sonos speaker are rarely very accurate.

@melvimbe - I have seriously considered the "wall mount to the back of the cabinet" option. So that's still on the shortlist of options too.

Good points, too, about the rumours, as that's all they are for now. My current surround set-up is  now over 12 years old: Samsung HT-9950W, it is not functioning perfectly, but hopefully it can keep going for a little longer!

What's the distance from top of Arc to bottom of display? Just as important to achieving Atmos effects. You should have some space but don't necessarily need all the distance Sonos recommends.