Because you have an older TV with only HDMI ARC, the Arc will be an upgrade but probably not enough to spend $800. But if you get an HD Fury Arcana, the Sonos Arc will be a HUGE upgrade because you will be able to take full advantage of the Sonos Arc’s audio capabilities (Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos, multi-channel LPCM).

I thought so. I will be able to use alexa or google to control the TV, right? I am thinking of ARC as a future investment. Also, I think that the ARC with it’s straight front firing speakers will throw the sound better toward me than the Playbar with it’s 45 degrees angled speakers. I really do think regular 5.1 will sound better. I don’t know how the Arc handles stereo TV. Playbar tries to simulate 3 channels and in my opinion it would be bettter if didn’t. 

Thank you for your reply

Neven

You can control the TV with Alexa or Google only if you have a smart home device like a Logitech Harmony Smart Hub to do it. The Sonos Arc alone won’t give you voice control of your TV.

Because the Arc has 11 speakers as opposed to the Playbar’s nine speakers, you will get a fuller and wider sound from the Arc even when only playing Stereo 2.0 content. When I stream network TV through my cable provider, I only get stereo sound on my Arc, but I am pleased with how it sounds. But it pales in comparison when watching a Blu-ray with lossless Dolby Atmos or Dolby TrueHD.

CORRECTION: @106rallye is correct below. You will be able to turn your TV on or off and control the volume with Alexa or Google. Just be sure you are connected via HDMI ARC and not optical.

@Neven Two additions:

1. The Arcana will only support Atmos from external sources as I understand it, so you'd need an Atmos capable BluRay player or set top box, or something like an Nvidia Shield too;
2. The Arc can probably at least turn the TV on or off by voice via Sonos TV Control, volume up or down can also be done by voice - if you want to switch channels you'd need the solution @GuitarSuperstar mentions. 

I'm not sure if bullet 2 is also true when using the Arcana.

Thanks for the reply. I do think Arc will sound better. I will try it out before I make a buying decision.

Neven

Adding the arcana is another cost which I do not want to make. One or two more wires. Granted, the sound would improve but I think the 5.1 on Arc will beat the Playbar. I shall see.

Thank you

Neven

If you listen to music on the Playbar you may be worse off with the ARC?.

The Arc has a pretty wide and “bubble” like sound stage when set up and tuned properly. Works well in movies though dialog can sometimes get lost behind the movies other tracks.   Music is not its strong suit, luckily the sub and surrounds take allot of the load off the Arc, but even still it leaves more to be desired when playing music if you don't have the surrounds cranked to +2 to +4. IMO 

Honestly, 

I think Playbar is really not for music. Stereo is very poor on it. I enjoyed my Play 3 wihen I had a single one and even more in pair. Arc should be a little better but not much.

Thank you

Neven

I have the playbar+sub and surrounds in one group. When I play music,  I put surrounds on full (and +10) than the Playbar is barely noticable. When I switch to ambient Playbar is “more” there but not a lot. In future I would like to have a dedicated stereo pair of play five’s for music only. They do not need a SUB (it would stay in home theather setup)

Neven