Fourteen drivers and Sound Motion
Sonos Arc Ultra is a Dolby Atmos 9.1.4 soundbar with 14 drivers and 15 class D amplifiers, a Sound Motion woofer, HDMI eARC, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, AirPlay 2 and Trueplay tuning.
Arc Ultra is the flagship Sonos soundbar, designed for large TVs and rooms. The design revolves around Sound Motion, a very slim woofer that frees up space in the cabinet: that space is taken by a larger number of tweeters and midrange drivers than in Arc. The result is a wider soundstage, with side and height channels able to place effects around and above the listening position.
Key features
- 14 Sonos-engineered drivers, 15 class D amplifiers
- Dual-membrane Sound Motion woofer with four motors
- Dolby Atmos in a 9.1.4 configuration, with upward-firing tweeters
- HDMI eARC, cable included
- Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 and Apple AirPlay 2
- Four-level speech enhancement and Night Sound
- Trueplay with iOS and Android devices
- Voice control: Amazon Alexa and Sonos Voice Control
Acoustic architecture
The tweeters have silk domes and are tuned differently according to their position along the cabinet; two fire towards the ceiling and create the height channels. Six mid-woofers cover the midrange. Low frequencies are handled by the Sound Motion woofer, with two membranes driven by four motors in a small volume. Fifteen class D amplifiers, tuned to the acoustics of the cabinet, power the whole array.
Dialogue and night listening
The speech enhancement feature recognises the human voice using artificial intelligence and brings it forward; four levels can be chosen in the Sonos app. Night Sound softens the peaks and raises the quieter passages, for watching TV at low volume without losing detail.
Connections and formats
Arc Ultra connects to the TV through the supplied HDMI cable, on the eARC or ARC port; an optional adapter is available for TVs with an optical output only. It decodes Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital, multichannel PCM and DTS Digital Surround; Atmos over TrueHD and multichannel PCM require eARC. It is operated with the TV remote. It is not compatible with CCFL-backlit TVs produced between 2004 and 2012.
Music, Trueplay and headphones
With the TV off, Arc Ultra plays music over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and AirPlay 2. Trueplay measures the room and the position of the soundbar and corrects the equalisation, from the app for iOS or Android. The TV audio can be handed over to Sonos Ace headphones, even to two pairs at once.
Version with subwoofer
The version with subwoofer pairs Arc Ultra with Sub 4, the most powerful Sonos subwoofer, which takes care of the deepest bass. The two products are set up together in the Sonos app and can be completed with a pair of rear speakers.
Included accessories
Arc Ultra comes with a 2 metre power cable and a 1.5 metre HDMI cable. The optical adapter and the wall mount are sold separately.
