The Sonos Arc is a high-end smart soundbar designed to deliver immersive home theater audio with Dolby Atmos support, smart assistant integration, and multi-room streaming capabilities. It’s engineered for serious audio enthusiasts and cinema lovers who want premium sound and modern features without cluttering their setup with multiple components.
Design & Build Quality:
- The Arc boasts a sleek, minimalist design that blends seamlessly with modern interiors. Its elongated, curved chassis is both elegant and functional, aiding in optimal driver dispersion.
- Available in matte black or white, the finish resists fingerprints and fits nicely under TVs 55 inches and above.
- It houses 11 high-performance drivers, including up-firing speakers for Atmos height effects, side-firing drivers for spatial width, and a central tweeter array for clear dialogue.
- The soundbar is made from a single piece of precision-drilled polycarbonate, which gives it a premium, monolithic appearance.
Sound Performance:
- Dolby Atmos & Spatial Sound: The Arc truly shines with Atmos content. The up-firing drivers create a believable sense of height, allowing sound effects like helicopters or rainfall to come from above. This spatial immersion elevates movie and TV watching significantly.
- Clarity & Dialogue: With its dedicated center channel and Sonos’ Trueplay tuning (iOS required), dialogue is remarkably crisp. Even at low volumes, voices remain intelligible, which is ideal for late-night viewing.
- Bass Response: Despite lacking a dedicated subwoofer, the Arc produces impressive low-end due to its large drivers and acoustic tuning. For bass-heavy content or bigger rooms, it can be paired with the Sonos Sub for deeper rumble.
- Soundstage: The wide dispersion from the side-firing drivers creates a broad and engaging soundstage. Whether you’re watching from the center or off to the side, the experience remains consistent.
- Volume & Dynamics: The Arc handles high volumes effortlessly with zero distortion. Whether it’s a quiet dialogue scene or an explosive action sequence, the dynamics are rich and cinematic.
Smart Features & Connectivity:
- Voice Assistants: Built-in Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant allow voice control for volume, playback, and smart home tasks.
- Apple AirPlay 2: Seamless integration with iOS devices for streaming directly from iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
- HDMI eARC Support: Enables high-bandwidth audio formats like Dolby Atmos to be transmitted directly from compatible TVs. Also allows control via the TV remote.
- Sonos App Integration: The app gives access to multi-room audio, EQ settings, music streaming services, and system setup. It’s one of the most polished and intuitive control apps in the industry.
- Trueplay Tuning: Available only through iOS devices, it calibrates the soundbar to your room acoustics for the most accurate playback.
Expandability:
- The Arc can be expanded into a full surround system by adding the Sonos Sub (for bass) and two Sonos One or Era 100 speakers (for rear channels). This flexibility allows users to build out their system over time.
- Seamless integration with other Sonos speakers for whole-home music playback.
Pros:
- Exceptional Dolby Atmos performance with immersive spatial audio
- Sleek, premium design that complements modern TVs
- Built-in voice assistants and AirPlay 2
- Sonos app offers excellent control and streaming options
- Strong bass and dynamics even without a subwoofer
- Expandable into a full 5.1.2 surround system
Cons:
- No Bluetooth support
- Trueplay tuning is only available on iOS devices
- Expensive compared to other soundbars, especially when adding Sub and rear speakers
- Requires HDMI eARC for full Atmos performance (limited compatibility on older TVs)
- Lacks physical remote control (everything is app or voice-controlled)
Conclusion:
The Sonos Arc is one of the best premium soundbars available, delivering powerful, detailed, and immersive sound in a beautifully designed package. It’s particularly impressive for Dolby Atmos content and shines in both movie watching and music streaming. While it comes at a high price and benefits most from an iOS ecosystem, its performance, feature set, and expandability make it a worthy investment for serious home theater enthusiasts.
Recommended For:
- Home theater users seeking top-tier Atmos sound without a full speaker setup
- Existing Sonos users looking to expand their ecosystem
- Minimalist setups where aesthetics and performance are equally important
- Streamers and smart home users who value voice control and multi-room audio