Sonos Arc- Premium 3D Dolby Atmos Soundbar

Sonos sound — now in 3D

Sonos makes some of our most popular and well-reviewed sound bars, so I’m really excited to see them expand their lineup with a Dolby Atmos-capable bar like Arc. Its streamlined cabinet houses an impressive eleven drivers, including custom elliptical woofers for rich bass. Side-firing and up-firing speakers team up with advanced signal processing to create a multi-dimensional soundstage full of depth and detail.

Voice control options

Arc has both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant built in, so when you want to play your favorite tunes, all you have to do is ask. And your assistant of choice can do more than just play music. You can ask for weather and traffic updates, create a shopping list, set reminders or alarms, and control connected smart home devices like lights and thermostats — all with your voice.

Don’t miss a word

Many of us struggle to hear dialogue over the background noise in our favorite shows and movies. Arc can help with that. In addition to a dedicated center channel, it has a Speech Enhancement option that can help make dialogue more intelligible, so you don’t have to turn on subtitles to keep up with the plot. This feature is accessed in the Sonos app.

Wireless home theater

Arc is going to be a huge improvement to your TV’s audio all on its own, but I like that Sonos gives you the option to expand the system as your space and budget allow. 

If you want to add more deep bass rumble, pick up a Sonos Sub (Gen 3) (or even two). It will make a big impact on both movies and music.

Add a pair of Sonos One SL speakers as wireless surrounds, and you’ve got a very robust home theater system. Everything connects to the Arc wirelessly, too, so you only need to plug them in for power. 

Expand to other rooms

As a Sonos speaker, Arc can be part of a larger multi-room audio system. Expand into other rooms by adding a Sonos One or the larger Five, in every room where you want to listen to music. Or, you can even go portable with the more rugged, battery-powered Move. You can set up the players to work on your existing Wi-Fi® network.

Or, you can connect any Sonos speaker to your network router, and Sonos will create its own dedicated wireless network for even better performance. You can also use a Boost to create this network if you can’t place a speaker near your router.

Easy streaming with AirPlay 2

Sonos Arc has AirPlay 2 built in. That means you can stream audio directly from your compatible Apple devices through your Sonos system. 

And if you subscribe to Apple Music®, you can do even more. Use Siri on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV 4K to control Apple Music with voice commands. Tell it what selection or playlist to play — and which Sonos speakers you want it to play through.

Calibrated for your home

If you use the Sonos app on an iOS® device, you can use that iPhone or iPad to optimize Arc’s sound quality for the unique acoustics of your room. This feature — called Trueplay — uses the mic built into your iOS device to measure how the sound reflects off your walls and furnishings, and it adjusts Arc’s settings accordingly. It even calibrates the height channels.

Compatibility notes

Arc is very easy to get up and running. There is a single HDMI eARC port for connecting it to your TV. If your TV has eARC, you are all set to pass an Atmos signal through to your bar from either a connected Blu-ray player or your device’s streaming services.

If your TV doesn’t have eARC, you can still get great audio quality, but there are limitations on the types of signals that can pass through to Arc. If your TV is fairly new, there is a good chance that a simple ARC connection will pass the Dolby Digital Plus format that is used by streaming services to deliver an Atmos signal. If you’re unsure what formats your TV can pass, check the owner’s manual.

Arc will also work with TVs that don’t have HDMI thanks to the included HDMI to optical adapter. It will still sound a lot better than your TV, but you will not be able to pass an Atmos signal this way.