Love your videos on Sonos after having them for 10 years or so and now have 2 arc's ,2 sub gen 3,2 era 300,4 era 100,1 beam,1 sub mini, and two older play 5's as well so thus have spent my share of money on Sonos .I get all my info on them from YOU and only YOU!And when Sonos screwed up app wise this year I relied on you for all the info on what was going on as Sonos unfortunately was Horrible on info or non existence on what was happening !Thanks for your helpful videos
My Sonos Arc Ultra arrived two days ago, and during this time, I’ve been testing its sound quality. I must say the difference is remarkable. Although I’ve read that the improvement is not so noticeable when paired with a subwoofer, I can confidently say that, for me, the upgrade is already significant. The sound is much clearer, and the separation between audio elements is greatly enhanced. I truly enjoy watching live concerts, and with this soundbar, the instruments sound much sharper, and the audio reaches exactly where it needs to. It doesn’t feel as flat as the previous Arc model. For these reasons, I’m extremely happy with my decision to upgrade.
@@param5756yeah the arc sounds great, better than any bookshelf speaker with a dolby true hd amp I’ve ever had back in 2012-2014. But with how everyone says how much better it is and how the Arc is literally only 4 years old makes me feel ripped off by Sonos But if it’s anything like the Era’s improvement over the other speakers then it probably is way better. And it probably is more like the era 300 considering all 7 tweeters. I can’t wait to get my Era’s and eventually an ultra. I’ll have an ultra with era’s, 2 arcs with one sl’s, 3 beams with one sl’s. All but one beams have sub 3 or sub mini
I need to get familiar with the sound first. Settings video take a long time cos it usually entails many hours of testing and measurements. Sorry but give me a while!
Excellent review ..i want to upgrade my ARC to this one now ...i listened thru Bluetooth with a Bose Soundlink Max ..that was incredible listening . can just imagine how the Arc Ultra will sound ..😅
Regarding the crossover frequency, it seems that after some reading, it was adjusted to either 70 or 80 Hz, possibly starting at 70 and then updated to 80 Hz. The issue is that the subwoofer produces less sound now compared to when it was connected to a regular Arc. I've seen multiple posts from disappointed users stating that they now have to turn the sub up almost to maximum to achieve the same output as before with the Arc. Another complaint from many users is that the center speaker is significantly out of balance compared to the other speakers. I came across a post from someone who measured it to be 8 dB too loud, which is quite a lot. While it may enhance dialogue clarity, I don’t have hearing issues, and I prefer a balanced sound. I find it puzzling that Sonos doesn’t allow for adjustments in this regard. As it stands, I'm not planning to make any changes. Hopefully, they will address these issues in a future firmware update.
The weirdest part to me is disabling the center driver on the era 300 when used as surrounds, even for music. I don’t understand how that could make the sound BETTER. As far as the sub, turning the crossover to 80 hz is actually better. The thing I’m the most excited about with Ultra, and what will probably make me want to upgrade both arcs and all 3 beams to ultras, but likely not happening. Turning the sub up isn’t really an issue. Everything Sonos is supposed to be made to not be able to blow or anything. The crossover is a good thing because objectively the bass will be less distorted and more focused on the frequency it should be focused on. Everybody always sets their crossover to 80hz on a car subwoofer. You WILL get less volume at 80-110 hz though specifically, because of the sound motion driver, but it should absolutely be enough volume for 80-110 hz. Even the beam with no sub has a lot of bass, let alone the arc, and the arc ultra is over 2x better for bass than the arc, with no sub. So the sub can shine on the frequency it should, and the 80-110 hz will still be present enough.
Thanks again Peter, I tested my Ultra and I feel that its sound more bright compared with the Arc. Of course the bass is better with the sound motion module. I have to reduce my treble to 0 on my Ultra. No sure do you have the same issue or not. Thanks again!
7 is a lot more than 3 tweeters, so not surprising. I wonder why they didn’t have 19 drivers, as in 10 mid bass drivers, 7 tweeters, sound motion driver. A pair of single mid bass and tweeter for the side and upward firing speakers. Odd to comoletely change them from mid speaker to tweeter. Just seems like one of rhe design choices was odd with such a different approach. Were there any studies done that the surround effect speakers only need tweeters? Maybe because lower frequencies are harder to locate? I wonder why they made the arc how they did then anyway.
Peter, do you know about the ultra surround bug where if you use rear speakers the rear surround sound gets mostly routed to the arc Ultra side speakers instead? I'm surprised you have not mentioned this. I upgraded from ark to Arc Ultra, but returned it because of this bug. There's discussions about it on Reddit, seems to be affecting a lot of people.
Isn’t that already a thing on the Arc? It’s listed as feature on Sonos arc ultra feature page too. Not the product page, but another feature page I found. It says it combines the rears and the arc ultra side firing speakers as one channel. Oh yeah, what the arc does, and which I always disliked, was it routed it’s side channels to the rear speakers, and now just cloned the left and right front channel. I always found that annoying because the front spacial effects were way better without adding rears on an arc, but the overall experience is still better with rears. Seems to be working as intended. It also says the rear speakers now only play noise exactly when they are supposed to, and only even from each driver it should be using. So it may only even have a single tweeter on the rear speaker make noise for two seconds in a 10 minute period, and no other noise, if that’s what the sound calls for. Now if this is better in practice or not, I’d have to test myself. I use two arcs and 3 beam gen 2 all with one sl’s and a sub gen 3 and sub minis on the rest. I do know the era 300 sounds leagues better than the one sl for music, no real comparison. So I kind of trust their approach. It also kind of makes sense to have changed all the side and upward firing speakers to only tweeters considering lower frequencies are hard to locate directionally. Still weird they didn’t include ANY mid bass drivers on the atmos speakers though. But truly could have only been 4 more or none and they found it not worth the cost or change in design.
My question is is it louder than the original arc? I switched over to the nakamichi dragon and haven’t used the arc for 5 months. I finally moved it into the bedroom and I noticed it being very low in volume.
I feel so ripped off with the arc. If they just originally added tweeters as the upward firing speakers and then kept the side firing mid bass, didn’t route the side firing channels to rears and have them just clone the left and right channel (front spatial audio is way better on the arc with no rears, but overall better experience all together with rears), and allowed the crossover to 80 hz for the sub with normal arc, I’d be fine with normal arc with a sub gen 3 and era 300’s. The bass on the arc is good enough for 80-110 hz imo and would let the sub do what it was designed to do. I guess they don’t agree that the arc is good enough with bass to completely take over 80-110 hz. I disagree though. And yes I know the bass on the ultra is way better than the arc without a sub, but the arc isn’t a slouch on bass by any means. Even the beam gen 2 is decent with bass. More specifically with music for those two. I have a sub gen 3 on my main arc, and a sub mini on my second arc and 2 out of 3 beam gen 2’s. But with how much better the arc ultra is, it feels like they failed with the arc ad ripped me off. I own two, and I feel less excited moving one arc to another room when I get the Ultra than I felt both times I upgraded my main living room tv and moved a way bigger tv into my bedroom and a nicer tv into the guest room. It is sad because the arc looks so awesome, I think it sounds good, but now my arcs and beams will feel like redheaded step children smh
I just purchased the Arc Ultra and love it. First Sonos as well. I don’t have the room to place the 300s behind MLP so I’m considering Era 100s for surrounds place next to couch, that’s fine correct?
This was a problem that was popping up for alot of people on the subreddit(myself included). They have put out a couple of app updates since then that should fix it. Try updating the app/system and running Trueplay again.
TruePlay with Speech enhancement enabled don't seem to play well with each other with Dolby Atmos content. Low setting or Off makes the vocals better/clearer.
@PeterPee I have the Arc Gen 1 with ERA 300 and Sub Gen 3. If I have to upgrade 1 item, which one would be the best? Upgrade to Arc Ultra or Sub Gen 4?
@@tracer073obvious answer lol. The sub 4 is barely a difference. It can even be used as a dual sub with sub gen 3 and Sonos have pretty strict standards. If you have very high standards for your sound quality I still wouldn’t recommend it though. They do have different port designs which can change the sound. It’s possible a gen 3 and a gen 4 both cut off at 80hz may actually provide the best experience overall though, as bass is not able to be located spatially, and considering they will both no longer be slightly distored by going up to 110 hz, but only blasting 80hz and below, mixing their two port designs may give you the best range of frequencies at rhe best quality and volume, as opposed to two gen 4’s or two gen 3’s.
Setup: Arc Ultra/2 Era 300/Sub 4: when I play Dolby Atmos amaze video, I notice a significant change in bass performance depending if trueplay is activated or not. With trueplay the surround sounds slightly better but the sub is kind of out of the game. Like the nice vibrations are gone. Without trueplay the surround sounds less dominant but the bass is at its best…so seems trueplay is still killing the sub. @Peter: can you please test that in your setup/settings testings?!
Peter, how would you recommend to start building a full surround system: 1. Arc ultra + Sub4 first (2x Era300 later), or 2. Arc ultra + 2x Era300 first (Sub4 later)? Many thanks for your input!
300’s! The ultra does a great job with bass. I toggled off the sub to see what the ultra and 300’s sound like without, and was impressed at the bass it produced without the sub.
Awesome content Peter! I have the Arc Ultra, Sub 3 and good old One SLs for surrounds. I wonder if now is the time to upgrade the Ones to Era 100s. I do not have room for the 300s unfortunately. Is the upgrade from Ones to Era 100s a good option?
Hello. Guessing you had Arc before the Ultra? If so then you had same setup as me: Arc, Sub 3 and 2x One SLs. Are you pleased with ultra now? Notice enough positive difference to justify your ultra purchase? I’m still on fence whether to upgrade. Thank you.
@ that’s right, I had that set up. I’m happy with the Ultra. Not night and day difference but more subtle improvements across the board. I like the improvement in dialogue in particular, as well as clarity in sounds. So I’m wondering about the Ones and swapping with Era 100.
I wonder if the ones will actually be better for surround duty than era100’s. I say this because when I bought a pair of era100’s to compare with one’s, I found the era100’s to have a thicker mid range. They had more authority, while the one’s sound profile sounded more scooped to me. So in some (perhaps smaller) environments the one’s may be preferred to the era100’s. If you buy direct from Sonos and don’t like them or find no difference, then you can of course return them.
Living in a condo. Have a 3x5 meter living room. Have a pair of Sonos One SL’s in this room. Can the Arc Ultra pair with these? Will it need a subwoofer or can its internal subwoofer be sufficient? If so, will the sub mini suffice? Was going to upgrade to a beam 2 w/ sub mini when the announcement of the arc ultra happened. Thinking of future proofing my setup.
Im loving my play fives and really dont want to change them. The sound from them is just perfect to me. Is there any reason why they are not supported anymore?
Hello, i have a sonos arc and i got a sonos arc ultra, my onest opinion is that the ultra is just a little diferent, the sound is different but not in the good sens or bad. just diferent. so for the money just get the arc ! I don't understand this people that say is way better cuz it's not. and all the tech youtubers that get their ultra for free, of corse they say that is a game changer.. THE ONLY thing that is better is tha bass BUT if you have a sub that thing is gone..People that show you charts to convince you that is better have something to gain from that..
@@alexs7860 save your money, or buy the era300 as surrounds, or a sub if you dont't have one.. on the ultra i can tell you that the dialog sounds louder but i think it's just software, if you increase the treble you're fine. after 4 years i expected more, design wise and sound, thei aded a 'sub' and they call it a revolution, what a joke..
@@alexs7860 if you use the Arc stand-alone it may be worth considering. But even then I’d suggest just get a sub. The difference in sound is not the night and day difference many are making it out to be. Like @ionutmuntianu6049 said it is a different sound but I wouldn’t necessarily call it better
In my country (eastern EU) the og Arc is $635, while the Ultra is $1059. Pretty large difference in price. I don't have the money for any of them, just wanted to compare prices 😂
Could you test the Arc Ultra with Era 100 rears? In my case especially 5.1 soundtracks doesn‘t come correctly from the rears, the rear sound get mixed to the front. There are many more people with the same issue in the forums.
Great vid as always! Got the Ultra (had the Beam2) and all i can say (safely on YT lol) is WOW... just wow! What a difference in sound quality! When I compare the two, the Ultra is far more well rounded BUT also so much more focused than before even when compared to my friends orig ARC. Any dialog issues from before with it being quiet or sounding a bit muddy, is gone. GONE! I also have a pair of era300's and the immersion is incredible. Quick question tho, IF i want to add a 2nd sub will the SUB4 be compatible with my gen3? Or will it be better to just stick with another gen3 so the sub sound is consistent? Cheers!
Im getting an ultra but I really have no issue with my arc or beam gen 2’s. The beam is the most impressive one (not overall best, but for what it is) as it sounds amazing with everything, I often thought the beam in a small room was better than the arc in a big room. The beam is great with dialog and clarity, and only even has one tweeter and so small, and impressive atmos with no dedicated atmos speakers. HRTF is actually more effective at spatial audio than having dedicated spatial audio speakers. I have a sonos sound system on 5 different tv’s, so I simply can’t afford an ultra and era’s on all of them. The others get the job done for their uses just fine. I have 2 arcs, 3 beam gen 2’s, one sub gen 3, 3 sub minis, 8 one sl’s. Will be getting an ultra and era 300’s and a sub 4, putting the arc and sub gen 3 in my bedroom, putting the one sl’s the era 300 is replacing and the sub mini the gen 3 is replacing on my beam that’s flying solo in my guest room, and sell one beam. So then I will have ultra, sub 4, and era 300’s for my main system, my bedroom will be arc with sub gen 3 and one sl’s, my wife’s office will be arc with sub mini and one sl’s, my office will continue to be beam gen 2 with sub mini and one sl’s, and my guest room will be the same as my office now. It was just a beam by itself. Well, it still is, but not when I get the new stuff.
Great review Peter! A quick question! Do you think the new ARC is good for a large room with a 4 metre ceiling? I am a little worried as they have dropped the size of the midrange drivers
Is anyone else experiencing a crackling noise with their Arc Ultra? I upgraded from the Arc to the Arc Ultra, which is connected to a pair of Era 300s and two subs. The crackling sound has been intermittent, mainly occurring when streaming movies.
Again really good info on the ultra, but 1 thing where no one is talking about, is sonos implementing a real deep sleep mode or standby with a minimum usage of power Sonos wants to go more green with there products for a couple of years. Did they deliver on that with the ultra?
Hey Peter, your explanations are always a thing to look for. Few queries, how is the Atmos upward firing effect on this new bar, and do you feel that sonos should have included an HDMI pass through which they skipped again while eliminating optical port.
The Atmos upward firing effect seems relatively unchanged. The pass through is something I think a lot of people want. But I do think there could be a possibility of making it more difficult to set up for others.
Hello Peter, thanks this useful video. One question ¿Why - in some TVs - the volume level does not appear on tv when level up or down with the Arc? Is this a problem with the Arc?Has a fix? Thanks
I said it in one of the earlier videos: this is a device for those who want to buy sonos, but want a middle of the road investment without including a sub and/or rears. Anyone who already has at least a sub mini and/or era 300s, probably will have no use for this, at all. The difference would be imperceptible.
Can you test if two sub 4’s, two sub 3’s, or a sub gen 3 with a sub gen 4 provides the best sounding bass with the arc ultra? I have my theory that a sub 4 and a gen 3 in tandem would be best. Considering they are now cut off at 80hz, as they should be (the only thing I am annoyed about still having 2 normal arcs and 2 beams after I get the ultra is their subs and sub minis will now sound noticeably worse than my main sound system. Idc if the sound bar is a little worse but I want the sub to do only the frequencies it should be doing) then the two port designs working together with no distortion from 80-110hz should give you the loudest, highest quality bass across the largest range of frequencies from 20-80hz. Different port designs always amplify a certain range between 20-80hz by up to 3db, which is almost doubling the sound. Considering it’s usually around half of the 20-80hz range that a port will amplify by 3db, I would assume the sub 4 and gen 3 port are amplifying half of that range each. I find it odd the port design is so different, while the actual sub looks almost exactly the same. It may be tuned the same even though it looks different, due to the different materials. Anyway, if the ports are tuned to say Sub 4 is tuned to 60 hz and Sub Gen 3 to 40 hz, then they should sound best together in my limited understanding. You would save me a lot of headache testing it by ear with your actual testing. Thank you Peter!
Hi , i have a old sonos playbase + 2 rear sonos play 1 for Surround . the arc ultra dosent work with rear play 1, so is it worth to buy sonos ultra arc and And give up with the rear speakers for now and buy only the ultra arc at this moment or to stay with the old Surround system ?
Great video. Are you that you cannot connect a sub gen 2 and a sub gen 4? I’ve got an arc ultra with a sub gen 2 and the apps propose me to join another sub but only a gen 4 sub. Thx
That's strange. I have not tried to unpair my sub gen 2 from another system to test this out. Will try it out. I got this by going through the Sonos FAQ.
Peter, as always, a really nice and well thought out video... If I have beam 2 + sub mini + era100 do you still recommend me to upgrade are ultra or is it good enough like this?
In my opinion Sonos Arc Ultra doesnt have as big bass as Sonos Five. Yes, it is better than Arc , but still not as big as 5. Soundstage is bigger too, but there are some others brands with bigger soundstage. Ultra is a good standalone soundbar, but It does not satisfy me fully and I will choose the competition this time.
Love your videos on Sonos after having them for 10 years or so and now have 2 arc's ,2 sub gen 3,2 era 300,4 era 100,1 beam,1 sub mini, and two older play 5's as well so thus have spent my share of money on Sonos .I get all my info on them from YOU and only YOU!And when Sonos screwed up app wise this year I relied on you for all the info on what was going on as Sonos unfortunately was Horrible on info or non existence on what was happening !Thanks for your helpful videos
Do you listen to music?
Why no Fives?
Wow. The most comprehensive breakdown of the the Arc ultra. Thank you.
My Sonos Arc Ultra arrived two days ago, and during this time, I’ve been testing its sound quality. I must say the difference is remarkable. Although I’ve read that the improvement is not so noticeable when paired with a subwoofer, I can confidently say that, for me, the upgrade is already significant. The sound is much clearer, and the separation between audio elements is greatly enhanced. I truly enjoy watching live concerts, and with this soundbar, the instruments sound much sharper, and the audio reaches exactly where it needs to. It doesn’t feel as flat as the previous Arc model. For these reasons, I’m extremely happy with my decision to upgrade.
Thanks for that personal view. I'm planning to purchase one and it's always good to read something like this to validate my decision! :D
Recommended settings
Lol.. dude just called the arc .. flat .. :)
I noticed the same thing
@@param5756yeah the arc sounds great, better than any bookshelf speaker with a dolby true hd amp I’ve ever had back in 2012-2014. But with how everyone says how much better it is and how the Arc is literally only 4 years old makes me feel ripped off by Sonos
But if it’s anything like the Era’s improvement over the other speakers then it probably is way better. And it probably is more like the era 300 considering all 7 tweeters. I can’t wait to get my Era’s and eventually an ultra. I’ll have an ultra with era’s, 2 arcs with one sl’s, 3 beams with one sl’s. All but one beams have sub 3 or sub mini
I get like 60 SNR Wifi connection now with my Ultra on 5ghz. No issues at all with app or connection and its amazing.
Great Review. I love how you have gone so in-depth on the changes form the previous ARC. Nice job!
Great video Peter. Do you know when you will give us all your full sound settings. Thanks for all your content.😊
I need to get familiar with the sound first. Settings video take a long time cos it usually entails many hours of testing and measurements. Sorry but give me a while!
@@PeterPeewaiting for this too
Agree
Excellent review ..i want to upgrade my ARC to this one now ...i listened thru Bluetooth with a Bose Soundlink Max ..that was incredible listening .
can just imagine how the Arc Ultra will sound ..😅
I have been using Play:1 surrounds without any problem - I know they said it's not supported, but seems to work fine.
So have I
Me too!
Mic drop. What a fantastic review. Subscribed.
Regarding the crossover frequency, it seems that after some reading, it was adjusted to either 70 or 80 Hz, possibly starting at 70 and then updated to 80 Hz. The issue is that the subwoofer produces less sound now compared to when it was connected to a regular Arc. I've seen multiple posts from disappointed users stating that they now have to turn the sub up almost to maximum to achieve the same output as before with the Arc.
Another complaint from many users is that the center speaker is significantly out of balance compared to the other speakers. I came across a post from someone who measured it to be 8 dB too loud, which is quite a lot. While it may enhance dialogue clarity, I don’t have hearing issues, and I prefer a balanced sound. I find it puzzling that Sonos doesn’t allow for adjustments in this regard. As it stands, I'm not planning to make any changes. Hopefully, they will address these issues in a future firmware update.
The weirdest part to me is disabling the center driver on the era 300 when used as surrounds, even for music. I don’t understand how that could make the sound BETTER.
As far as the sub, turning the crossover to 80 hz is actually better. The thing I’m the most excited about with Ultra, and what will probably make me want to upgrade both arcs and all 3 beams to ultras, but likely not happening. Turning the sub up isn’t really an issue. Everything Sonos is supposed to be made to not be able to blow or anything. The crossover is a good thing because objectively the bass will be less distorted and more focused on the frequency it should be focused on. Everybody always sets their crossover to 80hz on a car subwoofer. You WILL get less volume at 80-110 hz though specifically, because of the sound motion driver, but it should absolutely be enough volume for 80-110 hz. Even the beam with no sub has a lot of bass, let alone the arc, and the arc ultra is over 2x better for bass than the arc, with no sub. So the sub can shine on the frequency it should, and the 80-110 hz will still be present enough.
Great video Peter! Keep it up!
Thanks again Peter, I tested my Ultra and I feel that its sound more bright compared with the Arc. Of course the bass is better with the sound motion module. I have to reduce my treble to 0 on my Ultra. No sure do you have the same issue or not. Thanks again!
7 is a lot more than 3 tweeters, so not surprising. I wonder why they didn’t have 19 drivers, as in 10 mid bass drivers, 7 tweeters, sound motion driver. A pair of single mid bass and tweeter for the side and upward firing speakers. Odd to comoletely change them from mid speaker to tweeter. Just seems like one of rhe design choices was odd with such a different approach.
Were there any studies done that the surround effect speakers only need tweeters? Maybe because lower frequencies are harder to locate? I wonder why they made the arc how they did then anyway.
great video, best regards Peter!
Thanks!
Great video as always Peter. Have you been in contact with Sonos about getting on that advisory board with consumers? You’d be perfect for it.
Love your videos Pete. I have to return my Ultra though. The highs and treble are just too harsh for my ears.
Peter, do you know about the ultra surround bug where if you use rear speakers the rear surround sound gets mostly routed to the arc Ultra side speakers instead? I'm surprised you have not mentioned this. I upgraded from ark to Arc Ultra, but returned it because of this bug. There's discussions about it on Reddit, seems to be affecting a lot of people.
Isn’t that already a thing on the Arc? It’s listed as feature on Sonos arc ultra feature page too. Not the product page, but another feature page I found. It says it combines the rears and the arc ultra side firing speakers as one channel. Oh yeah, what the arc does, and which I always disliked, was it routed it’s side channels to the rear speakers, and now just cloned the left and right front channel. I always found that annoying because the front spacial effects were way better without adding rears on an arc, but the overall experience is still better with rears.
Seems to be working as intended. It also says the rear speakers now only play noise exactly when they are supposed to, and only even from each driver it should be using. So it may only even have a single tweeter on the rear speaker make noise for two seconds in a 10 minute period, and no other noise, if that’s what the sound calls for.
Now if this is better in practice or not, I’d have to test myself. I use two arcs and 3 beam gen 2 all with one sl’s and a sub gen 3 and sub minis on the rest. I do know the era 300 sounds leagues better than the one sl for music, no real comparison. So I kind of trust their approach. It also kind of makes sense to have changed all the side and upward firing speakers to only tweeters considering lower frequencies are hard to locate directionally. Still weird they didn’t include ANY mid bass drivers on the atmos speakers though. But truly could have only been 4 more or none and they found it not worth the cost or change in design.
My question is is it louder than the original arc? I switched over to the nakamichi dragon and haven’t used the arc for 5 months. I finally moved it into the bedroom and I noticed it being very low in volume.
I upgraded last week, bass was the first thing I noticed, then clarity and loudness...
I feel so ripped off with the arc. If they just originally added tweeters as the upward firing speakers and then kept the side firing mid bass, didn’t route the side firing channels to rears and have them just clone the left and right channel (front spatial audio is way better on the arc with no rears, but overall better experience all together with rears), and allowed the crossover to 80 hz for the sub with normal arc, I’d be fine with normal arc with a sub gen 3 and era 300’s. The bass on the arc is good enough for 80-110 hz imo and would let the sub do what it was designed to do. I guess they don’t agree that the arc is good enough with bass to completely take over 80-110 hz. I disagree though. And yes I know the bass on the ultra is way better than the arc without a sub, but the arc isn’t a slouch on bass by any means. Even the beam gen 2 is decent with bass. More specifically with music for those two. I have a sub gen 3 on my main arc, and a sub mini on my second arc and 2 out of 3 beam gen 2’s.
But with how much better the arc ultra is, it feels like they failed with the arc ad ripped me off. I own two, and I feel less excited moving one arc to another room when I get the Ultra than I felt both times I upgraded my main living room tv and moved a way bigger tv into my bedroom and a nicer tv into the guest room. It is sad because the arc looks so awesome, I think it sounds good, but now my arcs and beams will feel like redheaded step children smh
I just purchased the Arc Ultra and love it. First Sonos as well. I don’t have the room to place the 300s behind MLP so I’m considering
Era 100s for surrounds place next to couch, that’s fine correct?
I'd like you to test the 'quick' Trueplay vs the 'full' Trueplay, if you can :)
I got the arc ultra with the 300s and gen 3 sub but notice the sub barely kicking in amymore
Oh wow. No la. You will still feel it at the bass heavy sections.
This was a problem that was popping up for alot of people on the subreddit(myself included). They have put out a couple of app updates since then that should fix it. Try updating the app/system and running Trueplay again.
Raise the volume you'll feel it.. even at sub level 0 .... check settings
TruePlay with Speech enhancement enabled don't seem to play well with each other with Dolby Atmos content. Low setting or Off makes the vocals better/clearer.
@PeterPee I have the Arc Gen 1 with ERA 300 and Sub Gen 3. If I have to upgrade 1 item, which one would be the best? Upgrade to Arc Ultra or Sub Gen 4?
Arc ultra
@@tracer073obvious answer lol. The sub 4 is barely a difference. It can even be used as a dual sub with sub gen 3 and Sonos have pretty strict standards. If you have very high standards for your sound quality I still wouldn’t recommend it though. They do have different port designs which can change the sound. It’s possible a gen 3 and a gen 4 both cut off at 80hz may actually provide the best experience overall though, as bass is not able to be located spatially, and considering they will both no longer be slightly distored by going up to 110 hz, but only blasting 80hz and below, mixing their two port designs may give you the best range of frequencies at rhe best quality and volume, as opposed to two gen 4’s or two gen 3’s.
Setup: Arc Ultra/2 Era 300/Sub 4: when I play Dolby Atmos amaze video, I notice a significant change in bass performance depending if trueplay is activated or not. With trueplay the surround sounds slightly better but the sub is kind of out of the game. Like the nice vibrations are gone. Without trueplay the surround sounds less dominant but the bass is at its best…so seems trueplay is still killing the sub. @Peter: can you please test that in your setup/settings testings?!
Peter, how would you recommend to start building a full surround system:
1. Arc ultra + Sub4 first (2x Era300 later), or
2. Arc ultra + 2x Era300 first (Sub4 later)?
Many thanks for your input!
300’s! The ultra does a great job with bass. I toggled off the sub to see what the ultra and 300’s sound like without, and was impressed at the bass it produced without the sub.
With the arc, I would have recommended going with the sub first. With the arc ultra, it’s not so clear anymore. I’m in a dilemma.
@@PeterPeethat's exactly my dilemma as well! 😅 Maybe you could address that in a future video please! (ideally before Black Friday 😁). Thank you!
Awesome content Peter!
I have the Arc Ultra, Sub 3 and good old One SLs for surrounds. I wonder if now is the time to upgrade the Ones to Era 100s. I do not have room for the 300s unfortunately.
Is the upgrade from Ones to Era 100s a good option?
Hello. Guessing you had Arc before the Ultra? If so then you had same setup as me: Arc, Sub 3 and 2x One SLs. Are you pleased with ultra now? Notice enough positive difference to justify your ultra purchase? I’m still on fence whether to upgrade. Thank you.
@ that’s right, I had that set up. I’m happy with the Ultra. Not night and day difference but more subtle improvements across the board. I like the improvement in dialogue in particular, as well as clarity in sounds.
So I’m wondering about the Ones and swapping with Era 100.
I wonder if the ones will actually be better for surround duty than era100’s. I say this because when I bought a pair of era100’s to compare with one’s, I found the era100’s to have a thicker mid range. They had more authority, while the one’s sound profile sounded more scooped to me. So in some (perhaps smaller) environments the one’s may be preferred to the era100’s. If you buy direct from Sonos and don’t like them or find no difference, then you can of course return them.
@@djt6546 that’s interesting. Thanks.
Living in a condo. Have a 3x5 meter living room. Have a pair of Sonos One SL’s in this room. Can the Arc Ultra pair with these? Will it need a subwoofer or can its internal subwoofer be sufficient? If so, will the sub mini suffice? Was going to upgrade to a beam 2 w/ sub mini when the announcement of the arc ultra happened. Thinking of future proofing my setup.
Is the atmos experience better?
Whoops line was classic 😂
Great review Peter. Can you tell me what you are using to play your MKV files.I can't get audio with them. Thanks.
Im loving my play fives and really dont want to change them. The sound from them is just perfect to me. Is there any reason why they are not supported anymore?
Motor in the mix means lover overall reliability
Hello, i have a sonos arc and i got a sonos arc ultra, my onest opinion is that the ultra is just a little diferent, the sound is different but not in the good sens or bad. just diferent. so for the money just get the arc ! I don't understand this people that say is way better cuz it's not. and all the tech youtubers that get their ultra for free, of corse they say that is a game changer.. THE ONLY thing that is better is tha bass BUT if you have a sub that thing is gone..People that show you charts to convince you that is better have something to gain from that..
Repectfully disagree.
@@eXoticonI have also have an Arc and am contemplating an upgrade, what are the biggest differences in your case?
@@alexs7860 save your money, or buy the era300 as surrounds, or a sub if you dont't have one.. on the ultra i can tell you that the dialog sounds louder but i think it's just software, if you increase the treble you're fine. after 4 years i expected more, design wise and sound, thei aded a 'sub' and they call it a revolution, what a joke..
@@alexs7860 if you use the Arc stand-alone it may be worth considering. But even then I’d suggest just get a sub. The difference in sound is not the night and day difference many are making it out to be. Like @ionutmuntianu6049 said it is a different sound but I wouldn’t necessarily call it better
@@alexs7860 do you have a sub?
In my country (eastern EU) the og Arc is $635, while the Ultra is $1059. Pretty large difference in price.
I don't have the money for any of them, just wanted to compare prices 😂
Could you test the Arc Ultra with Era 100 rears? In my case especially 5.1 soundtracks doesn‘t come correctly from the rears, the rear sound get mixed to the front. There are many more people with the same issue in the forums.
Great vid as always! Got the Ultra (had the Beam2) and all i can say (safely on YT lol) is WOW... just wow! What a difference in sound quality! When I compare the two, the Ultra is far more well rounded BUT also so much more focused than before even when compared to my friends orig ARC. Any dialog issues from before with it being quiet or sounding a bit muddy, is gone. GONE! I also have a pair of era300's and the immersion is incredible. Quick question tho, IF i want to add a 2nd sub will the SUB4 be compatible with my gen3? Or will it be better to just stick with another gen3 so the sub sound is consistent? Cheers!
Im getting an ultra but I really have no issue with my arc or beam gen 2’s. The beam is the most impressive one (not overall best, but for what it is) as it sounds amazing with everything, I often thought the beam in a small room was better than the arc in a big room. The beam is great with dialog and clarity, and only even has one tweeter and so small, and impressive atmos with no dedicated atmos speakers. HRTF is actually more effective at spatial audio than having dedicated spatial audio speakers.
I have a sonos sound system on 5 different tv’s, so I simply can’t afford an ultra and era’s on all of them. The others get the job done for their uses just fine. I have 2 arcs, 3 beam gen 2’s, one sub gen 3, 3 sub minis, 8 one sl’s. Will be getting an ultra and era 300’s and a sub 4, putting the arc and sub gen 3 in my bedroom, putting the one sl’s the era 300 is replacing and the sub mini the gen 3 is replacing on my beam that’s flying solo in my guest room, and sell one beam.
So then I will have ultra, sub 4, and era 300’s for my main system, my bedroom will be arc with sub gen 3 and one sl’s, my wife’s office will be arc with sub mini and one sl’s, my office will continue to be beam gen 2 with sub mini and one sl’s, and my guest room will be the same as my office now. It was just a beam by itself. Well, it still is, but not when I get the new stuff.
Great review Peter! A quick question! Do you think the new ARC is good for a large room with a 4 metre ceiling? I am a little worried as they have dropped the size of the midrange drivers
Hi, does anyone know if the Ultra would pair with the Sonos amp driving Sonance in ceiling speakers as surrounds?
Is anyone else experiencing a crackling noise with their Arc Ultra? I upgraded from the Arc to the Arc Ultra, which is connected to a pair of Era 300s and two subs. The crackling sound has been intermittent, mainly occurring when streaming movies.
Again really good info on the ultra, but 1 thing where no one is talking about, is sonos implementing a real deep sleep mode or standby with a minimum usage of power
Sonos wants to go more green with there products for a couple of years. Did they deliver on that with the ultra?
Hey Peter, your explanations are always a thing to look for. Few queries, how is the Atmos upward firing effect on this new bar, and do you feel that sonos should have included an HDMI pass through which they skipped again while eliminating optical port.
The Atmos upward firing effect seems relatively unchanged. The pass through is something I think a lot of people want. But I do think there could be a possibility of making it more difficult to set up for others.
Is it compatible with a a gen 1 Sonos amp, the one that works on s2 app? I have my ceiling speakers wired to this amp.
Peter what’s your Sonos arc ultra sound setting?
I have been using everything at stock setting. Nothing changed. I need to get used to it before I start with the best settings.
Noted with thanks
@@PeterPee Look forward to see what you use, to get an idea, especially speech enhancement if you use it.
Hello Peter, thanks this useful video. One question ¿Why - in some TVs - the volume level does not appear on tv when level up or down with the Arc?
Is this a problem with the Arc?Has a fix? Thanks
Hey Peter, will Play 5 Gen 2 work as surrounds? Is it just the Gen 1s of the Play series that dont work?
1GB of RAM to 2GB… How come people were posting/sharing a spec sheet claiming it was 16GB of RAM?!?
I said it in one of the earlier videos: this is a device for those who want to buy sonos, but want a middle of the road investment without including a sub and/or rears. Anyone who already has at least a sub mini and/or era 300s, probably will have no use for this, at all. The difference would be imperceptible.
I have the 300s and a sub g3 and I notice a nice difference
Are you saying this from personal experience or speculation?
Can you test if two sub 4’s, two sub 3’s, or a sub gen 3 with a sub gen 4 provides the best sounding bass with the arc ultra? I have my theory that a sub 4 and a gen 3 in tandem would be best. Considering they are now cut off at 80hz, as they should be (the only thing I am annoyed about still having 2 normal arcs and 2 beams after I get the ultra is their subs and sub minis will now sound noticeably worse than my main sound system. Idc if the sound bar is a little worse but I want the sub to do only the frequencies it should be doing) then the two port designs working together with no distortion from 80-110hz should give you the loudest, highest quality bass across the largest range of frequencies from 20-80hz. Different port designs always amplify a certain range between 20-80hz by up to 3db, which is almost doubling the sound. Considering it’s usually around half of the 20-80hz range that a port will amplify by 3db, I would assume the sub 4 and gen 3 port are amplifying half of that range each. I find it odd the port design is so different, while the actual sub looks almost exactly the same. It may be tuned the same even though it looks different, due to the different materials.
Anyway, if the ports are tuned to say Sub 4 is tuned to 60 hz and Sub Gen 3 to 40 hz, then they should sound best together in my limited understanding.
You would save me a lot of headache testing it by ear with your actual testing. Thank you Peter!
Did the ultra support Sonosnet like the ARC1?
Thanks for video 😀
Is the trueplay issue fixed with the latest update?
No
Hi , i have a old sonos playbase + 2 rear sonos play 1 for Surround . the arc ultra dosent work with rear play 1, so is it worth to buy sonos ultra arc and And give up with the rear speakers for now and buy only the ultra arc at this moment or to stay with the old Surround system ?
Does it work with two sub gen 3’s I wonder…
Really disappointed that Sonos removed dual subs with gen 1 and gen 2 subs
It was very hidden on the website too
Great video. Are you that you cannot connect a sub gen 2 and a sub gen 4? I’ve got an arc ultra with a sub gen 2 and the apps propose me to join another sub but only a gen 4 sub. Thx
That's strange. I have not tried to unpair my sub gen 2 from another system to test this out. Will try it out. I got this by going through the Sonos FAQ.
@ . Thank you. Please let me know. I don’t want to buy a new sub gen 4 if I can’t connect as a second sub on my ultra. 🙏
I was hoping to see that last graph but with a full setup
Also ich merke bei den Einstellungen für die Sprache keinen unterschied zwischen low und high
it's $400 more in Australia
Just so you know I used nfc to set up my gen 3 sub.
Musically: what about power output? The Playbar exceeded the Arc in dbs...any measurements to share with the Ultra?
Do you think we will be able to use 4 era 300 instead of 2 as just surround speakers ....the sound of 4 era in a room has to be amazing
Sonos is retarded for not allowing this
The arc ultra is the only Sonos that will connect to 5g internet. I found out the hard way, but all,is good now.
Peter, as always, a really nice and well thought out video... If I have beam 2 + sub mini + era100 do you still recommend me to upgrade are ultra or is it good enough like this?
In my opinion Sonos Arc Ultra doesnt have as big bass as Sonos Five. Yes, it is better than Arc , but still not as big as 5. Soundstage is bigger too, but there are some others brands with bigger soundstage. Ultra is a good standalone soundbar, but It does not satisfy me fully and I will choose the competition this time.
Which is what, what other system you choosing?
For music I stay with my sonos five. For movies even q990d is ok.
Peter does it just better!🔥
Thank you Jacob!
Why no fives? Not sure what you mean I have a pair of fives as stated and yes listen to tons of music with these
Snake oil
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SpeKA
Rite He A r
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