Sonos today unveiled the long-leaked Arc Ultra soundbar, and with it a new subwoofer called the Sub 4. It marks the first new release since the Sonos Ace Headphones in May and comes as Sonos continues to work its way out from under the rubble that was its failed software update earlier this year.
These also likely are the two devices that Sonos delayed in the wake of the software catastrophe. Both will be available starting October 29.
We’re all well aware of what happened earlier this year, so let’s take a look at what’s new:
The Sonos Arc Ultra
The $999 Sonos Arc Ultra uses a 9.1.4 setup with spatial audio and a new transducer that Sonos calls Sound Motion, which “drastically reduces the size of the transducer while supercharging the bass, opening a new chapter in sound innovation where bigger, better sound can be delivered from smaller products.” So bigger sound in a smaller soundbar, with bass that Sonos says is twice good as that of the OG Arc at 50Hz. And you can tune things using Sonos’ TruePlay feature on both iOS and Android.
The Arc Ultra has a new center channel architecture that Sonos says will help with dialogue. And if that’s not enough, there’s a new speech enhancement feature to let you set the level of clarity of the spoken word. Sonos says it worked with the likes of Hollywood’s Chris Jenkins and Onnalee Blank to fine-tune the Arc Ultra sound profile for Dolby Atmos content.
The Sonos interview
All the usual features are here as well, including Bluetooth, touch controls, support for Apple’s AirPlay 2, and a microphone for voice control using Amazon Alexa or Sonos Voice Control.
Drilling down into the specs a little more, you’ll find 15 Class-D amplifiers. And the Sound Motion setup uses a four-motor, dual-membrane woofer. There are six midwoofers to handle the middle frequencies. And like the original Arc, the Arc Ultra supports Sonos’ TV audio swap, if you have the Ace headphones.
The Arc Ultra sports 2GB of RAM and 8GB of nonvolatile memory. That’s different than what appeared in a previous leak, and there’s no “Sonos TV” operating system or anything mentioned about it.
The Sonos Sub 4
As the name implies, this is the fourth-generation subwoofer and it retails for $799. The shape will be familiar, but Sonos says it’s been rebuilt “inside and out.” The sub’s two 8-inch woofers face inward “to create a force-canceling effect that neutralizes distortion.” And it has new Wi-Fi radios for better connectivity. And that’s good, because it only works wirelessly.
And for those who are worried about how much power a device is drawing when you’re not actually using it, Sonos says the Sub 4 sucks 50% less power when in idle mode.
You can pair a couple of Sub 4s together for a ridiculous amount of bass. But if you already have an older Sonos Sub, you can pair the Sub 4 with it, too — Sonos says it should work just fine. It’s also compatible with the Arc, both generations of the Sonos Beam, the Ray, Sonos Five, and Sonos Era 100 and 300 speakers.
You can expect the Sub 4 to get all the way down to 25Hz.
This is still a hefty speaker — it weighs just under 26 pounds, Sonos says.
