After acquiring Dutch startup Mayht, Sonos has taken advantage of their expertise to introduce a new Sound Motion woofer which utilises four motors and a dual-membrane design that saves space internally. That extra space allows for extra drivers to be fitted into the soundbar. This time around, there are two extra drivers with a total of six midrange woofers and seven silk-dome tweeters, in addition to the central Sound Motion woofer for a 9.1.4 setup. All the drivers are powered by Class D digital amplifiers while reducing the weight of the soundbar down to 5.9 kg. 

Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos, told StereoNET:

“For decades, Sonos has revolutionized home theater and music experiences with products that look as great as they sound. Driven by our hunger for innovation, we created Sound Motion to break the boundaries of what’s possible by a single speaker, bringing this industry-first transducer technology to home theater where demand for extraordinary sound is equal to designs that fit modern living spaces. Arc Ultra is a reimagination of our best-selling soundbar, leveraging this incredible innovation to deliver an unprecedented sound experience from a sleeker design.”

In addition to the new woofer, Sonos has added a touch-sensitive control panel that allows for media playback control, volume control, and voice assistant activation. As is the case with all Sonos speakers with microphones, there is a physical switch on the rear that deactivates the microphones, so if you’re concerned about your privacy, Sonos has you covered there.

With the new centre channel architecture, Sonos can maximise dialogue clarity with a speech enhancement feature that worked very well in the short test period I had with the soundbar. Voices were crisper and more prominent, allowing one to not rely on subtitles to understand the dialogue fully.

The Arc Ultra can also be paired with the Sonos Ace headphones for private listening, although there’s also a Night Mode feature which dampens sounds like explosions so you don’t disturb anybody else in your family while re-watching action-packed movies like Top Gun: Maverick in the middle of the night. 

There’s also Bluetooth 5.3 support, so you’ll be able to stream music from your phone or other devices instead of using the Sonos app. Of course, the Sonos app will offer music in higher fidelity, as the soundbar only supports the SBC and AAC codecs over Bluetooth. If you have the Sonos Arc Ultra paired with a sub and surround speakers, you’ll be able to enjoy Dolby Atmos tracks on Apple Music. Based on our short time with the speakers, it sounded excellent, with phenomenal positioning and spatial location of voices.

Sonos is also introducing the new Sub 4, which generally looks the same as the Sub 3, but with a new matte finish. There isn’t too much change with the Sub 4, although it does come with a 50% decrease in idle power consumption, and Sonos has managed to decrease the weight from 16KG to just 11.79KG, which is a significant decrease.

The Sonos Arc Ultra will be sold alongside the Sonos Arc soundbar for the rest of 2024 before eventually replacing the Sonos Arc as the sole flagship soundbar for Sonos in early 2025. Similarly, the Sonos Sub 4 will eventually replace the Sonos Sub 3 at the same time. We haven’t had any confirmation on when exactly this transition will take place, but we were told sometime in early 2025. 

The Sonos Arc Ultra will retail at US$999 / €999 / A$1,799, and the Sonos Sub 4 will retail at US$799 / €899 / A$1,299.

Visit Sonos for more information