Late yesterday, Sonos unveiled its new flagship premium soundbar and refreshed subwoofer – the Arc Ultra and Sub 4.
Sonos says it’s achieved a “significant breakthrough in audio engineering” with the Arc Ultra using what it calls ‘Sound Motion’. That’s the fancy-sounding name Sonos has given to its newly designed transducers that came with the company’s acquisition of Mayht two years ago.
According to Sonos, the new tech “drastically reduces the size of the transducer while supercharging the bass.” That’s resulted in the Arc Ultra delivering “up to double the bass of its predecessor.” With all that bass, we’re wondering where the Sub 4 fits in.
Along with the new gear, Sonos has also released an update to its ill-fated app that supposedly reintroduces “90 percent of the new app’s missing features”.
“We’ve worked tirelessly to resolve the most critical app issues and most requested legacy features. We have reached a level of quality that gives us the confidence to launch our extraordinary new products,” said Sonos CEO Patrick Spence.
Sonos Arc Ultra will move you with Sound Motion
The new Arc Ultra packs a total of 14 drivers in a 9.1.4 setup. That includes the new ‘Sound Motion’ woofer, seven tweeters, and six midwoofers. Along with plenty of drivers, Sonos is touting an all-new advanced ‘Speech Enhancement’ feature for clearer dialogue, TruePlay tuning for iOS and Android users (previously it was only available on iOS), and Bluetooth audio playback.
Control can be handled with your TV remote if you’ve connected the Arc Ultra to your TV with HDMI eARC, via the Sonos app, Sonos voice control or Amazon Alexa, or the touch controls housed in the ledge behind the bar.
Together with the Arc Ultra, Sonos also launched the Sub 4. It’s the latest full-sized subwoofer from the company and promises more rumbly bass thanks to increased processing power, more memory, and better Wi-Fi radios. The 50% reduction in idle power consumption doesn’t hurt either. Oh, and it’s got a matte coating now if you’re into that.
The Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4 will be available in South Africa from 29 October 2024 and will come with an RRP of R27,000 and R20,000 respectively.