Sonos Arc Ultra VS Sonos Arc - 6 SIGNIFICANT UPGRADES

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So, I've been using the Sonos Arc since it was released. And I'm incredibly happy with it. I love the style, the sound, connectivity & particularly in regards to the Sonos ecosystem. I can highly recommend it. But, Sonos recently decided to taken what was already a phenomenal product and turn it up to 11.

They call it the Sonos Arc Ultra

And there's a £280 price difference between the original Arc and Ultra. So how much extra sound do you get for your extra 280 pounds…that is the question. And it's the first one I asked why I heard about this…So listen here real quick.

Here are the 6 most significant upgrades that Sonos has made on the Sonos Arc Ultra. So if like me you're wondering what is the difference…this video will help you.

  1. New Dimensions

So when I took the ultra out of the box and placed it next to the original Sonos Arc. Honestly front on it’s kind of hard to notice the difference but there have been subtle changes and aspects that have been redesigned.

It's 1.2cm shorter, 3.6 cmm wider & has 5.6 mm less depth than the original Arc.

And these are all good things because the fact that it's wider should mean wider separation between the drivers. And better audio separation. And the fact that it is shorter means it's less likely to obscure the bottom edge of your TV and less depth means if you wall mount it, it won't stick out as much

2. Upgraded touch controls 

Now something that's changed which I don't think looks better, but definitely makes using the manual controls easier to find and use is this new section at the back.

It houses the capacitive buttons and cut groove for the volume slider which is very easy to find and use even in the dark. And the Mic mute touch area is moved over to the left…and if you don't want the mics listening out 24 7 for wake words…which is Hey Sonos.

And this is kind of a big deal the Sonos Ultra has a bluetooth pairing button on the back. So yes, the Arc Ultra supports BT. There’s also a large mute switch on the back that isn’t on the original Arc.

Visually I prefer the original Arc but actually I think this new control panel upgrade is a good one.

3. New Software Tweaks

So, if you're the type of person who struggles to hear what people are saying in movies and action packed TV series and maybe even when listening to music. This could be because the mid & bass frequencies kind of muddy it up for you…and maybe you partied too hard in your younger days.

Well listen here. There are some software enhancements made on top of the hardware upgrades on the Ultra That you need to know about. Within the Sonos App just like before you can adjust bass and treble and use night mode and all that stuff. Set true play and all that stuff just like before.

But now Sonos gives you the ability to further enhance the vocal range much more than you could on the original Arc. So if hearing vocals is problem for you then Sonos do deliver the Audio solution here on the Ultra 

4. New Speaker Configuration

So the original arc was 5.0.2 channel soundbar. 11 drivers in total. 8 of which were mid bass drivers and then theres 3 tweeters and no dedicated subwoofers. So the Mid bass drivers basically were tasked with handling the bass as well as the mids.

Now, the Arc Ultra being a levelled up version has 14 drivers. And interestingly less of them are mid bass drivers the original had 8. The Ultra has 6 mid bass drivers…and a secret weapon. The Ultra has  7 tweeters compared to the 3 on the original Arc, 

But despite this the original is still a beast in my opinion, The original Sonos Arc standalone is 5.0.2 channel sound bar & The ultra technically is a 9.1.4 channel soundbar. 

5. Upgraded Bass

And the reason it's 9.1.4 is because now it does have a dedicated MidBass woofer.  So just based off of this and the new configuration alone it’s clear to see that Sonos have focused a lot on delivering more bass and more clarity & because the Mid Drivers are not tasked with handling all of the bass all of the time. The Mid’s in theory should be better too…And word on the street is the bass output from the Arc Ultra has doubled.

Thanks to this & their new Sound Motion tech. Apparently they recently acquired a company that had been working on this tech for 100 years. And it would probably take me forever to explain. But you can read up on that on the Sonos website.

6. Amped Up

So, the new drivers and new configuration is kind of the tip of the iceberg here because behind the scenes. Sonos have amped up the output significantly. 

The Original Arc had 11 Class D amplifiers which is impressive, but Ultra has 15 Class D Amps. Put simply, the Ultra has more drivers and significantly more power to drive them.

Well, this all sounds good…but now let's do the live reaction and a comparison sound test. And I'll tell it how it is. watch the video here