Sonos Arc is a Dolby Atmos sound bar for your smart home

By Alex Choros

Last updated 07 May 2020

If there's any company that's great at shoving a lot of smart home tech in one box, it's Sonos. The multiroom audio manufacturer today announced the Arc, a new sound bar kitted out with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple AirPlay 2, as well support for Dolby Atmos.

Dolby Atmos is an evolution of surround sound. In addition to positioning sound behind you and to your sides, it allows for sound above you, such as rainfall or a helicopter. As a 5.0.2 sound bar, the Arc is able to create this new form of surround sound as just a single unit. It has a front right, front left, and front centre speakers, two side-facing speaker simulate rear speakers, and two upward firing speakers. All that's missing is a subwoofer.

As it stands, Dolby Atmos is mostly there for movies. Platforms like iTunes and Netflix already support Dolby Atmos for select titles in terms of digital, while 4K Blu-Ray does the same for those that prefer physical media. There are also a select number of Dolby Atmos enabled games on Xbox One and PC.

If you're listening or watching to content that isn't optimised for Dolby Atmos, the Arc won't do any upscaling. Sonos isn't trying to add geometry the artist didn't create themselves. If content doesn't have an Atmos mix, the upward firing speakers are used for low-end instead, as bass doesn't have directionality.

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While it's easy to be sceptical about whether a single sound bar can create surround sound (we're certainly keen to get an ears-on), Sonos says its Trueplay tuning technology will help optimise Arc for your environment. This helps sound from every speaker reach you at the right time. Trueplay is only available in the iOS app Sonos app, however. In the event that you don't have access to an iPhone or iPad at home, Sonos recommends you get a friend with an iOS device to come over. The tuning process only needs to be performed once, so you don't need a permanent iPhone in your house to use the Arc to its full potential.

On the virtual assistant side, Arc can be setup as either a Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa smart speaker. While it supports both, you'll need to pick one. And while it doesn't have Siri on board, Arc supports Apple's AirPlay 2 protocol. AirPlay 2 will allow you to control the Arc directly from an iOS device without the need to open the Sonos app, and in turn, it works with Siri on your iPhone or iPad to play tunes.

To get the most out of Arc, you'll need a TV with an eARC or ARC HDMI port. The upward firing speakers won't work, otherwise. An optical adapter is in the box for TVs that don't have an ARC port, but these users will miss out on Dolby Atmos support.

As part of the Sonos ecosystem, Arc can be paired with your existing Sonos speakers and used in a multiroom audio setup that can hook into over 80 music services. You can also group it up with two Sonos Ones (or Play:1s) and a Sonos Sub for enhanced surround sound.

In the event that you pair Arc either other speakers, it will get retuned. For example, if you use Sonos Ones for your rear-facing speakers, Arc will use its side-firing speakers to provide additional low-end frequencies for more bass.

The Arc will set you back $1,399, and can be pre-ordered from today ahead of a June 10 release date.

Read our Sonos Arc review here.

In addition to the Arc, Sonos also announced refreshed versions of both its Play:5 speaker and Sub subwoofer. The new Play:5 - simply now known as the Five (pictured above) - and the Sub are identical to their predecessors in terms of sound and acoustics, but feature new internals and extra memory under the hood. This is purely to help futureproof the pair, rather than provide any new out of the box functionality.

As with the Arc, pre-orders for the Five and Sub start from today ahead of a June 10 release date. Both come in at the same price as their predecessors: $749 for the Five, and $999 for the Sub.

The trio of new Sonos speakers will be the first to require upgrading to its new S2 app and operating system. S2 speakers such as the Arc, Five, and Sub won't be compatible with S1 speakers. This means you'll need to update any existing Sonos speakers you own to the S2 software before you'll be able to use them in a group with your new devices.

However, some older speakers can't be upgraded to S2. These included the first generation Play:5, the first generation Connect, the first generation Connect:Amp, the Bridge, the CR200, and all Zone Players.

If you have a mix of older Sonos speakers and newer devices, you have a few different options:

You can keep all of your speakers running S1, which means you'll miss out on newer features.
You can upgrade your S2 compatible speakers, and run these as a separate speaker group to your S1 speakers. S2 speakers and S1 speakers can't interact at all, however.
You can trade-up your S1 speakers. Sonos will offer you a 30% discount on newer models if you have hardware that is effectively discontinued. While you previously had to brick your older speakers to get the discount, this is no longer the case.

Notably the company says that if you upgrade an existing Sonos speaker to S2, it will be possible to roll it back to the S1 operating system by performing a factory reset.

Sonos S2 will launch on June 8, two days ahead of the Arc, Five, and Sub. Read more about how new and old Sonos speakers work together here.