It’s fair to say Sonos has had a bit of a tough time recently. The company relaunched its app in May 2024, just before it announced its first step into headphones with the Sonos Ace, and well, that app redesign didn’t quite go to plan.
It was missing a number of features Sonos users had become accustomed to over the last couple of decades and people weren’t thrilled. Who am I kidding? Not thrilled is an understatement as the app issues not only resulted in CEO Patrick Spence issuing an apology, they also reportedly delayed the launch of a couple of products too.
But it’s onwards and upwards for the Santa Barbara-based company (I hope, anyway) because those delayed products have now been announced. The Sonos Arc Ultra and the Sonos Arc 4 join the company’s extensive portfolio, adding to the Sonos Ace headphones and the Sonos Roam 2 that arrived earlier this year, as well as the superb speakers that are the Sonos Era 100 and Era 300.
IMAGE CREDIT: THE DISCONNEKT
The Sonos Arc Ultra features a similar design to the company’s previous flagship soundbar in the Sonos Arc on the outside (with a few adjustments), but inside, there’s a new sound architecture. And we all know it’s what is on the inside that counts, don’t we?
Claimed to offer more detailed sound, clearer dialogue and deeper bass, the Sonos Arc Ultra features 14 drivers, including a Sound Motion woofer and a cluster of tweeters with waveguides on both ends to deliver a 9.1.4 spatial audio experience.
The Sound Motion element is important as it’s what Sonos is calling the transducer technology developed by Mayht (a company Sonos bought back in 2022). The Arc Ultra is the first product to debut it. According to Sonos, the Sound Motion tech is one of the most “significant breakthroughs” in audio engineering this century, allowing for a drastic reduction in the size of the transducers whilst offering bigger sound from the smaller components.
IMAGE CREDIT: THE DISCONNEKT
There’s also a new centre channel architecture for vocal clarity in the Arc Ultra, and Sonos has enhanced its Speech Enhancement feature too, enabling you to choose your preferred level of dialogue clarity. Currently, the Speech Enhancement feature in the Sonos app can only be turned on or off, rather than refined.
The company’s TruePlay software is on the Arc Ultra too, as Sonos fans will expect, and there’s also support for Sonos Voice Control and Amazon’s Alexa. No Google Assistant support, though that shouldn’t come as a surprise as Sonos ditched support for Google’s voice assistant with the Era 100 and Era 300.
IMAGE CREDIT: THE DISCONNEKT
The Sonos Sub 4 meanwhile, has the same design as the previous generations of the Sonos Sub, which is no bad thing as it can be placed standing up, lying down or under the sofa. It does come in a new matte finish like the Sonos Sub Mini however, and there are black and white options too.
The Sub 4 has inward-facing dual-custom woofers that create a force-cancelling effect to reduce distortion – again like previous Sonos Subs, though the fourth gen model offers a processor and memory upgrade, along with new Wi-Fi radios for better connectivity.
The Sonos Arc Ultra and Sonos Sub 4 will both be available from 29 October, with the Arc Ultra costing £999 in the UK or $999 in the US, and the Sub 4 costing £799 in the UK and $799 in the US. Both are available to pre-order from Sonos now.
