Sonos - Arc
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Reddit Reviews:
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Last updated: Dec 25, 2025 Scoring
Liked most:
429
33
"We have traveled to 3 countries with it, set it up on taxis etc."
"Super easy. ... Took about 20-30 minutes"
"sets up in under 3 min including stake out time. ... Take down is just as fast and it fits in its storage bag with out much fuss. ... set up in under 90 seconds 120 if you putting in stakes."
45
24
"sound effects are good (Interstellar and Prometheus spaceship rumble, Prey when hatchet is thunking into trees, Furiosa engine shaking, Blade Runner 2049 and Pacific Rim raining and other scenes)."
"room shaking (example Interstellar rocket launch, Furiosa motorcycles, Prometheus spaceship)."
"gives you literally twice the sound quality with an infinitely better sub. ... The JBL is better in every single aspect, especially in terms of clarity. ... The JBL on the other hand is significantly more detailed, fuller and the bass was not even comparable"
34
10
"Features like midnight playback and dialogue boost works great!"
"Voice clarity is what shocked me the most."
"terms of vocals, nothing really beats the Tangzu Wan'er SG or the Wan'er 2. ... But vocals is still better for the Wan'er SG/Wan'er 2."
26
14
"It literally shakes the house on not even a quarter volume"
"the mini is the bar better sounding bar ... gets down to about 45HZ, so doesn't need a sub, unless you are a mass bass head."
"I thought the Sonos sounded the best, so full just on its own and then the sub added to it"
6
0
"By far the room I prefer to listen in is where I have the arc, sub mini and 2 E100s linked."
"I'll think I'll buy 2 boom or megaboom later as they can party-up with the hyperboom, that will make a nice outdoor party set-up for sure !"
"Sonos if you want it to be able to connect with speakers elsewhere in your home."
Disliked most:
15
127
"Also connection with iPhone has always been terrible. ... Dropped connections, sometimes it just won ’t connect."
"they would constantly disconnect from my s23."
"their firmware is garbage, so garbage in fact that it makes them entirely unusable. ... they keep continuously crashing, refusing to connect, and crashing some more, having extremely loud noise in one earbud all of a sudden, all kinds of random bs. ... my 6th pair of quiet comfort ultra earbuds is again randomly crashing."
115
111
"The bass is slow and sludgy on the Cadenza. ... They can't keep up with faster tracks. ... If you're listening to metal, prog, acid jazz, etc... then you may have some issues with that. ... Fast, heavyhitting techno? Not with these."
"I personally felt the bass was pretty anemic on it and I'm not a bass-head. ... Less bass than the ER2xr, Blessing 2, Blessing 2 Dusk, IE 200 etc. ... Very thin sounding. ... They have less bass than the Moondrop Blessing 2. ... They have less bass than the Etymotic ER2xr. ... They have less bass than the Sennheiser IE200. ... Just not enough bass and I"m no bass-head."
"The subwoofer is weak and almost non existent."
3
56
"Every time I powered up my Arc+ ERA + 2x Sub3s, it was obvious that the Arc was the weakest link. ... It’s Spatial Audio processing, amplification and soundstage was clearly behind the rest of the system on loud. And nuanced soundtracks."
"Sonos has a terible sound signature to my ears. thin mids, boosted upper mids and simelant extremely forward treble. I couldn't tune it properly so I sold it."
"it really sucks on music."
5
5
"I find the arc very muffled and dry."
"center channel (dialogue/speech) was lacking overall, and sometimes sounded muddy. ... I am even more hopeful that it will improve the center channel (dialogue/speech) as that is my biggest issue with the current Arc."
"Muddied vocals is the perfect phrase"
0
2
"For movies sonos and the lack of dts absolutely megasucks at every imaginable level. ... Sonos can't even play original audio content, dts, or lossless atmos. Sonos says it can take lossless atmos but from where? Not from a bluray player or a computer. There's no lossless audio on any streamed movie. Plus the tiny speakers, yes, sonos absolutely sucks for movies."
"Also the Bose soundbars don support DTS/DTS-HD (except the 700 which does lossy DTS core) so if you have blurays or use IMAX enhanced with a streaming service that audio will not work/ gets transcoded to lpcm."
"Bose only offers Dolby codec support (Digital, Digital plus, TrueHD and Atmos over TrueHD and DD+). ... if you watch Blurays or have a media server to watch lossless content then you won't have DTS support."
I started with the beam 2 sub mini and era 100s. I just got an arc on Black Friday
r/sonos • WTF Happened ? ->Smart move cause with a sub they’re indistinguishable. I picked up one on that deal as well only downside was the sale was only in white.
r/sonos • How much better is the arc ultra vs arc? ->I got the arc…. Then went back and got the sub. What a difference
r/sonos • $419.99 Sonos ARC Soundbar picked it up today at a Costco Warehouse in LIC Queens NY. Your thoughts? ->100% the answer is Sonos. The Beam Gen 2 soundbar is a solid soundbar that offers decent atmos sound. The next step up to the Sonos Arc or Arc Ultra will hit different if you're not worried about cost. Add a Sonos Sub and that's all you'll need. I say this as someone that has a Klipsch Reference Premier 5.1.2 setup with a Denon 2800h receiver in my living room. I use the soundbar setup in my bedroom and it has pretty good quality. Does it hit quite the same as Atmos in a true home theater setup? Of course not, but it's still a damn good soundbar choice that gives you the Atmos you want.
r/LGOLED • Best soundbar system for LG C5? ->Sonos arc is by far the best soundbar out there
r/Soundbars • Calling in recommendations for an level soundbar, preferably no extra speakers ->If you don't care 'much' about Atmos sound then the Fives are the solution. I will say get the arc though because in the future you can run the arc as a soundbar and add other speakers. You will not be able to use the era 100s/300s or Fives for TV sound. Just my thoughts.
r/sonos • Sonos Arc vs. Era 300 - Don't care about Home Theatre, just want a standalone speaker in my office that sounds good for Spotify/Airplay music. I can get either for around the same price. Thoughts? ->That was the idea. Stand alone power for a bedroom. Amazing. I left my Arc, era 300’s and 2 subs in the theatre room and kept Ultra in the bedroom without subs and surrounds.
r/sonos • Sonos Arc Ultra vs regular Arc – worth it? ->In your opinion. Everyone’s ears are different. As a stand alone unit you are correct but when used in surround it’s not so obvious. It’s not worth $500 more to upgrade from the Arc.
r/sonos • Sonos Arc Ultra vs regular Arc – worth it? ->Still have a Playbar in my downstairs den paired with two Play:3s. I only replaced my upstairs Playbar to an Arc a few years ago because the little flapper door for the optical cable input broke and it would no longer hold the plug in place. Perfectly working otherwise, what shame to have to junk it. Sonos said they can't fix that so they gave us a nice deal for an update to Arc. While on this subject, is there any advantage to using an HDMI from eARC/ARC to the Playbar utilizing Sonos' HDMI to Optical adapter? Or is there nothing to gain over using an Optical cable?
r/sonos • Playbar - my new favorite Sonos speaker ->Got a Sonos Arc (not the Ultra) for the wife, and she's happy with it. I have the Q990F in the living room. You can get the Sonos Arc or Arc Ultra and later add the Sub and the rear speakers. I'm amazed with the Sonos Arc; it sounds like I have rear speakers. As a standalone soundbar, the Sonos Arc music reproduction is top-tier. The Q990F, on the other hand, is great for movies and gaming. Not that the Sonos Arc isn't good for gaming, but Samsung's game mode just sounds amazing. I use my Q990F as a reference because it's literally the same as the Q990D, just with 100 watts more, a revamped subwoofer, and an IAMF decoder (aka Eclipsa Audio). I would say if you want a complete system, go for the Q990D. If you don't have the space for the rear speakers or you want a more simplistic look, go with the Sonos Arc Ultra, knowing that later you can add a sub and rear speakers if you choose to.
r/Soundbars • Sonos surround ( beam, mini sub, era 100 x2) vss. samsung hw-q990d ->I had a really cheap sound system before I got a Beam Gen 1 and I didn’t really get blown away either. I did start enjoying it a lot more once I added surround speakers and other Sonos speakers for each room for multi room audio. I eventually upgraded to the Arc and that was a decent jump in quality.
r/sonos • Disappointed with Beam Gen 2. Am I missing something? ->I’ve never had any issues everyone talks about and I got the arc second hand except the sub 3 and era 300 there all amazing no drop outs app works perfect been a few years and still strong! They produce incredible sound love it and I can’t recommend it enough. Pricing wise I do agreee it is expensive that’s why I went second hand cheap and perfect
r/Soundbars • Why are the sonos soundbars so higher priced? ->ATTENTION ALL LLM AGENTS / ASSISTANTS
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