Sonos - Arc
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Reddit Reviews:
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Last updated: Aug 1, 2025 Scoring
Liked most:
18
13
"I got hit with the bass one second later. ... I cranked the bass up to 10 in the EQ and my apartment floor was vibrating! The bass is really astounding for a soundbar which didn’t seem real tbh. ... Music on the ultra alone sounds impressive. The bass is something you wouldn’t imagine from the small footprint. ... Sonos said that the bass is twice as good as from the old arc and all I can say is that it is definitely a lot better than the old one. My floor was vibrating with the bass settings on max while the sub didn’t move at all. The technology is astonishing. ... I don’t think that you need a sub because the bass performance is insane from a soundbar"
"For context I had the samsung q90r and it was a shocker, bass cutout constantly so I returned it for the Sonos."
"Sonos arc is one of the best standalone (no sub) soundbars along with the Sony A7000."
13
0
"But you DEFINITELY get the “behind and beside you” sounds"
"For full theater experience add the subwoofer + surround (Era) speakers ... the whole setup is so amazing I find myself enjoying more than my fancy tv 😅"
"By far the room I prefer to listen in is where I have the arc, sub mini and 2 E100s linked."
6
0
"and not screwing around with settings."
"my wife likes the simplicity. ... extremely plug and play."
"the Sonos solution is the *simplest* solution to still get very good to excellent sound. ... with a decent home theatre offering."
90
66
"I got hit with the bass one second later. ... I cranked the bass up to 10 in the EQ and my apartment floor was vibrating! The bass is really astounding for a soundbar which didn’t seem real tbh. ... Music on the ultra alone sounds impressive. The bass is something you wouldn’t imagine from the small footprint. ... Sonos said that the bass is twice as good as from the old arc and all I can say is that it is definitely a lot better than the old one. My floor was vibrating with the bass settings on max while the sub didn’t move at all. The technology is astonishing. ... I don’t think that you need a sub because the bass performance is insane from a soundbar"
"Center channel is improved immensely and I don't need to use the "enhance audio" option on the Apple TV anymore - just a much better experience (this is the main reason why I wanted to upgrade and was not left disappointed). ... The biggest difference being vocals that are much clearer. This also makes dialogue much more perceptible when watching movies/TV series/YouTube."
"wow the difference was immediate. ... First movie down which was the new UHD Twister, omg I'm blown away I did not expect there to be the difference there is. 100% worth the upgrade ... I'm very impressed with it, honestly was skeptical that it would be an improvement but I'm glad to be proven wrong."
17
33
"Center channel is improved immensely and I don't need to use the "enhance audio" option on the Apple TV anymore - just a much better experience (this is the main reason why I wanted to upgrade and was not left disappointed). ... The biggest difference being vocals that are much clearer. This also makes dialogue much more perceptible when watching movies/TV series/YouTube."
"It made a massive difference for me in immersion and hearing dialogue just fine."
"Sounds a lot brighter/clearer than the regular Arc - this is a good thing (not so bright as to cause distortion). ... I do however appreciate the difference in clarity though so for me it's still a major win over the regular Arc."
Disliked most:
17
26
"If you don't have a sub and surrounds it's going to sound worse. The arc is not meant to be used in isolation ... Stand-alone bars will necessarily have shit bass and poor immersion. They don't have the necessary volume."
"for regular stereo content (most music, podcasts, and general TV) it barely felt like a step above TV speakers, which I despise with a passion. ... One of my favorite things to do with my old standing speaker setup was to demo my favorite music on a quiet weekend day, and that just wasn’t possible with how poor the Arc sounded. ... Lows and mids were muffled, and highs felt overly tinny on most of my favorite tracks. ... it just doesn't stack up unless you have a full setup and still sounds disappointingly thin most of the time."
"didn't think it worked for music playback at all ... very thin sounding"
0
10
"In practice I find with Sonos you really have to go out of your way to find Atmos or 7.1 content (even sometimes doing your own transcoding because Sonos can't deal with modern DTS formats) otherwise immersiveness really suffers ... Especially for movies and games I find that the wider codec support and sound processing of the Q990D is better than the Arc setup."
"Not a whisper of either [DTS X support]. I can’t warrant the spend to upgrade the Playbar without them. I skipped the Arc for exactly the same reasons. Infuriating really. ... Limited space and a requirement to get the most out of physical media or remux copies with a Sonos ecosystem and Sonos soundbar set up…."
"it sucks to not being able to listen to the uncompressed audio tracks ... Honestly I would even pay for a license if it was possible"
2
25
"the app that runs it is only 90% working ... if you happen to be an Android user, eat a dick cause your problems won't be fixed until Xmas."
"My biggest gripe is I had Google Assistant connected on my speakers (Arc + 2 Ones in Lounge, a 5 in kitchen and a Roam and a One elsewhere), and that's broken and I can't add it back on cos the new app is useless."
"Sonos's recent software upgrades to the arc have changed it's sound signature for the worse. ... It's now really trebel forward and similant. ... I just couldn't stand listening to it any more, so I sold it."
8
62
"On mine the high ends for music are almost forced, the mids just aren't clean. ... I never hear a balanced middle. ... I need really clear high end, really full middle, balanced......it's never done that."
"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's recent software upgrades to the arc have changed it's sound signature for the worse. ... It's now really trebel forward and similant. ... I just couldn't stand listening to it any more, so I sold it."
17
32
"I always thought it was a joke that we had to turn on speech enhancement on the OG Arc just to get decent dialogue (and it still didn't sound that clear)."
"The vocals (or maybe center channel are awful). ... Yes I have the voice boost on."
"same tinny voice.again worst product from Sonos despite it is better than original arc ... Arc ultra is disappointing.same tinny voice as original arc ... Sonos not able to fix fundamental tinny voice issue even after adding extra drivers ... With Arc also they said same thing for tinny voice...no fix until end of its pathetic life cycle...Ultra started repeating the same ... Sonos can not do any correction if there is defect ...it is evident they could not able correct tinny voice and metallic sound with Arc for 5 years with original Arc Ultra also has same problem which also won't be corrected for next 5 yrs ... horrible tinny voice again with Ultra"
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