Sonos launched its Arc Soundbar in India a couple of years back. Here we have the company’s premium Dolby Atmos soundbar released especially for those who want to connect it to TV for an immersive experience when watching movies, gaming, and more.
Design and Build quality
The Sonos Arc is a huge Soundbar that is designed to partner with larger TVs. It measures 87 x 1141.7 x 115.7 mm and weighs 6.25kg. It has a metal matte finish mesh with 76,000 holes in all the grilles on the front that looks and feels premium, and doesn’t attract fingerprints. In addition to Black, the Sound bar also comes in White colour.
There is a sturdy stand on the bottom, so it doesn’t slip out easily, and there is also a wall mount option on the back.
There is a SONOS branding on the front with an LED above that, behind the grill, to indicate the connectivity.
There are touch-sensitive play/pause along with volume control / music control buttons on the top.
There is also a far-field microphone array that uses advanced beam forming and multichannel echo cancellation that is activated when you use voice assistant once the soundbar is connected to the phone. The light glows when the microphone is on, and you can turn off the microphone by pressing the touch-sensitive microphone button.
On the back you can see the HDMI port with eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel) support, Power supply port, and 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port. You can also see the Join button on the back to pair other Sonos speakers or subwoofers.
Connectivity, and Pairing
In addition to HDMI ARC, the Sonos Arc supports Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, 2.4 GHz to directly stream music from online, and doesn’t have Bluetooth streaming. Setting up and connecting the Arc to the internet takes only a few seconds with the SONOS app.
The TV also supports Apple AirPlay 2, so you can easily stream from Apple devices running iOS 11.4 and higher.
Sonos App
The Sonos App for Android and iOS offers several customization options, such as EQ modes to adjust bass and treble. There is Sonos radio feature that has several stations. You can also customize based on acoustics of the room, even calibrating the height channels for precise localization.
You can enable Sonos voice control or add Alexa voice control in the app in minutes. You can also add Music streaming apps. There is also set song as alarm.
Audio Quality
The Sonos arc uses 11 Class D digital amplifiers that power 11 custom drivers. Eight of these drivers are elliptical woofers and three are silk-domed tweeters. The woofers are located on the front, top, and ends of the soundbar. The tweeters are all built into the front of the soundbar, with two of them firing diagonally into the room.
Coming to the audio quality, the soundbar offers a good Dolby Atmos experience with clear and crisp sound, balanced bass and doesn’t distort even in high volume. Even with regular stereo or 5.1 surround sound sources, the Arc performs well.
If you prefer more bass, you can increase it in the EQ settings, but it is recommended to get a subwoofer for a more complete surround sound experience. Treble is clear without being harsh.
Overall, the soundbar uses its array of speakers to bounce sound off walls and ceiling to create a 3D audio effect, and the sound field is tailored to your room using Sonos’ Trueplay technology, creating a wide and immersive listening experience that simulates surround sound.
Even though there is Wi-Fi and HDMI ARC support, the company could have added Bluetooth support for those who have older devices.
Conclusion
Overall, the Sonos Arc soundbar offers an immersive Dolby Atmos experience for movies and TV shows. While it is not as good as a full Atmos setup, it is a very good soundbar for those who want a simple and effective solution, if you have the budget.
The Sonos Arc is priced at Rs. 99,999, which is slightly on the higher side compared to other countries. It is available from several online and offline retailers across India.