Performance
Our sample of the Arc was an early model before the software was fully developed, but it allowed us to give it a good run testing out its audio performance. Sonos was nice enough to send along a set of suggested Netflix Dolby Atmos demo clips which we used along with a few of our own favorites. If you are just discovering Dolby Atmos and are a Netflix fan, Netflix has a great search engine to help you discover all of this great new content. Simply search for “atmos” and you’ll see a whole pile of movies that are done in this awesome new surround sound format.
Setup, even in the testing beta Sonos app, was super simple as is always so true for Sonos gear. We connected the HDMI-ARC input to the HDMI-eARC connector on the rear of a new Sony TV, plugged in power, and in a couple of minutes were up and running. We like the fact during the Sonos Arc setup, you go ahead and run TruePlay (their room correction software) first, as in some rooms, it can make a tremendous difference. The room we tested it in was a pretty typical family type room about 12’ wide by 16’ deep with a 9-foot ceiling and a decent amount of furniture.
We tried the Arc first by itself, then we added a pair of PLAY:5’s we use for demos as the surrounds, and finally added the Sonos Sub.
One of the first things we tried out was a scene from The Irishman on Netflix. About 5 minutes into the movie, there is a scene with 2 couples in a car driving. With the Arc, you could clearly tell the sound felt like you were inside an old car, then the scene switches to everyone standing outside at a roadside stop near some woods. The Arc did an amazing job of portraying all of the insects they mixed into the audio track. You could hear buzzing and chirping all around you and felt like you were outside with the characters.
And speaking of buzzing and chirping, if you pull up the series Night on Earth and cue up the episode “Jungle Nights”, at about 3:30 you will be completely surrounded by jungle sounds with the Arc. The job it does on recreating a great Dolby Atmos soundstage is really amazing.
Finally, we used one of the Sonos recommended scenes from Season 3, Episode 1 of Stranger Things. If you start at the beginning the scene builds to completely filling the room with whirring then finally a big explosion that really comes across well if you have the Sonos Sub in the mix.
In our testing, we found the Arc is so good at throwing out a 3 dimensional Atmos soundstage, adding a pair of rear speakers was only marginally better. We suspect if you had a more open, non-rectangular room, they would benefit you more, but you will be far better off taking the money a pair of rears would cost and putting that towards adding a Sonos Sub. While the Arc has ok bass, its small size does limit the deep bass it can put out, so for a much more immersive home theater experience, we highly recommend adding the Sonos Sub.
When you go the route of adding a Sub and/or a pair of rear speakers, the Sonos app gives you so much more control over their soundbar based surround system than any other soundbar we know of. Not only do you get TruePlay, which in its first pass at your listening spot measures all the distances, you can dive into the app and adjust levels individually for each of the surrounds and the subwoofer. You even get a lip-sync adjustment just like you see in better home theater receivers. This makes a Sonos full home theater system very similar to what you might get with separate components from an adjustability standpoint.
When you buy from Audio Advice, we’re also including an exclusive “Tips & Tricks - How to set up Sonos Arc" video, available only to Audio Advice customers. This video will give you some additional key tricks, including how to get the best sound for your room, and a few other tips.