Sonos Arc review: A solid soundbar for the Dolby Atmos era
When Sonos debuted its first soundbar, the $699 Playbar in 2013, it received well-deserved praise. As a dead-simple, but somewhat pricey way to give your TV a massive audio upgrade, it succeeded on just about all but one front: The decision on Sonos’ part to equip the Playbar with a single optical input meant the Playbar would forever be locked out of the expanding world of surround formats like Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and Dolby Atmos — something reviewers noted at the time as a drawback to an otherwise superb product. Seven years later, Sonos has returned to the full-size home theater soundbar arena with the $799 Arc, a Dolby Atmos-capable speaker that shows off everything the company has learned since the Playbar’s debut. Did Sonos push the envelope far enough this time, or has it simply played catchup? Let’s take a look. I’ve said before that when it comes to soundbars, the best designs draw no attention to themselves at all. After all, your visual focus should be on your ...
Excellent surround sound; Easy and simple setup; Decent Dolby Atmos from a single speaker; Choice of Alexa or Google Assistant;
No HDMI inputs; Not ideal for all music genres;