Sonos releases premium Arc Ultra soundbar, claiming it has ‘one of most significant breakthroughs in a century’

Sonos has released a new ‘Arc Ultra’ soundbar, which includes what it claims is one of the most significant breakthroughs in a century.

The new speaker costs $999 – around $100 more than the normal version of the Arc – but Sonos says it comes with a host of upgrades that give it “clearer dialogue, deeper bass, and more detailed sound”.

It is able to fit all that into a relatively small soundbar design because of a technology called Sound Motion which it says is “one of the most significant breakthroughs in audio engineering in nearly 100 years”. The technology lets it reduce the size of the transducers so that bigger sound can be made from smaller components, it said.

At the same time, Sonos introduced a new Sub 4, an updated version of its subwoofer. Sonos has not released an update to that bass-focused speaker since 2020, though it released a new Sub Mini in 2022.

Both of the new products will be available from 29 October across the world, Sonos said.

The Arc Ultra comes with new architecture that allows for a wider sound, Sonos said. It includes 14 drivers made by Sonos, including a woofer that relies on that Sound Motion technology, so that it can allow for 9.1.4 spatial audio.

Both the Arc Ultra and the Sub borrow much the same design as their predecessors. They also come with the same internet-controlled features.

The release of the Arc Ultra comes at a somewhat difficult time for Sonos. Earlier this year, the company completely overhauled its app – and has been facing problems ever since.

Sonos had initially suggested that the new app would be quicker and more responsive, as well as making way for new updates in the future. But users have reported a range of problems – from slow performance to broken systems – and since then it has been working to bring back features and fix bugs.

Earlier this month, Sonos had said that it had conducted an “internal review” of the app release and had decided on seven new commitments. They include a focus on the customer experience, better testing before launch, extended warranties and regular updates.

“Our priority since its release has been - and continues to be - fixing the app. There were missteps, and we first went deep to understand how we got here, and then moved to convert those learnings into action,” said Sonos chief executive Patrick Spence. “We are committed to making changes to get us back to being the brand people love by offering the best audio system for the home and beyond. We must always do right by our customers, and I am confident that, with these commitments, we will.”

Sonos said that a new update that will arrive alongside the launch of the new speakers will allow finally mean that it is “expected to surpass the performance of the previous app across important metrics”. Those include measures useful to new users, including the time taken to set up a new device.