Sonos announces ‘breakthrough’ Arc Ultra soundbar and Sub 4

Sonos apparently believes its mobile app has reached a good enough place to resume product launches: today the company has announced the Arc Ultra and Sub 4. The $999 Arc Ultra is a more powerful take on the original Arc, and it’s the first Sonos product to feature unique transducer technology from Mayht, a startup that Sonos acquired in 2022. Sonos refers to this as “Sound Motion” and says it allows the Arc Ultra to produce richer, even more immersive sound than the original.

The company is touting Sound Motion as “one of the most significant breakthroughs in audio engineering in nearly 100 years” and says it “unlocks greater clarity, depth, and balance than ever before possible from a soundbar this sleek.”

The Arc Ultra has fourteen drivers in total — three more than the Arc — and they include seven tweeters, six midwoofers, and the built-in Sound Motion woofer. With that array of speakers, Sonos says the new soundbar is capable of delivering 9.1.4 output all on its own. The Arc Ultra should also deliver clearer dialog thanks to an “advanced version of Speech Enhancement.” It’ll support Trueplay EQ tuning — including for Android users — and also offers Bluetooth audio playback, something the original Arc lacks.

Like other Sonos soundbars, the Arc Ultra can be paired with the company’s Sonos Ace headphones for private listening of audio from any input device plugged into the Ultra. Along with the new soundbar, Sonos is introducing its latest full-size subwoofer, the Sub 4, which now has a matte finish.

Only a couple months ago, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said that the company was postponing two products as it focused all efforts on improving the performance of its overhauled app for Android and iOS. Earlier this month, Sonos announced a multi-point plan to earn back customer trust and ensure that a disaster like the released-too-soon app never happens again.

“We have reached a level of quality that gives us the confidence to launch our extraordinary new products,” Spence said in today’s press release. Sonos says another app update timed to the Arc Ultra’s release will supposedly help the software “surpass the performance of the previous app across important metrics.” 90 percent of the previous app’s features will have been restored with the forthcoming update, according to the company.