36 OCTOBER2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE392
SONOSArc
★★★★★
£799•Fromwww.sonos.com
SOUNDBAR
VERDICT
TheArchasanimmersive3Deffect,butitsrelianceonHDMIeARCmeansthatthosewithoutanewTVwon’tgetthemostoutofit
ITWASIN2012,withthelaunchofthe
Playbar,when Sonos was last at the forefront
ofhome cinema technology.Afteralong wait,
the company is back with the Arc: asoundbar
built touse the latest technologies, including
DolbyAtmos 3D surround sound and afunky
new eARC input. This is truly areturn to form
forthe company,although there are some
rather hefty limitations that mean this
soundbar isn’t going to be ideal foreveryone.
Available in whiteorblack,the Sonos Arc
is aslim and attractive soundbar,although its
length means that you really need to place it
underneath a55in or larger TV,unlessyou
don’t mind it sticking out either end. Youcan
laythe soundbar flat on asurface,although
there’s an optional wall mount if you’d rather
have it out of the way.
RAIDERS OFTHE LOST eARC
Aside from the power cable,the SonosArc
has asingle eARC input, which you connect
to the ARC/eARC port on your TV.All sound
is then run through the TV,regardless of
where it comes from (see the ‘Tech explained’
box oppositetosee what the difference
between ARC and eARC is).
On the one hand, this means that your TV
becomes the switch forall your devices, and
you have asinglecable running to the
soundbar,which is quiteelegant.Onthe other
hand, eARC ports are sparse and only
available in TVsless than ayear old.
The Sonos Arc is backwards-com
with the older HDMI ARC standard
although this throws up some inter
issues, with the main one being tha
not all TVsare capable of passing
DolbyAtmos 3D sound via Arc.
In fact, you’ll need to have aTV
built within the past two years that
has native DolbyAtmos support,
such as the LG OLED B8 model
that we tested with.
If you don’t have the right
tech, then no DolbyAtmos
effectively means that you’re
paying alot of moneyfor a
soundbar where you can’t
use its main feature.It’s a
massive shame that Sonos
didn’t think to put astandard
HDMI input on the soundbar
as well so that you could at
leasthavethechoiceofplugginginaBlu-ray
playerorotherdevicedirectly.
While we’re talking about standards, it’s
worth noting that the Sonos Arc also doesn’t
support DTS soundtracks, which are popular
on Blu-rays and DVDs. Sonos’s argument is
that DolbyDigital is bettersupported,
particularly forstreaming, so there’s no
need forDTS.Wedisagree,asplaying old
Blu-rays maymean that you get no sound,
and the workaround, fornow,istochange
your player’s settings and set DTS sound to
output as stereo PCM.
TWO’S COMPANY
Finally,wehavetomention that the Sonos
Arc has to be installed using the new Sonos
app,running the S2 operating system. This
means that you should upgrade your existing
players to the new operating system, although
some older players are incompatible,which
either means splitting your system intotwo or
beingforcedtoupgrade.
Assuming that you do have the right
type of TV and the right type of content to
play, the Sonos Arc is abeautiful-sounding
soundbar.When you first connect it to
your TV,the Sonosapp takes you through
Trueplay, which helpsconfigure the
soundbar’s sound both foryour room and
foryour listening position. It’s abrilliant bit
of technology that gets you the best sound
with no effort to it.
Inside,there areeight mid/bass drivers
(two of which are up-firing forAtmos 3D
sound) and three tweeters forthe high end.
Processing is designed to push sound out
around the room, although to our ears, effects
sounded much more as they’re in front of
you. With such awide soundbar,audio can
stream across from one side to the other,
giving areal sense of movement.
YOU’RE SURROUNDED
Fire up something with DolbyAtmos, and you
getthefulleffect.Watch6Undergroundon
athersillyfilm,butatechnically
monstration of Atmos),and the
vincingly places audio up and
you, surrounding you in sound.
There’s aheavy hit of bass,
hich is impressive given that
there’s no subwooferasstandard.
If anything, the sound envelope
isn’t quiteassmoothasitcould
be,and the transition from bass
to high end is alittle disjointed.
But that’s being really picky, as
theArc sounds fantastic and
brings any content to life.
If you want to spend more,
you can add additional Sonos
ayers as rear channels (a couple
One SL speakers make sense).
give proper positional sound.
asite,for example,and the scene
urrounds and wraps around you,
mpatible
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Assuming thatyou havethe righttype of TVand
the righttype of contenttoplay,the Sonos Arcisa
beautiful-sounding soundbar
