Computer Shopper - UK (2020-10)

ISSUE392|COMPUTER SHOPPER|OCTOBER 2020 37

making you feel like you’re there.Watch an
action film, and explosions, bullets and the
like come from behind, engrossing you in the
film. Surround speakers are aworthy upgrade.
Youcan also add in the Sonos Sub for
more bass, although this £699 upgrade is
almost as expensive as the soundbar.While
the Sub adds that kick and earth-shattering

thump to films, it’s perhaps alittle overkill.

We didn’t feel we particularly needed it.

The Sonos Arc is also afully fledged

multiroom music player,lettingyou stream

music using theSonos app or via AirPlay2.

Given that this is adevice designed for

soundtracks, it’s surprisingly agile and

accomplished when it comes to music,

deliveringthedetailandpoisethatwe’ve

come to expect from Sonos products.

As with other recent Sonos products, the

Arc has its own microphones, so you can run

it as an Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant

smart speaker,too.Or, forprivacy,you can

leave it as a‘dumb’speaker.

Taken purely on sound quality alone,the

Sonos Arc is asoundbar masterpiece and a

system that can be further expanded with

surround speakers and asubwoofer. Yet, for

all its quality and ability to deliver the latest

audio formats, its reliance on HDMI ARC/

eARC makes it arather limited choice if you

don’t have abrand newTV. If you’ve got the

right setup,the Arcishighlyrecommended,

but check compatibility carefully before you

buy to avoid disappointment.

DavidLudlow

SPEAKERS (^11) • RMSPOWER OUTPUTNotstated•
INPUTSHDMIeARC•DIMENSIONS1,142x87x116mm•
NETWORKING802.11n,Ethernet•WARRANTYTwoyears
RTB•DETAILSwww.sonos.com•PART CODEArc

SPECIFICATIONS

HDMI ARCvseARC:what’sthe difference?

TheHDMIAudioReturnChannel(ARC)wasdesignedasawayfor

TVstosendaudiobackdownanHDMIcabletoaconnected

sounddevice.It’sasmartwayforTVstogetsoundbackoutof

internalapps, suchasNetflix, so that youcan alwaysenjoy the

best-quality audio without having to rely on external players

connected directly to asoundbar.

HDMI ARC hasanaudio bandwidth of around 1Mbit/s,which

means that it canonlyworkwith soundformats thatuse lossy

compression.This includesDolbyDigital andDolbyDigital Plus,

the latter of which usesmore bandwidth to deliverthe likes of

DolbyAtmos, which provides 3D surround sound.

With HDMIeARC(enhanced ARC), whichisavailable on TVs

built in the past year,you get up to 37Mbit/s foraudiobandwidth.

This lets compatible devices use full lossless audio formats, such as

DolbyTrueHD. Youget betterlip-sync technology,too.

HDMI eARC is importantasitmeansthat if you playaBlu-ray,

forexample,with aDolby TrueHDsoundtrack, thefull-quality

audio is passed throughthe TV to theconnected soundbar.

HDMI eARC is backwards-compatible withHDMI ARC, butyou

won’t get thefullquality.For example, if youwatch aDolby

TrueHD Blu-rayconnected to aTVwithHDMI ARC, thefull-quality

sound can’tbepassed on. Older TVsmay onlypassstereo sound

on, butnewer TVscan re-encode theaudiointoalower bit-rate

format, such as DolbyDigital, reducingquality slightly.

Then there’sthe issueofDolbyAtmos, which canbecarried

only viaDolby TrueHD or DolbyDigital Plus. On aTVwith HDMI

ARC only,you need amodel that can recognise aDolby Atmos

soundtrack delivered via TrueHD,which canthenconvert the

signal to aDolby Digital Plus stream. Unfortunately,few TVscan.

Thegood news is that TVsthat can converttoDolby Digital

Pluswill do agreatjob,and it’s hard to hear the difference

between thissound formatand DolbyTrueHD.

That allsaid, eARC removes alot of this complicationand

meansthat TVscan accept and pass on thefull-quality audio

track, withoutany messy re-encoding in the middle.

⬆HDMIeARCprovidesadditionalbandwidthforaudio,meaningyoucan

enjoytop-qualitysoundfromyourTV

⬅TheSonosArcisavailableinwhiteorblack,

and looksclassyeitherway