Those in the know know that deliveries of the new Sonos Arc Ultra began yesterday. The Sonos superfans on Reddit are chomping at the bit for the first reviews, which usually go up before or on the launch date of a new Sonos product but, other than a couple of YouTubers delivering their first impressions, there are no reviews out there.
The reason is that Sonos has sent review samples out later than usual, so we (and the other publications lucky enough to be in the first wave of the review program) got ours yesterday – the same day as those who pre-ordered early – rather than a couple of weeks in advance.
That's obviously more than fine: how Sonos approaches its review programs is its prerogative and we're delighted to be included. We're among the first in the world to get our hands on the Arc Ultra, and that is certainly nothing to complain about! But it's an interesting change all the same.
In video game reviewing, the late supply of review 'code' notoriously means said game is pants. That fairly well-known nugget of wisdom, combined with the reputational damage that Sonos has suffered over the last few months, has led plenty of people on the internet to draw some very negative conclusions about the Arc Ultra's performance. The truth, though, is probably far more benign.
Sonos is in a very contrite mood after the errors it has made this year, primarily over the big, botched app update, and that has at least contributed to a decision to opt for a more muted approach to this launch than we're used to from the brand. I personally think that's a mistake – the Arc Ultra is a huge product and the perfect opportunity to start laundering the company's reputation – but it's of course not my decision to make.
There's a much more practical reason that Sonos might have taken this less proactive approach with Arc Ultra reviews, too: it wanted to make sure the software was ready. The Sonos app received a big update on Monday – the day before the new soundbar went on sale – and a Sonos system update was issued just yesterday. Given recent history, there's every chance that Sonos wanted to test and tweak its new software right up to the last minute.
There's always a chance, too, that Sonos simply wants to change its approach and not supply new products to reviewers ahead of launches. That would clearly be a shame from my biased point of view, but it would be entirely within the brand's rights – it's not obliged to supply review samples to anyone at any point, let alone before products go on sale.
Reviewing takes time
Whatever the reason or reasons, at the time of writing, we have had the Sonos Arc Ultra for just 18 hours or so. We have unboxed it, updated it via the app and connected it to a Panasonic Z95A TV that is in turn connected to our Oppo UDP-203 disc player. Right now, it is playing Chapter 2 of the Blade Runner 2049 4K Blu-ray on repeat – which hopefully isn't disturbing the What Hi-Fi? Towers security guard too much.
This running-in period is important. While running-in has become sightly (and bizarrely) controversial in recent years, our listening tests confirm that most audio products, particularly speakers, noticeably change in character in the early parts of their lives. Ultimately, we don't feel it's worth it to rush into the critical listening.
After a couple of days of constant playback, we will go through the Trueplay calibration of the Arc Ultra before digging into the proper testing. That will consist of hours of movies, TV shows and music, and a huge amount of experimentation with the limited but important EQ settings until we're happy we're getting the best out of the soundbar.
We will then compare the Arc Ultra with the previous Sonos Arc, the new Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 8 and Bar 9, the Samsung HW-Q990D and any other soundbars that we feel will teach us something new about Sonos' latest. We will also test the Arc Ultra in partnership with the new Sub 4 and a pair of Era 300 speakers as surrounds, to give you a sense of whether that might be an avenue worth pursuing. Whenever we add components to the Sonos system, it will need Trueplaying again, and any soundbar we compared it with will need unboxing and calibrating before we do any serious listening – and all of that takes time.
That approach to testing isn't unusual for us – In fact, it's par for the course – but it does mean that our reviews tend to take longer than those of some rivals. So, while Sonos Arc Ultra reviews might start appearing very soon, we're currently expecting to publish ours in around a week's time. We're confident that said review will be worth the wait. With any luck the Arc Ultra will be, too, but only time will tell.
MORE:
Everything you need to know about the Sonos Arc Ultra
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