The best soundbars elevate your TV experience to a whole new level. Despite some of the best TVs offering very good audio performance, they struggle to compete with a dedicated piece of audio hardware.
If you're looking for a soundbar to complement your TV setup, then look no further than the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2024 winner, Sonos Arc. We gave it five stars in our review and you can now get it for only £589 at Richer Sounds.
When reviewing the Sonos Arc, for us, it's the best-in-class for versatility, and we've said as much in our list of 2024’s best Dolby Atmos soundbars. While there's big rivals like the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9, the Sonos Arc is the most competitive price out there, offering equally competitive quality.
It's a solid follow-up to the Beam Gen 1, which also won itself a What Hi-Fi? Award back in 2020. For this addition to the Sonos lineup, though, the Sonos Arc supports HDMI eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel), meaning it can handle higher-quality Dolby Atmos signals from TVs that can output them. Other features worth talking about include the ability to host over 25 streaming apps: we're talking Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV, to name but a few. Plus, an impressive soundfield generated by 11 Class D digital amplifiers that power 11 custom drivers results in a powerful sound.
In our review, we concluded: "The Sonos Arc delivers one of the most convincing Atmos presentations of any soundbar we've heard. Height junkies can turn up the volume of the Arc's upward-firing drivers using a separate control, but we don't find it necessary to overly boost the vertical channel to enjoy the Arc's immersive delivery."
While you may be looking at the latest model, the Sonos Arc Ultra, there are still many reasons the older Sonos Arc is a competitive choice, and that doesn't just come down to its price. Don't forget that you can pair up the Sonos Arc with other Sonos speakers to create a complete surround sound arrangement or a multi-room system—it's entirely up to you.
MORE:
These are the best soundbars we’ve reviewed
We rate the best surround sound systems
Also consider the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9