Sonos has just taken the wraps off Arc, its first Dolby Atmos soundbar. Available for pre-order today with deliveries beginning on 10th June, the Sonos Arc replaces both the Playbar and Playbase and is priced at £799 ($799).
Arc's 270-degree grille hides 11 Class D digital amplifiers powering 11 drivers. That's eight elliptical woofers (four along the front, two on top and one in each end) and three tweeters (all built into the front but with two firing diagonally into the room). You can see the arrangement in the video below.
Sonos describes the output as being 5.0.2, with the '.2' representing the two upward-firing speakers that add the Dolby Atmos functionality. Should you wish, you can turn that middle '0' into a '1' by connecting a Sub to the Arc. Other Sonos speakers can be added as surrounds - just as they can with the Beam - too.
The eARC-enabled HDMI socket on the rear allows for Atmos audio to be pumped into the Arc directly from the TV to which it's connected, with Sonos noting that there are now more than 25 streaming services that output Atmos.
The Arc is actually wider than the outgoing Playbar, with the 114cm width measurement making it a little wider than a typical modern 49in TV. It doesn't share the Playbar's dual-orientation approach, though, with the Arc designed to face the same direction whether it's placed on furniture or mounted on the wall. It automatically adjusts its frequency response to suit its placement, too.
For more of a deep dive, check out our Sonos Arc: everything you need to know, which goes into much more detail.
Sonos has also today announced two other products, although both are very mild updates for existing devices.
First up is the Five, which replaces the Play:5 and will cost £499 ($499). Sonos says the sound hasn't changed, but that it's beefed up the processing power, memory and wireless hardware. The finishes have been changed just a touch, too, to make the speaker even stealthier in appearance: the badge now matches the colour of the speaker and the white model now has a white grille (it's black on the Play:5).
Then there's the Sub (Gen 3), which is, as you've probably guessed, the third-generation version of the company's subwoofer. There aren't even any tiny visual tweaks here, with the new Sub looking essentially identical to both previous versions. The processor, memory and wireless hardware have all been upgraded, though, and the price remains £699 ($699).
Like the Arc, the Five and Sub (Gen 3) are available to pre-order now and will be available on 10th June. All three new devices will run exclusively on the somewhat controversial new Sonos S2 software platform, which will go live two days earlier on 8th June.
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Sonos S2 update: everything you need to know
