It looks the part and gives every impression of being built to last. Sonos has replaced one of the best products it ever made with one of the best products it’s ever made.

A genuine improvement on the original, the Sound Motion woofer adds more detailed bass, but the entire soundscape is better, while dialogue is much clearer and easier to here. There’s still only an HDMI eARC input, and only support for basic DTS, so this is a soundbar better for streamers or those locked into Dolby Atmos. Those limitations aside, this soundbar sounds phenomenal and can be expanded with up to two subs and wireless rear speakers.

Excellent clarity and musicality. Robust and detailed bass response. Wide and accurate soundstage for impressive immersion, especially with Dolby Atmos. Loads of ways to stream. Versatile modular design. Quick and painless setup. Sonos TruePlay calibration for great balance. Low profile helps avoid blocking your TV.

The Arc Ultra is an obvious improvement over the Arc in the sonic department. New technology delivers on its promise to boost bass, clarity and immersive before you start adding extra components. Expanded features like Speech Enhancements and a quick-tune option offer new tools for dialing in the sound, while the stock Sonos experience remains intact. And thankfully, that includes an app that’s more stable than it was a few months ago. The Arc Ultra is still pricey at $999, but it exhibits a lot more sonic prowess than its predecessor for only $100 more.

The Arc Ultra improves just about every aspect of Sonos' flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar.

The Sonos Arc Ultra is the best-sounding one-box soundbar you can buy today for the price. It has seriously impressive bass for something so compact; it has superbly balanced sound with clear dialogue that fits naturally into the rest of the movie soundtrack; and it has convincing Dolby Atmos positioning and layering of 3D sound, with great width and excellent height. But it’s frustrating that it doesn’t have HDMI passthrough, and the lack of DTS is a shame.

The Sonos Arc Ultra is good for mixed usage. It has a balanced default sound profile that lends itself particularly well to dialogue-driven TV shows, aided by its discrete center. While there's an impressive amount of bass present for a standalone bar, it still doesn't render sub-bass wobbles and earth-shaking sound effects as intensely as a dedicated subwoofer. It can get plenty loud without compressing much, ensuring audio remains clean and pure, even at max volume. It's compatible with most major audio formats, including Dolby Atmos and DTS. Bluetooth compatibility arrives to complement existing Wi-Fi and AirPlay integration, ensuring this bar plays well with your other devices (especially the Sonos ones).

Bringing a whole host of updates to the Sonos soundbar formula, the Arc Ultra is a spectacular-sounding soundbar. Dolby Atmos support is excellent too, and the whole package has a wide, spacious sound stage and decent bass depth. Combine it with just the new sub 4 and you’ve got a great surround setup for a medium to large room, and the Sonos app is now at a point where it actually works.

It’s been a long time in the making but the Arc Ultra was worth the wait – this is a huge upgrade on the still-very-good original Arc