Sonos Arc soundbar review – for premium connoisseurs
Specifications
Dimensions 114cm length
8cm height
12cm width
Material Plastic, black or white
The weight 6.25 kg
Nutrition 100-240V, 50-60Hz
Ports Optical Audio Ethernet 10/100 Mbps
Network Wi-Fi with support for 802.11 b/g and 2.4 GHz.
Sensors Infrared (IR) receiver
CPU 4 cores, 1.4 GHz
Memory 1 GB SDRAM 4 GB NV
Amplifiers Eleven class D amplifiers
Speakers – Eight elliptical drivers provide midrange and vocal reproduction
– Three angled silk dome tweeters
Microphones Far field microphone array
Positioni
This summer, the American manufacturer of wireless audio equipment Sonos introduced a premium soundbar called Arc. A little later, he appeared in Russia at a price of about 80,000 rubles.
Arc operates on the new generation Sonos S2 software platform. This powerful acoustics was equipped with 11 speakers. Moreover, each of them received its own class D amplifier. The device supports Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Atmos. To transfer sound from a smartphone, you can use Apple AirPlay 2, that is, the soundbar easily turns into a fancy speaker for listening to music.
Also in the Sonos Arc there are microphones. They are needed to work with voice commands. With built-in Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, you can play music, check the news, set alarms, and more.
By the way, it is easy to connect the remote control from your TV to the acoustics to adjust the volume.
If desired, the Arc can also be connected to a Sonos Sub subwoofer and One SL speakers for surround sound. They are, of course, purchased separately.
As I wrote above, the price for this model is $899.99 google merchendise store sonos arc
Contents of delivery
The Sonos Arc came to me in a shipping box, opening it up to reveal a very good quality carton box.
To open, you will need to move the powerful valves located on the sides of the box to the sides. Unusual and impressive. In general, this topic is reminiscent of Apple products. There, too, much is based on pleasant trifles.
The column is wrapped in a cloth “film”. Next to it you will find instructions, warranty card, HDMI to optical output adapter, HDMI cable, power cable.
Design, buttons and connectors
It should be said right away that the Sonos Arc is available in two colors – black and white. And so I was very lucky with the test copy: the study and the bedroom are decorated in white, and the soundbar was sent for review in white. Therefore, Arc fits perfectly into the surrounding space.
Why am I focusing on this? The fact is that the device is rather big – 114x12x8 cm. To roughly understand: the Sonos Arc is about the length of a 55-inch TV – a large plastic “tube” with a diameter of about 10 cm.
The entire front of the soundbar is dotted with small holes through which sound passes. The sides are made in the same way. By the way, they are slightly concave, and the holes are made as if they come from the center.
The back panel is matte plastic, and below is a rubberized platform with legs.
That is, in general, the appearance is relatively simple. Probably, for 80,000 rubles, I would like some kind of inlay with precious stones on the touch control buttons 🙂 By the way, they are on top.
Somewhere along the body are four microphones for Google and Amazon voice commands. Sensitivity is not bad, but at a high volume of the speakers, the Arc does not hear me. However, it is worth emphasizing that the device is installed three meters from me.
I’ll digress for a second from the topic. So used to voice requests through the remote control that searching for something on the Web using text input has become a torment: I have a TV with voice commands, and my daughter has a smart TV without them. Moreover, Google now recognizes words so cool that it can be done even with a mouth full of food.
On the front of the Sonos Arc, there are four small indicators combined in one line.
On the back of the speakers, in the recess, you will find a pairing button, an Ethernet port for direct connection to the Network, HDMI and a power connector. On the same side, two holes can be seen. They are designed to mount the soundbar to the wall.
It seems to me that the most correct step is exactly this: hang the TV on the wall, and place the acoustics below. In my case, the TV was on a pedestal, and the soundbar was located in front. Thus, the column slightly blocked the screen in height.
TV connection
On the one hand, everything is simple, on the other hand, you will have to get a little confused if you do not know some tricks in your TV
It is worth emphasizing here that you may need an HDMI to optical output adapter or just an HDMI cable to connect.
To work with Sonos Arc, I had a Xiaomi Mi TV 4S 55 inches.
At first I tried to follow my intuition: I connected the acoustics via an HDMI cable to the TV. Nothing worked. I had to put an application on the iPhone called SONOS. I give a link , because there are a lot of them in the AppStore, but this one is needed.
According to the instructions from the program, it turned out that I cannot connect acoustics to TV via HDMI if my TV does not support ARC – a digital interface with a two-way audio channel.
I had to “dig manuals” in order to clarify the presence of ARC in Mi 4S. As a result, it turned out that the technology is present. But Sonos still doesn’t work.
