But once all the boxes are moved away and the dust has settled, you finally feel that you can call this new place your home.

I have just about finished my own moving ordeal (I never want to see a roll of packing tape again), but I face the fresh challenge of setting up my own AV system. My new flat doesn’t have the space for a multi-speaker surround sound system, nor do I have the budget. That makes a soundbar the best option for me right now, and there’s one brand I am keen to bring into my living room.

If you have ever hunted for a soundbar yourself, you will probably have seen Sonos soundbars at the top of any suggested list. And that is because they are really very good.

We have reviewed all of Sonos’s current soundbar range, and every model (bar one) has scored five stars in our test room. For those unfamiliar with the brand’s offerings, here’s a quick run-through.

The cheapest and smallest of the bunch is the four-star Sonos Ray (£199 / $199), which we like for its assertive and punchy sound performance. In a rather old-fashioned move by Sonos, though, the soundbar has only an optical input and no eARC connectivity.

Introducing surround-sound support to the range is the step-up Sonos Beam (Gen 2) (£449 / $449), which has won multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards and is the benchmark for entry-level Dolby Atmos soundbars. As with the rest of the more expensive entries, Sonos has included one HDMI eARC port.

Then there’s the newest Sonos soundbar to join the team – meet the mid-range Beam Ultra. The bar offers a 7.1.2-channel arrangement and will set you back £699 / $699. In our review, we say, “It delivers a substantial upgrade over the Beam (Gen 2) while retaining much of the compactness and simplicity that makes that model so appealing.”

Finally, the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra (£999 / $999) is the premium Atmos entry. We praise this for its clean, precise, spacious and three-dimensional sound.

With all those tempting options, I have been struggling to decide which one works best for me. The Ray is of course the cheapest and would offer the most compact solution for my cosy living room, but the lack of HDMI support is a big drawback.

And, though the Arc Ultra is the best-performing of the group, it’s simply not in my budget.

That leaves the Beam (Gen 2) and the Beam Ultra, each of which is a five-star performer.

Even though the Gen 2 model delivers an impressively room-filling sound, it lacks up-firing drivers where the Beam Ultra boasts one on each end. As you would hope, this makes for an even more immersive experience than from its cheaper sibling. But I would still get a detailed and expressive sound from the less expensive Beam Gen 2.

To be frank, I’m stuck in the middle. The convenience of the Sonos Ray speaks to me, and it is by far the cheapest option. But the AV enthusiast in me craves the Dolby Atmos support and the inclusion of an HDMI eARC port that comes with the Beam Ultra or Beam (Gen 2) despite their higher price tags.

So, Sonos, if you are working on an upgraded version of the Ray, I’ve got a message. I’m a realist, so I know not to expect true Dolby Atmos from such a low-priced soundbar. But it would be great to have better connectivity options from the Ray to make the most of its sound performance.

MORE:

Check out the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Here are the best TVs

These are the best soundbars

You can connect the soundbars wirelessly to JBL portable speakers as rear surrounds, which JBL says will “deliver true surround sound at the touch of a button”.

If you already own a pair of JBL Flip 7 portable speakers, you’re in luck – this is the only compatible model right now. The burrito-shaped Flip 7 got a five-star rating when we reviewed it, offering as it does a skilful handling of dynamics and detail.

But what about the new soundbars? Well, all but one offer an unusual design quirk: you can fold them into a U-shape. The brand says this is so the bars are easy to carry around and take up less space in the box. JBL also tells us that the bar cannot be used in its folded state.

First on the list is the flagship SB595MK2, which offers a 3.1.2-channel configuration and true Dolby Atmos support thanks to its up-firing drivers. That’s paired with a separate 6.5-inch subwoofer, delivering a total power output of 440W.

It will set you back £350 / $350, putting it in competition with the Award-winning Sonos Beam Gen 2 that scored five stars in our test room.

The SB580MK2 (£300 / $300) comes with the same subwoofer as its more pricey sibling. This 3.1-channel soundbar does not have up-firing drivers, but there is still virtualised Dolby Atmos support.

Next is the JBL SB550MK2, which features a 5.25-inch subwoofer and a total power output of 360W. There is no Dolby Atmos on the cards with this the 3.1-channel model, so you are limited to Dolby Audio.

Finally, comes the SB510MK2. It’s the only non-foldable soundbar of the bunch and also the cheapest. The subwoofer is built into the soundbar’s main body, so you need accommodate only one piece of kit.

Bluetooth is supported with all models, so you can stream music to the bars from other devices.

We will have to wait until we get the models in our test room to determine how well they compare with their rivals. Being able to use the JBL Flip 7 as rear surrounds is a promising addition in terms of flexibility and scale, but we hope the brand adds compatibility to even more speakers soon. Stay tuned for our full review.

MORE:

Check out the JBL 300MK2 review

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

And here are the best Bluetooth speakers

That can be particularly frustrating when you have forked out a fair amount of cash for a brand-new TV. Unfortunately, as TVs have been getting slimmer, so have their built-in speakers which often does not allow enough space for the drivers you deserve.

But don’t worry, there are a few things you can try before completely relying on subtitles or cranking up the volume to 11. Let’s take a look.

Experiment with your TV’s speech boosters

One of the simplest ways to try to improve the dialogue from your TV is to dive into its settings menu. Every TV brand has a slightly different name for its speech boosters, so finding the right one may take a bit of searching online or in the user manual.

Sony Bravia TVs, for instance, offer a feature called Voice Zoom, which reduces ambient noise and increases the voice level.

There are usually also sound presets that prioritise dialogue, although they might be under Dialogue or the less intuitive News option. It might be a little time-consuming to start with, but it’s worth it in the long run to find the best setting for you.

Invest in a soundbar

If you are still struggling to catch dialogue, then it might be worth investing in a soundbar. They can sit in front of your TV screen, or you can wall-mount them if you prefer. And they offer far better dialogue and a more immersive audio experience than the vast majority of TV speakers.

There are oodles of models on the market, ranging from premium entries to more budget-friendly options. For the latter, the Award-winning Hisense AX5125H soundbar system and the compact Creative Stage Pro models are each well worth your consideration. In both cases, we find that dialogue is much clearer compared with the TV speakers, as well as delivering more expression and nuance in voices.

Many soundbars also offer their own EQ modes to enhance the dialogue further. The Sonos Beam Ultra, to which we just awarded five stars in our test room, for instance, has its own Speech Enhancement mode, which you can adjust from low to max, or just leave off entirely.

Connect to your headphones

This option won't suit everyone, but if you are still struggling, then it might be worth connecting your TV to a pair of headphones. That, of course, makes the listening experience much more intimate, and you quite possibly already have a compatible model in your home.

It’s also handy if you don’t want to disturb others in your home without having to turn the volume down and making the dialogue even less clear.

Most smart TVs allow you to connect your cans via Bluetooth, as you would link them to your phone or computer. For the more analogue among you, you can connect many over-ear headphones to the TV using the 3.5mm auxiliary jack and a cable extension.

Invest in a good pair of Bluetooth headphones, such as the Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM6 or Sennheiser HDB 630, and you should be getting a much more detailed and engaging experience compared with your built-in TV speakers.

If you wear hearing aids, you can connect these to your TV as well via Bluetooth.

After finding the right solution for you, hopefully you will be well on your way to getting much clearer dialogue – and so to immersing yourself more fully in movies.

MORE:

These are the best headphones we have tested

Check out the best soundbars

And here are the best TVs

Offering a room-filling sound, with a much improved tight low-end and added sense of height, the Beam Ultra is a five-star Dolby Atmos soundbar. As we said in our recently published review: “Sonos has struck Dolby Atmos gold yet again.”

We don’t often give praise like that.

But as we discussed its merits as part of this year’s What Hi-Fi? Awards testing, there was one elephant in the room we couldn’t ignore: its price.

I’m not going to give away any spoilers about this year’s Award winners – you’ll have to check back with us on 13th October for that – but, with the Beam Ultra costing £699, it left a hole, which we had been hoping it would plug, gapingly open: that of the cheap soundbar.

Regular readers may remember, only a few short months ago, we were begging Sonos to release a new Beam soundbar. But, sod’s law being the eternal constant it is, when we finally get our wish, the new Beam isn’t the affordable replacement we were hoping for; it's a mid-tier upgrade that sits alongside the Beam 2.

And that's a problem. In the past two years, there has been an outright drought of five-star, affordable, Dolby Atmos soundbars. For clarity, by affordable, we mean units that cost £350/$350 or less.

Jump over to our best Dolby Atmos soundbars buying guide, and you’ll see what I mean. The current small recommendation is the Sonos Beam 2, which came out way back in October 2021. In soundbar years, it should have had its letter from the King by now.

What’s more, despite its age, it still meets our definition of “cheap” only during sales events, such as the fast-approaching Black Friday, when it usually drops from its regular £429 asking price to £349.

Below it, our current recommended cheap Dolby Atmos soundbar, the Sony HT-S2000, came out in 2023, so it is hardly a spring chicken. It also still sits in the upper end of our definition of “affordable”, retailing for £299 at most stores.

On top of that, as our reviewers and I have noted before, it falls afoul of a repeat issue we experience on affordable Atmos units: though it recognises the signal, it struggles to deliver an actual sense of height.

But, despite the two units’ age, we have yet to experience anything better. The only bar to come close was the JBL Bar 300 Mk2, which is great in most ways, but doesn’t have the finesse and musicality to dethrone the Beam 2.

Considering the cost-of-living crisis and the wealth of innovation that has appeared in the mid- and upper-end of the soundbar market over the past half-decade, the lack of new cheap models feels like a missed opportunity. Surely some of the cool stuff we’ve seen on even moderately more expensive models should have trickled down by now?

Hopefully, this will change in the not too distant future. If not, I can’t help but think some companies are missing an open goal.

Not everyone has cash to burn on a new soundbar, and right now even the best options you’ll find for less than £350/$350 are undeniably beginning to feel a little stale and show their age. Buyers on a budget deserve better, at least in my humble opinion.

MORE:

These are the best surround sound systems we have tested

We rank the best cheap TVs

Our picks of the best soundbars

Is it just us, or is everything Ultra nowadays? While Apple and Samsung have adopted the name (with the Watch Ultra and Galaxy S26 Ultra, respectively), no one has run with it quite like Sonos. First we had the Arc Ultra, then the Ace Ultra headphones and Beam Ultra soundbar. Confused? We don't blame you.

Ultra connotes the best in the range, so the Beam Ultra is positioned above the previous Beam soundbars, and Arc Ultra above the standard Arc. But while they might be the best in their respective lines, there are still some notable differences between the Beam Ultra and Arc Ultra. They are priced quite differently, after all.

Wondering which is for you? You've come to the right place. Here we'll compare the two five-star soundbars including a comparative listening test, so you can see how they compare and which you should buy. Let's dig in.

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Arc Ultra: tech specs comparison

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Arc Ultra: price

These two soundbars are priced quite differently. The Arc Ultra is Sonos' flagship soundbar, and has a price to match. It sells for £999 / $999 / AU$1799. The Beam Ultra, meanwhile, is positioned between the second-gen Beam (which remains on sale) and the Arc Ultra, with a price of £699 / $699 / AU$1099.

But sales season is coming. Of the two, the Arc Ultra is the more likely to be discounted – it's fallen to £719 before. If it falls that low again – with a possible difference of just £20 between the two 'bars – it'll be a seriously tempting proposition.

We can't imagine the brand new Beam Ultra will see any big money off, but you never know, it might see a slight fall. Stay tuned and we'll let you know.

** Winner: Sonos Beam Ultra **

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Arc Ultra: design

As you can see from the photos, there's no mistaking these two soundbars. The Arc Ultra is a bigger, more powerful proposition – it requires more space to accommodate.

The Beam Ultra is a little shorter (6.5cm to the Arc Ultra's 7.5cm) and a lot less wide (75cm to 118cm). But both are about 11cm deep.

The Arc Ultra looks more sleek too, while the Beam Ultra is more of a block with rounded-off corners. Te Arc Ultra's controls are hidden around the back, while for the Beam Ultra, Sonos has sensibly positioned them on the front, which makes them much easier to use. How much people use on-soundbar controls, however, is a subject for debate, and many will think the Arc Ultra's sleeker, more minimalist look is more than worth the lack of convenience.

The only control we would prefer was more accessible on the Arc Ultra is Bluetooth for pairing a phone or tablet. On the Beam Ultra, the button is on the lip, rather than around the back.

Remember, both of these soundbars have upwards-firing drivers, so don't position them on a shelf or you'll be shooting those height sound channels right into whatever's directly above them.

** Winner: Sonos Arc Ultra **

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Arc Ultra: features

The big sell of the Beam Ultra is that it has upwards-firing drivers, for a 'true' Dolby Atmos performance. But then so does the Arc Ultra. As you would imagine, the latter has the more powerful set-up: its 14 drivers dwarf the Beam Ultra's nine. The Arc Ultra's are arranged in a 9.1.4-channel configuration, while the Beam Ultra's are set up in 7.1.2.

Because of its size, the Arc Ultra is better suited to bigger TVs – Sonos says it's for TVs 50 inches and above, while the Beam Ultra is recommended for TVs up to 65 inches.

The Beam Ultra's centre channel has been redesigned – it now has a tweeter embedded in the woofer to add width and clarity.

Both Ultra soundbars lack DTS:X, and have a single HDMI eARC port meaning no HDMI passthrough. The Beam Ultra has a USB-C port too for hooking up additional sources like a CD player or turntable (although you will need the additional Line-In Adapter for these to work).

Both 'bars have wi-fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3.

The Arc Ultra has an additional SoundMotion woofer, which works differently to a standard driver. This creates a deeper bass than the Beam Ultra, as we'll see in the Sound section.

Both soundbars share a lot of features, including the Loudness feature (which boosts bass and treble at low volumes), Trueplay room calibration, AI Speech Enhancement and Night Sound. Both have voice controls too, though only the Arc Ultra supports Alexa for now (the Beam Ultra is limited to Sonos' voice controls, though Alexa support should arrive via a future firmware upgrade).

Both 'bars support music apps like Spotify and Tidal, and both can work as part of a bigger Sonos home cinema setup or multi-room system by pairing additional speakers. They can also both work with Sonos' Ace range of headphones for personal listening.

This one's close, but the USB-C port just edges it for the Beam Ultra.

** Winner: Sonos Beam Ultra **

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Arc Ultra: sound

Of course it's the sound that most people will be interested in. So how do these soundbars compare?

The Beam Ultra's new upwards-firing drivers deliver an added dimension to the Dolby Atmos performance. Sounds are placed with pin-point precision, which is doubly impressive when you consider just how small this soundbar is compared to the Arc Ultra.

There's detail aplenty, with the extra height adding a real sense of depth to the sounds. And the sound expands way beyond the confines of the soundbar itself.

"In No Time To Die, as an onslaught of helicopters moves in from above in pursuit of Bond, the overhead effects go much higher than our TV screen," we wrote in our Sonos Beam Ultra review. "Then, when an army of cars zoom across an open field, the sound extends to the corners of our test room and makes for an even more enveloping experience."

Bass is impressive for a 'bar of this size, with helicopter blade rotations lent a meaty thrum. And dialogue remains tonally accurate and expressive throughout, and clear even during more chaotic scenes.

But the Beam Ultra could project into a room more. Sonos isn't lying when it says it's best suited to mid-size living rooms of around 23-32.5 metres squared.

However, while undoubtedly impressive, the Beam Ultra sounds a little underwhelming when played side by side with the Arc Ultra. The bigger sibling's presentation is more authoritative and sophisticated – as you would hope it would be, given its higher price.

Its sound is even more precise than the Beam Ultra's, which helps music tracks in particular stay that bit more organised both rhythmically and spatially. Bass, too, is very impressive, with none of the chuffing that can plague lesser soundbars.

As we said in our Sonos Arc Ultra review: "It’s tight, tuneful and expressive in a way that is rare in the soundbar world."

Detail is a cut above. Watching Bladerunner 2049, "Incidental noises such as footsteps, a tooth being gently placed on a glass table, and the soft squeak of a rubber surgical gown as a character stretches out his arm are all delivered clearly and cleanly but in an unforced manner, contributing to the atmosphere without distracting." Which is exactly how it should be.

Low-level dynamics are handled deftly, with subtlety, and so the extra details evident sound natural rather than artificial. Big changes in volume – jump-scares, for instance – are dispatched clinically. And boy, is this thing loud.

It also projects into the room far better than the Beam Ultra.

So, as expected, the Arc Ultra is the more advanced in the sound department. But whether that serves your needs will really depend on your room size – those of us with smaller lounges might be better off saving some money with the Beam Ultra.

** Winner: Sonos Arc Ultra **

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Arc Ultra: verdict

The two Ultras might have a lot of features in common, but they are quite different propositions. The Beam Ultra is better suited to smaller rooms and tighter budgets, while the Arc Ultra is for those with deeper pockets and more space in which to let it work.

If you're trying to decide between the two on performance alone, go for the Arc Ultra – it's bassier, even more precise and projects more into the room. It could even drop to a similar price to the Beam Ultra, if previous discounts are anything to go by.

But the Beam Ultra is an excellent soundbar in its own right, and will serve those with medium-sized rooms (and budgets) very well indeed.

** Overall winner: Sonos Arc Ultra **

MORE:

Read our full Sonos Beam Ultra review

And our Sonos Arc Ultra review

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): which is better?

On one hand, we had been waiting for Sonos’s next soundbar entry since the five-star Arc Ultra hit the shelves back in 2024. But, with the bar positioned directly between the Award-winning Arc Ultra (£999 / $999 / AU$1799) and the Sonos Beam Gen 2 (£449 / $449 / AU$649) with a price tag of £699 / $699 / AU$1099, the new model had some big expectations to meet.

The Beam Ultra has nine drivers in total – four more than the Beam Gen 2. It also features two up-firing drivers, which the previous Beam entry was lacking, resulting in a 7.1.2-channel configuration.

After days of testing the Beam Ultra in our test room, we are happy to report that the soundbar fits in excellently with its five-star siblings. Here are three things we liked about Sonos’s latest home cinema family member, and two that we would change.

Convincing Dolby Atmos effects

First off, the Beam Ultra’s added up-firing drivers deliver the upgrade we wanted over the Beam Gen 2. We are greeted with a three-dimensional sound experience that makes for a huge upgrade over our TV’s built-in speakers.

As a helicopter flies into the sky when we watch No Time To Die, the overhead effects go much higher than our tv screen. There’s a brilliant sense of space and depth, lending each scene cinematic scale.

It does not quite reach the expansiveness of the more expensive Sonos Arc Ultra, but that is to be expected considering its higher price tag and longer build.

The helicopter is also well-placed, as we can close our eyes and still get a strong sense of where the vehicle is. By soundbar standards, this all results in the most convincing Atmos effects at this price.

Tight bass

The Sonos Beam Ultra’s bass is refined and adds to the soundbar's impact. When we listen to Rosalia’s Divinise, the punchy lower frequencies give the track a strong foundation without overpowering the rest of the sound.

The bass track flutters with a series of quick beats, and the soundbar delivers these with a clean leading edge on each note which drives the song’s energy forward.

It’s the same experience with films, as we find when watching Bumblebee. When the titular transformer lands on earth in a flurry of flames, the Beam Ultra offers up muscular deep notes which add to the sense of impact.

It isn’t the deepest bass we have heard at this level, but the Beam Ultra’s tight, well-balanced lower frequencies more than makes up for it.

Could do better at forward projection

Although we were hugely impressed by the soundbar’s detailed and punchy audio quality, we did note one small issue.

Unlike some rivals we have tested, the Beam Ultra doesn’t push sound out into the room and towards the listening position quite as much as we would like. That can make certain elements, most notably voices, sound a little less direct and engaging than they otherwise might.

And this is quite different from the Beam Gen 2, which offers a somewhat direct sound. That could be because the older model features only forward-facing drivers, while some of the sound is being directed upwards with the Beam Ultra’s up–firing drivers. Despite that issue, the bar still delivers a spacious sound that is hard to beat at this price.

No HDMI passthrough

As well as sound performance, the soundbar’s build needs to be taken into account.

The Beam Ultra has the same physical connections as the rest of Sonos's soundbar entries. That means it has one HDMI eARC port, but no dedicated HDMI inputs. That’s a shame for those who are running out of HDMI sockets on their TV, especially for gamers with high-spec devices.

There is a USB-C port alongside the HDMI connection, as well. This works in conjunction with the optional Line-In Adapter, which features a 3.5mm auxiliary input, via which you can connect pretty much any audio source, such as a turntable or CD player.

You can also opt for Sonos’s Combo Adapter, which features both the 3.5mm input and an ethernet socket for wired networking.

Clean, compact design

The new model is slightly thinner and longer than the Beam Gen 2, so it will sit nicely in front of your TV screen. It certainly doesn’t block the screen on the 55-inch TV in our test room, and should look just as at home with a 65-inch or 43-inch TV.

There is also the option to wall mount if that suits your set-up better. It weighs 2.8 kg, which is the same as the Beam Gen 2, meaning it should be simple to position.

The matte finish of the bar is quite stylish as well, coming in either black or white colour options.

If you're looking for a soundbar to deliver convincing Dolby Atmos effects and tight bass in a sleek all-in-one package, the Sonos Beam Ultra should be at the top of your list.

MORE:

Check out the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

These are the best TVs on the market

And here is our review of the Sonos Beam Gen 2

The Sonos Beam Ultra has a similar challenge. It sits directly between two Award-winning soundbars from the US-based brand, the Beam (Gen 2) and Arc Ultra, so we have high expectations for the new model.

But rather than buckling under the pressure, this new middle child proves to be a near-perfect blend of the two.

Price

The Sonos Beam Ultra will set you back £699 / $699 / AU$1099. As we said, that puts it directly between the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) (£449 / $449 / AU$649) and the Arc Ultra (£999 / $999 / AU$1799), both of which have scored What Hi-Fi? Awards and five-star reviews.

Despite pre-announcement expectations, the Beam Ultra isn’t a replacement for the Beam (Gen 2), which is staying in the Sonos soundbar range. That feels like a good move to us, as it leaves a more affordable Dolby Atmos soundbar (albeit without dedicated up-firing drivers) in the range.

Design

The Beam Ultra feels lightweight yet well-built and sturdy. Despite it being a little longer than the Beam (Gen 2), the new model comes in at the same weight of 2.8kg. It’s slightly thinner as well, meaning it fits nicely under our 55-inch TV screen in the test room. You can also mount the bar on your wall if you prefer.

The soundbar comes in two colour options: black and white. That’s the same as the rest of Sonos’s soundbar models, and the matte finish looks quite stylish, although the black model we have in our room quickly shows fingerprints after handling.

The Beam Ultra features perforated grilles on the top. On the lip of the bar, you will find a press-button to activate Bluetooth, as well as touch controls for volume and play/pause.

Features

Those perforated grilles on the top are there to allow the two up-firing drivers on either end of the bar to work their magic. That’s an upgrade on the Beam (Gen 2), which relies on virtualisation for Dolby Atmos rather than physical drivers.

In fact, the Beam Ultra has nine drivers in total – four more than the Beam (Gen 2). These are arranged in what Sonos says is a 7.1.2-channel configuration.

Sonos states that the centre channel has been redesigned to feature a coaxial transducer, which embeds a tweeter into a woofer. With this new arrangement, the brand says the Beam Ultra makes “movies sound wider” and “dialogue sound clearer”.

While the new bar supports Dolby Atmos, DTS:X is still not on the cards. That’s not a big surprise considering this has been the case with all of Sonos’s products, but it could be a drawback for those wanting fully comprehensive surround sound options.

There’s just a single HDMI eARC port on the back of the bar. The lack of dedicated HDMI inputs and passthrough functionality is no surprise (no previous Sonos products have had it either), but it's still a shame for those who are already running out of HDMI sockets on their TV.

There is also a USB-C port, which the Beam (Gen 2) doesn’t have. This works in conjunction with the optional Line-In Adapter, which features a 3.5mm aux input, via which you can connect pretty much any audio source, such as a turntable or CD player. Alternatively, you can opt for Sonos’s Combo Adapter, which features both the 3.5mm input and an Ethernet socket for wired networking.

Unlike some rivals, but very much like previous Sonos soundbars, the Beam Ultra doesn’t come with a remote control. For everyday use with your TV, the only controls you really need are volume up, down and mute, all of which are handled by your TV’s remote.

For more advanced operation and initial set-up, the newly updated Sonos27 app is on hand. This is where you can link your various music streaming services for playback via the Beam Ultra, and access EQ settings.

The latter includes sliders to adjust height, bass and treble levels, but in our experience, the automatic Trueplay calibration renders these fine adjustments unnecessary.

As with the Arc Ultra, Trueplay is provided in two flavours: Quick and Advanced. With the Quick Tuning option, the soundbar tunes its sound by measuring its output via its own microphones. It takes seconds and is very effective.

If you want the very best sound for your room, though, it’s worth using the Advanced Tuning option, which involves measuring the output from the soundbar using an iOS device. It takes slightly longer and involves moving around your room to get measurements from all corners, but it can improve frequency response and spatial accuracy, particularly if your room is large or unusually shaped.

In addition to the aforementioned EQ options, there is a Loudness setting, which is on by default and is designed to boost bass and treble, particularly when listening at lower volumes, where these frequencies can become less prominent. In practice, though, we find that the effect is noticeable at most volumes, adding a little extra heft to the sound. We prefer to leave it on, but your mileage may vary, so it’s worth experimenting with the toggle yourself.

The Sonos app also contains a Night Sound setting, which can be used to reduce bass and dynamics for those times when you don’t want to disturb your housemates or neighbours.

As well as being able to control your music via the Sonos app, as with previous Sonos soundbar models, music can be sent directly from apps such as Spotify and Tidal. Bluetooth 5.3 is on board, too.

There is the option to switch from listening out loud to enjoying movies or music privately by linking the soundbar to a pair of Sonos Ace or new Ace Ultra headphones

Like Sonos's other soundbars, the Beam Ultra can also be upgraded with a pair of wireless speakers (such as Era 100s) as surrounds, and you can add a Sonos subwoofer to the mix.

Sonos has even released an update that allows the brand's portable speakers – the Move 2 and Play – to be used as surrounds.

Sound quality

Right from the off, it’s clear that the Beam Ultra’s added up-firing drivers deliver the upgrade we were looking for over the Beam (Gen 2).

When watching Blade Runner 2049 in Dolby Atmos, flickering digital adverts pop up as Officer K marches across the street, and each accompanying sound effect is portrayed with precision. It’s impressive how the bar places these effects so exactly, almost above the listening position, especially considering its compact footprint.

Whether it's the spritely voice of announcements or the thrum of the street sweeper, each sound is delivered with an excellent amount of detail while being tied into a cohesive overall audio experience.

Later, when Officer K returns home to Joi, the spatial placement of the two voices is excellently portrayed. This makes it clear that K is at the forefront of the scene, whereas his digital companion is in the background. You could watch the scene with your eyes closed and still get an excellent sense of where each character is.

There is also an expansive sense of width and height. In No Time To Die, as an onslaught of helicopters moves in from above in pursuit of Bond, the overhead effects go much higher than our TV screen. Then, when a phalanx of cars zooms across an open field, the sound extends to the corners of our test room and makes for an even more enveloping experience than the Beam (Gen 2) can provide.

The Beam Ultra’s muscular bass lends the sound of the helicopters a meaty thrum. Each rotation of the chopper’s blades has a strong leading edge, which makes it feel powerful and punchy. While it is not the deepest bass we have heard at this level, its precision, rhythm, tonality and control are ample compensation.

Switching to our 4K Blu-ray of Bumblebee demonstrates the Beam Ultra’s talent for dialogue, which is tonally accurate and brilliantly expressive. John Cena’s baritone voice is easy to differentiate from his whining colleague’s higher vocals, and even in scenes in which lots of characters are talking over each other and loud background effects, the dialogue remains clear and characterful.

If you still need a little more dialogue clarity, perhaps because of hearing limitations, Sonos’s AI Enhancement feature is on hand to prioritise voices over effects, with several levels of boost available.

Our only slight criticism of the Beam Ultra’s movie performance is that it doesn’t project sound out into the room and towards the listening position quite as much as some rivals. That can make certain elements, most notably voices, sound a little less direct and engaging than they otherwise might. Interestingly, the Beam (Gen 2) is a little more direct-sounding, perhaps primarily as a result of it having only forward-firing drivers.

In every other respect, though, the Beam Ultra is a clear upgrade on its smaller, cheaper sibling, delivering a bigger, weightier, more expansive and more detailed performance.

As you would hope from a Sonos soundbar, the Beam Ultra is a cut above its rivals when it comes to music, too. Listening to Divinize by Rosalia via Qobuz, the singer’s expressive vocals and the detail in the instruments make for an immediately engaging experience.

The bass is refined and provides a strong foundation for the track, with the fluttering low-frequency notes delivered with a powerful kick at the beginning of each beat to drive the song forward.

In Childish Gambino’s This Is America via Qobuz, each element – whether that’s the layered choral vocals or the drum machine – is excellently organised, resulting in an open, cohesive overall sound. Then, the gradual diminuendo at the end of the track is handled with delicacy and nuance to bring the song to a careful close.

This transparent, emotive performance puts the Beam Ultra at the top of its class with music as well as with movies.

Verdict

The Beam Ultra is a significant step up from the Beam (Gen 2), delivering a bigger, weightier and more expansive performance thanks to its additional up-firing drivers and upgraded speaker configuration.

The Arc Ultra still remains a step beyond the Beam Ultra, particularly in terms of authority and sophistication. But given the Beam Ultra's more compact dimensions and lower price, that is neither a surprise nor a criticism.

Instead, the Beam Ultra occupies a useful middle ground in Sonos' soundbar range: it delivers a substantial upgrade over the Beam (Gen 2) while retaining much of the compactness and simplicity that makes that model so appealing.

More importantly, set aside the inevitable comparisons with its super-accomplished siblings, and the Beam Ultra is an exceptional soundbar in its own right. Sonos has struck Dolby Atmos gold yet again.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Design 5
• Features 4

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Also consider the Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

Read our Sonos Arc Ultra review

Best Dolby Atmos soundbars: our reviewers' five recommendations

As we wrote at the time, the “Ace's safe sound is put to the sword by several rival headphones that are more exciting, more detailed, dynamic and expressive across the board. Both their ANC and call quality can be bettered, too”.

These are the issues that the Ace’s follow-up, the new Ace Ultra, must rectify if Sonos is to become a major player in consumer audio’s most contested arena. Sonos has pledged “rich, detailed audio” from the Ace Ultra, aiming to make up ground against a plethora of premium wireless alternatives, all backed by seamless integration within the expanded Sonos ecosystem.

A tempting proposition for Sonos lovers, but has the brand learned its lessons from the original Ace?

Price

Sonos’ sophomore over-ears will set you back £399 / $449 / AU$699 at launch, putting them up against two strong contenders at this price: the Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM6 (£400 / $450 / AU$699) and the excellent five-star Sennheiser HDB 630 (£400 / $500 / AU$1000).

The original Ace launched at £449 / $449 / AU$699, but their price has since dropped to a more modest £299 / $299 / AU$449. To be clear, Sonos says it will keep the Ace on sale alongside the new step-up model, rather than pitching the Ace Ultra as a direct replacement.

Build & comfort

While we weren’t necessarily that keen on how the original Sonos Ace sounded, we found it hard to fault their design, praising the cans’ minimalist aesthetic, comfortable fit and premium feel.

Happily, those qualities have translated across to the new Ace Ultra. Sonos’ second effort hasn’t deviated much from the original over-ear’s clean, understated design language, with the Ace Ultra sporting a pair of clean, smooth plastic earcups adorned with a shining Sonos logo and complemented by exposed metal arms.

The minimalist aesthetic won’t suit all tastes, but in terms of how the headphones actually feel, it’s hard to complain. The plastic is solid and durable, the metal hinges shine with a polished presence, and the buttons and toggles are responsive and reasonably tactile during operation.

That said, we would ideally like the Ace Ultra to fold away as the Sony WH-1000XM6 do, rather than simply having the earcups swivel horizontally on their hinges, but that won’t be a dealbreaker for most.

Elsewhere, the Ace Ultras’ soft ear cushions and padded adjustable headband make them a pleasure to live with. The earpads have been upgraded for the Ace Ultra, with the new ‘Rebound’ memory foam cushions, designed not only to improve comfort levels but aid passive noise reduction – we found they offer a plusher, more forgiving fit.

They’re capable of keeping their cool, too, and even as wearing sessions turn from minutes to hours, the Sonos over-ears resist the urge to heat our ears and turn our listening from serene to sweat-inducing.

As before, the ear pads attach magnetically, meaning you can remove them easily and buy replacements from the Sonos store for around £40 / $40 if they begin to wear out over time. You can also replace the headphones’ battery yourself, adding to the headphones’ impressive sustainability credentials.

How about controls? Where the likes of the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless and Sony WH-1000XM6 have implemented predominantly haptic on-unit systems, Sonos has stuck to its guns and gone for tactile buttons on the side of each of the Ace Ultras’ earcups.

A physical toggle for quickly adjusting your noise-cancelling mode is located at the base of the right earcup, while a ‘content key’ lets you control volume, pause music, and even answer calls by either sliding the toggle up and down or pressing down in the centre. In terms of its basic ergonomics, it’s a simple toggle to use, and our only issue would be that it can sometimes force your hand into a slightly odd position when performing certain commands.

While the Ace Ultra might look similar to the original Ace on the outside, scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find a fresh set of Sonos-designed 40mm dynamic drive units. The new drivers incorporate a dual-ring magnet motor structure, designed to significantly reduce distortion and deliver a clearer, more detail-rich sound alongside a punchier, fuller bass signature.

Given the lack of overall clarity and bass punch we bemoaned in the original Ace, it’s pleasing to see Sonos attempting to rectify such issues when it comes to the Ace Ultra’s internal hardware. We’ll get to that below.

Features

As with all of its products – even a pair of headphones – much of the Ace Ultra’s appeal comes from their willingness to play ball with the extended Sonos ecosystem. Even if the Ace Ultra don’t end up scaling the loftiest of lofty heights sound-wise, we understand that much of their appeal comes from their intra-brand compatibility.

This includes using Sonos’ 'headphone linking' feature, allowing you to transfer sound to the Ace Ultra from most current Sonos products working under the Sonos 27 operating system, including the Arc Ultra, Ray, Beam (Gen 2) and new Beam Ultra soundbars, and the Sonos Five, Era 100, Era 300, Move 2, Play and Roam 2 wireless speakers.

We give the feature a whirl using the Beam (Gen 2) soundbar that’s currently housed in our test room. Using the Sonos app to get everything working under the same network, we’re able to swap audio from Blade Runner 2049 from the Beam onto the headphones by pressing and holding the Ace Ultra’s content key for around five seconds. To get sound back onto the soundbar, we simply press and hold the button again, and the second-gen Beam takes over audio duties once more.

Sonos’ TrueCinema calibration tech also returns, which uses spatial software to tailor your headphones’ acoustics to your room, granting a more cinematic experience when watching Dolby Atmos-soundtracked movies. The headphones then ‘externalise’ the audio out of your head while the tech creates a more balanced reproduction that matches the real-world dimensions and characteristics of your listening room.

TrueCinema is quick to set up via the app – for us it takes around two minutes – and once we have it switched on, we notice that Blade Runner 2049 sounds impressively cinematic thanks to the headphones’ purposeful placement of spoken dialogue, whooshing spaceships and humming engines.

Away from fancy linking capabilities, the Ace Ultra boast a very healthy 35-hour battery life with noise cancelling activated, a figure that’s up from the 30 hours of the original Ace and five more hours than the Sony WH-1000XM6 can manage under the same conditions. As before, you also get three hours of playback from a three-minute boost.

The higher-quality aptX Lossless Bluetooth codec is supported for streaming files up to 16-bit/44.1kHz, while native support for 16-bit/48kHz resolution is available via the wired USB connection. Both USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to 3.5mm cables are included in the box.

Alongside TrueCinema, the Ace Ultra support Dolby Atmos spatial audio content with head tracking from platforms such as Tidal, Amazon Music and Apple, though there’s no toggle in the app to actively switch it on and off.

Listening to a Dolby mix via Tidal, the bass drum kicks at the outset of Billie Jean do sound a little deeper and more recessed, while the snares seem to echo within a more spacious backdrop, but the differences are relatively subtle when comparing against a standard stereo recording. David Bowie’s Heroes seems to work more effectively, with the Ace Ultra working to make those arcing guitar effects soar far higher than they usually would.

The effects of head tracking are far more noticeable, with the headphones able to quickly and smoothly transfer audio from earcup to earcup to simulate the effect of having your music playing from a fixed point.

ANC & call quality

We weren’t exactly bowled over with how the original Ace handled noise cancelling, so we’re happy to report that Sonos has made marked improvements to the new Ace Ultra in this regard.

The new over-ears offer standard full ANC alongside a more transparent ‘Aware Mode’. Within Aware Mode, you can also choose to toggle a Voice Boost setting which, as the name suggests, spotlights external voices to keep you aware of, say, announcements on public transport.

Sonos has pledged that the new headphones are twice as effective at blocking unwanted noise compared with the original Ace, with the Ace Ultra housing 10 microphones – up from eight – backed by an adaptive ANC system that continuously monitors your surroundings to deliver the best experience possible.

Such efforts have paid dividends. The Ace Ultra have dramatically closed the gap between their Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) rivals, so that the general hum and rush of the outside world is impressively damped down – if not completely removed – when donning the Ace Ultra.

Piercing highs and sonic boom lows will still penetrate your serene bubble, but this is a vastly improved experience, and the Ace Ultra do a far better job of making the clamour and clutter of environmental noise feel more subdued.

Nearby voices and general chatter are still audible, but rarely to the extent that they feel bothersome or overly intrusive. For quelling the general hum and pulse of the world as it turns, though, the Ace Ultra are up to scratch, and certainly a good deal better than the original Ace.

Call quality is capably handled, too, but it doesn’t quite keep pace with the headphones’ improved noise cancelling. Taking our Sonos test pair out for a call next to a busy main road reveals the headphones’ capacity to make voices sound clear and well spotlighted, but they let in a good deal more environmental noise than the more isolating Sony WH-1000XM6.

Sound

This is more like it.

While the original Ace’s rather lacklustre sound was something of a damp squib, the new Ace Ultra are a firm step in the right direction. Sonos hasn’t arrived at the enlightened echelons of sonic Nirvana just yet, but it has imprinted a few eager footsteps on the path to better audio.

While the original Ace sounded timid, almost apologetic in their presentation, the Ace Ultra benefit from a much-needed dose of self-belief. These headphones sound far more self-assured than their de facto predecessors, with a rich, full-bodied sound that brings a muscular, confident presence to the tunes we feed them.

That newfound punch and power comes to the fore during a listen to Björk’s Army Of Me which, through the Ace Ultra, pulsates with a raw and assertive energy befitting the track’s original intent. The premium cans grant that massive drum beat perceptible heft, while Björk’s insistent calls that “if you complain once more / you’ll meet an army of me” have the weight and urgency to have us rethinking our current life choices.

This isn’t the subtlest presentation you’ll ever hear – and certainly not as insightful or layered as the breathtakingly detailed Sennheiser HDB 630 – but the fullness of the Ace Ultras’ delivery is undeniably satisfying, like a big old burger shovelled down after a rowdy night on the town.

Instrumental textures are weighty and assured, and while the HDB 630 fill in the gaps in between with more delicacy and precision, the Sonos have enough textural insight to feel adequately well-rounded. To return to our burger analogy, you can discern the taste of sharp pickles and tangy onions as opposed to nothing but fat, meaty beef.

That bottom bun isn’t too soggy, either, by which we mean the Sonos over-ears do well to keep their bass reproduction in check. The Ace Ultra aren’t short on lower-end clout, yet they do well to prevent those bass frequencies from sounding rumbly or lacking definition.

A wired connection helps to further firm up the bass just a tad, with a physical tether giving the Sonos over-ears a slightly lighter, clearer presentation than via Bluetooth. It isn’t night and day by any means, but it feels as though the Ace Ultra are painting with a finer, lighter brush when listening with the provided cables.

Wired or wireless, though, the Ace Ultra aren’t quite the finished article. Rhythmically, they’re not the most agile premium headphones we’ve ever clamped over our ears, nor are they the most precise. Leading edges of notes don’t cut through with the razor-sharp precision of the Sennheiser HDB 630 or Sony WH-1000XM6, robbing Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground of its peppy potential when played via the Ace Ultra.

Dynamically, there’s also room for improvement, and while we can’t fault the headphones’ power, everything tends to sound a little one-size-fits-all. Listening to Hans Zimmer’s Jack Sparrow from the Pirates Of The Caribbean soundtrack highlights this comparative deficiency, as those raucous, swooping strings aren’t quite communicated with the jaunty abandon as befits the track’s off-kilter namesake.

Again, the class leaders from Sennheiser and Sony are simply more expressive and engaging in this regard, delighting in how they reproduce every arcing rise and swooping fall of the strings as they swell and break throughout the Pirates score. The Ace Ultra are the gentle lapping of waves on a shore – their rivals, by contrast, are like a cresting musical tsunami.

Verdict

The Sonos Ace Ultra are a significant improvement on the original three-star Ace. They haven’t reached that fifth star yet, but thanks to their powerful sound, improved noise cancelling and compatibility with the wider Sonos ecosystem, this is a far more compelling demonstration that Sonos could one day contend with the best of Sony, Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins.

If you’re a devotee needing a pair of wireless headphones to go with your Sonos soundbars and wireless speakers, we wouldn’t dissuade you from adding the Ace Ultra to your collection.

Review published: 22nd September 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony WH-1000XM6

Also consider the Sennheiser HDB 630

Best wireless headphones reviewed and rated by our in-house experts

That's no bad thing, however – there's plenty to look forward to in the rest of 2026, especially in the dynamic worlds of hi-fi and home cinema.

With IFA and the Apple September event now concluded, we have plenty of new product releases to look forward to, including offerings from heavyweights such as Apple, Sonos and Sony.

That's not all, though! An HDR war is on the horizon as Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+ Advanced start rolling out across consumer TVs, and RGB Mini LED is now out on the market and facing its first sales season.

So don't start planning Christmas just yet – we've got all this to come...

The HDR format war heats up

It's been a long time in the making, but the next generation of HDR formats is finally here.

Dolby Vision 2 launched on select Hisense TVs on 6th August, with more models set to receive the firmware update over time.

Not to be outdone, HDR10+ Advanced also launched on select Samsung TVs last month, setting the stage for a good old-fashioned format war that the AV industry can't help but love.

Supported TVs are still rather limited, as are compatible streaming services – Dolby Vision 2 has only been confirmed for Peacock, CANAL+ and iQIYI so far, whereas HDR10+ Advanced is currently only on Prime Video.

However, support is only set to grow, so it will be interesting to see how the next few months unfold – we're looking forward to having a closer look in our test room as well...

A Sonos double bill

IFA saw the launch of not one, but two key Sonos products – the long-awaited Sonos Beam Ultra soundbar and Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones.

The Beam Ultra is not a replacement for the beloved five-star Sonos Beam (Gen 2), but instead a step-up model with up-firing Atmos drivers as the big selling point. We'll be sure to test it as soon as possible, but we were very impressed when we heard a demo session.

The Sonos Ace Ultra are a more interesting proposition, as they are only the American brand's second wireless headphones. We were left underwhelmed by the three-star Sonos Ace, but the new drivers, refined tuning and upgraded ANC of the Ultra model look to rectify many of our misgivings.

The Sonos Beam Ultra and Ace Ultra both release on 29th September.

Good things come in threes for Sony

When it rains, it pours. The release of new Sony wireless headphones is always a cause for celebration, but three have come along at once.

Granted, one of them is an update of an old favourite: the Sony WH-1000XM4C is a redesign of the five-star WH-1000XM4, now with EU-compliant batteries and a tweaked sound more akin to the WH-1000XM6. Battery life has dropped from 30 hours to 27 hours, but luckily so has the price tag: the WH-1000XM4C retails for £219 / $300 / AU$449.95.

The other two are newer proposals, even if they are budget offerings. The Sony WH-CH530 and WH-CH730N replace two of the cheapest five-star headphones we recommend, with several upgrades and tweaks to the already great-value cans.

The WH-CH730N have had a notable redesign from the WH-CH720N they replace, with a smoother, more premium look similar to the Sonos Ace. They also fold away and boast a titanic 75-hour battery life.

The Sony WH-CH530 are very similar to the WH-CH520 aesthetically, but have a longer 55-hour battery life. Both models also claim to have a sonic boost thanks to improved digital signal processing and algorithms, as well as upgraded noise-cancelling thanks to Sony's 'Dual Noise Sensor' technology and beamforming microphones.

All three Sony headphones are available now. We look forward to welcoming them to our test room very soon!

Apple joins the folding craze

We're sure you've seen that slick folding animation all over social media by now, but yes, Apple has announced the long-rumoured foldable iPhone. The iPhone Duo has an outer display measuring 5.4 inches and an inner display coming in at 7.6 inches, with speakers at the top and bottom of the screen for spatial audio.

We awarded five stars to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 only a few weeks ago, so the Duo is up against some tough competition. However, we're excited about what the Duo's aspect ratio and wide-angle OLEDs could mean for movie and TV watching.

More of a surprise, however, was the AirPods 5. ANC is now available even on the base model, as well as several AirPods Pro 3 features such as a new multi-port acoustic architecture, transparency mode and live translation.

Two models were announced, with the more expensive version coming with a wireless charging case, volume swipe controls and an extra hour of battery life. We're excited about the AirPods 5, but the four hours of battery life on the base model has left us scratching our heads.

The iPhone 18 range also launched with two new Pro models, with a heavy emphasis on AI and camera upgrades.

The AirPods 5 and iPhone 18 range will be released on 18th September, with the iPhone Duo following on 23rd September.

RGB Mini LED faces its first big sales test

The other big display technology of 2026, RGB Mini LED finally entered our test rooms this spring after months of anticipation.

It's fair to say that while we were impressed with sets such as the Sony Bravia 9 II, the backlit technology was not about to eclipse the impressive contrast, perfect blacks and wide viewing angles of OLED in our eyes.

However, with Black Friday and the biggest TV sales event of the year on the horizon, consumers may well think otherwise. One of our biggest gripes with RGB Mini LED was the OLED-level price, so a healthy discount in the sales week could do wonders – we've already seen huge drops on the Hisense UR9 and Sony Bravia 7 II. Only time will tell...

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We rank the best soundbars money can buy

Sonos has a new soundbar. The Beam Ultra follows the Award-winning Beam (Gen 2), and adds up-firing drivers, a redesigned centre channel and multiple levels of AI speech enhancement.

But with the Beam (Gen 2) remaining on sale, would you be better off opting for the tried-and-tested older model? Or spending more on the Ultra?

We're here to help you decide. We’ve put both soundbars through their paces in our world-class testing room, so you can see exactly how they compare and which would be right for you.

• Read our Sonos Beam Ultra review

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): tech specs comparison

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): price

Price is likely to be chief among buyers' considerations when eyeing up a new soundbar, so let's kick off with that.

The Sonos Beam Ultra launches at £699 / $699 / AU$1099 when it goes on sale at the end of September. That's £250 / $250 / AU$450 more than the Beam (Gen 2)'s launch price of £449 / $449 / AU$649.

However, the Beam (Gen 2) has been discounted plenty of times in the five years since it launched, and is likely to be again. In days gone by, it has fallen as low as £299, so if you're willing to wait, you could snap up a bargain.

** Winner: Sonos Beam (Gen 2) **

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): design

There's not much to choose between the two 'bars in terms of looks. They both opt for a rectangle-with-curved-corners design, and a perforated grille on the front. The big difference? The Ultra has a perforated grille on the top as well, for the up-firing drivers.

The Beam (Gen 2) has no up-firing drivers, hence no top grille.

The Ultra also has a button on the lip which you press to activate Bluetooth. The Beam (Gen 2) lacks Bluetooth, and so doesn’t have this button.

Both models come in the same black and white finishes as most Sonos devices, which should fit most decors (as well as slot neatly into a Sonos set-up, as long as you're consistent with your choice of colour).

The Ultra is slightly shorter than the Gen 2, which means it's less likely to obscure the bottom part of the TV screen when placed on a cabinet. But at 75cm wide, it is almost 10cm wider than the Gen 2's 65.1cm. It's also very slightly deeper (10.5cm compared to 10cm). Both 'bars weigh the same 2.88kg.

** Winner: Sonos Beam Ultra **

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): features

The big addition over the Beam (Gen 2) is the up-firing drivers, which should provide a more immersive Dolby Atmos experience. The Gen 2 relies on clever processing (AKA "virtualised Dolby Atmos") to provide height effects, and with superb results, as its string of What Hi-Fi? Awards attests.

The extra up-firing drivers give the Ultra a 7.1.2-channel configuration, compared to the Gen 2's 5.1.2.

However, despite the extra drivers, the Ultra still lacks DTS:X support (which is also missing from the Gen 2). This likely won't be a deal-breaker for most people, but it's a shame nonetheless.

Though like many of Sonos' more recent speakers, the Ultra does have Bluetooth, so you can play music on it direct from your phone or tablet. The Beam (Gen 2) lacks this feature.

The Ultra has a USB-C port too, which its predecessor lacks. Plug in the Line-In Adapter (which you have to buy separately) and you can hook up a range of audio sources like a CD player or turntable.

Also new are a redesigned centre channel and four levels of AI Speech Enhancement to help it deliver clearer dialogue (the Gen 2 only had one level).

The Ultra has a newer version of wi-fi (Wi-Fi 6 compared to the Gen 2's Wi-Fi 4), which makes sense, given that its predecessor came out in 2021.

Other than that, their feature sets are the same, with Trueplay, Night Sound and TV Audio Swap with the Sonos Ace (and newer Ace Ultra) headphones.

There is one other thing. On Sonos' comparison table, it says that the Beam Ultra is suitable for rooms up to 23–32.5 m² in size, while the Gen 2 is listed as "up to 250 sq ft" (around 23 m²). So thanks to the addition of the height channels, the Ultra is better suited to filling a slightly larger room with sound than the Gen 2.

** Winner: Sonos Beam Ultra **

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): sound

So what do those up-firing drivers add to the Beam Ultra’s performance? A lot, is the short answer. Sounds are placed with greater precision, with some seeming to land above the listening position – impressive, especially for such a compact 'bar.

The extra drivers also add a tangible sense of height and width. "In No Time To Die, as an onslaught of helicopters moves in from above in pursuit of Bond, the overhead effects go much higher than our TV screen," we wrote in our Sonos Beam Ultra review. "Then, when an army of cars zoom across an open field, the sound extends to the corners of our test room and makes for an even more enveloping experience than the Beam Gen 2 can provide."

Bass, while not class-leading, is still impressive, with the rotation of helicopter blades lent a satisfyingly low-end thrum. Dialogue remains clear and distinct, even with multiple voices talking at once. But it's not as direct-sounding as the Beam (Gen 2), as it doesn't project sound as much into the room. That's the tradeoff of the more precise placement, and it's one we're happy to make.

It's also a very satisfying musical listen. "Listening to Divinize by Rosalia via Qobuz, her expressive vocals and the detail in the instrumentals make for an immediately engaging experience," we noted in our review. "The bass is refined and provides a strong foundation for the track. With the fluttering low-frequency notes delivered with a powerful kick at the beginning of each beat to drive the song forward."

Overall, the Ultra delivers a bigger, weightier, more expansive and more detailed performance than the Beam (Gen 2). Though seeing that it is quite a bit pricier, that's hardly surprising.

For a lot less cash, the Beam (Gen 2) still excels in the sound department, which is part of the reason why keeping it on sale is a wise decision.

"Whether it’s a chirping bird, a car or a voice, there’s remarkable consistency across the complete soundfield, and seamless handover between drivers, which doesn’t always happen when a Dolby Atmos soundbar has upward drivers to contend with," we wrote in our Sonos Beam (Gen 2) review.

The soundstage is expansive, and offers "tangible motion, depth and space, which heightens the drama and sense of immersion", we added. It comprehensively outperforms every soundbar in its class, even five years after its launch. That doesn't happen too often.

** Winner: Sonos Beam Ultra **

Sonos Beam Ultra vs Beam (Gen 2): verdict

With more features – including Bluetooth and those all-important up-firing drivers – the Ultra is a real step up from the Beam (Gen 2). It sounds far weightier, more detailed and more precise, though it doesn't project as well into the room as the Gen 2. Still, it's an excellent performance that more than justifies the extra outlay.

But the Beam (Gen 2) remains on sale, which is very welcome indeed. If your room is smaller and/or your budget tighter, it's still a fine choice for anyone looking to upgrade their TV's sonic abilities.

** Winner: Sonos Beam Ultra **

MORE:

Read our Sonos Beam Ultra review

Our Sonos Beam (Gen 2) review

Another comparison: Sonos Beam Ultra vs Arc Ultra

The best Dolby Atmos soundbars you can buy

Specifically, the firm lifted the lid on its spiffy new Sonos Beam Ultra at the IFA trade show in Berlin.

Unveiled alongside the new Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones, I want to kick off this opinion piece by making clear: I think the Ultra looks impressive and is, in nearly every way, the successor we’ve been waiting for.

In fact, as our reviewer on the ground at IFA, Robyn Quick, rattled off the details about the bar to the team back home, all of us (outside of senior staff writer, Harry McKerrell, who’s always miserable) had a smile growing on our faces.

Upgraded drivers, including the addition of proper up-firing height channels? Yep, it’s got them.

The ability to add Sonos Era 100 or Era 300 satellite wireless speakers as surrounds? Yes, the awesome feature has finally trickled down from the Arc Ultra into the more affordable Beam range.

And as a cherry on top, Robyn then penned a feature detailing how it sounds. The top line is, while it’s too early to give our final verdict, the Ultra left a very strong opening impression – so much so that a game of rock, paper, scissors ensued among the team to decide who would be the primary reviewer (it ended in a stalemate).

All in all, it was huzzahs abound at What Hi-Fi? towers.

But then, one more fact came rumbling in that replaced our smiles with a quizzical expression. Specifically, the Ultra is not a replacement or successor to the Sonos Beam (Gen 2); it’s actually a new step-up model in Sonos’ range.

Yes, we don’t know how the Beam Ultra will perform in our test rooms, but truthfully, given the Beam 2’s age, this was a curveball for us.

Why would the company do that when the Beam 2 is so old? Surely, it’s time to let the old girl retire? These were some of the mutterings that came out of our mouths as we processed the information.

But as I pondered the question, a final bit of information trickled through from the launch event that, at least for me, explained the move.

The Beam Ultra is a lot more expensive, set to retail for £699 (around $946 / AU$1320). The Beam (Gen 2) – outside of big sales events where it’s dropped as low as £349 – usually retails for £429 / $429 in most stores right now.

Cash-rich people may laugh at the idea of going for a soundbar that launched in 2021, when a newer model is out. But truthfully, £160 / $160 is a lot of money for most of us right now.

As a person who has listened to the Beam (Gen 2) alongside newer rivals, I can confirm it is still a very competent unit. That’s why it remains the recommended small option in our best Dolby Atmos soundbars guide.

I cited the cost of living crisis as a key reason I don’t think we’re in a golden age of home cinema during our public debate on the topic earlier this year, and I stand by that sentiment.

So given that it still sounds good, keeping it around and giving normal people an entry point to Sonos’ ecosystem that won’t completely break the bank not only makes sense, but for me is 100 per cent the right thing to do.

It’s also why, even if the Beam Ultra delivers the sonic goods in our review rooms later this year, I can easily envision the Beam (Gen 2) retaining its recommendation. There are very few good, sub-£500 soundbars around and even fewer with the Beam’s compact form factor. So it’s definitely not beyond the realm of possibility…

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Since it burst onto the scene in 2021, the five-star soundbar has blown away the competition with its refined delivery of both movie soundtracks and stereo music.

We have been waiting patiently for a new model for ages now, and the time has finally come.

The Sonos Beam Ultra isn’t a replacement for the Beam Gen 2, but an upgraded model that will sit above it, and the big news is that, unlike its sibling, the Ultra sports dedicated up-firing speakers to aid in its delivery of Dolby Atmos sound.

In fact, the Beam Ultra has nine drivers in total – four more than the Beam Gen 2. These are arranged in what Sonos says is a 7.1.2-channel configuration.

The Ultra is launching on 29th September for £699 / $699 / AU$1099. That price puts it between the Beam Gen 2 (£449 / $449 / AU$649) and the also Award-winning Arc Ultra (£999 / $999 / AU$1799).

As with both of those sibling soundbars, the Beam Ultra can be upgraded through the addition of surrounds and/or a subwoofer, and you can easily jump from out-loud to personal listening if you also have a pair of Sonos’s Ace or new Ace Ultra headphones.

This is all great stuff on paper, but how does the Beam Ultra actually sound? We got a chance to hear it during a demo session in Berlin, and it certainly sounds promising.

Of course, we will save our final verdict until we get the bar into our acoustically treated test room for extensive, comparative testing, but these are our first impressions.

The demo kicked off with a Dolby Atmos mix of Harry Styles’ Ready, Steady, Go!. Harry’s vocals were clear, direct and expressive, immediately drawing us into the track.

The instrumentals were well placed around the soundfield, too, with the guitar plucking featured in the mid-section delivered with a strong sense of precision.

Next, we got a taste of how the soundbar performs with movies. Watching the scene in Sinners when Sammie summons spirits from the past, present and future, the up-firing drivers worked their magic and the sound could be felt well above the TV screen.

When the track I Lied To You reached its crescendo, it created a room-filling experience that was very impressive considering the size of the bar.

From our first listen, the bass was not the deepest, but the soundbar delivered refined and detailed lower frequencies that gave the demo scenes a strong foundation.

In terms of design, the bar is impressively lightweight and has a compact footprint. There are perforated grilles at the top of the soundbar for the up-firing drivers, and these look quite stylish. On the lip of the Beam Ultra you will find volume and Bluetooth controls, as well as play and pause 'buttons'.

As mentioned, we will of course wait until we have fully reviewed the new bar in our dedicated test room before we deliver our final verdict, but during this initial listening session, the Beam Ultra made all the right noises.

The big question is whether it's the perfect halfway house between the Beam Gen 2 and Arc Ultra or a soundbar stranded in no man's land between two awesome Award-winners. We should be in a position to answer that question very soon.

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Here are the 5 Beam Ultra things I’m most excited about – and my 3 disappointments

Here's our review of the Sonos Beam Gen 2

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And, I have to say, I think it broadly looks excellent, delivering pretty much everything that Beam owners like me have been asking for.

But ‘pretty much everything’ and ‘everything’ aren’t the same thing, and we always want more.

So, here are the five features of the Beam Ultra about which I’m most excited, and the three elements that I find slightly disappointing.

Good: up-firing drivers

This is the big one: the thing Sonos Beam owners have been clamouring for since the launch of the original model back in 2018 – dedicated up-firing drivers.

In fairness, the Beam Gen 2 does an excellent job of creating a Dolby Atmos effect with its front-firing drivers and clever virtualisation tech, but the Beam Ultra should be significantly better in this regard. I find that very exciting indeed.

Good: more drivers in general

The Beam Ultra actually features nine drivers, which is four more than the existing Beam Gen 2.

As well as the two up-firers, the new soundbar features a forward-firing driver, two side-firing drivers, and four woofers, arranged into what Sonos says is a 7.1.2-channel configuration.

This should bring improvements to spaciousness and directness as well as Dolby Atmos delivery – assuming Sonos has nailed the tuning, that is.

Good: compact dimensions

It might feature four more drivers than the Beam Gen 2, but the Beam Ultra is still impressively compact, measuring 6.5 x 75 x 10.5cm.

In other words, it’s only 10cm wider than the diminutive Beam Gen 2, which means it will still fit neatly below or in front of most TVs – even smaller models – and it won't visually dominate a typical living room.

Good: upgradability

As with Sonos’s previous soundbars, the Beam Ultra can be upgraded through the addition of a subwoofer and/or wireless surrounds, and the new model’s launch is coinciding neatly with a new feature called ‘Portable Surround’.

This, as the name suggests, will allow you to use two portable speakers – the Play and Move 2 are compatible – as surrounds with one of Sonos’s soundbars.

Why does that matter? If you use a pair of non-portable speakers (Era 300s or Era 100s, for example) as surrounds, that's likely all they’ll ever be. Use portable speakers, though, and they can be picked up and used as music speakers anywhere in or out of the house. That’s much better value for money.

Good: new app

The launch of the Beam Ultra is also coinciding neatly with the launch of the new Sonos app, called Sonos 27.

Sonos is promising fancy features such as integration with any and all AI chatbots, so you can control your system via ChatGPT if you like, but, frankly, I’m just excited for the promised usability overhaul.

I still find the current Sonos app a real pig to operate, so I can’t wait to see how Sonos has (hopefully) improved things.

Disappointing: no HDMI passthrough

Look, I wasn’t expecting Sonos to add HDMI passthrough – I don’t think this is a feature that Sonos will ever support – but that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed that it’s not been added.

I own a TV with just two HDMI 2.1 inputs, and one of those doubles as the eARC port. Once that’s taken up by a soundbar, I have just the one left. Seeing as I have both a PS5 and an Xbox Series X, that’s a bit of a pain in the bum, and it wouldn’t be if the soundbar just had a dedicated HDMI input and 4K/120Hz passthrough.

For Sonos, though, simplicity is key, so I think the single HDMI socket is here to stay.

Disappointing: no DTS:X

Again, this isn’t something I was expecting, and I don’t actually think a lack of DTS:X in the context of a mid-range soundbar is actually that big a deal, but it would still be better to have than not, especially as there are rivals that offer both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

That said, Sonos hasn't completely ruled out adding DTS:X support in the future.

Disappointing: a fairly high price

Whether the Beam Ultra is good value will ultimately depend on how it sounds, but at £699 / $699 / AU$1099, it certainly looks expensive on paper.

There are rivals from the likes of JBL and Harman Kardon that offer up-firing drivers and similar driver configurations for around the same money as the Beam Gen 2. If the Beam Ultra had simply replaced the Beam Gen 2 at its £449 / $449 / AU$649 price, it would be exceptionally tempting.

At £699 / $699 / AU$1099, though, Sonos is asking us to pay a significant premium, and the new soundbar is going to have to deliver some seriously impressive performance to justify it.

In fairness, this is nothing new for Sonos, which typically prioritises performance over specs – let's see if it's got the formula right again when we get the Beam Ultra in for review.

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Sonos Ace Ultra feature all-new drivers, updated ANC, and a "direct connection" to the current Sonos ecosystem

Here are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars you can buy right now

Thankfully, it looks like my patience has paid off, as Sonos has finally announced a new version of its compact Beam Dolby Atmos soundbar, and upon first impression, it's exactly what I've been waiting for.

The Sonos Beam Ultra takes the concept of the Award-winning Beam Gen 2 and elevates it; and I mean that in a literal sense.

While the Beam Gen 2 sported a five-speaker array with four elliptical mid-range drivers and a single tweeter, the Beam Ultra takes things up a notch with nine drivers in a 7.1.2 arrangement. That includes two upward-firing drivers for the first time on a Sonos Beam.

This upgrade was top of my wish list for a new Sonos Beam. While the Gen 2's advanced psychoacoustic processing delivers a surprisingly convincing Dolby Atmos experience, it's hard to beat dedicated height channels when it comes to delivering a proper "dome of sound" effect.

The addition of up-firing drivers brings the Beam Ultra closer to the Arc Ultra in many ways. Taking Sonos' usually excellent sound tuning into account, I'm really hoping that the Beam Ultra will deliver the height I felt was missing on the Beam Gen 2 after years of waiting.

However, there's one missing upgrade that has tempered my excitement ever so slightly. Specifically, the firm's SoundMotion woofer technology.

As we mentioned in our Sonos Arc Ultra review, this smaller, redesigned bass driver features "four smaller, lightweight motors in opposing corners" which are "able to push the cone to shift far more air and produce far more bass".

As a result, the Arc Ultra delivers "deep, tuneful and expressive bass", and it's a noticeable difference compared to the original Arc soundbar.

A smaller, more efficient bass driver seems like a perfect fit for the Beam, especially given the footprint of the soundbar. The Beam is also starting to see challengers in the market when it comes to bass performance, so a low-end upgrade would have been appreciated.

Despite this, Sonos appears not to have outfitted the Beam Ultra with its SoundMotion bass tech, which feels like a missed opportunity to me.

That's not to say the Beam Ultra won't deliver better bass. We'll only know if it is better in that metric when we run the two head-to-head in our review rooms. I just think the Arc Ultra tech would have been a great fit for the new Beam, considering our positive experience with it.

Nevertheless, the Beam Ultra is shaping up to be the compact Atmos-equipped soundbar that I've been waiting for, and I can't wait to hear it in action.

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Read our full Sonos Beam Gen 2 review

Here are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

As well as the best cheap soundbars

According to the company's press release, it "represent[s] the next stage of Sonos’ evolution from a collection of connected audio products into an increasingly intelligent and adaptable audio operating system for the home".

Why now? We spoke to Sonos's vice president of software, Sid Patel, and senior director of product development, Brandon Holley, both of whom have been with the company for over a decade, to dig into the newly-christened Sonos 27 operating system.

"For years, people have seen us as a speaker company, but what we actually have been building is an audio operating system," says Holley.

"Why now? We really think we've not done enough justice to tell the story of what the software does with the overall system and the speakers, and what it brings, and so this [branding] gives us a place to talk about the software and hardware and how it all works together," says Holley.

"Underneath it's extremely complex, there's a lot going on... but from a customer's standpoint, we want them to understand that every interaction, every piece of the system, whether it's the hardware or a partnership with a specific music provider – that is all part of a system."

"We've spent 20 years learning how a home feels and functions, and finally, we're naming the thing that we've been building all along," says Holley.

Sonos 27 is the overarching operating system powering the Sonos ecosystem and its many products, with Sonos aiming to treat its "audio operating system" like an Apple/Android operating system that updates every year. The '27' in the name will update every year, changing to '28' next year, we're told, just like iOS 26 will update to iOS 27 this year.

Fabric – "the magic that has been Sonos for 20 years"

While naming the various things the Sonos ecosystem can do might seem like a marketing exercise, what is more concrete is the company's commitment to ensuring its ecosystem isn't a walled garden like other brands, offers various ways to control its products, and that these products work together more seamlessly.

Ensuring that the new Ace Ultra wireless headphones connect to every Sonos 27-compatible product seamlessly is a key component of this. "That is not a promise we fulfilled fully with Ace; we are fulfilling it with Ace Ultra," says Patel.

Sonos Fabric is the name given to the multi-room capability of the ecosystem, in the way that Sonos products can be linked together – or as Patel calls it, "the magic that has been Sonos for 20 years".

That includes the whole-house multi-room grouping of products, a stereo pairing between two speakers, and the new 'headphone linking' feature, which will let you transfer sound between a Sonos speaker or soundbar to Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones.

Another new feature under the 'Fabric' umbrella opens up the possibility of portable surrounds. The Sonos Play and Move 2 portable speakers (which feature Bluetooth and wi-fi) can now be used as rear surrounds alongside the Sonos Arc/Arc Ultra, Beam (Gen 2) and Beam Ultra soundbars. Sonos' Positioning Technology will use high-frequency sound to "sense a speaker's location and adapt its role" accordingly.

New AI-enabled ways to control your Sonos products

It will come as no surprise that AI is a big part of the new operating system, and as an evolution of the brand's "open platform philosophy", Sonos will let users control its ecosystem using any AI assistant they prefer.

"AI is obviously all the rage in the industry, but the way we're approaching it is like how we've approached it from the beginning for everything," says Patel. "We're creating a platform where we plug into other AI ecosystems and AI ecosystems can plug into us, similar to how music partners can plug into us today."

Sonos 27voice is the brand's own assistant for "music and mood curation" that has been customised and is more AI-friendly, while the Sonos 27mcp (Model Context Protocol) infrastructure will let you connect any external AI assistant or agent to your Sonos system (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Siri) so you can ask it to control music anywhere in your home.

"We know the home, we know audio, we know music," says Patel, "and so we've taken a layer and created intelligence there, so what we do is bring that intelligence to the home." The focus is on letting users control their music in a way that's quickest and feels most natural to them, whether that's using voice control, the app, the web app, the on-unit buttons or AI.

"From the time you bring your speaker home and your system home and you set it up, we want you to be listening to TV or music as fast as possible," says Patel of the brand's number one goal for the app.

A new feature called Sonos Custom Agents will also let users "create their own agents" through their system, allowing you to customise the model, persona and voice for your own personal AI assistant.

"We are in a new era where we're listening to our customers a lot more"

A big part of the creation of Sonos 27 and any updates going forward will be listening to customer feedback, especially on the app. It's a concentrated effort after the disastrous app redesign of 2024, which led to widespread customer dissatisfaction, the then-CEO stepping down, and Sonos rolling back many of the app features to re-gain trust amongst its customers.

"We still believe the Sonos app is the best way to experience your system along with all the other control services like voice and web and direct control," says Patel.

"We are in a new era where we're listening to our customers a lot more," Patel acknowledges, and declares many of the new app changes have been "community driven and very experimental", with the Sonos team engaging with customers on Reddit and social media channels to get instant feedback.

"We sort of opened the door to even our engineering team engaging with customers on Reddit, which is not something we did in the past. And it's actually worked out really well for us."

The Sonos 27app will gain fresh discovery and tab navigation, a new "virtual" volume dial, presets, lock screen integration and more. On top of that, the brand says it's still "innovating" and working closely with Apple and Google to further integrate Sonos features within a smartphone's native operating systems.

Will this be a turning point for Sonos, and will it be enough to claim back trust amongst its many long-term customers? There is a definite sense of confidence that the new features will work as promised, and we'll be getting our hands on Beam Ultra and Ace Ultra review samples imminently to try out all the new features and see how the updated app works – so stay tuned.

Sonos 27 will be available as a free update to all current-generation Sonos products (i.e. all products working with the 'S2' app/OS since 2020), with the portable surrounds support, new app navigation and Sonos 27mcp rolling out from 8th September.

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Sonos Ace Ultra feature all-new drivers, updated ANC, and a "direct connection" to the current Sonos ecosystem

Sonos' new Beam soundbar is finally here with a big Dolby Atmos upgrade – but there’s still something missing

Read our original Sonos Ace review

One of the coolest things about the Beam Ultra is that, unlike the Beam Gen 2, it has dedicated up-firing speakers for a more involving Dolby Atmos delivery.

Dolby Atmos isn't the only 3D audio format in town, though. DTS:X is a serious alternative, and one that's particularly popular with home cinema enthusiasts, yet Sonos has resolutely refused to support it on any of its speakers.

Given the chance to speak with Brandon Holley, Sonos’s Senior Director of Product, ahead of the Beam Ultra’s launch, we asked about that.

“Beam Ultra doesn’t support DTS:X at this time”, he said.

But could it (and other Sonos speakers) do so one day?

“It’s definitely a question that we ask ourselves, and it’s one of the many features, codecs and partnerships that we’re constantly entertaining. The door isn’t closed to any of those particular things”.

I realise that all seems a bit "nothing to see here", but I actually took some encouragement from the way Holley said it, and I genuinely believe this is a discussion that Sonos is having regularly.

It’s always seemed slightly odd to me that Sonos – a brand that has had format and service agnosticism at its core from its inception – would support Dolby Atmos and not DTS:X.

Sure, DTS:X is comparatively niche, but so are a large number of the streaming services that the Sonos ecosystem supports.

I wouldn't be surprised if DTS:X eventually found its way onto Sonos speakers. The more pressing question, though, is whether the Sonos Beam Ultra is any good in its own right.

We intend to answer that question by putting it through our comparative review process just as soon as possible.

MORE:

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Sonos Ace Ultra feature all-new drivers, updated ANC, and a "direct connection" to the current Sonos ecosystem

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Positioned above the three-star Ace – the brand's first headphones released in 2024 – the new step-up Ace Ultra have been designed from the ground up to deliver the improvements to sound, noise-cancelling and wider compatibility with the Sonos ecosystem that were missing from Sonos' debut over-ears.

At the heart of the Ace Ultra is the "Headphone Engine 2", a next-gen wi-fi hardware and software system that lets you link the headphones directly to your existing Sonos system. It's the feature that we (and Sonos customers) have wanted all along, allowing you to swap audio from any Sonos wireless speaker or soundbar to the Ace Ultra headphones at the press of a button (or via the app), and back again.

Listening to music on the Ace Ultra from your laptop or smartphone is still done via Bluetooth rather than wi-fi, but this is a marked improvement over the original Sonos Ace, where you could only 'swap' audio from select Sonos soundbars.

With the Ace Ultra, this 'headphone linking' feature will work with any current Sonos soundbar and wireless speaker under the Sonos 27 ecosystem, including the Arc Ultra, Ray, Beam (Gen 2), new Beam Ultra, Sonos Five, Era 100, Era 300, Move 2, Play and Roam 2.

The Ace Ultra feature all-new Sonos-designed 40mm drivers, and the sound is tuned with input from the Sonos Soundboard, which features leading figures in music and film (including Grammy winners) to deliver a sound "that stays true to the artist's intent."

Active noise cancellation has been given a boost, with the Ace Ultra promising to be twice as effective in this regard. The Ace Ultra house 10 mics (up from eight on the original Ace), with an adaptive ANC system that continuously monitors your surroundings to deliver the best ANC experience.

An Adaptive EQ also tunes the ANC to adjust to any imperfections in the acoustic seal around the earcups, such as gaps in the fit for those wearing glasses.

An Aware mode, which lets outside sounds in, also returns, as does support for headtracking with Dolby Atmos content.

Battery is up to 35 hours (up from 30 hours from the original Ace) with ANC activated, and you can get three hours from a fast-charge of three minutes. The higher-quality aptX Lossless codec is supported, while native support for 16-bit/48kHz resolution is once again supported via a wired USB-C connection.

The general design of the Sonos Ace Ultra remains the same as before, with soft foam cushions to provide maximum comfort, and physical buttons that include a multi-function button/slider (called the 'control key') through which you can adjust volume, change noise modes and playback, and send music to and from your connected Sonos speakers via the 'headphone linking' feature.

There are three-band and eight-band EQ settings in the app to further customise the sound to your tastes, whereas TrueCinema technology tunes the headphones' sound according to your room's acoustics when connected to a compatible Sonos soundbar.

The Sonos Ace Ultra headphones will cost £399 / $449 and be available globally from 29th September, with pre-orders starting from today, 1st September. The headphones will be available in four finishes: new sand and agave colours, as well as the standard black and white options.

Interestingly, the established Sonos Ace will continue to be available. The Ace are currently priced at £299 / $299 / AU$449, which is a considerable drop from their launch price of £449 / $449 / AU$699. Those in the UK will also get a bonus saving, as the new Ace Ultra will launch for £50 less than the inaugural Ace did.

We have high hopes for the new Sonos Ace Ultra headphones, which seem to address many of the issues we had with the original Ace – such as incomplete features, buggy connections, "average" sound, and ANC quality that didn't compete with strong rivals.

Let's see if they give the current Sony, Bose and Sennheiser class leaders a run for their money.

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Read our original Sonos Ace review

And our five-star Sony WH-1000XM6 review

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The new Beam Ultra was unveiled at a pre-launch press event today and sits in the same family as the more premium Arc Ultra, which came out in 2024.

The “mid-size soundbar” boasts a 7.1.2-channel configuration. This includes two up-firing drivers.

The up-firing drivers are a key upgrade over the older Beam Gen 2, which didn't feature them.

Despite the upgrade, there is still no DTS:X support. The omission isn't a huge surprise, as none of the company’s soundbars features it, but it is a bit of a shame for those wanting comprehensive surround sound options.

When asked whether Sonos would add DTS:X in the future, Senior Director of Product Development at Sonos, Brandon Holley told us: "The door isn't closed for us, but just in terms of delivering the value that we think our customers are specifically asking for, that's what Beam Ultra has today."

The Beam Ultra also features a redesigned centre channel and four levels of AI Speech Enhancement to help it deliver clearer dialogue.

There’s also a Night Sound setting if you don’t want to disturb the neighbours, which should compress the bar's dynamic range. Once again, the firm's Trueplay calibration is on hand to fine-tune the sound to your space.

You can also link the Beam Ultra with other Sonos products to create a multi-room listening experience, including the newly announced Sonos Ace Ultra over-ear headphones.

Holley added that the firm has worked to ensure the Beam Ultra delivers better audio with music, telling us: "We treat music as important as we do home theatre performance, and so we want it to sound great musically as a soundbar as well."

That's something we found to be true with Sonos' previous models, so we are hopeful it will be the same with the new addition.

The Beam Ultra will be available in two finishes (black and white) and you can mount the bar to your wall or simply place it in front of your TV. We don't have its full dimensions yet, but Holley told us that the Beam Ultra has been intentionally designed not to block the TV screen, even if it is sitting on the surface.

So, how much will the new soundbar set you back? In the UK, the Beam Ultra will launch at £699 (around $946 / AU$1320). That means it sits between the Sonos Arc Ultra and the Sonos Beam Gen 2, which launched at £999 / $999 / AU$1799 and £449 / $449 / AU$649, respectively. The base Beam Gen 2 will remain on sale, sitting below the Ultra in Sonos' range.

We haven't managed to get the Beam Ultra into our test room yet, but we should have a chance to get up close with it very soon at the IFA trade show in Berlin. Watch this space.

MORE:

Check out our review of the Sonos Beam Gen 2

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

And here are the best soundbars we recommend

The Cove range is designed to bring "superior JBL sound to every room", touting a flexible and expandable whole-home audio ecosystem powered by JBL's in-house platform and managed via the JBL One app.

The new series consists of three models available at launch: the compact Cove M1, the battery-powered Cove P1, and the flagship, six-driver-toting Cove X1. Each speaker can be used in its own right, as a stereo pair, or as part of a multi-room setup.

The smaller Cove M1 houses a trio of tweeters alongside a single woofer, while the Cove P1 packs four tweeters and a single woofer. The flagship Cove X1, meanwhile, also houses a quad tweeter array, complemented by a pair of woofers.

Both the Cove X1 and Cove P1 support Dolby Atmos, with the battery-powered Cove P1 boasting 14 hours of playtime on a single charge and an IP56 certification for protection against dust and water.

To help you get the most out of your multi-room system, JBL’s own 'Constant Sound Field' automatically tunes the speakers to their given environment, while 'AI Sound Boost' further aims to optimise performance based on where and how you listen.

You're not short on wireless connectivity, either. Alongside standard Bluetooth, wi-fi access grants support for AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and Qobuz Connect, and all members of the new Cove family are Roon Ready. Spotify Tap provides quick access to Spotify, while built-in Alexa Plus voice control is also available.

The Cove range will connect with JBL's Bar Series MK2 soundbars (which include the Bar 300MK2 and Bar 1000MK2), and you can use a pair of Cove speakers as rear surrounds for a home cinema setup.

According to Carsten Olesen, President of Consumer Audio at Harman: "JBL Cove marks an important step in our ambition to become a leading force in home audio, combining powerful JBL Legendary Sound with the simplicity, flexibility and outstanding value that will help even more people discover how simple it is to have great sound throughout the home.”

Each member of the JBL Cove range will be available in white or black finishes from October 2026. The JBL Cove M1 is priced at £200 / €230 / $230, the Cove P1 at £400 / €450 / $400, and the Cove X1 at £430 / €500 / $450.

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Read our review of the Sonos Era 300

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Best wireless speakers: tried and tested by our expert team

It already looks likely that the US brand will unveil its sequel to the Sonos Ace over-ears, the Ace Ultra, next month, but those premium cans could be joined by a brand new soundbar.

According to Bloomberg, Sonos is working on a new soundbar currently dubbed the 'S56' and codenamed 'Gambit'. A new filing with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) shows a product resembling the second-generation Beam from 2021, implying that a new iteration of Sonos' 'middle-child' soundbar could be arriving next month.

Sonos had already confirmed that a new product would be coming in September during a recent earnings call, with CEO Tom Conrad hinting that AI would play a large part in the company's plans going forward. Now, it seems, this new 'product' may in fact be a pair of releases designed to satisfy wearable audio fans and home cinema enthusiasts alike.

Given that the most recent Beam launched in 2021, it certainly feels like it's time for an upgrade. All we have to go on is Sonos' filing to the FCC, so details for the upcoming soundbar remain sketchy at best, but we'd expect the usual Sonos boxes to be ticked as and when a third-gen Beam sequel arrives.

Dolby Atmos support, seamless ecosystem integration, and some form of voice control via baked-in smart assistant are all taken as read, though we wonder how Conrad's hinted 'AI integration' might find its way into the third-generation Beam.

The big question on our minds is whether the new Beam (assuming that's what Gambit turns out to be) will feature up-firing drivers, or stick to delivering Atmos via clever virtualisation, as with the Gen 2 model. And might HDMI passthrough be added? We doubt it, as Sonos tends to favour simplicity over extra cabling, but we can hope.

If nothing else, we hope that prices stay stable. The Beam 2 launched at £449 / $449 / AU$699, so that's the sort of RRP we'd hope the new model would tend to sit at, but given that the Beam 2 was itself a good deal more than the original model, which cost £399 / $399 / AU$599 at launch, there's little guarantee of things staying as they are. Costs are only going one way in tech, and it isn't downwards.

For now, though, all eyes look to September to discover exactly what Sonos has in store. We'll keep you updated as soon as we discover any new information about its future plans.

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See our Sonos Arc Ultra and Sonos Ray reviews

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The Federal Communications Commission is the US government agency that regulates digital devices. Firms have to submit their proposals to the FCC before launching a new device.

While the headphones are detailed in diagrams, they aren't named, though they have been dubbed the Sonos Ace Ultra. The device is simply known as 'S52a' in the filing.

While the name isn't confirmed, we do know that the headphones will come in new colours: Greige, Shadow Black, Agave, Blush and Sand are all listed in one document of the filing.

Their predecessors, the Sonos Ace, only come in black and white. Sonos has previously launched its Roam 2 portable speaker in multiple finishes. Given that most Sonos devices only ship in black or white, it could be targeting a younger market with these new headphones.

The filing also suggests the headphones could support wi-fi for pairing straight to a home wireless network (much like Sonos' speakers) rather than via a phone. They could also support Sonos' own voice assistant. Neither feature is confirmed, however.

Sonos confirmed a new product is coming next month during a recent earnings call. Its CEO hinted that AI would play a large part in the company's future success.

The original Sonos Ace only scored three stars in our review – a disappointing score for a marquee brand like Sonos. The company has since been on something of a rollercoaster ride, shedding customers with a botched app update and trying to win them back through a concerted effort to right its past wrongs, even shelving its planned set-top box in the process. The Award-winning Arc Ultra soundbar didn't hurt either.

We've contacted Sonos for comment.

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Noting that "conversational computing and predictive intelligence are moving into the home," he bigged up Sonos' 20 years' experience in solving the issues this brings, which he defined as "sound, form, systemness, and intelligence."

(If anyone knows what "systemness" is, we'd love to know.)

Unsurprisingly, he said Sonos is uniquely well placed to take advantage of the AI boom thanks to its ecosystem of multi-room-enabled speakers, which encompasses soundbars, home speakers and portable models.

While all AI models will soon offer the same abilities, he thinks what will differentiate systems is "what surrounds the [AI] model in a real home: the hardware that can converse with quality across every room, the system that already knows the shape of a home and the way a family lives in it, the connectivity to reach the speakers, services, and devices that turn a request into coordinated action.

"That’s the operating environment for AI in the home, and Sonos has spent twenty years building it."

So, we can hazard a guess that we'll see a new speaker, but the biggest changes will likely be on the inside, pivoting the Sonos platform to encompass more AI abilities.

Sonos' most recent launch was the Play earlier this year, a portable speaker that earned four stars. It recently launched its new mobile app in beta, in an attempt to win back customers frustrated at the notorious botched app launch of 2024.

That disastrous move introduced bugs while removing certain existing features, and ultimately led to the then-CEO stepping down. Since then, Sonos has been on a major charm offensive to win back customers' trust, even cancelling its rumoured set-top box in order to prioritise fixing existing problems.

A move to AI does bring big opportunities for Sonos, but also a fair amount of risk. Will customers weary of having been put through the wringer over the last couple of years really want a whole new direction and focus for the platform? Or will they just want a bit of stability following all the chaos?

It all depends on what exactly Sonos is offering.

We'll bring you any rumours concerning the launch in the run-up to September.

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Now, Sonos is doing everything it can to repair the damage. We reported in June that CEO Tom Conrad had written on Reddit detailing some of the changes set to come to the platform, promising that the Sonos team had spent "hundreds of hours" watching people use the app to find its weak spots.

Now, Sonos is ready to put it all into practice, making the new version available in public beta form for Android and iOS users. Any customer with app version 87 can switch on 'Enable Improved Navigation' in their Settings to access the Beta as Sonos collects feedback over the next few months.

That new beta iteration touts some promising upgrades, including improved navigation, more intuitive system tab controls and an overhauled volume tuning system, as well as what Sonos terms 'Quality-of-life fixes' across Now Playing, playlists and iPad views.

The new changes are currently rolling out in their beta form as part of an opt-in public test phase, with changes set broadly to become the default once feedback has been gathered. This could be in the autumn, but no definitive date has been given.

Has Sonos learned from the mistakes of its past? You can switch to the updated version of the app in your settings and judge for yourself.

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Which Sonos speaker should you buy?

Check out our recent Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker review

Sonos Play vs HomePod 2: which should you buy?

Soundbars tend to come in two flavours now: the usual standalone bar, and the soundbar system with extra speakers that has increased in visibility in recent years.

We’ve rounded up two of our favourites from both categories to see how they stack up. And not just any two – the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra, and Samsung’s new HW-Q990H soundbar system.

We’ll go through various categories such as price, design, features and, of course, sound, to find out which is the better buy.

As soundbar standoffs go, it doesn’t get much closer than this. So, after a deep breath, let’s get started…

Samsung HW-Q990H vs Sonos Arc Ultra: price

The Sonos Arc Ultra officially launched at £999 / $999 / AU$1799. However, it does get healthy discounts every now and then – the cheapest we’ve seen it go is £719 in the UK on Cyber Monday.

The Samsung HW-Q990H launched at a more expensive £1599 / $2000 / AU$1999. That’s a £600/$1000/AU$200 increase – though you have to bear in mind that this also includes a wireless subwoofer and two wireless surrounds.

You can add extra speakers to the Arc Ultra, but it quickly adds up. The cheapest way to build a Sonos system is to add a Sub Mini and two Era 100 speakers, which are available as part of the Home Cinema Completion Set for £785/$887/AU$1270, though if you shop around you can often find these products on sale separately.

The Samsung HW-Q990H is also much newer, only launching in spring 2026. Samsung’s annual soundbar system tends to tumble in price quickly and consistently after launch – the HW-Q990H is already down to £1299 in the UK. Last year’s model, the HW-990F, crashed to under £700 over Prime Day, and we’d expect the HW-Q990H to follow a similar pattern.

As things stand, the Sonos Arc Ultra is the better value buy, especially if you get it at a discount – but the two may very well swap places over the course of the next year.

**Winner: Sonos Arc Ultra**

Samsung HW-Q990H vs Sonos Arc Ultra: design

There is, of course, one key difference between the Samsung HW-Q990H and Sonos Arc Ultra; the Q990H is a soundbar system with surrounds and a subwoofer, whereas the Arc Ultra is a solo soundbar.

However, even the soundbar of the Q990H alone is bigger than the Arc Ultra – the Arc Ultra fits all of its channels into a 7.5 x 118 x 11 cm (hwd) bar, while the main soundbar of the Q990H comes in at 7 x 123 x 14cm. The Q990H’s surround speakers are a smaller 20 x 13 x 14cm, while the subwoofer is a 25 x 25 x 25cm cube.

The Q990H is a well-built, premium-feeling system constructed from aluminium and high-quality plastic. However, the design is identical to previous Samsung soundbar systems, and is starting to feel a little tired. The sharp, hexagonal design is a touch brutalist – especially compared to Samsung’s sleek OLED TVs – and the edgy soundbar does feel at odds with the rounded cube-shaped subwoofer.

We prefer the smooth curves of the Sonos Arc Ultra. The solo soundbar is pretty much all grille, with just a Sonos logo and a status light breaking up the appearance from the front, ensuring that sound can emanate from the soundbar in almost any direction.

The Arc Ultra’s design is largely similar to that of its predecessor, the Sonos Arc, with the exception of the 'ledge' at the back of the top of the chassis, which now houses touch controls for playback and volume. The Bluetooth pairing button is hidden in the recess around the back with the HDMI and power ports, which is a tad inconvenient.

The Sonos Arc Ultra gets our vote on an aesthetic level, but we still have features and sound quality to assess.

**Winner: Sonos Arc Ultra**

Samsung HW-Q990H vs Sonos Arc Ultra: features

The Arc Ultra boasts a 9.1.4-channel configuration, with 15 Class D amplifiers powering 14 drivers that are all Sonos-engineered. There are seven tweeters, six midrange woofers, and a 'Sound Motion' woofer, and it's the last of those that's the really big deal.

Rather than the one heavy motor that most speaker drivers employ, the Sound Motion driver has four smaller, lightweight motors in opposing corners. Working together, these motors are apparently able to push the cone to shift far more air and produce far more bass.

The Samsung, on the other hand, is an 11.1.4 system, with an impressive total of 23 individual drivers on board. This includes 15 drivers in the main soundbar unit, three in each of the wireless surround speakers, and two 8-inch woofers (in a push/pull configuration) in the wireless subwoofer. Upward-firing drivers are present in both the soundbar and surround speakers for immersive audio.

Speaking of immersive sound formats, the Sonos Arc Ultra only supports Dolby Atmos. The Q990H boasts three: Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Samsung’s Eclipsa Audio. Eclipsa has not seen widespread coverage outside of YouTube so far, but it’s handy that the Q990H is futureproofed should this change down the line.

While the Sonos Arc Ultra does have an HDMI eARC output for sending high-fidelity sound from your TV, there are no HDMI inputs to enable passthrough, which could be an issue for any gamers out there. If you have a TV with only two HDMI sockets and more than one game console, you’ll be in a bit of a pickle as the Arc Ultra will take up one of your ports.

The Samsung, on the other hand, has two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 passthrough sockets, which support up to 4K/120Hz signals with VRR and ALLM, as well as HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. So you can plug two high-speed game consoles directly into the soundbar itself, and still enjoy plenty of gaming features.

The Sonos Trueplay calibration process for the Arc Ultra comes in two flavours – Quick and Advanced. The Quick method, which is a single measurement using the soundbar’s own microphone, makes a big difference, whereas the iOS-only Advanced method, the ‘hoovering-the-walls’ method we’ve seen before, only very slightly improves beyond that.

Samsung’s SpaceFit Sound Pro feature, which is essentially the Q990H’s’s calibration system, can helpfully accommodate if you can’t place the rear speakers at the recommended 135-150-degree angle behind the listening position. However, this isn’t just a one-time measurement – the feature is a constantly running system that monitors your listening space at all times to make adjustments in real time.

The Sonos app also allows you to access EQ controls and features such as Night mode, Speech Enhancement and the Loudness setting. However, we ran into several bugs during testing, and while a lot of the issues have been ironed out, it’s still not the most intuitive platform.

Luckily, you shouldn’t need to use the app too often – the remote control can handle most duties, and music can be sent directly from apps such as Spotify and Tidal.

Conversely, we find the Samsung SmartThings app to be the preferred way of interacting with the settings menus of the Q990H. The app has a snappy connection and set-up time, with easy-to-understand menus and generally solid stability.

The Q990H can also be connected wirelessly to compatible Samsung TVs, though we’d recommend sticking to a wired connection for the best audio quality and reduced latency. Q Symphony is also on offer, in which the Q990H can work in tandem with the speakers of a Samsung TV – though again, we’d recommend just sticking to the system rather than bringing a TV's sound quality into the equation.

Finally, the Q990H offers a Sound Elevation feature that’s designed to raise the audio upwards to match the position of your screen. We found it overshot things slightly and placed the sound towards the top of our TV, but this could be useful for those who wall-mount their TV and leave a gap between it and their soundbar.

The Sonos Arc Ultra is no slouch in the features department, but it loses out to the newer, feature-packed Samsung HW-Q990H. The soundbar system boasts more immersive audio support, a snappier, more stable app and, crucially, HDMI passthrough.

**Winner: Samsung HW-Q990H**

Samsung HW-Q990H vs Sonos Arc Ultra: sound

Starting with the Samsung HW-Q990H and a test viewing of Civil War, we find this soundbar package excels in practically every aspect. A woodland scene demonstrates the soundbar’s excellent placement of cinematic effects, with birds chirping overhead and twigs crackling underfoot.

Vocal clarity is excellent, with crisp, detailed and full-bodied dialogue, and the tonality and emotions of their voices are captured thanks to the Q990H's rich sonic characteristics and deft handling of low-level dynamics.

Bass is handled very well too, refusing to distort or warble during Blade Runner 2049’s infamously tricky chapter two. In fact, the bass builds nicely throughout, with a sense of tonal variation which makes it sound tuneful and dynamic.

K’s crowded apartment complex and a dystopian street are also captured with a level of finesse and detail that seriously sells the atmosphere of each scene. Background sounds are also cleverly woven into the soundfield without making them sound forced or intentionally singled out.

Moving on to music, we try the Q990H’s Standard mode, which removes the rear speakers and lets the main soundbar unit and subwoofer shine for stereo music reproduction.

Most, if not all, of the positive attributes from our movie testing are present and correct for music, too – vocals are warm and detailed, bass is taut, and there is a general sense of naturalism and balance to the sound. The Samsung system is a talented performer – but can’t quite top the Sonos when it comes to music.

Sonos soundbars have long been among the most musical in the category, though, and the Arc Ultra further solidifies that reputation. We prefer it over the Samsung system thanks to its richer, more rounded and smoother sound – the Arc Ultra is an energetic, exciting and engaging listen, and a crackingly musical soundbar.

Moving away from music, we also put the Arc Ultra through the Blade Runner 2049 chapter two test, and it also impresses. There’s no chuffing from the drivers and it has a really good go at the super-deep notes of the soundtrack. Bottom-end control isn’t cast iron, but the combination of weight and control is impressive.

The spatial sound-effect placement is also quite impressive for a solo bar. Voices and other audio are placed above us, in the top corners of the room and move around us, far beyond the extremities of the TV.

The sound is detailed too – incidental noises are delivered clearly and cleanly without distracting, with the Arc Ultra’s low-level dynamic subtlety ensuring these sounds are presented naturally and realistically. Grand changes in volume are also dispatched without fuss or fluster, with the solo soundbar capable of going very loud indeed.

So who comes out on top? Well, it depends entirely on what you plan to use the soundbars for. The Sonos Arc Ultra is a musical powerhouse and manages to pack in impressive detail and spatial effects into one convenient, plug-in-and-play bar.

The Samsung HW-Q990H, on the other hand, requires a bit more setup and space, but really benefits from the rear speakers for surround and height effects, as well as the rather impressive subwoofer.

It really depends on which soundbar is the best for you and your needs – both products excel in their respective areas, so we’re going to call this one a draw.

**Winner: Draw**

Samsung HW-Q990H vs Sonos Arc Ultra: verdict

As soundbar battles go, it doesn’t get much closer than this. There’s no wrong answer here really, with two top-tier home cinema audio options.

The Sonos Arc Ultra is better looking and is the go-to choice if you want just one box that excels with music and movies. The Samsung HW-Q990H is stuffed with features, including the all-important HDMI 2.1 inputs for gamers.

The Arc Ultra is also cheaper at the time of writing, but the HW-Q990H will inevitably fall to a similar, if not cheaper, price by next year.

If you’ve got the space for a multi-speaker system, then the HW-Q990H is an easy recommendation. But if you’re after the convenience of a single soundbar, then the Sonos Arc Ultra will serve you extremely well.

** Overall Winner: Draw**

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Denon has recently unveiled its revamped Home 2 series of versatile smart speakers, Apple has plenty of iOS fans enjoying the talents of its HomePod 2 and HomePod Mini, and Sonos continues to cling to its multi-room supremacy courtesy of the established Era 100 and Era 300. Bose, conversely, has tended to focus on the portable end of the market in the past couple of years – until now.

Most of the above contenders are locked into their brand’s own dedicated ecosystem, and most have been designed to co-operate with their extended family of connected siblings. Brands these days aren’t just offering you products – they’re pledging a way of life.

That’s certainly the impression we get from Bose and its new Lifestyle range. The US brand launched the Ultra Speaker wireless speaker alongside a Dolby Atmos soundbar and a new subwoofer, teasing a “reimagined approach to home audio" from a new range of products clearly designed to work alongside one another and tie you into a particular ecosystem.

That begs a very important question: what is Bose’s Lifestyle Ultra Speaker offering that the likes of Sonos and Apple don’t already have covered?

Price

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker’s price differs depending on the finish. The speaker currently sits at £300 / $299 / AU$550 if you go for the standard Black or White Smoke colourways, but if you want to push the boat out and go for Driftwood Sand, that’ll be a hefty increase to £349 / $349.

You can pick up the Award-winning Sonos Era 300 for £359 / $359 / AU$649, offering stern competition for Bose straight out of the gate. You can also get yourself a still-excellent HomePod 2 for £299 / $299 / AU$479 if you’re into the Apple way of life.

Build & design

Bose’s new wireless speaker might be closer to the Sonos Era 300 price-wise, but in terms of its size and shape, it’s more akin to the form of the cheaper and smaller Era 100.

If that shorthand comparison doesn’t help you out much, then imagine a speaker that stands about as tall as an average notebook, with a curved, fabric-covered front panel. It’s a compact and neat design, and while the hourglass configuration of the larger Era 300 may catch more admiring (or quizzical) glances, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker fulfils its brief as a subtle sentinel capable of blending into your audio or cinema set-up.

Bose tends to make its products to a high standard, and the Ultra Speaker is no exception – this is a product that feels built to last.

At the top of the unit are a series of touch-capacitive controls, including volume, a play/pause toggle and a Bluetooth pairing button. We understand that some users feel that touch controls grant a sleeker, more premium appeal, but we find the buttons’ lack of feedback here – be it physical or auditory – undermines the experience somewhat.

Knowing that the speaker has actually registered an action with an accompanying small sound or click would be much more useful than simply having to guess, especially with tricky tasks such as trying to perform a connection reset. You get a chime when toggling the microphone on and off, but that’s about it.

Taking care of sonic duties are a trio of drivers – a 25mm tweeter and a 7.6cm mid/bass driver alongside a 3.8cm up-firing driver – designed to disperse sound evenly around your listening space. Bose doesn't disclose the specific power rating, but we do know that the drivers are powered by Class D amplification.

Like its soundbar and subwoofer siblings, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker uses Bose’s ‘CleanBass’ technology, which combines a rear-firing bass port with digital signal processing to deliver “deep, tight bass”. We’ll get to that later on.

Features

The Ultra Speaker is built, at least in part, to play ball with the rest of the members of its new Lifestyle product family. The speaker can be used on its own or in a pair for stereo playback, or you can add them as surround channels when used with the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar. Do be aware that the speakers aren’t backwards compatible with any of Bose’s older soundbars.

Stereo pairing is a nice asset to have, if you can get it to work. While getting our two test samples to play ball with each other works reasonably well most of the time, the resultant sound is often so out of sync that it becomes unlistenable. We’re not the only ones to have experienced this issue, so let’s hope that Bose will come to the rescue via a firmware update soon.

Stereo pairing bugs aside, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker has ample streaming connectivity. Connecting to your wi-fi network gives you access to streaming features such as Google Cast, Apple AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect, as well as the Alexa Plus voice assistant which you can connect via the app. Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect aren’t available at launch, but we're told both will be arriving via a firmware update down the line. It’s worth noting that there’s no ethernet port for a wired connection to your home network.

If you want a multi-room set-up, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is accommodating in this regard. You can use the Bose app to create a stereo system or integrate other Lifestyle products, such as the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar, into a neat home cinema system, or use the likes of AirPlay or Google Cast to integrate other compatible devices into your set-up.

You can stream using Bluetooth 5.3, too, with the standard AAC and SBC codecs supported. There’s no sign of higher-quality aptX or LDAC codecs here, which might be disappointing for some. An auxiliary 3.5mm input is available around the back of the unit if you want a physical connection to your audio source.

If you’re wondering how you control your new Bose speaker, then yes, there’s an app for that. You could go all Medieval and use the on-unit controls, but if you want to really get the most out of the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, you’ll need the official Bose app.

We might have had issues when it comes to the stereo pairing process, but the Bose app is a good one. It’s a logical, uncluttered and orderly platform that we find very easy to navigate thanks to its big, bold menus and helpful set-up guides.

Sound

We’ll get a quick caveat of our assessment of the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speakers’ sonic capabilities out of the way by confessing that we have to do a bit of tinkering before we get it sounding how we want. The balance you pick will often depend on the characteristics of your listening space and your personal preferences, but we feel the need to increase the bass levels in the EQ settings in order to compensate for what would otherwise be a rather thin reproduction.

Bolstering the lower end does grant, to our ears, a more balanced feel to the speaker’s sound, allowing our test sample to more capably reveal its particular talents.

The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker’s reproduction is clear and composed, with a sound that rarely grates the ear. Notes are well-defined upon arrival, even if the Bose can sound like it overemphasises those all-important leading edges just a tad.

Instruments are crisp and sharp as they land, but the Ultra Speaker could conceivably add more body to that initial bite. The rival Sonos Era 300 is far better in this regard, reproducing instrumental textures – swooning strings, twinkling pianos – with a more natural weightiness that simply outshines the comparative thinness of its Bose rival.

The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is capable of granting tracks a sense of dimensionality thanks to its upward-firing driver. The Bose speaker doesn’t officially support Dolby Atmos, with its ‘TrueSpatial’ technology taking care of spatial processing. This analyses the dimensions of the room in which the speaker is positioned and then optimises your audio to suit your listening space for a more immersive soundstage.

You can adjust the height channel in the app, and you’ll certainly notice the change as you move the in-app slider from 0-10, depending on how much height effect you want from the speaker.

When working to full effect, the resultant soundstage is admirably wide-reaching for a speaker of this size and type, but again, it’s simply outshone by the stunningly cinematic reproduction of the Dolby Atmos-powered Era 300, which renders spatial audio in a more convincing, wide-reaching and immersive manner.

The Era 300 is more convincing in other areas, too. Via Bluetooth or AirPlay, Sonos’ speaker excels across small and large scale dynamic shifts, putting the Bose rival’s somewhat flattened presentation in the shade.

Listen to the first minute of Lana Del Rey’s First Light and you’ll hear what we mean. The introduction of punchy drums and powerful brass land with more authority and power via the Era 300, contrasting starkly with the track’s quiet, enigmatic opening. The track propels itself forward with more vigour via the Sonos, with a purposeful momentum that we don’t find when switching back to the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker.

All isn’t entirely lost for Bose. The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker keeps its taut lower-end reproduction nicely in check, even if we have to boost it a bit to hear it properly, with ‘CleanBass’ tech working nicely with that rear port to deliver upon Bose’s promise of decent low-frequency control.

Bass is reasonably well-integrated with the rest of the frequencies, and rarely do we feel as though those lower registers sound disjointed or overly separated from the rest of our music.

Verdict

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker does not come cheap. Bose has positioned it as a committedly premium wireless smart speaker, and that’s put it up against some serious competition.

Sadly, Bose’s otherwise game contender doesn’t do enough to justify its considerable outlay, especially when there are more convincing alternatives available at this level. If you’re after a speaker that gives you great spatial audio, an impressive spread of features and better sound overall, we recommend that you pick the five-star Sonos Era 300 instead.

Review published: 13th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Build 4
• Features 5

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Luckily, there is a way to fix this common problem. If you don’t have the budget or space for a multi-speaker package to upgrade your sound, then adding a soundbar to the mix is a great way to go.

• View all the Prime Day deals on Amazon

And, for those on the hunt for an even more room-filling experience, there is the option of getting a soundbar with Dolby Atmos support, which can provide a much-desired extra boost of surround sound.

With Amazon Prime Day deals swarming your search like ants to a melting Calippo, it can be hard to find a model that is genuinely right for you. That’s where we come in. We have tested hundreds of soundbars over the years, and have hand-selected four products that provide immersive sound and are at a discounted price right now.

Sonos Beam Gen 2

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 holds the crown as the top entry-level Dolby Atmos bar in our best soundbars guide.

The Beam Gen 2 measures just 7 x 65 x 10cm (hwd) and weighs 2.8kg, making it easy to place in front of your TV without obscuring the picture. Under the hood, you will find four front-facing elliptical mid-woofers and a centre tweeter.

Most importantly, it offers a detailed, rich, and enveloping audio experience, which is particularly impressive considering its compact footprint.

Despite the bar’s lack of up-firing drivers, the soundfield is immersive and we get a good sense of height as well as scale. In fact, we note in our review: “Whether it’s a chirping bird, a car or a voice, there’s remarkable consistency across the complete soundfield, and seamless handover between drivers, which we have to say doesn’t always happen when a Dolby Atmos soundbar has upward drivers to contend with.”

It launched at £449, but this Prime Day deal has seen its price drop to £337 at Amazon. That’s a saving of £112, and is well worth considering if you are looking to add an Atmos soundbar to your system.

Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9

If you are looking for a step-up soundbar to add to your system, then the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 is hard to beat. This Sony sounds exceptionally crisp and precise, and the Atmos-ness of its delivery is hugely impressive for a standalone bar.

We find there is a slightly clinical tone in its overall delivery, but its superb detail and punch mean it still achieves five-star success.

In terms of connectivity, gaming fans will be pleased to hear that the Bar 9 has a dedicated HDMI 2.1 input and support for 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM.

You can find it for £999 at Richer Sounds, chopping £400 off its launch price. At this price, it is also worth considering the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra. It’s a brilliant-sounding system, offering a rich overall sound with expressive vocals.

It features only a single HDMI eARC port, however, which is not as comprehensive as the Theatre Bar 9’s offerings. The Sonos model is currently available at its launch price of £999 at Smart Home Sounds, but we have our fingers crossed for a reduction before the end of Prime Day.

Hisense AX5125H

All-in-one soundbars work excellently for some people, but you might be craving that extra sense of immersion that can come with a soundbar package. And our top budget soundbar system recommendation is currently available for an absolute steal.

You can pick up the Award-winning Hisense AX5125H for just £199 at Currys, making it easily one of the best-sounding affordable soundbar systems we have heard.

The 5.1.2 system, which supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, offers a relatively compact design that is easy to accommodate in most homes. It is made up of two small wireless surround speakers, a wireless subwoofer and the main soundbar. Even though the surround speakers are surprisingly compact (each one measures just 14 x 9 x 11cm), they produce an impressively enveloping soundfield that massively improves upon our experience with the TV’s sound.

We noted in our review when watching Civil War: “Bullets whizz from the front to the back of the room and even behind the listening position, helicopters hover at ceiling height, and distant explosions rumble menacingly.”

Vocals are clear and sound relatively emotive too, although the subwoofer can get a little overzealous and cause them to become muffled in the busiest sections. Still, the Hisense system is a top performer in its class and is even more tempting at this discount.

Samsung HW-Q990F

Finally, we have the Samsung HW-Q990F, an Award-winning 11.1.4 soundbar package. Like the Hisense system, it is made up of a soundbar, a subwoofer, and two surround speakers.

It is a chunkier system in terms of its build, though. The surrounds, for instance, measure 25 x 25 x 25cm and the soundbar comes in at a more hefty 7 x 123 x 14cm (hwd).

With support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, we were impressed by the soundbar’s ability to create that all-important dome of sound as well as ensuring the sound moves organically between the channels.

When it comes to its bass performance, we say in our review: “There is a much greater sense of tonal variation from this subwoofer [compared with the older Q990D model], which unearths a new layer to the bass. The Q990F’s bass feels more organic, balanced, and seamlessly integrated into the system as a result.”

That all makes it a focused, tonally varied overall sound that immerses us in whatever we listen to. You can find the system for £750 at Amazon, saving you around a whopping £949 off its original price.

We recently reviewed the Q990F’s successor – the Samsung HW-Q990H. This new system managed to build upon our favourite aspects of the older model, resulting in an even more detailed and nuanced performance. That meant the Q990H took the crown when we put them head to head – but the Q990F is without doubt still a brilliant performer in the category.

Plus, the Q990H's price has dropped only a small amount for Prime Day (the cheapest we have seen so far is £1299 at Amazon). That makes the older model all the more tempting.

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Sony’s thinking behind the Theatre Trio is that as TVs get ever bigger, soundbars will struggle to create audio on a scale to match the visuals. The obvious solution is to switch to having speakers on either side of the screen, which is what the company’s done previously with the HT-A9 and Bravia Theatre Quad, but that creates its own issue: a lack of central focus, which is particularly important for dialogue.

The solution to the solution, then, is to break the soundbar down into three parts: a centre, a front left and a front right.

In a way, this is the antithesis of the soundbar, which was created, of course, to reduce all of the speakers needed for satisfying home cinema into one, slender unit. What’s next: the return of full home cinema in a box systems?

Let’s not get bogged down in the circular nature of home theatre fashion right now, though. Let’s just enjoy the Sony Bravia Theatre Trio for what it is: one of the finest lifestyle Dolby Atmos systems you can currently buy.

Price

The Sony Bravia Theatre Trio has launched at £1999 / $2000 / AU$2999, making it a very premium proposition indeed.

It’s a highly unusual proposition in today’s market, too, which makes direct comparison rather tricky. Someone considering the Bravia Theatre Trio might also have on their shortlist solo soundbars such as the KEF XIO, Sonos Arc Ultra and Bravia Theatre Bar 9; full soundbar systems such as the Samsung HW-Q990H; and bar-less set-ups such as the Bravia Theatre Quad.

It’s a good job, then, that we have all of these on hand for comparison with the Trio.

Almost inevitably, the Trio system can be expanded through the addition of wireless surround speakers and up to two wireless subwoofers. The new Rear 8, Rear 9, Sub 7, Sub 8 and Sub 9 are all compatible with the Bravia Theatre Trio, and if you buy everything together, the prices of the surrounds and sub(s) are halved.

Several legacy accessories – the SA-SW5 and SA-SW3 subwoofers, and the SA-RS5 and SA-RS3S surrounds – are also compatible with the Trio, should you already own any of those.

We’ve tested the Trio with the Rear 9 surrounds and Sub 8, as well as solo, and you can read our thoughts on the value of expanding the system in the sound quality section.

Design

The Bravia Theatre Trio is a slightly odd thing to behold, especially if you're coming from a soundbar.

The left and right speakers will look familiar to anyone who remembers Sony's HT-A9 system. They share a similar cylindrical shape and fairly substantial dimensions, though the Trio's versions are considerably more stylish, with a black fabric (rather than grey plastic) finish that helps them look modern and discreet despite their size.

They're attractive speakers, too. A metallic ring around the top of each cabinet adds a touch of class, while perforations in the top reveal the up-firing drivers responsible for the system's height effects. Build quality feels reassuringly solid throughout, too.

The centre speaker is a little more divisive.

Essentially a very narrow soundbar that sits beneath the TV, the centre isn’t unattractive exactly, but there is something slightly awkward about its proportions, particularly when it’s positioned beneath the sort of super-sized TV that the Trio is primarily designed to partner.

Thankfully, its low-profile design means it won't obstruct the screen, and Sony includes spacer feet in the box should you need it to straddle your TV’s pedestal stand.

Sony has also done an excellent job of making the Trio as installation-friendly as possible.

The rear of each speaker is flat, allowing for neat wall-mounting, and the left and right speakers require little more than suitably positioned screws. A dedicated wall bracket for the centre speaker is included in the box, too, alongside an HDMI cable and usefully long power leads.

Sony has gone out of its way to ensure that the system isn't overly fussy about speaker placement. It's still worth positioning the speakers as symmetrically as possible, but if real-world constraints mean one speaker ends up slightly higher or further away than another, the calibration system is designed to compensate.

There are compromises to the minimalist approach, though.

Like many modern soundbars, the Trio has no traditional display. Each speaker instead features a small status light that indicates power and connection information. Anyone wanting more detailed feedback will generally need to open the Bravia Connect app, which isn’t always ideal, despite the quality of the app itself.

This is a non-issue for owners of compatible Bravia TVs, at least, as the Trio’s settings and status information appear directly within the television's interface.

Sony also supplies a small but useful remote control that provides quick access to the essentials, including volume, bass level, sound modes, voice enhancement and input selection.

Features

While the Bravia Theatre Trio's three-piece design is its most obvious distinguishing feature, the real cleverness lies in how Sony attempts to make those three speakers sound cohesive, like a soundbar, yet also much bigger, like a more traditional home cinema set-up.

Officially, the Trio is a 3.0.2-channel system comprising dedicated left, centre and right speakers. The centre houses two front-firing woofers and a tweeter, while the left and right speakers each feature a front-firing woofer and tweeter, plus an up-firing driver. Together, Sony claims the three speakers deliver a total power output of 405W.

The system supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. It’s IMAX Enhanced certified, too, but only once compatible rear speakers and a subwoofer have been added.

Key to the way the Trio handles these 3D audio formats is Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology. Using the physical speakers as a foundation, 360SSM then creates up to 24 'phantom' speakers around the room. These virtual speakers are designed to bolster the real ones and create a larger, more immersive soundstage than would otherwise be possible.

One area in which Sony has clearly put particular effort is set-up and calibration.

Installation is handled via the excellent Bravia Connect app, which guides you through the entire process with clear, well-illustrated instructions. Despite the sophistication of the system, getting everything connected, positioned and configured is refreshingly straightforward.

As part of the set-up process, you're asked to specify the locations of the speakers relative to one another, either approximately or by entering precise measurements. You can also specify their height, allowing the system to compensate for the sort of less-than-perfect real-world placement that often comes with living-room-friendly home cinema set-ups.

The calibration itself is unusually thorough, too. As well as using microphones built into the speakers, the Trio comes supplied with a dedicated USB-C calibration microphone that you plug into your phone before measurements are taken from the listening position. The result should be a level of consistency and accuracy that's difficult to achieve with systems that rely solely on onboard microphones or a smartphone.

Despite that thoroughness, the process is remarkably quick and painless, and, once complete, Sony's Sound Field Optimisation technology adapts the system’s performance to both your room and speaker placement.

There are plenty of further adjustments available within the app should you wish to experiment. You can choose between Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping processing, Dolby Speaker Virtualiser and DTS Neural:X, adjust the height of the soundfield, create a temporary listening position and access the usual assortment of voice enhancement, bass and night mode settings.

Happily, Sony's default settings are generally spot on, and most users will never feel the need to delve into the Trio’s advanced sound settings.

Connectivity is solid, too. The centre speaker houses an HDMI eARC connection for your TV, plus a dedicated HDMI input with support for 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM passthrough.

Wireless support includes Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay and Spotify Connect, while Sony's DSEE Ultimate processing can be used to upscale compressed music files.

Owners of compatible Bravia TVs get a few extra perks, including Voice Zoom 3 dialogue enhancement and, as mentioned, the ability to control many of the Trio's functions directly through the television's interface.

Sound quality

The whole point of splitting a soundbar into three separate speakers is to create a larger and more spacious soundstage, and that's exactly what Sony has achieved.

Compared with even the best conventional soundbars, the Trio sounds huge. Effects stretch much further to the left and right, dialogue remains firmly anchored to the screen, and there's a greater sense of sound being projected out into the room rather than simply originating from beneath the TV.

Blade Runner 2049 demonstrates these strengths particularly well. The sounds of the city as K walks towards his apartment spread far beyond the physical locations of the speakers, filling our large listening room with impressive width and scale. More importantly, the system doesn't just sound wider than a soundbar; it sounds taller, too.

In fact, the Trio's Dolby Atmos performance is one of its most impressive achievements. The sounds of passing vehicles, overhead announcements and environmental effects frequently extend above the listening position, creating a genuinely convincing sense of height. Given the size of our test room and the almost three-metre distance between the seating position and speakers, that's no small feat.

The system proves equally adept with the chaotic battle sequences of Civil War and the aerial action of Top Gun: Maverick, maintaining an impressively large and immersive soundfield without losing track of the finer details.

Perhaps even more impressive than the scale, though, is the cohesion. Despite the fact that you're listening to three physically separate speakers, the Trio rarely sounds like three separate speakers. Instead, it creates a single, unified wall of sound that stretches right across the front of the room.

That sense of integration is particularly important because it allows the system to retain one of the key advantages of a traditional soundbar: you never find yourself consciously thinking about which speaker is producing which effect.

Much of the credit for this appears to belong to Sony's Movie Theatre Acoustics processing. Switch it off, and the soundstage immediately shrinks, while the illusion of a single coherent soundfield begins to weaken. Leave it enabled, however, and the Trio sounds significantly larger, more immersive and more convincing.

There is a small trade-off. The processing can occasionally exaggerate echo that's already present within a soundtrack. The interviewer's voice during K's baseline test in Blade Runner 2049 is one example, while Nandez's dialogue during the early autopsy sequence gains a touch more resonance than is strictly correct.

These moments are relatively rare, though, and the benefits broadly outweigh the drawbacks. Some people might prefer the cleaner delivery when Movie Theatre Acoustics is disabled, but most will want to leave it enabled (as it is by default) for the additional scale, weight and cohesion it brings.

In some respects, the Trio highlights the limitations of conventional soundbars.

Using the excellent Sonos Arc Ultra as a reference point, Sony's system delivers substantially greater scale, bass weight and Atmos immersion. This isn't really a criticism of the Sonos, which remains one of the most capable soundbars at its price, but it does neatly demonstrate what can be achieved when you physically separate the front channels: the Trio simply fills the room more effectively.

One small issue to note regarding movie sound is that the centre speaker can buzz slightly when pushed by super-deep bass, such as that at the start of the second chapter of Blade Runner 2049. It's not something that crops up often enough to become a significant issue, but it is one of the few occasions on which the centre speaker draws attention to itself.

For music, meanwhile, the Trio offers something that most soundbars simply cannot: genuine stereo reproduction.

Switch Sound Field processing off and the centre speaker drops out, leaving dedicated left and right channels handled by dedicated left and right speakers. Give those speakers a small amount of toe-in, and the resulting stereo image is impressively focused, while still benefiting from proper separation.

My Curse by Killswitch Engage is delivered with excellent punch, dynamics and drive, while Rosalía's Divinize demonstrates the system's ability to produce serious low-frequency heft. The dense instrumentation of Karnivool's Salva remains composed and controlled, and Alone On A Hill by Silversun Pickups is rendered with convincing scale and strong stereo focus.

Sony's hi-fi heritage shines through here. The Trio sounds weighty, energetic and engaging in a way that most soundbars simply don't.

That doesn't mean it's a replacement for a properly sorted pair of powered hi-fi speakers, of course, but it comes closer than most lifestyle home cinema products.

One similarly priced alternative to the Trio that we’ve not yet mentioned is the excellent KEF XIO.

With both movies and music, the KEF sounds cleaner, crisper and more detailed than the Sony, with excellent organisation and precision. The Trio counters with greater weight, larger scale and the sort of genuine stereo separation that only physically separated speakers can provide.

Neither approach is inherently better than the other, and preferences will inevitably vary, but the comparison reinforces the fact that Sony has created something genuinely distinct rather than simply another premium soundbar.

And, while the Bravia Theatre Trio is a complete and highly capable package on its own, adding Sony's optional speakers and subwoofer takes things to another level.

Testing with the Rear 9 surrounds and Sub 8 dramatically increases immersion, creating a seamless bubble of sound that extends around the entire listening position. Atmos effects become even more precisely placed, and the busy cityscape of Blade Runner 2049 becomes extraordinarily convincing.

Just as importantly, the minor shortcomings of the standalone system largely disappear. The slight buzz from the centre speaker vanishes once deep bass duties are handed over to the subwoofer, while the occasional over-emphasis of echo through Movie Theatre Acoustics is also cured.

There remains a very slight amount of distortion from the Sub 8 itself during the deepest bass moments, and we'd be fascinated to hear whether the larger Sub 9 can eliminate this final remaining niggle. That's a discussion for another review, though.

Judged as an initial package, the Bravia Theatre Trio is a hugely impressive performer that successfully combines the scale and spaciousness of a separate-speaker home cinema system with much of the convenience and cohesion that make soundbars so appealing.

Verdict

Sony's Bravia Theatre Trio could easily have ended up feeling like an awkward compromise: neither as neat as a soundbar nor as capable as a traditional speaker system. Instead, it succeeds in taking many of the strengths of both approaches while avoiding most of their weaknesses.

It's not quite perfect – the centre speaker isn’t quite as capable as the larger speakers flanking it, there's no display, and some rivals can sound a touch cleaner and more detailed – but those shortcomings are minor in the context of what the Trio achieves overall.

Ultimately, Sony's deconstructed soundbar concept proves brilliantly effective. If you're looking for a premium lifestyle Dolby Atmos system and have the budget to stretch this far, the Bravia Theatre Trio is one of the most compelling options in years.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Design 4
• Features 4

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Read our review of the KEF XIO

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Read our Sonos Arc Ultra review

Best Dolby Atmos soundbars: our reviewers' five recommendations

If you're late to the party, let us fill you in.

Back in April 2024, Sonos redesigned its app to coincide with the launch of the Ace, its first pair of wireless headphones. It was a disaster – the new app was buggy, and lacked a lot of the old one's features. (It didn't help that the headphones weren't much cop either.)

Since then Sonos has been on a mission to restore the app and win back customer trust. This week's refresh could go some way to doing so.

The improvements are aimed at making the app easier to use. It's "Not a new app, but a new way of navigating Sonos inside the app you already have," CEO Tom Conrad wrote on Reddit.

From spending "hundreds of hours" watching people use the Sonos app, his team found out what the sticking points are: too many content cards, swipe-up gestures to switch speaker orientation, close boxes in place of back buttons, and custom interface elements that feel out of place on an iOS or Android device.

So what takes their place?

We can look forward to more straightforward navigation, with three tabs (Home, System, Search) replacing the hidden gestures and content cards on both iOS and Android. There's a new volume interface, a "core mechanism that is easier to grab and fine tune" along with buttons to press to alter it and a new way of synchronising it across a group of rooms.

You'll get more control over how your players are listed and displayed, and there are dozens of smaller fixes like the ability to swipe to delete a track in a playlist, and a refreshed Now Playing screen.

The update will roll out to beta testers this week (you can sign up here), but they will have to enable it from within the settings menu. Even once it's rolled out wider, it will only be available as an opt-in toggle, so you can turn it off if you don't like it. Sonos will continue to polish it before making it the default.

Conrad says this is the way Sonos will work from now on, as "this is the beginning of a different way of working here at Sonos, where what gets built, and in what order, is shaped by the conversations here and with all our customers."

Maybe it's learned from its mistakes after all.

MORE:

Which Sonos speaker should you buy?

Not sold? The best Sonos alternatives

Sonos Play vs HomePod 2: which should you buy?

If you are looking for a way to upgrade from your TV’s subpar audio without taking up space in your home, then a soundbar is a great way to go.

There are a range of options on the market, from budget bars to more premium models. The Sonos Arc Ultra is an example of the latter, and it has snagged a What Hi-Fi? Award for its excellent performance.

Since its release in 2024, the Arc Ultra has been relatively unchallenged. But the new Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S has stepped into the ring with its eye on the prize.

Boasting both a subwoofer and a soundbar as opposed to the Arc Ultra’s all-in-one design, they are two different beasts. But who will come out on top when it comes to audio performance? We have put both soundbars head-to-head in our test room, so we can tell you from experience which model is most worth your money.

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S: price

So how much will each soundbar set you back? The Sonos Arc Ultra launched at £999 / $999 / AU$1799 but, since its release, you can get it cheaper. In the UK, the Sonos model has dropped to £799 at most retailers, although we have seen it fluctuate.

The Sony system launched at £799 / $1100 (around AU$1320), and has remained at that price since its release. This combo has not been out as long as the Arc Ultra, so there is still an opportunity for the price to drop as time goes on.

There is the option to buy the Bravia 7 without the subwoofer but, for reasons that will become clear, we recommend spending the extra cash.

Right now, though, it is a tie between the two bars when it comes to cost.

**Winner: draw**

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S: design

The two soundbars offer opposing designs that cater to different sides of the market.

The Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S consists of a soundbar and subwoofer, so there is one extra bit of kit to consider compared to Sonos’ single all-in-one bar.

Offering a versatile design, the accompanying subwoofer is easy to place in our test room and connects to the soundbar quickly. You can use it in two different positions, either with the grille facing the listener or the side of the room.

The Arc Ultra is longer than the Bar 7 soundbar, coming in at 8 x 118 x 11cm (hwd) versus Sony’s 6 x 95 x 13cm (hwd). The Sonos model is also heavier, weighing 5.9kg compared to 4.6kg.

With the Sony bar, you will find a small remote control that puts functionality over style. From here, you can control the power, input, bass levels, volume and turn on Night mode. There’s no such addition with the Sonos, however.

You can find the Sonos bar in either a black or white finish, whereas the Sony system is only available in black. Neither of the bars has a display, and the Sony has no buttons on the top of the bar. The Arc Ultra features touch-sensitive buttons, though these are situated on a ledge at the back. A display with both models would make navigating the settings without relying on the accompanying apps feel more straightforward.

Both designs offer their own benefits. The Sonos offers a slightly simpler set-up with its all-in-one build, but the Sony’s soundbar is more compact and offers versatility with the subwoofer’s placement.

That all depends on what you need from your soundbar, so it’s a draw this time round.

**Winner: draw**

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S: features

In terms of physical connectivity, both bars have an HDMI that supports eARC, but the Sony model has an extra HDMI port.

Dolby Atmos is available with both systems, but the Bravia 7 also offers DTS:X, which provides more options for surround sound.

The Sony bar offers a 5.1.2-channel configuration. Under the hood of the main bar, you will find nine drive units, split between side, centre, up-firing and bass channels. That differs from the Sonos, which is packing a 9.1.4-channel configuration. This is made up of seven tweeters, six midrange woofers, and a 'Sound Motion' woofer.

They both use their company's respective apps. The Bravia Connect and Sonos apps let you fine-tune the settings of the bars. With the Sony’s app, you can also pair the subwoofer (and the surrounds if you have them) from the app, where they recognise the product almost immediately, which makes for an easy set-up.

Both apps are easy to use, but Sony’s user interface is more intuitive and this results in a smoother overall experience.

From both apps, you can calibrate the soundbar to your space (the Arc Ultra employs Sonos Trueplay). Once we have calibrated the bars to our space, we are offered a wider soundstage with both systems. It’s worth noting that the subwoofer is not included in this process with the Sony system, so it must be adjusted by ear using the bass settings with the app or the remote.

There is also the option to expand your set-up with both systems. With the Sony soundbar and subwoofer, you can also add in the Sony Theatre Rear 8 speakers, costing £449 / $500 / AU$599 on their own.

Sonos’ offerings here are more comprehensive, as you can connect other products from the brand, such as the Sonos Sub 4 or the Era 300 speakers. These can be arranged in a multi-room set-up or in one room.

For its more comprehensive HDMI support and better app experience, the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 takes it.

**Winner: Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S**

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S: sound

Sony and Sonos take different approaches when it comes to audio performance here. But both are five-star systems that provide a massive upgrade from the majority of TV speakers.

When we start up the Bravia Theatre Bar 7, we are greeted with a punchy, cohesive sound that is immediately likeable. It offers an immersive experience, which is put to the test with Top Gun: Maverick as Maverick attempts to reach hypersonic speed in a jet, and the soundbar stretches the height effects above the TV screen.

The Arc Ultra also impresses, matching the Sony’s sense of scale and punch. Effects sound like they're coming from all around you, and are placed with precision, while certain sounds (like rain) stretch far beyond the confines of the TV to which the soundbar is connected.

Bass performance is strong with both soundbars, but the Sony’s added subwoofer gives it the edge in terms of agility and precision. We also find that the bass is well-integrated with the main soundbar and performs with the same precision as the rest of the system. That’s not to dismiss the Sonos performance with lower frequencies, as the bass it delivers is "tight, tuneful and expressive in a way that is rare in the soundbar world".

We listen to the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 without the subwoofer, and it still delivers clear vocals and convincing height effects. But the sound is thinner and lacks the sense of scale and authority that we get when the subwoofer is added.

Both soundbars produce clear vocals, but the Sonos model produces richer voices that lend a more emotive and warm feel to the sound.

When playing music, this warm approach carries foward with the Sonos to make it a more emotive performer than the Sony. The soft vocals of Aurora’s Churchyard start with the appropriate low-level dynamics and build to the punchy chorus as the bass kicks in. As with the Sony’s performance with movies, the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S delivers a more precise and energetic bass than the Arc Ultra.

Both soundbars are excellent sonic performers, but the Sonos bar inches past the Sony system for its warmer overall sound.

**Winner: Sonos Arc Ultra**

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S: verdict

If you are looking to upgrade your TV’s audio and get a more immersive audio experience, then either of these soundbars will deliver. Where the Sonos Arc Ultra offers a warm, spacious sound, the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S counters with a more agile and well-integrated bass.

One of their designs might suit you more, but the Sonos Arc Ultra just takes the crown for its richer sonic performance.

**Winner: Sonos Arc Ultra**

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Here's our full review of the Sonos Arc Ultra

Check out the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Launched as part of a new range of Home 2 wireless speakers, the Denon Home 400 has a lot in common with the Sonos Era 300. Both offer spatial audio, have similar sonic architecture, and can form part of much larger audio ecosystems, so it only felt right to take a closer look at what sets them apart.

While we’re yet to give the Denon Home 400 the full What Hi-Fi? review treatment, we can still compare the two and see where it might hope to outdo the Era 300. Here’s the tale of the tape.

Denon Home 400 vs Sonos Era 300: price

The Denon Home 400 hit the shops recently with a pretty substantial price of £449 / $599 / AU$999.

In the UK that’s exactly how much the five-star Sonos Era 300 would have set you back when it launched just over three years ago, but it’s now available for a much more wallet-friendly £359 / $379 / AU$695 (and we’ve even seen it drop very slightly lower).

That’s a fair chunk of extra cash you’ll need to find for the Denon, so we’ll be expecting big things when it comes to testing it.

Denon Home 400 vs Sonos Era 300: design

There’s no denying Sonos took a bit of a risk with the design of its Era 300, but there’s sonic logic behind its unusual shape.

In order to facilitate its spatial audio skills, Sonos fitted the Era 300 with four tweeters (one forward-firing, two side-firing, one upward-firing) and two horizontally angled woofers – so while it might be divisive, its design is born out of the physical positioning of the drivers.

In every other way the Sonos Era 300 is pretty minimalist. It comes in either black or white and there’s no display, but you do get a set of touch-sensitive controls on top that blend in nicely. The build quality is typically high, too.

Denon’s Home 400 also feels suitably premium as befits its price. It’s a touch bigger but weighs slightly less and has a more familiar shape, while the fabric covering gives it a softer appearance. A set of rubberised buttons down the side offer control over volume and playback, plus a trio of shortcuts for your favourite sources or sound modes.

The Home 400 comes in either charcoal or stone colours (basically black or silvery grey) but overall feels like the nicer of the two on a purely aesthetic basis, with the Sonos perhaps a little too stark for some tastes. At the end of the day, though, it’s purely personal preference.

Denon Home 400 vs Sonos Era 300: features

Both these speakers can form discrete parts of wider multi-room music systems but they’re also equally happy operating on their own, with spatial audio support the main way to differentiate them from a lot of their wireless speaker siblings.

Both speakers have six drivers inside, but the Denon Home 400 has two that point upwards compared to just one inside the Sonos Era 300.

Both also support Dolby Atmos, but the Denon is a little more flexible over where you source your Atmos-powered spatial tunes from. On the Era 300, you’ll need to use Amazon Music or Apple Music, while the Home 400 is happy playing them from Tidal’s catalogue as well.

In terms of wireless connectivity, there’s no separating them. Wi-fi, Bluetooth and AirPlay 2 are all on the menu for streaming from Spotify, Tidal et al, but the Denon is a little more welcoming to wired sources.

There are USB-C and 3.5mm connections on the back of the Home 400, whereas the Sonos only has the former, with a separate adapter required if you want to connect something using an aux cable.

As well as full multi-room use, you can also create stereo pairs with both of these speakers, plus they’re compatible with soundbars from their respective manufacturers and can be used as rear channels in a surround set-up.

If you like telling your speakers what to do, you’ll probably be better served by the Sonos Era 300, which has native support for both Amazon Alexa and Sonos’s own voice assistant.

There’s a microphone onboard the Denon Home 400 (and a mute button on the back) but it doesn’t support voice control out of the box. In fact, the only way to talk to it (at least if you want to get a response) is to use Siri, but that's only if you have an Apple HomePod or HomePod Mini connected on the same network. You can then link them together within the HEOS app and summon Siri via the Home 400. It's a rather bizarre workaround, we admit, and we'll explore more when we have our review sample in for testing.

Denon Home 400 vs Sonos Era 300: sound

We’re yet to get the Denon Home 400 into our testing rooms for a full review, so a definitive verdict on its abilities will have to wait, but after hearing it at the launch of Denon’s full Home 2 range back in March, plus some further dedicated ears-on time for this piece, some initial assessments are possible.

The impact of those two upward-firing drivers is immediately apparent, with a real sense of space between the instruments. The soundstage has a really nice three-dimensional quality to it that makes music sound more lifelike, although, as is often the case with spatial audio, the mixes can sometimes be a little off depending on the particular song being played.

In general, though, first impressions are good. The Home 400 puts on an engaging performance that seems to strike a nice balance between all aspects of the frequency range.

When it comes to the Sonos Era 300, however, there’s no such uncertainty surrounding its performance. In our five-star review first published in March 2023, the Era 300 was described as an “immensely immersive experience”.

Particularly impressive is the sheer scale of the sound it’s capable of producing, which projects more effectively than any similarly sized wireless speaker we’ve tested so far, particularly when you feed it Dolby Atmos tracks (although quite how effective it is varies by song).

On the whole it sounds detailed, dynamic and cohesive, with deep, impactful bass and plenty of rhythmic flair.

Fundamentally the Era 300 has set a high standard for the Denon Home 400 to reach, but there are reasons to believe it could give Sonos a real run for its money.

Denon Home 400 vs Sonos Era 300: early verdict

With smart looks, an extensive list of features and promising early signs of its sonic performance, the Denon’s Home 400 looks like it could be a serious contender. The lack of voice control is slightly surprising, but with Alexa and co. popping up in so many other devices around the average home it doesn’t feel like a huge absence.

Can it beat the Era 300 though? Sonos’s unusually shaped speaker was the first one to convince us that spatial audio was more than just a gimmick, and its standard stereo performance is hugely enjoyable too, so it’s not going to be easy for the Denon to take the crown.

Once we’ve had the opportunity to fully scrutinise the Denon Home 400 and compare it with the Era 300, we’ll be able to pass judgement on which of these wireless speakers is the best – and it could well be a close battle. Stay tuned for the full review.

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Which Sonos speaker should you buy? Find out here

The best multi-room systems around

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From Bowers & Wilkins' new flagship 800 Series Diamond speakers to Audio-Technica’s high-end flagship cartridge, there is a range of hi-fi products coming soon.

We have gathered some of the most exciting announcements from High End below, as well as the biggest news from the world of hi-fi and home cinema you might have missed in the past week. Let’s get into it!

WiiM launches its first-ever Dolby Atmos soundbar

WiiM, a company best known for its music streamers and streaming amplifiers, has announced its first venture into the soundbar category at High End Vienna 2026. It is, rather predictably, called the WiiM Bar and boasts a 3.0.2-channel configuration. That is powered by an eight-driver array, including front mid-woofers, front tweeters, and full-range height drivers. The bar offers Dolby Atmos capability.

At the front of the ’bar, you will find a stylish glass-covered 2.1-inch round touch display. You can choose to show off album art, or use it to access playback controls, input, or EQ settings.

The WiiM Bar has got some tough competition, with its price tag (£449 / $479) putting it directly against the Sonos Beam Gen 2.

Read the full story: WiiM launches its first ever Dolby Atmos soundbar – and its sights are set on Sonos

Yamaha launches its new wireless speaker system to challenge KEF

Yamaha hadn’t launched a wireless speaker in a decade; the NX-70A has changed all that.

It uses some of the same technology and materials as Yamaha’s renowned grand piano soundboards, though sadly it doesn’t use anything from its motorbikes. The Yamaha NX-70A aims to make high-quality sound more accessible, whether it’s playing back one of the best music streaming services or a movie soundtrack straight from your TV.

The Yamaha model is out in July for £2587 (around $3500 / AU$4799), so it will be a rival for the KEF LS50 Wireless II. We can’t wait to compare the two in our test room soon.

Read the full story: The Yamaha NX-70A wireless speaker system arrives to take on the KEF LS50 Wireless II

We reviewed Esoteric’s high-end streaming preamplifier

Last week, our testers finished reviewing the Esoteric N-05XE, which costs a whopping £13,000 / $13,000 / AU$17,000. This beautifully made unit combines network streaming, digital-to-analogue conversion and a preamplifier in one neat, albeit chunky box.

And, while its price tag is pretty jaw-dropping, we can confirm that it is a hugely capable product that compromises very little compared with more purist options. We conclude in our review: “If you are looking for a top-class sound and don’t want the clutter of conventional high-end separates, this Esoteric is a great place to start.”

Read the full Esoteric N-05XE review

We saw an unfortunate trend continue from TVs to cars

What Hi-Fi?’s deputy editor Andy Madden has been out and about testing an in-car sound system: the Bose Surround Sound System for the electric Porsche Macan. While his full comparison against the step-up Burmester option is still in the works, Andy spotted an ‘Eco’ mode setting that had been seen only with TVs before.

Having such a mode in this car does make sense. EV ownership centres around power consumption, efficiency and squeezing the most mileage possible from the car’s battery.

Unfortunately, the mode apes the pattern of performance we see in the majority of TVs. It results in a “shrinking of scale, diminished dynamics and a more laid-back and less expressive sound.”

Read the full story: I used an Eco setting on a car audio system for the first time — and my worst fears were confirmed

A selection of World Cup tracks to test your sound system

To celebrate the football event of the year, which kicks off on 11 June, we have hand-picked some of the best World Cup songs to listen to on a decent system. There are some absolute bangers to choose from, including releases from Giorgio Moroder and Pavarotti.

A highlight is New Order’s only UK number one single, World in Motion. The 1990 track is still a banger nearly 40 years on. Those euphoric strings – so ’90s! – will test your system’s midrange, while that drum machine beat is a workout for the low end.

Read the full story: The best World Cup songs to test your system

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Ready for the World Cup? These are the three projectors you should consider

Their effectiveness depends heavily on being able to bounce sound around your room in a way that properly matches your seating position, while also taking into account the shape of the space, the placement of furniture and the amount of soft furnishing that might absorb or diffuse sound.

Without effective calibration, even an excellent soundbar can sound surprisingly underwhelming.

In the early days of soundbars, most notably with Yamaha’s pioneering YSP range, calibration was handled using a dedicated wired microphone included in the box. You would plug the microphone into the soundbar, position it where you normally sit, activate the test tones and let the system do the rest.

Manufacturers eventually concluded that this process was too cumbersome for mainstream buyers, though, so more advanced and convenient systems were developed.

The best-known of those is probably Sonos Trueplay, which uses the microphones built into your iPhone. Generally, you first take a measurement while sitting in your listening position, before walking around the room slowly wafting your phone through the air in a manner vaguely akin to vacuuming your walls.

It feels faintly ridiculous going through the process, but Trueplay is genuinely effective.

The problem is that its accuracy depends heavily on the quality and consistency of your phone’s microphones. That’s why Trueplay is still limited to iOS devices. Android owners either have to borrow an iPhone from a friend to calibrate their system properly or simply live with an uncalibrated soundbar.

Sony’s own Sound Field Optimisation system has historically been far more open, supporting both iOS and Android devices, but has it always produced entirely consistent results? The company’s latest solution rather suggests otherwise.

Said solution is simple: a bespoke USB-C microphone designed specifically for calibrating its new Bravia Theatre Trio home theatre system.

The microphone plugs directly into your smartphone during setup, allowing the Bravia Connect app to handle all of the clever room-analysis processing while ensuring that the recordings themselves are captured using consistent, purpose-built hardware rather than the wildly variable microphones built into phones.

In other words, Sony has effectively separated the software processing from the recording hardware.

That strikes me as a genuinely smart solution to a longstanding problem.

Yes, it means keeping track of an extra accessory, but that feels like a very small price to pay for more reliable and consistent calibration results – particularly for a premium Dolby Atmos system that is designed to create convincing spatial audio effects.

Accurate calibration alone doesn’t guarantee great sound, of course, but it does provide the foundation on which great spatial audio depends.

And, based on my brief hands-on experience with the Bravia Theatre Trio, Sony’s approach appears to work remarkably well. It’s one of the smartest soundbar innovations I have seen in quite some time – and one that rivals such as Sonos should probably be paying close attention to.

MORE:

Here are my initial thoughts on the Sony Bravia Theatre Trio

These are all of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars you can buy right now

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) and QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) have fared very well against some stiff competition. It'll be fascinating to see if the new Bose Ultra soundbar can do the same.

It will have its work cut out. Standing between it and home cinema glory is the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra.

We've only been hands-on with the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar at this stage, so we're comparing them based only on our initial impressions and the all-important features and specs. Let's get started.

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar vs Sonos Arc Ultra: price

There's really not much to choose between these two soundbars in terms of price.

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar costs £1000 / $1099 / AU$1800, while the Sonos Arc Ultra is £999 / $999 / AU$1799.

But that's not the full story.

The Sonos has been out for over 18 months now, and so is more prone to discounts. Most recently, it had £150 off, for example. So we'll give this round to Sonos.

** Winner: Sonos Arc Ultra **

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar vs Sonos Arc Ultra: design

Making a soundbar look attractive is no mean feat, so Bose should be applauded – its new 'bar looks genuinely different to any other.

That's mostly thanks to the sleek glass top that stretches out across a good proportion of the unit. It's not a glorified coffee table, but a home for the touch-sensitive controls.

Now admittedly not many people are going to get up off the sofa to change the volume by sliding their finger around the inner edge, but it's nice to have the option.

Either side of this are the up-firing drivers, which shoot sound up at 90 degrees to add a sense of height to the audio. As with all up-firing soundbars, it does limit your placement options – stick it under a shelf, and the sound will fire point blank into the shelf.

These are joined by four ‘racetrack’ drivers and two Bose PhaseGuide drivers, which use processing to more widely disperse sound. These are all housed in a textured-knit fabric that, like the Sonos, comes in either black or white.

You can wall-mount the Bose, but the wall mount costs extra.

It's a little smaller and heavier than the Sonos Arc Ultra – the former measures up at 6.7 x 111 x 12.5cm (hwd) while the Sonos is 7.5 x 118 x 11cm.

The Arc Ultra also features touch-sensitive buttons on top, though these are situated on the ledge at the back. It's not quite as sleek as Bose's implementation.

It too has a fabric grille which looks and feels pretty premium, as you would want it to at this price.

For its innovative styling, we're giving this round to Bose for now. But we reserve the right to change our minds once we've had a good look at it in our test rooms.

** Winner: Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar **

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar vs Sonos Arc Ultra: features

These are both high-end soundbars, so as you'd imagine, they're full of features.

Bose's has two QuietPorts on the back – these promise deep and controlled low frequencies with minimal distortion. The only physical connections are an ethernet port and an HDMI eARC socket – like the Sonos, there are no HDMI 2.1 inputs.

You do get plenty of wireless options, though. As well as Bluetooth 5.3 and wi-fi, you get Google Cast, Apple AirPlay and Spotify Connect. Tidal Connect is missing at launch, but we're assured it will arrive at some point. The Arc Ultra does support Tidal Connect, but not Google Cast.

Both 'bars support Dolby Atmos, which will be made more immersive by their up-firing drivers. Neither supports DTS or DTS:X. This format is less common than Dolby Atmos but it's an absence all the same.

Both have room calibration tech for optimising the sound to your surroundings. Bose CustomTune and Sonos Trueplay use the microphone on your phone to analyse your room's dimensions, surfaces and furniture placement to adjust the audio accordingly. Both work on iOS and Android devices.

They both use their company's respective apps, too. The Bose app is more intuitive than it used to be, and lets you tweak the sound. There's no remote control, so you'll find yourself using the app quite a bit.

Sonos' app has had its troubles, but is now much better than it was – and the company is vocal about the fact it's prioritising improvements.

Both soundbars support voice controls, including Amazon Alexa, and the Sonos pairs nicely with the Sonos Ace headphones to give you dynamic headtracking – you just 'swap' the audio from the 'bar to the cans.

Given the quality of Bose's wireless headphones, it's a shame the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar doesn't partner with them.

** Winner: Sonos Arc Ultra **

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar vs Sonos Arc Ultra: sound

What do they offer in terms of sound quality?

As we haven't tested the Bose yet, we can't give a verdict, but we did go 'ears-on' with it at a briefing.

A sandstorm from the movie Dune proved suitably enveloping, with the 'bar spreading the audio across the sound field convincingly.

We didn't hear any signs of distortion at high volumes, and when the scene switches to calm, it did a good job of communicating the change of pace.

We also watched a scene from Ray to test the Speech Clarity mode. It turned dialogue from a mumble to being "lifted out of the hustle and bustle of the effects around it, with the edges of words a little clearer and better defined," as we said at the time.

It also impressed as part of a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos system, paired with the Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer and Lifestyle Ultra Speakers as surrounds. But we were only able to have a quick listen at the event – it's no substitute for hearing it in our test rooms.

The Arc Ultra has some impressive specs (9.1.4-channel configuration, 15 Class D amplifiers powering 14 drivers), and as an Award winner, it sounds just as impressive as you would imagine. A "crackingly musical soundbar" we concluded in our Sonos Arc Ultra review.

Tool’s Invincible is bristling with energy and excitement, making for a very engaging listen. But it's even better at conveying movie audio.

Chapter two of Blade Runner 2049 is a good test of bass, and it's a test that the Arc Ultra passes with flying colours, delivering plenty of weight and an impressive amount of control. The bass is "tight, tuneful and expressive in a way that is rare in the soundbar world".

Spatially, it's excellent. Effects sound like they're coming from all around you, and are placed with precision, while certain sounds (like rain) stretch far beyond the confines of the TV to which the soundbar is connected.

And there's plenty of detail without it ever sounding forced – it's delivered naturally, which adds to the sense of realism.

Suffice to say, Bose has its work cut out to compete with what this Sonos can offer.

** Winner: TBC **

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar vs Sonos Arc Ultra: early verdict

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar certainly looks impressive.

It's very easy on the eye, and – while a bit less feature-stacked than Sonos' flagship – it offers plenty to get your teeth into. As ever for us, it will all hinge on how it sounds.

On that front, the Arc Ultra is the soundbar to beat. As it's been out for a while now, it's also discounted during most big sales. Your move, Bose...

We'll update this article once we've fully reviewed the new Bose soundbar.

MORE:

Read our Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar hands-on review

And our Sonos Arc Ultra review

The best Dolby Atmos soundbars you can buy

But we don't all have the space, budget or patience for a full system comprising an AV receiver, speaker package and the cables required to wire everything up.

In truth, even the super-popular soundbar systems that typically combine a bar, a wireless subwoofer and two wireless surrounds (the Samsung HW-Q990H, for example) are “too many boxes” for many people.

So, what’s the solution for those who’ve forked out for a gorgeous, premium TV and want equally gorgeous sound without all of the boxes and/or cables?

The premium solo soundbar, that’s what. In fact, that’s exactly the problem that the soundbar was originally designed to solve.

These days, a premium soundbar is a very sophisticated bit of kit that typically combines svelte styling with effective Dolby Atmos processing for movies and games, plus music streaming, simple operation, and the option to add additional speakers further down the line.

Here, we’re pitching four such soundbars against one another.

The benchmark is the Sonos Arc Ultra – the successor to the multi-Award-winning Arc and now an Award-winner in its own right.

This is a soundbar that really nails the confluence of simplicity and sound quality, and, being a Sonos product, the Arc Ultra also functions as a multi-room speaker for music.

The Sonos Arc Ultra and Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 have met before, albeit in slightly different circumstances, with the Sony priced much higher.

These days, you can usually get it for the same price as the Sonos, making the head-to-head far hotter, especially as the Bar 9 has features that the Arc Ultra does not, such as DTS:X support and HDMI passthrough.

This isn’t a head-to-head test, though: two newer soundbars are looking to disrupt the Sonos vs Sony scuffle.

The first of those is the very fancy LG Sound Suite H7. As the name suggests, this is a component in LG’s new Sound Suite family of speakers, but it’s also a Sonos Arc Ultra-rivalling soundbar in its own right.

Finally, but most unusually, we have the JBL Bar 1000MK2, which, as you may have spotted, isn’t really a solo soundbar.

However, we’ve decided to include it here as the ability to connect the surround speakers to the main bar means it can function as a solo bar – albeit one that also comes with a subwoofer.

Which of these premium soundbars deserves the spot beneath your lovely TV? Let Dolby Atmos battle commence!

Picking a winner

Each of these premium soundbars proves that you don’t need a stack of separates and a room full of speakers to get genuinely enjoyable cinematic sound from your TV.

Of course, they all tackle that challenge in slightly different ways.

The JBL leans into flexibility and sheer spectacle, the LG focuses on design and cutting-edge tech, the Sony majors on immersion and detail, and the Sonos aims to blend simplicity, sophistication and sonic excellence into one sleek package.

4. LG Sound Suite H7

All four are good products in their own right, but there is a clear hierarchy here, and in fourth place is the LG Sound Suite H7.

The H7 is certainly an interesting proposition. Its styling is refreshingly different from the norm, and those who own a compatible LG TV will appreciate the way it integrates visually and functionally with the screen. It’s also packed with features, including Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which will be a real boon if you decide to expand your system in the future.

There’s no denying, either, that the H7 sounds impressive out of the blocks. It goes loud, delivers plenty of bass weight and throws effects around the room enthusiastically enough to create a decent sense of scale.

Ultimately, though, it lacks the refinement and subtlety of the best soundbars here. Dynamics are a little blunt, detail levels aren’t especially high, and there’s a hardness to its delivery that can become fatiguing over longer listening sessions. Dolby Atmos effects are present, but they don’t knit together cohesively enough to fully convince.

It’s a decent soundbar, then, but against this level of competition, decent simply isn’t enough.

Read the full LG Sound Suite H7 review

3. JBL Bar 1000MK2

Third place goes to the JBL Bar 1000MK2 – and this one is perhaps the trickiest to judge.

Strictly speaking, it’s not really a solo soundbar at all, thanks to the inclusion of a wireless subwoofer and detachable surround speakers. But because those surrounds can be physically attached to the main unit, we felt it deserved a place in this test – and we’re glad we included it.

There’s no question that the JBL delivers the biggest and most overtly cinematic presentation here. With the surrounds deployed, it creates an impressively expansive soundfield, and the dedicated subwoofer gives action scenes a level of low-end heft that the true solo bars simply can’t match.

It’s a hugely entertaining listen, too, with a bold, energetic character that makes blockbuster movies enormous fun.

The problem is that it’s not the most nuanced or controlled performer on test. Bass can occasionally become overbearing, subtle details are sometimes overshadowed by sheer bombast, and musicality isn’t really its strong suit. In stereo music playback, particularly, the Sonos and Sony sound noticeably more balanced, cohesive and sophisticated.

If your priority is maximum home cinema impact with minimum hassle, the JBL remains a very appealing option. But as an all-round premium soundbar package, it falls short of the class leaders.

Read the full JBL Bar 1000MK2 review

2. Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9

Which brings us to the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9.

When this soundbar first launched, its pricing made it difficult to recommend wholeheartedly, but now that it can regularly be found for around the same money as the Sonos Arc Ultra, it becomes a much stronger proposition.

And it really is an excellent soundbar. Sony has managed to produce an impressively spacious and immersive presentation from a single bar, with Dolby Atmos effects projected with remarkable precision. Its sense of verticality is particularly convincing, and it fills a room with sound more effectively than almost any rival.

It’s detailed and dynamic, too, with crisp dialogue, excellent placement of effects and plenty of punch when movie soundtracks demand it. The inclusion of HDMI passthrough and DTS:X support also gives it a useful edge in the features department.

Ultimately, though, while the Sony is deeply impressive, it doesn’t quite achieve the same all-round balance and naturalness as the Sonos. There are moments where its presentation becomes just a touch forward or forceful, and while it sounds spectacular with movies, it’s not quite as consistently musical or cohesive across all content types.

Read the full Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 review

1. Sonos Arc Ultra

The Sonos Arc Ultra nails the brief.

It delivers Dolby Atmos with scale, precision and convincing height effects, but it never loses sight of subtlety or cohesion in the pursuit of spectacle. Dialogue is crystal clear, effects are expertly placed, and there’s an openness and spaciousness to the presentation that makes movie soundtracks utterly engrossing.

Crucially, it’s also the most musical soundbar here. Whether you’re watching films, gaming or simply streaming music, the Sonos sounds balanced, expressive and refined in a way that its rivals can’t quite match.

The lack of HDMI passthrough will be an annoyance for some, and the Sonos app isn’t quite back to its slick best yet, but many buyers are unlikely to bother with the app after initial setup and the superb performance of the Arc Ultra far outweighs those relatively minor niggles.

The Sonos Arc Ultra will surely be beaten one day – but today isn’t that day.

Read the full Sonos Arc Ultra review

It can be hard to know which Sonos speaker to buy. There’s a healthy number currently on the market, all furnished with varying levels of baked-in Sonos features at a range of prices and sizes.

Many would-be buyers seek a Sonos speaker because they are keen on the US brand’s particular ecosystem. Once they have jumped that particular hurdle, though, it can be hard to know where to go next.

What we have here are two candidates with somewhat different purposes in mind. The Sonos Era 100 is designed as a stationary, home-bound wireless speaker, whereas the Sonos Play bridges the gap between portability and domestic use thanks to its combination of a built-in battery alongside the usual wi-fi and smart-assistant powers.

Quite a lot of overlap, then, but don’t be fooled into thinking that the Play is just a Sonos Era 100 with the stabilisers taken off. Both have their place within the Sonos family – and we’re here to help you figure out what those places are and, more importantly, which one is right for you.

Sonos Era 100 vs Sonos Play: price

The Sonos Era 100 started its life at around £249 / $249 / AU$399, but that was back in 2023.

Around three years later, prices have dropped somewhat, meaning the Era 100 tends to sit at roughly the £199 / $219 / AU$319 mark, and can drop even lower when Sonos is feeling generous and there’s a lovely big sales event going on.

The Sonos Play, meanwhile, is a far newer model, having made its debut only in 2026, for a rather considerable £299 / $299 / AU$499. Prices haven’t dipped much since then, though we would speculate that, as with the Era 100, big sales events could see the Play drop in price by a decent margin. Time will tell.

For now, however, the Era 100 is the cheaper speaker of the two, so takes the win here.

**Winner: Sonos Era 100**

Sonos Era 100 vs Sonos Play: design

What we have here are two quintessentially ‘Sonos’ speakers. In terms of their design and functionality, you wouldn’t need many guesses to figure out that both the Play and the Era 100 are Sonos-made products thanks to their clean, simple aesthetic and somewhat similar designs.

They are not, of course, identical; indeed, there are quite a few major differences to distinguish one from the other.

The main difference comes from the fact that the Sonos Play is conceived, at least in part, as a portable speaker, while the Era 100 is designed purely for indoor, mains-powered use. That means that the Play is a fair bit slimmer than its Era counterpart, is easier to wrap your hand around its frame, and comes with a carry strap at the back.

The Era 100 is similarly clean and minimalist in its layout, although it’s slightly shorter and a lot wider than its portable stablemate. This not being a portable speaker, however, there is no carry handle to be found.

In terms of on-unit controls, both offer plenty. The Era 100 offers top-mounted touch-capacitive buttons for accessing music playback and voice control, with a clever volume slider in the form of a ‘trough’ also mounted on the top panel. A switch to turn the microphone on/off is situated at the rear.

The Play doesn’t have that distinctive trough slider, but its rubber top hosts four physical buttons – two for volume, one for muting/unmuting your voice assistant and a play/pause toggle – while the spine houses a Bluetooth pairing button, a microphone on/off toggle and a large power button.

Both offer USB-C connections at their respective rears, either for charging or for a wired connection for sources such as a turntable or music player. Note, however, that you will need a USB-C to 3.5mm aux adapter if you did want to hard-wire a source; this currently costs £19 / $19 via the Sonos website, so it’s not exactly cheap.

The mains-powered Sonos Era 100 is designed to stay put within your home, so it isn’t furnished with an IP rating and we wouldn’t suggest having an open can of Diet Coke put anywhere near it. The Play, conversely, is designed to be rugged and portable, and sports an IP67 rating to keep it protected from dust ingress and submersion in water.

Two similar-looking speakers built for somewhat different tasks, then; but, for its greater versatility and portability, we’re handing the win to the Sonos Play.

**Winner: Sonos Play**

Sonos Era 100 vs Sonos Play: features

These speakers are absolutely feature-packed, so deep breath: here we go.

The Sonos Era 100 is getting a little long in the tooth, but it still has plenty of mod cons to keep in step with the newer Play. Both speakers offer standard Bluetooth streaming or can connect to your home network for a host of wi-fi-enabled playback options, with support for most mainstream streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify Connect, Amazon Music and Tidal.

Both support hi-res files up to 24-bit/48kHz from Qobuz and Amazon Music and can be controlled by your voice or via the Sonos app, courtesy either of Amazon Alexa or the built-in Sonos Voice Control assistant. Just be aware that some of the major streaming services can't be integrated with your chosen voice assistant, so asking your speaker to "play something from Tidal", for example, can't be done in either case.

Both offer AirPlay 2 and a USB-C line-in options, although we reiterate that you will need a specific adapter and cable for wired connections.

Both are capable of forming a stereo pair, and both can be included as part of a wider Sonos multi-room system. For home cinema fans, you can use your Era 100 as rear surround speakers with the likes of the Sonos Arc, Beam and Ray soundbars.

With the Era 100 and the Play, you can calibrate your speaker's output for the room it is placed in using the Trueplay tuning feature, either by using an iPhone device’s integrated microphones (for iOS users), or else use the speakers own mics to ‘Quick Tune’ if you use an Android device.

Being a slimmer, portable unit, the Play is capable of taking things a step further, quite literally, thanks to its 24-hour battery life and IP67 waterproof rating.

As we wrote in our review, it's “best to think of the Sonos Play in the same way you might regard the established Move 2: a portable speaker that can also plug into the mains and slot into your home wi-fi network and, if you wish, integrate within your Sonos multi-room system.”

The Play's Bluetooth powers are handy for when you’re roaming about and need a quick and easy wireless connection to your device, and you can use Bluetooth to connect twin Plays together either via the app or pressing the play/pause button on your desired device for around two seconds.

By contrast, you can't use Bluetooth to connect two Era 100s together into a stereo pair – that has to be done via wi-fi.

Both are pretty much identical in terms of their streaming features, with the Play and Era 100 boasting versatility to spare. The Play does have the added benefit of a built-in battery making it suitable for outdoor as well as indoor use, though, meaning it just steals a win here.

**Winner: Sonos Play**

Sonos Era 100 vs Sonos Play: sound

The Sonos Play houses a trio of Class H amplifiers powering two angled tweeters and a mid driver, as well as dual force-cancelling passive radiators which aim for deep bass and reduced internal vibrations. Its Era 100 counterpart, meanwhile, boasts twin angled tweeters with custom waveguides and an enlarged woofer, all powered by their own dedicated Class D amplifier.

The results are impressive in both cases, and we’d be surprised if either of these speakers left you feeling let down in the audio department. The smaller Play is capable in many aspects, giving music a feeling of poise and control as it blends ample clarity with plenty of muscle and power.

There is certainly decent clout at the bottom end, and as we say in our review, the speaker’s bass response “sounds taut and punchy, evidenced by the Play firmly handling those opening drum thumps on Michael Jackson’s iconic Billie Jean.”

Yes, it can be a little route-one in how it presents your tunes, but in general, Sonos’s do-it-all candidate has a lot going for it. As our review concludes: “Whether pumping out some Gorillaz in the garden or streaming a slice of Stevie Wonder in the sitting room, its clear, confident and controlled sound is rarely a chore to listen to. We’d like it to flex to accommodate different musical styles, but sonically, this [is] an admirable effort.”

The Era 100, conversely, is the smart choice if sound is your number one priority. The Era’s dedication to performance first continues to shine through, even as its slightly more advanced age.

It’s a wider speaker with more drive units and more power, and the resultant sound is more spacious, more detailed and with greater stretch in the bass than its portable counterpart can muster. Dynamics are more confidently revealed, too, with the Era 100’s stellar blend of openness and dynamism making for a remarkably confident, cinematic experience.

The chunkier speaker’s balance is, in fact, pretty much spot on. As we wrote at the time: “There’s an ease with which Sonos delivers every track we play through it. It never feels dull or distant, nor does it try to attract your attention unduly; this is an overall pleasing sound that is comfortable to listen to for hours.”

The Era 100 plumbs greater sonic depths than the slightly leaner Play, and while that lower-end delivery could easily become overbearing, the Era 100 is adept at giving challenging basslines genuine shape and texture thanks to its dextrous, agile nature.

It may be a little older, but it's certainly no less bold. The Era 100 remains a five-star performer on the audio front, and while the Play makes a decent account of itself, its established stablemate is the one to pick if sound is what matters most.

A clear and deserved win for the fantastic Era 100.

**Winner: Sonos Era 100**

Sonos Era 100 vs Sonos Play: verdict

What we have here are two speakers built with two distinct purposes in mind, although a degree of overlap does muddy the waters somewhat. Allow us, then, to make things simple for you.

If you want a Sonos speaker that straddles the outdoor and the indoor world, the Play is the one to pick. It isn’t quite on the Era 100’s level in terms of sound, but its bulging feature set, portable design and still-decent performance make it a solid pick for anyone who seeks solid sound across a range of different use cases.

If you just want an excellent-sounding wireless smart speaker that is baked into the Sonos ecosystem and prioritises sound above all else, go for the Sonos Era 100. It’s built nicely, still has enough neat tricks to keep even the most feature-hungry consumer happy, and its sound really is excellent.

**Overall winner: Sonos Era 100**

MORE:

Which Sonos speaker should you buy? Find out here

Check out our top tips to get the most out of the Sonos Play wireless speaker

These are the best smart speakers money can buy

With my Sonos Roam having failed a few months earlier, I had to buy something with my own money.

On a near-zero budget, I of course headed over to our list of best budget Bluetooth speakers and ordered the cheapest option – the JBL Go 4.

My, what a brilliant little speaker it is! Despite the super-low cost of just £30ish and the pocketable dimensions, the Go 4 sounds clean, controlled and surprisingly weighty. It goes much louder than I expected, too.

Needless to say, the Go 4 was a hit on our holiday, and it’s had plenty of use since, particularly in the garden, where it hangs handily off one of the utensil pegs of my barbecue.

I’ve recommended it to lots of people, too, including my dad, who also bought one and thinks it's brilliant.

Quite incredibly, though, I recently found a Bluetooth speaker that makes the JBL look expensive. That speaker is the smallest model in Ikea’s (yes, that Ikea) Vappeby range, and it costs just £10.

A tenner for a Bluetooth speaker from a reputable brand? That’s nuts. So nuts, I just had to buy one.

Unboxing

The Vappeby doesn’t hide its cheapness particularly well.

Thicker and more cube-like than the JBL, it has a hard plastic finish and no branding. A bit “My First Speaker”, but not without charm – the perforated front is neat, and the striped strap is really rather fetching.

And it looks cheap because it is cheap, which is perfectly fair enough.

The little Vappeby is waterproof, too, which is pretty generous for a speaker costing only a tenner, and it charges via USB-C – although it’s worth noting that you don’t get a cable with it, let alone a full charger.

Charging isn’t something you’ll need to do often, at least, because Ikea claims a fully charged Vappeby will play music at 50 per cent volume for 80 hours. Impressive stuff.

Sound quality

The problem, though, is that even just 20 minutes of listening to the Vappeby is too long.

Even the sound effects that play when you power the speaker on or put it into pairing mode are shrill and tinny.

Play some actual music and the rendition is small, thin and congested. Voices are reedy and sibilant, while instruments blur together into a bright, indistinct mix.

I kid you not, listening to music via my iPhone’s built-in speakers is actually preferable overall to listening via the Vappeby.

The little Ikea isn’t a complete bust: it goes fairly loud for a dinky speaker, and even at full volume it still has some headroom left to deliver some dynamic range.

A £30 benchmark

But it’s completely demolished by the Go 4 in every way. JBL’s even smaller speaker is coherent, smooth, relatively bassy, detailed and natural-sounding. It’s actually a joy to listen to, which the Vappeby decidedly is not.

And that’s the problem for the Ikea speaker: it’s a really unpleasant listen.

It might seem that I’m being harsh on a little speaker that costs just £10, but why would you want to spend £10 to make your music sound even worse than it does coming out of your phone?

You wouldn’t, is my guess. So don’t buy the Ikea Vappeby, is my advice. Save a little more and buy the JBL Go 4 instead – you won’t regret it.

MORE:

Check out our full JBL Go 4 review

Here are all of the best budget Bluetooth speakers you can buy right now

So it was with high hopes that we came to review one of its latest offerings: the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S. This is a soundbar and subwoofer combo that comes in at £799 / $1100 (around AU$1510).

While you can buy the soundbar on its own, we recommend spending a little extra for the combined package (for reasons you will understand soon).

The two products deliver a 5.1.2-channel configuration, and offer both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support.

But what did we learn from our hours of listening to the soundbar package in our dedicated test room? Well, spoiler alert, but it’s an absolute delight that spices up our listening experience for both music and movies. Let’s take a look at what makes it so great and the two challenges it faces.

Convincing Dolby Atmos presentation

The least we expect from a soundbar is that it outperforms the majority of TV speakers in terms of dialogue clarity and immersion. The Sony system delivers on this and then some.

Vocals are clear yet emotive, and should be a welcome addition for those struggling to catch every word of dialogue.

But one of the most impressive aspects of the Sony package is its immersive and convincing Dolby Atmos effects. This is prevalent when watching Top Gun Maverick where the soundbar stretches the height effects above the TV screen as a jet soars into the atmosphere.

There’s a good level of precision with the plane, as you can pinpoint its position from the audio alone as it moves through the sky.

This impressive display continues with the width of the soundstage, as Tom Cruise whizzes across the desert from the right side of the screen to the left on his trusty motorcycle. We say in the review: “You can hear the bike move across the space in a way that matches the movement on the screen.”

That all creates an immersive experience that makes for fun viewing. It doesn’t create the full dome of Atmos sound, but that is a near-impossible task for a soundbar at this price.

Tight, precise bass

Another aspect that adds to the sense of energy is the well-handled bass from the subwoofer.

When we first plug in the package without any adjustments, we find, in our test room, that the bass is slightly lacking. So we crank it up from the default 0 to 2 via the Bravia Connect app; and we are now treated to a balanced but punchy bass.

The lower frequencies never stand out as abrupt or overzealous, however, and everything is kept in check with the rest of the sound.

We listen to the soundbar on its own and, although it still offers clear vocals and convincing surround sound, it is missing the extra zap of energy that makes the combination such a winner. The sub and soundbar sound as though they are tuned to work together, which is why we dub the overall system a “match made in heaven” in our review.

Neat design

While the sound quality is of course our main concern, it would be naive to think that looks do not play a part. After all, this set-up needs to blend into your viewing space with enough room to fit just under your TV screen.

The Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S ticks both of these boxes in our test room, offering a sleek design that is hard to fault. The front of the bar is covered with a cloth grille that gives it a stylish look.

On top of that, the soundbar measures 95cm wide and just 6cm high, so it fits neatly under our 55-inch TV screen.

The subwoofer measures 36 x 35 x 13cm (hwd) so can neatly and fairly discreetly be tucked next to your TV stand.

There is also an extra element of flexibility that comes with the subwoofer. You can use it in two different positions, with the grille facing either the listener or the side of the room. We try it in each configuration, but there is not much of a difference in presentation. It ultimately depends on what arrangement works for you.

No display

Despite the practical design, there is a key aspect missing that we are a little disappointed not to see.

You will not find a display on the soundbar, and there are no physical buttons either. That makes it tricky to navigate the settings without the accompanying Bravia Connect app.

There is still a small remote control, which lets you control the power, input, bass levels, volume and turn on Night mode. But that lack of display makes it hard to decipher whether it has registered your adjustments via the app or the remote control.

Up against a big competitor

The Sony soundbar manages to deliver a five-star performance, but it is up against tough competition. This comes in the form of the indomitable Sonos Arc Ultra, a single bar that scored a What Hi-Fi? Award last year and holds the title of the best soundbar overall in our guide.

It is more expensive than the Sony system, costing £999 / $999 / AU$1799, but it is still a top challenger to the new entrant.

The Sonos Arc Ultra blew us away when we had it in our test room, delivering spacious and three-dimensional sound as well as a deep, tuneful bass.

We put the two soundbars head to head and find in our review: “The Sonos offers a richer overall sound with warmer vocals that have more character than the Sony. But the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 and subwoofer combo delivers a more precise sound that feels more agile in comparison.”

Their different designs are also worth taking into account. The Sonos model is considerably larger than its rival (7.5 x 118 x 11cm versus the Sony’s 6.4 x 95 x 13cm). That means the Bar 7 might well be a better fit for smaller living spaces.

Both bars are top performers, but the Arc Ultra just manages to edge its rival, thanks to its more characterful audio. If your budget cannot stretch to the Arc Ultra, though, the Sony subwoofer and soundbar combo is a great option for less money.

MORE:

Read our full review of the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S

Check out the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Here is our Sonos Arc Ultra review

The company’s much-covered app update was infamously poorly received, while patchy form on the audio front – from the middling debut of the Ace over-ear headphones to the disappointing Roam 2 Bluetooth speaker – struggled to win us back around.

Now entering this tricky landscape is the Sonos Play. The brand describes the Play as a “compact portable smart speaker”, with the new model blending streaming smarts with voice control, Bluetooth powers and a built-in battery to cover as many bases as possible in a bid to give Sonos that much-needed win.

There’s a lot on the Play’s shoulders, then: the ‘Play’ name is a throwback to Sonos’ older line of superb speakers, so is this the speaker that puts Sonos back on the right track?

Price

The Sonos Play comes with a premium price tag. Still, at £299 / $299 / AU$499, it’s a good chunk cheaper than its larger Move 2 counterpart was at launch (£449 / $449 / AU$799), hovering around the same sort of territory as the Apple HomePod 2 smart speaker (£299 / $299 / AU$479) and its WiiM Sound rival (£299 / $299 / approx AU$499).

If you’re after something that’s focused purely on portability, the Award-winning, Bluetooth-only JBL Charge 6 can be yours for at most £170 / $199 / AU$200, although it doesn’t have the same extensive arsenal of features as the Sonos or its smart speaker counterparts.

Closer to the Play’s price, you can also get the much larger JBL Xtreme 4 Bluetooth portable for around £230 / $299 / AU$329.

Build & design

The Play is something of a middle child for Sonos’ established range of portable and semi-portable wireless speakers.

It’s larger than the Toblerone-esque tubes of the slimline Sonos Roam and Roam 2, and puts us in mind of a scaled-down version of the rather bulky, wide-fronted Sonos Move 2. If you’re not so familiar with the established Sonos range, imagine a decent-sized hardcover book or a scaled-down bathroom bin and you’re most of the way there.

Either way, this is a Sonos product through and through, and in general, that’s a good thing. Sonos is not known for its slipshod approach to product design, and while you might find that it tends to err on the side of rather understated, utilitarian aesthetics when designing its speakers, this is unquestionably a well made product

The speaker is weighty in-hand (1.3kg is hardly feather-light for a portable unit), with the main body comprising a wrap-around grille topped by a rubberised top section, which feeds into another rubber strip running along the backside.

That rubber top hosts four physical buttons – two for volume, one for muting/unmuting your voice assistant and a play/pause toggle – while the spine houses a Bluetooth pairing control, a microphone toggle and a large power button. You’re also furnished with a removable, but sadly not adjustable, “utility loop", which you can hook around your finger for easier carrying.

A small LED display at the front gives you various status indicators, though we’d echo our sentiments from previous Sonos models that having a larger light would make this easier to see from afar.

The Play is designed to be portable, so there’s mettle and grit hiding beneath that rather unassuming facade. The speaker boasts a very solid IP67 rating to keep it protected from dust ingress and submersion in water, with garden hose splashes and a quick dunk in our office sink seeing the Play prove its all-terrain credentials with relative ease.

Two finishes are available – black or white – though we’d mention that, while our black sample shows little signs of the rigours to which we subject it during our tests, we wonder if its pristine all-white counterpart might be more susceptible to showing stains and scuffs after a time. If you plan on taking your speaker on outdoor adventures rather than keeping it cooped up inside or going as far as the back garden, the black option might be the one to pick.

Features

It’s best to think of the Sonos Play in the same way you might regard the established Move 2: a portable speaker that can also plug into the mains and slot into your home wi-fi network and, if you wish, integrate within your Sonos multi-room system.

As such, the Play offers Bluetooth 5.3 for when you’re roaming about and just need a quick and simple wireless connection from your smartphone, with pairing swift and stable during our tests.

It also has a very healthy 24 hours of battery life from a single charge. That’s a decent number, matching the standard lifespan of the JBL Charge 6 and the Sonos Move 2, and easily outstripping the 10 or so hours you’ll get from the smaller Roam 2.

Wi-fi compatibility offers you a more comprehensive streaming suite than most standard Bluetooth speaker rivals, with the Play granting support for the likes of Spotify Connect, Apple Music, Tidal via the Sonos app, as well as AirPlay 2. There’s no playing ball with higher quality Bluetooth codecs such as aptX HD or LDAC here, but the Sonos Play is capable of streaming files up to 24-bit/48kHz from most mainstream streaming services over wi-fi.

This being a Sonos speaker, multi-room capabilities act as a major feather in the Play’s proverbial cap. Grouping the speaker together with compatible Sonos devices, such as other Plays, the larger Move 2 or the slimline Sonos Roam 2, is a simple process – you can use the app to drag devices into your preferred group, a process which we find simple, intuitive and easy to navigate.

That simple process is done via the Sonos app, which, when it works well, is in-depth, easy to use and impressively comprehensive. Our problem is that too many times during our testing, the app suffers from usability glitches, often refusing to perform basic functions without explanation. We attempt to link Absolute Radio to our Sonos account, for instance, and only on the third attempt do we achieve a successful pairing – our first two tries are thwarted by an unhelpful error message. We hope these kinks are smoothed out with a firmware update.

Charging is performed using a supplied charging dock with USB-C cable, but there’s no power adapter in the box, so you’ll need to buy one separately (£19 / $19) from Sonos if you don’t already have one. There’s a USB-C port at the back of the speaker, either for charging or to connect an external audio source like a music player or turntable via a line-in adapter.

On the subject of charging, you can use the Play like a portable power bank by simply plugging a USB-C cable and keeping your smartphone juiced up on the go.

There are further tricks to be found to make usability easier, too. You can connect twin Sonos Plays via the app or simply by using Bluetooth – pressing the play/pause button for around two seconds on your Sonos Play will group it together with the speaker that’s currently playing Bluetooth audio. That’s a handy bonus if you’ve taken a few Plays out on your adventures and need a quick and effective way of getting stereo sound without wi-fi or app access.

Speaking of twins, you even get dual voice assistant support for your Sonos speaker, with Sonos’ own voice assistant sitting alongside Amazon’s ever-clever Alexa AI. You’ll need to set up and confirm permission to use Alexa via the separate Amazon app, but once that’s done, she’s easy to summon with a quick call of “Hello Alexa”.

Sound

Sonos never divulges the power rating of its speakers, but we know that the Play sports three Class H amplifiers powering two angled tweeters and a mid-woofer driver, as well as dual force-cancelling passive radiators which aim for deep bass and minimised vibrations.

The resultant sound is impressive in many respects. The Play covers the sonic basics admirably, and while that might sound like damning with faint praise, it’s no guarantee that a speaker of this size and type can put music together as convincingly and cohesively as our test sample manages.

As we pump out a recording of Ramin Djawadi’s The King’s Arrival from the soundtrack to Game Of Thrones, the Play gives the composition an appropriately regal feel – poised, clear, controlled, and with ample muscle to spare, it’s a powerful and convincing opening salvo.

Unlike Game Of Thrones, which really went downhill as its run came to a close, the Sonos Play doesn’t suffer a disastrous drop off when we switch to something completely different. Massive Attack’s Atlas Air gives the Play a new challenge, with the speaker striking a fine balance between weighty punch and composed control as it tackles the track with a professional, capable precision.

There’s ample bass muscle, but the Play’s clear, controlled character and disciplined signature stops that lower end from spilling out all over the place – instead, it sounds taut and punchy, evidenced by the Play firmly handles those opening drum thumps on Michael Jackson’s iconic Billie Jean.

How does the Play stack up against its key rivals? When placed side by side with Apple’s five-star HomePod 2 and with both speakers playing via AirPlay, it’s clear that the Sonos Play’s clear, punchy yet precise sound contrasts with the airier and more free-flowing temperament of the HomePod 2.

The mains-powered HomePod 2 is also a little more nuanced in how it handles instrumental timbres, granting more subtlety and texture to instruments – rich violin strokes, tumbling drum fills, tinkling pianos – making for a more natural listen than the ever-so-slightly mechanical Play.

We also find that the Sonos can tend to paint music with the same brush. Capable and controlled as it sounds, we do sometimes feel as though the speaker isn’t that flexible in its delivery – whether it’s The King’s Arrival or Elvis Costello’s Veronica, everything tends to sound a little uniform no matter the genre.

Veronica is a thin, zippy recording with a character all of its own, but some of that inherent leanness is lost as the Sonos just slightly imposes its own style on Costello’s bittersweet ditty when we listen over Bluetooth.

The five-star, cheaper JBL Charge 6 may sound harder and less forgiving when also playing via Bluetooth, but it brings out the essence of various musical styles – be it Costello, Chappell Roan or Chris Cornell – with greater expressiveness and insight.

Still, our overall impressions of the Play remain positive. Whether pumping out some Gorillaz in the garden or streaming a slice of Stevie Wonder in the sitting room, its clear, confident and controlled sound is rarely a chore to listen to. We’d like it to bend and flex to accommodate different musical styles and genres more readily, but sonically, this remains an admirable effort.

Verdict

The Sonos Play has a lot going for it. It’s hugely versatile and undeniably talented, while its ability to bridge the gap between home and outdoor use potentially saves the need for buying two separate speakers. In that regard, the Play is more than capable of justifying its reasonably lofty price tag.

If you simply need a dedicated specialist – be it a purely portable pal or a static wireless smart speaker – more sonically talented rivals are available. That said, if you’re seeking a do-it-all speaker that’s as happy slotting into your multi-room set-up as it is being taken down to the seaside, the Play makes a good deal of sense.