The price of Marshall's Dolby Atmos soundbar hasn't budged for Black Friday – but there's a five-star alternative that costs £180 less

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Black Friday has turned into Cyber Monday, and there are still plenty of great deals...

Marshall Heston 120 soundbar in test room
(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

If you don't have the space or budget for a multi-speaker system in your living room, investing in a soundbar may suit your needs perfectly well. And, for those wanting an immersive audio performance that can take the cinematic experience even further, choosing a soundbar with Dolby Atmos support is a great option.

With a range of different Atmos soundbars on offer, it can be difficult to know which ones are worth buying. Take the Marshall Heston 120, for instance, a 5.1.2-channel soundbar that marked the brand's first leap into the category. The soundbar launched at £900, placing it neatly in the upper end of the soundbar market.

But these low-level dynamics do not handle dramatic shifts very well, resulting in an overall flat and uninteresting performance. We say in the review: "It’s a soundbar that is capable of going quite loud, but it doesn’t seem either willing or able to produce the volume changes necessary to deliver real drama. In fact, we even wondered if Night mode had been activated inadvertently (it hadn’t)."

The Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra is available for £719 at Richer Sounds, lopping a whole £280 off its original price.

A Sonos alternative that ticks all the right boxes

Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar

(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

So what makes this model stand out from the rest? For starters, the Sonos Arc Ultra offers a level of precision and detail that is incredibly rare to find in a soundbar at this price point.

We note in our review while watching Blade Runner 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."

It delivers an excellent bass performance as well, certainly outdoing the Marshall Heston 120 in terms of low-level dynamics. While it doesn't go to floor-shaking levels of bass, the low-frequency notes hit with lots of force and stop precisely.

In terms of connectivity, there's wi-fi and Bluetooth support as well as an HDMI eARC output to easily connect to your TV, where it will become your TV's speakers with no need for a remote. We would have liked to have seen a few more HDMI sockets but that won't be a huge issue for most people.

So, if you're hunting for a premium Dolby Atmos soundbar to take your home cinema's audio to the next level, the Sonos Arc Ultra is an easy recommendation. And the £280 Cyber Monday saving at Richer Sounds makes this a no-brainer.

Robyn Quick
Robyn Quick

Robyn Quick is a Staff Writer for What Hi Fi?. After graduating from Cardiff University with a postgraduate degree in magazine journalism, they have worked for a variety of film and culture publications. In their spare time, Robyn can be found playing board games too competitively, going on cinema trips and learning muay thai.

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