Sonos is no stranger to the world of soundbars. The Sonos Arc Ultra is widely regarded as one of the best soundbars on the market — but its $1,100 sticker price makes it a tough sell when wallets are stretched thin.
That’s where the new Sonos Beam Ultra coms in. Announced early at an event in New York City on September 1, the new mid-range soundbar sports two dedicated up-firing drivers and a redesigned center channel that deliver clearer dialogue.
From everything I've seen on it, the Beam Ultra is a compact 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos soundbar that fits everything I love about its more-expensive sibling into a $700 price point. Here’s what makes it the soundbar to watch when it becomes available on September 29.
Big sound, small package
The current-generation Sonos Beam (2nd Gen) does a great job with its 5.0-channel configuration — but the Beam Ultra uses nine speakers, including the two additional up-firing drivers, that are going to make a world of difference for surround sound movie soundtracks.
While the new Beam Ultra won’t ship with any satellite speakers or subwoofers, the Beam Ultra is compatible with the whole Sonos ecosystem including, of course, the Sonos Sub and Sonos Sub Mini that can be used for a meatier low-end.
Sonos says the newly designed center channel driver enables clearer dialogue and can tap into four levels of AI Speech Enhancement for even more pronounced mids, as well as a Night Sound mode when you want to cut back on any wall-rattling frequencies.
Last but not least, Sonos says the new Beam Ultra will support the brand’s Trueplay technology that takes an aural image of the room and adjusts the output of the sound accordingly. It’s a handy feature, though one that never quite matches the effects of proper sound dampening in my experience.
The Beam Ultra offers both brains and brawn
In addition to its revamped internals, the Sonos Beam Ultra will leverage the company’s new Sonos 27 smart platform. Those words might scare you considering that the last time the company launched a new smart platform, it went so poorly that it cost the CEO his job — but Sonos 27 feels like it could actually make the platform better overall.
Key features in the latest platform are Sonos 27voice and Sonos 27mcp. The former is Sonos’ new voice assistant that will live (I assume) alongside Alexa, while the latter allows you to connect your Sonos ecosystem to any outside AI assistant or agent.
Eventually, Sonos will allow users to design their own custom agents — with a matching persona and voice — but details on that are relatively slim at the moment.
Eventually, Sonos will allow users to design their own custom agents — with a matching persona and voice
Finally, anyone who uses Sonos portable speakers like the Move 2 or Sonos Play will be able to use them in a future update as surround sound speakers for the Beam Ultra. This feature, dubbed Sonos Fabric, uses high-frequency sound that enables Sonos products to “sense each other” and “adapt to the moment.”
We'll certainly test that ourselves when the feature becomes available at some point in the future.
Sony, eat your heart out
Sonos isn't the only one going after the more modest soundbar market — this is Sony, Samsung and LG's bread and butter.
Each year, the trio of TV-makers deliver a half dozen of sub-$1,000 soundbars into the market, and every year they get gobbled up during sales events like Black Friday and, to a lesser extent, Super Bowl Sunday.
On paper, the Sonos Beam Ultra delivers a lot of value — potentially a whole lot more than what the competition offers — but $700 is still a pretty hefty chunk of change.
Is it worth the scratch? We'll know more after we hear it for ourselves at the New York event and bring it into our own homes for comparison testing sometime around its September 29 launch date.
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