Punchy bass. From a soundbar. I’m surprised, because soundbars aren’t known as the pinnacle of audio quality, but rather an acceptable compromise to some who don’t want or care for the expense of a full surround system, but who also would appreciate something significantly better than the absolutely awful, tinny, crap speakers built into all TVs.

Yet the Arc Ultra, the long-awaited follow-up to the original Arc, is worth the price of admission. It’s not cheap, even when it’s $100 off, but I’ve been waiting for it to go on sale from its $999 price since it launched on October 29, 2024. That day is finally here.

rarely on sale

Sonos isn’t a sale-happy brand. Rather than follow Apple into the slide of having most of its goods constantly on one sale or another, Sonos seems content to keep up the appearances of a “What, us? Go on sale? Pish posh!” brand eager to maintain its perennial status as a brand of premium luxury items.

It only works because Sonos keeps putting out fantastic products… even if it did piss off its users with a glitchy app not too long ago. Whatever. It’s been fixed now since at least when the Arc Ultra went on sale last October.

Trueplay, a fine-tuning tool accessed through the Sonos app, works surprisingly well to effect spatial audio that bounces sound around the room and mimic a true surround sound system, although I’m not the only person to have had better results from using the simplified Trueplay setting compared to the more involved setup that involves scanning the room.

Weird, but OK. As long as it ended up sounding as good as it did. I’ve got a habit of recommending the Vizio M-Series soundbars to people looking for a budget upgrade to their TV’s awful speakers, and I’ll maintain that recommendation, because the Sonos isn’t budget. Not even on a deal.

But is it worth $900? For sure. It makes a very solid case for itself as a premium soundbar that sounds noticeably better than the Vizio. And as an apartment dweller on whom an ultra-serious surround sound system would be wasted, I can appreciate that while it won’t win a contest against a serious surround sound, it also doesn’t cost four figures.

Pair it with Sonos’ equally new and equally as impressive Sub 4 subwoofer, also on sale right now for $679, and you’re really onto something impressive.