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Sonos Arc, The premium smart soundbar for TV, movies, music and more, with Dolby Atmos. (White)

£9.9£99Clearance
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All of that effort paid off: the Sonos Arc delivers one of the most convincing Atmos presentations of any soundbar we’ve heard. Height junkies can turn up the volume of the Arc's upward-firing drivers using a separate control, but we don't find it necessary to overly boost the vertical channel to enjoy the Arc's immersive delivery. Dynamics, detail and clarity are all outstanding in the current Arc, though there is a lot to be said for how much weight and bass a home cinema product can produce too. A weightier presentation that's capable of a greater volume of bass– perhaps due to those reflex bass port improvements – would be most welcome in a sequel. More of a stretch, perhaps, but nonetheless an interesting inclusion would be RCA, optical or coaxial inputs to plug in an audio source, particularly given the increasing presence of Dolby Atmos in music.

We switch to Blade Runner 2049 and this dynamism impresses us further. The scene in which K and Joi fly out of Los Angeles and towards the orphanage transitions from loud – as waves hit the flood barrier ­– to eerily quiet, as the rain hits the car, with occasional bits of clearly projected dialogue. General stereo TV sound was great. Everything from old reruns of Midsomer Murders and NCIS to Match of the Day sounded exactly as it should: clear, crisp and full. The Arc’s dialogue clarity was truly top notch coming across sounding natural and clear at all times. Not once did I have to turn up the sound to hear what was going on, and that was without the Arc’s dedicated Speech Enhancement mode.

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Using the Arc is just as simple. Watch your TV as you normally would and the Arc will switch on and play sound. You can control the volume with your TV’s remote, using a voice assistant or the Sonos app.

What would you like to see from a second-generation Arc soundbar? Is there any area where you think positive changes could be made? Let us know in the comments below.

Sonos Arc

Playing the bombing run scene from Unbroken and we’re immediately transported to within the fuselage of the B-24 Liberator. Our listening room is filled with wind noise and the whirr of the plane’s engines, and the incidental creaks and rattles are placed in specific spots, including right in the top corners of the wall we’re sitting against. Most of these suggestions would add cost to an already very expensive sound bar and they are completely unnecessary. It's easy to see why Sonos hasn't felt the need to update the Arc yet. It was way ahead of it's time and is still one of the best. Although the native resolution of the Arc isn’t public knowledge, it is currently capable of dealing with audio files up to 16bit/48kHz resolution - that may rise to 24bit when the S2 update drops.

The setup process is designed to be as simple as possible, all done through the Sonos S2 smartphone app. (Image credit: Future) Another much-longed-for addition for the Arc (Gen 2) would be HDMI passthrough ports, allowing users to connect source devices direct to the Arc. Sonos has always steered clear of extra inputs, citing a desire to keep its users' home cinema set-up as streamlined as possible. Still, with growing numbers of input devices hogging TV HDMIs, it's a feature often found on equivalently priced products. The LED above the Sonos logo shows when the bar is muted (here lit green) or when the smart speaker functions are active. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian There’s two rear reinforced holes to wall mount the 13.78 lb (6.25 kg) unit for a forward facing mounting setup, but naturally the bass response is a little more concentrated when it can reflect off a tabletop surface.The Arc must be plugged into the ARC-capable HDMI port on your TV, which reduces the number of HDMI ports available for actually plugging in set-top boxes, games consoles and other sources. Using ARC makes it simple to connect but invites the same infuriating lipsync issues that can plague other soundbars, particularly with TV services such as Sky and Virgin in the UK.

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