sometimes i can tell i'm dealing with a great product because i can't wait to
make a video about it other times it's because i find making the video darn
near impossible because every time i sit down to use it i end up playing with it
instead of working and that's not really what i expected from a sound
bar like who even cares about sound bars if you wanted a clean setup you'd just
use your built-in audio and if you wanted decent sound quality you'd buy
real speakers and yet here we are
many attempts to write this video that turned into movie watching sessions
later and i'm finally ready to tell you about my time with the sonos arc
a sound bar that doesn't suck today's video is
brought to you by ruggable protect your floors from your computer chair with
ruggable they're machine washable and stay in place with their non-slip pads
use offer code Linus 10 to get 10 off your order at the link below
the last time i formally reviewed a sonos product back in 2014 i loved both
the style and the seamless software experience but i was let down by the
price and the sound quality which is sort of a bummer for a speaker fast
forward to today and immediately upon opening the box the style was as good or
better than last time the arc features a clean and modern industrial design
that's outstanding for its ability to
not stand out and blend in perfectly with its environment leaving my full
attention for my tv and then things quickly fell apart when i got to the
software as a user of some of sonos's older home speakers and amplifiers i was
immediately prompted during my arc setup to update to the new s2 version of their
app and then i was warned that i actually might have to split my older
devices and newer ones according to compatibility that's not great for a
whole home unified ecosystem experience
making me even more hesitant was the atrocious rating of the s2 app on the
google play store so i actually ended up not even listening to the arc for the
first couple of days while i researched what the impact was going to be the
thing is updates on devices like this have a nasty habit of being irreversible
and it didn't work at all without going
through the setup process making matters worse my enthusiasm for it took another
hit when i realized that the ark has no built-in HDMI switch that's right it
doesn't even have a single HDMI input to replace the e-arc one that it occupies
in your tv that takes me down from five total inputs with my previous lg
soundbar to just three fortunately on
the software side my legacy sonos bridge was the only problematic device and it's
no longer required anyway so i was able to just take it out and migrate
everything to the s2 app which lets you fine-tune tonality and audio sync along
with allowing you to turn off the light for better immersion disable the onboard
touch controls if you have a curious toddler and toggle the ir repeater
function depending on whether the arc blocks your tv remote's receiver or not
i felt like the app could use some knobs for
dsp adjustments like you know how big the room should sound and stuff like
that but overall i appreciated the less is more simplicity of it as for the lack
of HDMI ports well that's just
less is less and i'm still pretty unhappy about it my logitech harmony
universal remote did sync up with the arc flawlessly so i guess it's just a
matter of adding an HDMI switch to my setup or something but i do still think
that that's a big deficiency in a product at this price when i can buy a
well-rated one on amazon for literally half the price that allows me to connect
more devices includes surround speakers and also includes a subwoofer yes my
friends at a thousand us dollars with the only real extras being dolby atmos
support with upward firing speakers and of course sonos's whole home audio
synchronization through their app or apple airplay 2 the arc had a lot to
live up for me when i turned it on for the first time shockingly despite my
press x to doubt initial reaction to the marketing materials that include the
usual nonsense about oscar-winning sound engineers blessing it with their plus
five wand of acoustic brilliance or whatever i mean it's still a sound bar
right no no actually it made a really
good first impression right out of the gate the ark impressed me with its
outstanding dialogue clarity men women children groups of men women
and children talking over each other all of them were noticeably better than
my previous sound bar to the point where i can't even find any complaints
compared to my old 3.1 setup with a dedicated av receiver that's a really
big deal remember guys a lot of people start shopping for a sound bar in the
first place because they're having trouble understanding what people are
saying on their moving picture box and it only got better from there the lg
setup that i replaced was more expensive
and came with a subwoofer but frankly speaking outside of scenes with
very low engine rumbles or large explosions
i couldn't see the benefit of my old two-piece setup against the ark all by
its lonesome but then again my previous sound bar also felt good enough until i
sat down and watched one of the more musical episodes of my little pony with
my kids only to realize that the background music
anytime there was lyrics was an absolute
mess i mean it was so bad that i was at the point where i was considering
tearing out the new media console to make room to put my speakers back in
until i hooked up the ark it was an absolute breath of fresh air i mean
don't kid yourself it's not a full-fledged diy grade home theater
setup with a receiver and i'm sure there's better bang for the buck out
there but in such a compact and attractive package i have no complaints
with respect to performance none everything from clarity to soundstage to
rumble vastly exceeded my expectations and if you're the kind of person who
wants good enough performance without a mess of wires you can stop watching now
and buy it at the link in the video description seal of approval at least
for news and tv if you intend to make the ark the center of your movie
watching experience and you want even better performance sonos also allows you
to add a subwoofer so i asked if they could send one over they dug out a
loaner unit of their generation 2 sub and i went through the 5 minute process
of adding it to my home setup and assigning it to the same room as the ark
the only thing here that i found a little unintuitive was the calibration
process where the sub plays a loud low
note and then asks you to dial it back if it's overwhelming i found it very
overwhelming and i set it to -3 but then i found that when i actually loaded up
any content i needed to crank it way back up to default though thankfully
that was easy enough to do from within the app as for how much the sub helps
well if you like the channel then we really do appreciate if you do it hey
get it no anyway sorry as for how much the
subwoofer helps if i was spending this kind of money i would go for it it even
manages to look good in my living room but the difference in experience wasn't
nearly as night and day as i was expecting based on my experiences with
other sub-less sound bar setups and i
don't mean that as a criticism of the gen 2 sub you know should have got the
gen 3. it's reasonably punchy it's not overdone i just mean that the arc does a
pretty good job of handling the low end on its own and anyone who's living in a
townhouse or a condo should just save their money and buy a stealth hoodie on
lttstore.com instead the biggest difference for me was that allowing the
sub to take some of that low end burden off of the arc really lets the arc put
forward its best clarity dialogue background effects and music were all
well separated and a little easier to enjoy without any of them distracting
from each other with the arc plus sub combo so in conclusion sonos it might
not save your company from your other big problems like simply not being able
to build enough products to meet customer demand as of the time of
writing there's a three week wait for the arc but you guys have clearly come a long
way in terms of bringing your performance up to the same level as your
software and
i'm getting a call right now but i'm like three words away from the end
i'm pleasantly surprised who is this hi
oh he just wanted me to tell you about our sponsor drop.com featuring the pc38x
gaming headset they built it in collaboration with sennheiser and it
features an open back design based on the respected pc37x but with some added
enhancements they've re-tuned the drivers to deliver higher fidelity and
better frequency response the driver impedance is now just 28 ohms for use
with gaming controllers or other lower power devices and the new knit mesh
headband features less heat retention and better comfort it includes two sets
of cables for either your pc or console and two sets of ear pads both knit mesh
and velour buy yours today at the link down below
if you guys enjoyed this video maybe check out the one where i took my living room from xero to
what you're looking at right now courtesy of lg ooh or maybe the one
where i built that sick vr gaming rig down there
it's water cooled