Sonos Launches New Arc Soundbar With Dolby Atmos Support

[GDF]

Used to love my Sonos, but they lost me with the mess that was ‘we’re going to brick your devices’ email. I know it was more nuanced than that, but essentially they wanted to force their customers hand to upgrade and not be able to sell older, perfectly working speakers.

Although they backtracked and I still own my speakers, they have converted me from being a loyal customer to one that has zero interest in buying anything more from them.

It’s either more HomePod’s on discount for me, or wait for the rumoured new, smaller and cheaper HomePod‘s to come out.

Eh - no big deal, as the speaker would still work fine, just would not get anymore updates, as not enough memory, etc... Don’t get why people complain about that, as your current speakers still work.

No different than cell phones, tv’s, and other devices that stop getting updates and won’t do the newest and greatest if you don’t upgrade.

And for those of you that complain about price, do you complain about Apple prices when new tech comes out? We pay $1000 for a new iPhone or iPad, but can’t for a great speaker? I consider the Sonos the Apple of speakers and wish Apple would buy them. Heck - I just paid over $300 for the Magic Keyboard and love it! So, worth it to me. LOL.

 

[Jeremytg3]

I’ve had bad luck with Arc but this is interesting. Do you need to be ingrained in the Sonos ecosystem or would be his be good as a stand alone option?

 

[Moakesy]

Eh - no big deal, as the speaker would still work fine, just would not get anymore updates, as not enough memory, etc... Don’t get why people complain about that, as your current speakers still work.

No different than cell phones, tv’s, and other devices that stop getting updates and won’t do the newest and greatest if you don’t upgrade.

And for those of you that complain about price, do you complain about Apple prices when new tech comes out? We pay $1000 for a new iPhone or iPad, but can’t for a great speaker? I consider the Sonos the Apple of speakers and wish Apple would buy them. Heck - I just paid over $300 for the Magic Keyboard and love it! So, worth it to me. LOL.

But the point is they wouldn’t have still worked..

As I have a mixture of newer and older speakers, the older speakers would have stopped working once the update was applied. This was because it was ‘impossible’ for them to deliver new functionality for more recent speakers whilst keeping the old ones usable. This impossible task quickly became possible once people kicked off about it.

Also, if you did use their offer to upgrade a speaker, they’d brick your old device so you had no other choice but to chuck it in the bin.

Name me one phone manufacturing who brick your device when you upgrade? I’ve sold or given to family all of my old iPhones / ipads / MBP’s and most of them are still in use today.

Of course older devices stop being supported with new upgrades, but Sonos went further than that and took the deliberate choice that they would brick them. If they did nothing wrong, why did they apologise and then back track on their initial approach?

 

[drsox]

Still 802.11b/g, 2.4 GHz... it's *17* years old wi-fi tech...

Compatibility with existing units.
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I probably have 10 Sonos devices in my home. One “obsolete” Play:5, but as I purchased most in the last 5 years they better darned last me another 10. I can understand not getting high def and other features but it’s not like streaming audio has changed much in 10+ years.

Otherwise very happy with my setup, which includes 2 Playbars in different rooms (one with Sub).

Still have 3 Play:5s - two in use and one spare. I must have replaced them a few times, but each time one fails Sonos will sell me a new one as a half price trade-in. I guess they have abandoned that now. I originally bought them when they were called ZonePlayer S5.

 

[Someyoungguy]

"Constantly dropping support"

Those play:5s are older than a decade, yet they'll still be functioning and getting security updates after the new app launches.

I love how people use the start of manufacture instead of the end. The price never went down - people paid $499 in most of 2015 before the new play:5 came out, and as of this year got exactly 5 years before theirs was deemed a legacy product. I loved Sonos and it had its place when streaming boxes for adding to your receiver were $1,000, but I won’t be buying any more. Now, if only the HomePod would stream from my iTunes library...

 

[erasr]

Can two HomePods connect to the TV though, without Apple TV? I would much prefer two HomePod’s instead of my soundbar.

 

[enc0re]

Sonos is the millennial/gen Z Bose. Decent quality at premium prices for people afraid of learning how to wire speakers. $2000 is the price of a solid mid-range home theater system that leaves a Sonos setup in the dust with support for even 11.2MHz DSD and 384KHz/32-bit PCM. The best Sonos can do unless something has changed with this product is 24-bit/48KHz.

That’s awfully condescending. Before I switched to Sonos when the Beam was released, I had used AVR 5.1 setups for 15 years. Denon receivers, Klipsch Reference speakers (back when Reference was their upper-level line), Audyssey and all that jazz. I tied it together using universal remotes and later CEC as well.

Just because I’m a millennial in my late 30s and at this point in my life Sonos is a better solution for my whole family doesn’t mean I’m ignorant.

 

[Sci_Tech]

I wonder if they will clearance out the old gen sub...hmmm

 

[err404]

I wonder if they will clearance out the old gen sub...hmmm

There have been a lot of sales on the sound bars in recent months. I’m sure there will some sales on the older sub, but I wouldn’t expect a huge discount.

 

[ckurt25]

The other day I was about to pull the trigger on a Beam to go with my 55" Samsung TV but my TV is so old (2013) that it doesn't have either HDMI Arc or an optical port. After thinking about it, yesterday I decided to upgrade my TV to a 65" Samsung Q70 from Best Buy. This Arc looks great but I don't know if I can justify paying almost as much as I got the TV for.

Previously I owned a home with built in speakers and had a 7.1 system. I'm have the receiver still and the sub I used. If I get a beam, would it sound okay with a 65" tv? Sonos's website suggests TVs under 50" for the Beam and Arc for larger. Our townhouse is a rectangle. My living room is set up on one end with the dining on the other end and the kitchen in the middle. It's about 50'x15'. The middle of the TV screen is about 7' from a wall but very open in the other direction. We mainly sit in a couch straight in front of the TV so I'd say we're about 12' from the screen. Would a Beam sound okay in that type of room? I was even thinking of using the old receiver and sub. I'd run my 4K Apple TV to the receiver, to the TV, to the Beam. With the sub connected to the receiver, would that work? In time, I could also spring for a pair of the SL Ones to pair with the Beam.

Thoughts?

 

[DeepIn2U]

Still 802.11b/g, 2.4 GHz... it's *17* years old wi-fi tech...

And obviously ubiquitous to just about any home having a Wi-Fi router. Wi-Fi 6 will not bring any benefit to a sound bar speaker.

Apple Audio Engineers and Tim Cook. This is a HUGE market and you're heavily missing out on BIG dollars here - especially with synergies of your ecosystem!! Pick up your socks and time to drop the rocks.

 

[JamesMay82]

3. I ran into this issue with a 2016 Panasonic and playbar.

I initially solved it using an optional switch, which was a pain in the butt.

I eventually found an HDMI ARC to Optical box which works for me, I think it was the 3rd one I tried that finally worked on the Panasonic.

PROZOR HDMI Audio Extractor 192KHz DAC Converter ARC Audio Extractor Support Digital HDMI Audio to Analog Stereo Audio RCA L/R Coaxial SPDIF and 3.5mm Jack ARC Audio Adapter for TV https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CWMRG2C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_eSZSEbDBY665H

works well, only slight issue is it seems to interfere with the remote controls, where as on my Sky Q box the TV would power on with a single short press to turn on the Sky Q box, which would then wake the TV.... I have to do a long press to turn on the TV first.... then a short press to turn on Sky Q.
The main TV remote is unaffected and this is the only very small issue I have found.... but once I knew what the problem was, it is fine.

Regarding pass through to the Arc from the Panasonic, it should be fine if using HDMI, if you used optical on the Arc, you would have the same issue as you have now.... but then you would not really want to run Arc with optical as it would not support Dolby Digital + either

Thanks I’ll check it out.

it’s a lot of hassle for such a premium device I think and thats what disappoints me. I queried this with Sonos and found them to be quiet dismissive and blame the TV..When I looked into at the time there Were more TVs that didn’t support HDMI pass through than did! I think that’s maybe still the case ?

 

[bbodine]

So they announce a new Sonos Five and a new app, which immediately drops support for the original play:5.
Clearly their products are not future proof if they are constantly dropping support for their older products.

Won’t be investing in anymore of these speakers, my original play:5 and play:1s work perfectly fine, along with my playbar and sub which are probably also not far off the obsolete list!

The original Play:1's are supported on the new app when it releases. They actually drop support for a very small amount of devices on the new app. however your original Play:5 will still work just fine when using the old app. You can run both apps. That original speaker is 11 years old so it doesn't surprise me that it doesn't have the processing built in to support new features. The Play:1's are 4 years newer than the 5. Do you use the same cell phone or laptop for 11 years or have you upgraded??
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But the point is they wouldn’t have still worked..

As I have a mixture of newer and older speakers, the older speakers would have stopped working once the update was applied. This was because it was ‘impossible’ for them to deliver new functionality for more recent speakers whilst keeping the old ones usable. This impossible task quickly became possible once people kicked off about it.

Also, if you did use their offer to upgrade a speaker, they’d brick your old device so you had no other choice but to chuck it in the bin.

Name me one phone manufacturing who brick your device when you upgrade? I’ve sold or given to family all of my old iPhones / ipads / MBP’s and most of them are still in use today.

Of course older devices stop being supported with new upgrades, but Sonos went further than that and took the deliberate choice that they would brick them. If they did nothing wrong, why did they apologise and then back track on their initial approach?

The older speakers NEVER would have stopped working and that was in their original press release. They said they would need to be used in the old app and just couldn't be paired into the app that contained newer speakers. People really like to make this stuff up. Them bricking your speaker is if you CHOOSE to take their upgrade offer and then they wanted the speaker recycled appropriately and they rendered it useless. However you did not need to take their OFFER, you could just sell them for 30% of the price of a new speaker and then buy their new one and still not have it while someone else enjoys it. Why should they give you 30% off because you own an 11 year old device that you still want to use? If you CHOOSE to take advantage of Apples upgrade/buyback program they will give you some cash off new stuff and then take your old phone and recycle it, you dont get to keep that and continue using it or sell it for money so what is different??

 

[laydownlarry]

True, but it doesn't need to be any faster, it's only transferring audio, not 4K video streaming to 10 devices. Putting faster wifi won't increase performance, but will increase price. All wifi routers/cards have backwards compatibility, and 802.11b/g isn't going to disappear anytime soon.

802.11 n/ac offer more than just an increase in speed, such as improved signal strength and range. Hell my $35 Raspberry Pi has 802.11ac - the argument that an $800 soundbar can't do it without passing on the cost increase is absurd.

 

[mw360]

I love how people use the start of manufacture instead of the end. The price never went down - people paid $499 in most of 2015 before the new play:5 came out, and as of this year got exactly 5 years before theirs was deemed a legacy product. I loved Sonos and it had its place when streaming boxes for adding to your receiver were $1,000, but I won’t be buying any more. Now, if only the HomePod would stream from my iTunes library...

You are right, I had bad info about the Gen2 release date. Five years is too short for any kind of whole-home investment like this. At least the Sonos CEO seems somewhat chastened by the outrage. Hope they don't make the same mistake again.

 

[name99]

Can two HomePods connect to the TV though, without Apple TV? I would much prefer two HomePod’s instead of my soundbar.

Just buy an Apple TV! It's SUCH a good product. I waited years to get one, and that was dumb, should have got one as soon as the tvOS version came out.

Be aware though that, right now, calibrating HomePod(s) to Apple TV is a finicky irritating process with a terrible UI, and they frequently have to be reconnected (not recalibrated, thank god!), like once a week or so.
Apple seems well aware how lousy the experience is for what should be a premiere feature, so hopefully this is all a lot better in iOS14/tvOS14/podOS14.

So you might want to wait till September for the new OS's (and the new HomePods and Apple TV?) before making any sort of purchasing decision either way.

 

[nylonsteel]

would rather buy lte aapl watch

 

[nutmac]

Can two HomePods connect to the TV though, without Apple TV? I would much prefer two HomePod’s instead of my soundbar.

None of the TVs I know are capable of transmitting audio to AirPlay 2 audio devices, except 2020 models from Sony. For others, you need Apple TV (new model seems to be around the corner).

I used a pair of HomePods for Apple TV. Although it can sound fantastic, the setup is strictly 2.0 (left and right channels). HomePod's audio steering does not seem to prioritize dialog on the center channel, so when music and/or effects are blaring loudly, dialog is often unintelligible.

 

[name99]

None of the TVs I know are capable of transmitting audio to AirPlay 2 audio devices, except 2020 models from Sony. For others, you need Apple TV (new model seems to be around the corner).

I used a pair of HomePods for Apple TV. Although it can sound fantastic, the setup is strictly 2.0 (left and right channels). HomePod's audio steering does not seem to prioritize dialog on the center channel, so when music and/or effects are blaring loudly, dialog is often unintelligible.

You don't have your HomePods running audio in PARALLEL with your TV?
I have both the TV and Homepod running audio, so the TV provides "center" channel dialog; the HomePod provides back of room and effects. Doing this requires what I called "callibration" but it works very well.

You are living in THIS world (2018)

How to Use Your HomePod as a Speaker for Your Apple TV

The HomePod offers great sound, and with AirPlay connectivity, you can set the HomePod up to function as a speaker for your Apple TV, routing Apple...

www.macrumors.com

I'm talking about THIS world

Use Apple TV to play audio throughout your home

Apple TV can serve as a hub for playing audio throughout your home.

support.apple.com

plus use aTV Control Panel to route audio to BOTH the TV and the HomePod(s).

 

[Moakesy]

The original Play:1's are supported on the new app when it releases. They actually drop support for a very small amount of devices on the new app. however your original Play:5 will still work just fine when using the old app. You can run both apps. That original speaker is 11 years old so it doesn't surprise me that it doesn't have the processing built in to support new features. The Play:1's are 4 years newer than the 5. Do you use the same cell phone or laptop for 11 years or have you upgraded??
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The older speakers NEVER would have stopped working and that was in their original press release. They said they would need to be used in the old app and just couldn't be paired into the app that contained newer speakers. People really like to make this stuff up. Them bricking your speaker is if you CHOOSE to take their upgrade offer and then they wanted the speaker recycled appropriately and they rendered it useless. However you did not need to take their OFFER, you could just sell them for 30% of the price of a new speaker and then buy their new one and still not have it while someone else enjoys it. Why should they give you 30% off because you own an 11 year old device that you still want to use? If you CHOOSE to take advantage of Apples upgrade/buyback program they will give you some cash off new stuff and then take your old phone and recycle it, you dont get to keep that and continue using it or sell it for money so what is different??

I’ve still got the email they sent to me at the time. At no point does it mention two Apps. What it does say is “this will affect you listening experience”. Not ‘might’, but ‘will’.

It goes on to say is I can either stick with my existing system but “Over time, this is likely to disrupt access to services” or upgrade using their discount.

Remember that I have a mix of old and new devices, so I had a choice. Ignore any of the new functionality for my entire system, or upgrade me newer devices and impact the older ones.

if Sonos got this so right and all their users just a wrong, why did they then send the ‘An apology’ email? An email which said...

“we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, whilst legacy products work together and remain in their current state. We’re finalising details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.”

At that point they hadn’t mentioned two apps, andho wants one system with two apps?

As I said in my first post, it was more nuanced than just bricking devices. I know that already. However, they screwed up in how they delivered the message and they had to back pedal hard.

 

[nutmac]

You don't have your HomePods running audio in PARALLEL with your TV?
I have both the TV and Homepod running audio, so the TV provides "center" channel dialog; the HomePod provides back of room and effects. Doing this requires what I called "callibration" but it works very well.

You are living in THIS world (2018)

How to Use Your HomePod as a Speaker for Your Apple TV

The HomePod offers great sound, and with AirPlay connectivity, you can set the HomePod up to function as a speaker for your Apple TV, routing Apple...

www.macrumors.com

I'm talking about THIS world

Use Apple TV to play audio throughout your home

Apple TV can serve as a hub for playing audio throughout your home.

support.apple.com

plus use aTV Control Panel to route audio to BOTH the TV and the HomePod(s).

Useful tip. Does the arrangement allow you to designate TV's speaker as the center channel and a pair HomePods for left and right channels?

 

[Pearple]

About time. This in a sideboard together with the Sonos sub plus two simfonisk lamps will form my invisible 5.1 setup.

I hate ugly boxes and visible cables... i don't want my living room to show too much tech.

 

[name99]

Useful tip. Does the arrangement allow you to designate TV's speaker as the center channel and a pair HomePods for left and right channels?

No, but that's the way it tends to work out. If you have a cheapo average TV, it will crush everything down to that center speaker, and effects will tend not to generate much bass, while the HomePods will really make the effects pop.

I personally put the speaker at the back of the room, not on the sides of the TV. That way the volume is normalized over the whole room, and again, the central dialog seems to be more obvious, coming from the actors on the TV screen.

 

[bry223]

Wow! $800! You could buy a receiver, with Dolby Atmos, and have $300 left over to put toward speakers. Easily! Yes, you would need to spend more than $300...but, you’d have an actual Atmos setup, as opposed to one of these “simulated“ ones.

I take it you're not married.

 

[Laptopdog78]

LG offers a high end soundbar with meridian, a subwoofer and all the bells and whistles for 1,000$. My TV is LG OLED which means I can control both with the same remote. And it is also designed for the TV, same looks, colors, branding and all. Why would I buy this for that price?

Because you get what you pay for!
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Used to love my Sonos, but they lost me with the mess that was ‘we’re going to brick your devices’ email. I know it was more nuanced than that, but essentially they wanted to force their customers hand to upgrade and not be able to sell older, perfectly working speakers.

Although they backtracked and I still own my speakers, they have converted me from being a loyal customer to one that has zero interest in buying anything more from them.

It’s either more HomePod’s on discount for me, or wait for the rumoured new, smaller and cheaper HomePod‘s to come out.

The irony that you think that your Homepods will not be in EXACTLY the same boat as a Sonos product. In fact, I would say that your HomePod will be outdated and bricked quicker than a Sonos speaker.