While Sonos might be caught in a mire of its own making with the continuing problems users are having with its app, there could be a big new soundbar on the way. The Sonos Arc Ultra is the speculated follow-up to the ever-popular and excellent Sonos Arc soundbar — and now there's been a leak that tells us how much it's going to cost, and what kind of technology we might find under its ubiquitous grille.
The leak, from Reddit, is of a store image from the Sonos website. The image shows a price, a product shot of the soundbar, and a short blurb about what we can expect from the next generation of Sonos' under-TV speaker. Apparently, it appeared and then promptly disappeared from Sonos' web presence — although there was still time for eagle-eyed Sonos fans to grab a screenshot.
Sonos Arc Ultra price — it's not cheap
First, the price (and it's not a small one, so hold your breath) — the Sonos Arc Ultra is going to cost $1,199. That's a whole $200 more than the $999 full price of the previous generation, and cements it securely in the premium soundbar category. But what extra goodies do we get for the extra dough?
There's not a huge amount to be gleaned from the short blurb, but there are some exciting bits to point out. The first is the "Enhanced with immersive Sound Motion technology," which more than likely is the new name for the HeartMotion technology that Sonos acquired when it bought the company Mayht. What does it do? Smaller, lighter drivers which take less power to drive than alternatives, so you can have more of them in the same space you might have fewer of others.
The second sentence of note is the last one — "And did someone say 'Bluetooth'?". The first generation of Sonos Arc notoriously didn't support the Bluetooth audio standard, so you couldn't send music without using AirPlay or the Sonos App. Now it looks like we're going to get Bluetooth support, so all your friends at the party can send their tunes to the soundbar, for better or worse.
As for when we might see the Sonos Arc Ultra, there's nothing yet. We're hoping that when it is released it will sit amongst the best soundbars around — although you'll have to wait for our full review to find out. As always, this is just a rumor, but its seems legit given the source.
