It’s been a tumultuous few months for Sonos, all going back to the redesigned Sonos appwhich was not yet ready for primetime. Ultimately, it overshadowed the expected launch Ace headphonesand the company has spent a lot of time apologizing, reorganizing priorities and regaining customer trust.
While the result was that hardware would be delayed and some launches postponed, it appears that Sonos is still readying at least one new product. Sonos’ arc has been around for four years and is the brand’s flagship soundbar, complete with 11 speakers inside.
Four years is a long time for any device, and we’ve heard rumors about the Sonos Arc Ultrawho would succeed the Arc. And now, thanks to some quick screenshots from Matthew Bolton, Ny Breaking’s Managing Editor, Entertainment, it looks like Best Buy may have created an Arc Ultra landing page a little too early.
As shown above, we found the listing and associated descriptions of an apparently crawled web page for the Sonos Arc Ultra in black and white through Best Buy. It says: “Premium design worthy of your home. With its signature curved shape, low-profile design and matte finish, Arc Ultra has been carefully designed to look great in…”. However, the linked web pages have now been removed.
Perhaps more importantly, Best Buy may also have revealed the price of $999.00 USD, putting it $100 above the cost of the current Arc. Of course, we’ll need final confirmation from Sonos on the cost, but this completely matches previous rumors and also points to a $1,000 USD price tag.
Furthermore, through results on the desktop we can also see some of the promised features, including Bluetooth connectivity in addition to Wi-Fi and, like the original, a built-in voice assistant. The addition of Bluetooth has been rumored and will match the connectivity found on the Sonos Ace, Move 2And Call 2. We even saw a sample image with two colors and a similar construction. The Arc Ultra is expected to retain the top controls and physical ports on the back.
The Dolby Atmos-compatible soundbar is also expected to use new speaker technology. Sonos acquired Mayht in 2022 the technology brand created a speaker that can be smaller than most competitors, but still delivers powerful sound because it pushes sound out from both sides. Pulling and pushing at the same time can reduce vibration, similar to Apple’s force-canceling speaker design in laptops, but also significantly increase sound quality and overall volume thanks to the smaller size. The Arc was no slouch with 11 speakers inside, but the Arc Ultra was able to add a lot more.
Considering Best Buy already had these listings and has since retracted them, this could be a sign that Sonos is getting ready to drop the successor to the Arc soundbar soon. Of course, this could also be a mistake on BestBuy’s part, but given previous looks, there’s a good chance this shows retail availability is increasing.
We’ve reached out to Sonos to ask about the apparent listings and will update this post if and when the audio brand responds. In the meantime, check out everything we know about the rumored Sonos Arc Ultra here.