With a set of Sonos speakers acting as the rear channels and a Sonos Sub onboard, the Arc takes another step forward, delivering a more convincing soundstage and better positional effects. Just be prepared to pay a hefty premium for the experience. Set-up Connections . Sonos Arc needs to be connected to your TV with an HDMI cord (one is provided with Arc) via an ARC or eARC port (eARC is required for Dolby TrueHD and Dolby MAT). However, the new deeper low-end is a bit flabby – not ruinously so, but in a way that I just wouldn't expect from Sonos. Hearing the bass is like hearing someone being heavy-handed when putting the dishes away – nothing's being broken, but you wish they'd be a bit more delicate with it. This feeling is lessened at higher volume – at around 30% or so, it's happier, but it's still there a little.

The Era 300 joins its smaller Era 100 sibling as one of Sonos’ newest speakers. Its big draw (beyond its unusual form factor), is its ability to offer immersive, room-filling sound, thanks to support for spatial audio in the form of Dolby Atmos Music. The result is rich sound, a wide soundstage, and punchy bass, all presented in tight, crisp clarity. Non-Dolby Atmos Music is a treat to listen to as well, making it a superb all-rounder. It can go loud too, of course, but focussing more on its output starts to highlight a few of the reasons those after truly great multi-room sound will unsurprisingly have to forgo the lighting and either spend a bit more on the Sonos One or change eco-systems to something such as Audio Pro. I reviewed the Sonos Sub when it first launched, and it was immediately one of my favourite subwoofers. Nothing has changed in the intervening years, and the Sub remains excellent. I used a Gen 2 model for this review; the newer Gen 3 has an upgraded processor and wireless chip, but the sound is otherwise similar.

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Like the Sonos One, it's a smart speaker, though here there's only support for Alexa and Sonos' own Voice Control system (which only controls music, and doesn't send anything to the cloud). Google Assistant has been dropped from the list. Although the Sonos Era 100 is better than its predecessor in every way, I'm struggling with the higher price. We're in an (ahem) era of price rises, so I'm trying to factor that in – and yet, if you don't want the smart speaker functions (which, let's face it, not everyone is so hot on these days), the Era 100 is a full 39% higher in price than the Sonos One SL in the UK. I don't think I can say I see an equivalent amount of extra value in it. (I'm sure a Sonos Era 100 SL will come one day to help even out that price imbalance, but that day is not today.) If you want help making dialogue more intelligible while boosting your overall TV sound without spending too much, then quite possibly. We initially gave it three stars out of five because of that buzzing sound – since it was fixed, we upped that score to four.

The Sonos Arc’s audio capabilities are seriously great. Eight elliptical woofers combine to deliver a solid overall bass response and the tuning balances a nice amount of warmth through the mids with an impressive level of clarity. But is the sound as good as a smart speaker, and is there anything to watch out for? Our professional lab put it through its paces in our Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) review. The compact dimensions are ideal for those who can't fit the larger, pricier Sonos Arc into their homes, though getting the full spectrum of Sonos's multi-room and streaming features for a more affordable price will be hugely popular too. That said, if the original (non-Atmos) Beam is heavily discounted, that could well be a better-value option for those on a budget. 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.It’s worth pointing out that because the system uses your room to actually get the sound around you there’s going to be some variation in the Arc’s ability to deliver surround sound. As you'd expect, the Sonos Move is as much a Sonos wi-fi speaker as those before it – you get network music streaming, multi-room smarts and voice assistant – but it's big, heavy and expensive compared to the Sonos Roam.