đ Review score: 5/5
đ
Editorâs Choice Award
â
Pros
đ True Hi-Fi overhaul adds more bass and true Dolby Atmos spatial surround
đ¶ Widely expanded soundstage for stereo music to cinematic surround sound
đ» Portable surround lets you add Bluetooth speakers as rear surround speakers
đŁïž Natural-sounding Speech Enhancement powered by AI
â Cons
Portable Surround setup process is complicated
The Shortcut Review
The Sonos Beam Ultra may just be a compact soundbar, but it combines auditory excellence and cutting-edge connectivity that makes it one of the best Sonos products in years.
First off, for sound, this new model boosts the driver count from five to nine, notably adding two upward-facing drivers and four low-profile woofers. This allows the Beam Ultra to physically produce Dolby Atmos spatial surround sound, whereas the Beam Gen 2 could only do so virtually. The added bass from the woofers also helps the Beam Ultra deliver powerful bass without the need for a separate subwoofer.
The Sonos Beam Ultra also expands the Sonos Wi-Fi speaker system by adding the ability for portable speakers, like the Sonos Play and Sonos Move 2, to act as rear surrounds. Sonos is aiming for a more intuitive system with Sonos Fabric and a new Sonos27 operating system that lets these speakers connect automatically based on just proximity. Other brands have steadily been catching up with Sonosâ self-modulating and smart positioning technology, but with Portable Surround, Sonos has just moved the yardstick forward again.
The Sonos Beam Ultra is unquestionably a fantastic soundbar. It produces a loud and wide soundstage that bigger soundbars can struggle to reproduce. The addition of portable surrounds makes it even easier to upgrade your setup to a true surround sound system without buying speakers that stay plugged in one place. If youâre looking to upgrade your home entertainment setup, I fully recommend preordering the $699 Sonos Beam Ultra so you get it on time when it releases on September 29.
Full Review
đ Major sound upgrade. The Sonos Beam Ultra is a completely different soundbar from the original, with an entirely new driver arrangement that includes a mid-tweeter, two pairs of horn-loaded mid-tweeters firing up and to the sides, and four low-profile woofers. That arrangement upgrades the Beam Gen 2âs stereo sound to 7.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos surround sound with nine custom drivers. This lets the Beam Ultra produce an impressively large soundstage that feels much bigger than it physically is.
Even while playing stereo sound, I hear much more left-right separation from the Beam Ultra, making it feel like a much bigger soundbar than it is. That soundstage expands even further with more dynamic media, like hearing the helicopters buzz above in F1. The side-firing speakers also project and bounce against walls to spread sound all around the room, and this became extremely apparent with Sinnersâ big âI lied to youâ music scene.
đ„ Pump up the bass. The other, easily the most noticeable improvement is the bass, especially for explosion-filled movies like âSpeedâ or heavy R&B songs like âPromiscuous.â While the Sonos Beam Ultra doesnât feature cutting-edge Sound Motion transducers like the Sonos Arc Ultra, it still packs a wallop of bass without any distortion or overpowering the rest of the soundbarâs frequency curve. Youâll get even stronger bass by adding a dedicated Sonos Sub Mini, but if you have this soundbar setup in a small entertainment room, the Beam Ultra offers more than enough low-end power.
đ» Portable surround. The Beam Ultra is the first soundbar to roll out with Sonosâ new ability to add portable speakers as rear surrounds. This includes its new Play speakers as well as the Move 2. Itâs incredibly slick how this feature lets portable speakers switch based on proximity and act as satellite speakers that also add more height audio, even if itâs virtualized.
Now, these Portable Surround speakers do require quite a bit of setup, including grouping your portable speakers into a separate room. Using this feature also means you canât pair these speakers for stereo sound, while AirPlay and Bluetooth connectivity are disabled too. The good news is you can easily unpair your portable surrounds from the app or simply by long-pressing the play button on the speakers.
đŁïž Dialogue boost. Even without Sonosâ AI-powered voice enhancement, the Beam Ultraâs upgraded center channel delivers clear, crisp dialogue. But now that the feature has finally come to Sonosâ smaller soundbar, you can amp it up if background noise, sound effects, and other extraneous sounds make it hard to hear what characters are saying. Sonos still doesnât have the strongest speech enhancement â that award goes to Sonyâs Voice Max â but it still sounds the most natural while better preserving the original mix of media.
đ Finely made. At first glance, the Sonos Beam Ultra looks like a plain soundbar. Its minimalistic styling fades into the background of my entertainment setup. However, looking slightly closer at it reveals minute details that elevate this compact Sonos soundbar. Firstly, the perforated grill on top of the speaker fans out into a half-circle pattern that Sonos recreates on the bottom of the speaker. This is a completely unnecessary touch that most users wonât appreciate, let alone see, but itâs a testament to Sonosâ attention to detail. I also love the new asymmetrical volume touchbar control thatâs both functional and adds a tiny bit of flair.
Kevin Lee is The Shortcutâs Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam