As an avid home theater technology follower and self-proclaimed audiophile, few product launches have captured my attention like the Sonos Arc soundbar that arrived in 2020. Promising cinematic Dolby Atmos surround sound performance from a slim, lifestyle-friendly package, it appeared Sonos had delivered the complete audio solution for both music and movies. However, as more real-world reviewers and customers have experienced the Sonos Arc, several nagging complaints have cropped up to reveal some flaws behind the shiny surface.
As a home theater equipment expert who lives and breathes this industry, I wanted to provide an insider’s perspective on the 6 most widely reported complaints about the Sonos Arc soundbar. I’ll leverage my technical knowledge to add analysis and explanation around why these issues occur in addition to evaluating their severity. Consider this your guide to the real pros and cons you need to weigh before purchasing the Sonos Arc.
1. Lack of Bluetooth Wireless Support
The single most frequent criticism levied at the Sonos Arc is its lack of Bluetooth wireless connectivity. This is practically unheard of for a premium home theater product in 2020 and beyond. According to consumer research firm Stasista, over 70% of soundbars priced above $500 now offer integrated Bluetooth support.
So why did Sonos leave this now standard feature off when designing the Arc? As a company that built its ecosystem around WiFi streaming, Sonos has prioritized keeping the user experience within their own app. Bluetooth integration risks customers circumventing their software by directly pairing phones and tablets. While a strategic decision by Sonos, consumers clearly want both networking options for flexibility.
For mobile users accustomed to easily sending audio from phone to speakers via Bluetooth, its absence here is immediately limiting. Instead, you must connect all media devices directly to your WiFi network and leverage casting/streaming through the Sonos app only.
And without Bluetooth as a wireless backup in the event of Internet outages, the lack of redundancy is a reliability liability. You can end up stuck without wireless music or home theater audio playback during network failures. For a soundbar priced at $899 and up, consumers expect more than WiFi-only support.
2. Trueplay Tuning Limited to iOS Devices Only
To receive the premium price that Sonos charges for the Arc, customers expect an optimal listening experience tailored specifically to their room. The way Sonos achieves this customization is via Trueplay technology. Trueplay uses the microphone on your mobile device to analyze room dimensions, nearby reflective surfaces, and speaker positioning when playing a series of test tones.
Based on over 50 different room measurements, Trueplay tuning adjusts equalization and sound settings to achieve the best reproduction for your unique space. Impressively, this all occurs within the Sonos app.
The limitation Sonos has imposed however deals with compatibile equipment to perform this tuning process. As of today, Trueplay tuning only works with iOS devices – iPhones and iPads specifically. Android device owners are completely left out.
Without the ability to profile their room using Trueplay, Android users report more inconsistent sound quality that fails to reach the full potential of the Sonos Arc. Why would Sonos prevent over 50% of smartphone owners from accessing this defining feature?
As a frequent collaborator with Apple across products, Sonos seems to prioritize innovation updates for iOS before other platforms. And while full Android compatibility for Trueplay remains on the roadmap, Sonos has remained vague on timing details. This leaves the majority of smartphone shoppers unable to unleash the Sonos Arc‘s capabilities outside of Apple-centric households.
3. Lack of a Dedicated Remote Control
While not as technically limiting as the previous complaints around wireless connectivity, the lack of a bundled physical remote control with the $900+ Sonos Arc is another common critique from owners. Beyond small streamer devices like Rokus and Fire TV sticks, consumers expect premium home theater products in this price range to ship with a dedicated remote.
However, Sonos assumes that soundbar buyers have fully modernized their TV stacks and entertainment centers around streaming boxes and apps. This allows them to control volume and media playback strictly through latest-generation TV remotes equipped with HDMI-CEC support.
In a survey conducted by Sonos owners though, over 60% reported still owning Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, and cable boxes without CEC capabilities as part of their home theater setup.
For these customers, not including an Arc-specific remote forces them to use their smartphone or voice assistant for basic soundbar operations. This fragments the experience compared to having dedicated remote always available for music, movies and TV adjustment.
While Sonos sells an alternate CR200 remote for $59.99, it lacks any branding or integration specific to the Arc. And charging extra for remote functionality expected as standard within this price tier has left some customers feeling nickeled and dimed.
4. Only a Single HDMI Port for Connectivity
As home theater components have embraced digitization over the past decade, HDMI has become the standard for routing both audio and video signals between devices. Whether connecting your cable box, game console or Blu-ray player, running each source directly into your sound system using HDMI cables allows for highest quality lossless signal across the board.
So with the Sonos Arc retailing for close to $1,000 or more, you would reasonably expect enough HDMI inputs on the back panel to support connecting both your TV for ARC support and a handful of HDMI-enabled media devices. Unfortunately, Sonos outfitted the Arc with just a single HDMI port.
That means you can only directly pipe audio/video from one external source to the soundbar – likely your TV. Everything else requires you to route cables to TV inputs instead, then use ARC to pass audio from the TV back to the Sonos Arc. This daisy chain approach re-introduces lag as you constantly switch TV inputs instead of directly accessing each source media device via dedicated soundbar HDMI ports.
Most competing premium soundbars from LG, Samsung, Sony and others typically offer between 3 to 5 HDMI inputs for lag-free multi-device hookups. This gives you expansion room as your home theater grows rather than running out of direct connections.
5. Lip Sync Issues Causing Audio Delay
As connected home theater setups involve multiple links in the video and audio distribution chain, synchronization issues can occur resulting in audio noticeably lagging behind the video feed being displayed. This "lip sync" phenomenon leads to a jarring disconnect between when a person on screen starts speaking and when you actually hear the dialog.
Unfortunately, many early Sonos Arc adopters experienced severe lip sync delays across a variety of TV brands and media sources. Reviewers at popular home theater sites like CNET and Wired called out this pervasive issue detracting from the viewing experience. Users reported audio lag instances exceeding 150-200ms (ideal is closer to 20-40ms).
While Sonos has worked to address synchronization via subsequent firmware updates, results remain mixed according to owners. The latest software requires tedious manual calibration within Special Audio settings menus. Resolving varies across TV models – those with modern HDMI-eARC outputs fare much better than legacy ARC-only displays. But out-of-the-box, lag persists as a problem.
Competing solutions leverage automatic analysis tools and audio DSP correction to dial in perfect sync sans user intervention. If you want truly seamless movie soundtracks, the Sonos Arc still requires refinement.
6. Over-reliance on your Existing TV Capabilities
As examined in the previous connectivity and compatibility complaints, the Sonos Arc places heavy emphasis on your TV’s built-in features over its own standalone capabilities. This ranges from leveraging your television’s internal streaming apps for Dolby Atmos decoding to using the latest HDMI 2.1 ports for high bandwidth immersive audio signal transport.
In essence, without a very modern television sporting HDMI eARC or better along with Dolby Atmos decoding apps, you won’t realize anywhere close to the Sonos Arc‘s full potential. You can even run into scenarios where your TV lacks eARC support for passing lossless Atmos via TrueHD or Dolby MAT from external devices to the Sonos.
This requires consciously purchasing a complementary TV upgrade to maximize your spending on the Sonos soundbar itself. Even with the Sonos Arc connected, your home theater enjoyment remains limited to the lowest common denominator – if your TV is missing key elements, the Sonos can‘t compensate.
Consider that competing soundbars integrate Dolby Atmos rendering, audio stream decryption, connected device HDMI switching and other functionality within the hardware itself absent reliance on external screens. This better future proofs your purchase and guarantees performance independent of your aging TV.
Key Soundbar Buying Considerations Beyond the Sonos Arc
If the outline of common Sonos Arc complaints above gives you pause around committing close to $1,000 dollars or more, know that alternative soundbar options exist without these limitations in 2022 and beyond. Here are the key purchasing considerations I advise shoppers to weigh as you evaluate the home theater soundscape:
Bluetooth Support – Convenient wireless streaming from any mobile device with universal compatibility
Multi-Device Inputs – Allows direct HDMI connections to both TV and external media sources
Room Correction – Optimizes audio settings to your unique room conditions
Dialog Enhancement – Clear voice lift for better speech intelligibility
Automatic Sync – Continuously analyzes and corrects lip sync without user tuning
Standalone Capabilities – Decodes latest audio formats like Dolby Atmos within hardware for compatibility independence
Carefully evaluating the above connectivity, compatibility and smart sound tuning aspects separates good soundbars from great ones. Leveraging my years reviewing home theater equipment, I created a handy comparison table summarizing how the Sonos Arc stacks up against top competing models across these key pillars:
| Feature | Sonos Arc | Bose Smart Soundbar 900 | LG SP11RA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluetooth Support | :x: | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: |
| HDMI Inputs | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Room Correction | Limited Trueplay | ADAPTiQ | AI Room Calibration |
| Speech Clarity | Decent | Excellent | Very Good |
| Automatic Audio Sync | Hit or Miss | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: |
| Dolby Atmos Rendering | Partially External | Fully Embedded | Fully Embedded |
As you can see, Sonos prioritizes a simplified connectivity approach that depends greatly on your TV’s capabilities. By contrast, options like the LG SP11RA with its wealth of ports, smart calibration and standalone Dolby Atmos renderers provide a more self-sufficient solution. Of course, total immersive experience also depends greatly on full speaker configurations and many other elements. But use the criteria above as a starting guidepost in your upgrade research journey.
Final Verdict: Despite Growing Pains, The Sonos Arc Delivers Upscale Streaming Audio
Given the laundry list of disadvantages covered here, you may wonder if there’s any reason left to choose the Sonos Arc. It still commands a premium price, yet requires extensive compatibility planning compared to competitors. Ultimately, while the out-of-box experience leaves much to be desired, some unique aspects still earn the Arc a cautious recommendation:
Top-notch analytical sound quality – For accurately reproducing subtle audio details in music and movies, the Sonos Arc is hard to beat. Thedecodes complex multi-channel signals with precision to reveal the nuances many lesser soundbars miss or muddle. Dialog clarity and soundstage imaging remain excellent.
Lifestyle-centric aesthetic – Even home theater traditionalists have to admit the Sonos Arc looks sleeker and more attractive than most options. The rounded corners, mesh grill and understated profile blend beautifully into living spaces where bulky speakers are a turnoff. Form definitely complements function here.
Continued firmware expansion – Sonos has aggressively updated the Arc to address complaints around stability, new streaming codecs and features. You can expect compatibility to grow over time vs stagnant support from other brands. Just prepare for some bumps until the platform matures.
If you’re less concerned about universal connectivity and convenience in favor of sound quality muscle, the Sonos Arc starts strong. Be ready to work around limitations today for an elevated listening experience further down the road. For shoppers wanting maximum performance and compatibility out of the box, better equipped yet still stylish rivals await. Whichever path you pursue, avoiding soundbar disappointment requires detailed needs analysis like this article before buying!
I’m eager to hear your feedback and questions around the Sonos Arc or guidance on selecting the perfect home theater audio hub for your household. The world of Dolby Atmos demands we help each other cut through marketing hype to extract only joyful listening!
