Sonos Arc Review

I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).

The Bottom Line

The impressive Sonos Arc takes the best parts of the company’s other soundbars and combines them into one Dolby Atmos-compatible package.

PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

Sonos Arc Specs

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Sonos continues to expand its home theater speaker selection with the Arc soundbar. The Arc combines the voice assistant support of the $399 Sonos Beam with the power of the $599 Sonos Playbar in a single $799 package, adding Dolby Atmos compatibility with directional tweeters in the process. It’s an impressive soundbar on its own, and you can easily integrate it in an existing Sonos multi-room system or pair it with other other Sonos speakers for a truly impressive surround sound setup. Its terrific audio performance and flexibility earn it our Editors’ Choice for high-end soundbars.

Design and Features

The Arc features sleek curves for a more modern look than the angular Playbar. Available in black or white, it’s a 45-inch-long oval cylinder measuring 4.3 inches wide and 3.5 inches tall, with a rounded metal grille that runs around the entire front and top. The only flat surfaces are the back panel, so the soundbar can be mounted on a wall, and the bottom, which holds a wide rubber foot to keep it in place. A Sonos logo sits on the front.

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The top panel holds three touch-sensitive buttons for volume down, volume up, and play/pause. These controls sit in the center of the soundbar, near the back, while the microphone indicator sits far off in the back right corner. An additional indicator, which lights up when you use a voice assistant, sits front and center.

All ports on the speaker can be found in a rectangular recess on the back. They include an HDMI port for connecting to your TV over ARC or eARC, an Ethernet port, and a power connector. A pairing button used for the setup process also sits here. There is no optical input, but Sonos includes an optical audio adapter if you want to use that instead of HDMI.

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The Arc doesn’t have a remote, though it features an infrared sensor and repeater so it can take commands from your TV remote. It works directly with your TV over eARC to seamlessly accept the volume commands sent from your TV’s remote. You can also use the app to control volume if you’d like.

On the audio front, the Arc features eight elliptical woofers and three angled silk-dome tweeters, powered by 11 class-D amplifiers. The drivers are arranged to provide a 5.0-channel sound field, adjusting to the acoustics of the room you place it in by using the speaker’s built-in microphone and Sonos’ Trueplay tuning feature.

App and Setup

As mentioned, the Arc connects to the new Sonos S2 app for Android and iOS. Sonos directly supports dozens of different streaming audio services, including all major ones like Amazon Music, Apple Music, Google Play Music, SiriusXM, Spotify, and Tidal. The soundbar also works with Apple AirPlay 2, so you can stream music straight from your iOS device. And you can choose between hands-free Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for voice assistance, but you can only use one at a time.

You need the app to set up soundbar and toggle specific features like Night Mode and Voice Enhancement. It also provides access to bass and treble adjustments, though there’s no multi-band EQ.

As with all Sonos products, setting up the Arc is easy. Simply download the Sonos app, enter your account information (or create a new account), select the Arc in the list of devices to configure, and follow the instructions. The app walks you through pressing the pairing button on the back of the soundbar, connecting it to your Wi-Fi network if you don’t want to use Ethernet, and adding it to a room. Configuring your voice assistant of choice adds an extra step that opens the Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant app, but it’s still a quick and easy process.

Of course, can also pair the Arc with a Sonos Sub subwoofer and/or with two Sonos One speakers for dedicated rear satellites. You’re limited to Sonos speakers for expansion, though; there’s no conventional subwoofer output for other subs. On the plus side, the app makes the pairing process incredibly easy—there’s no easier way to set up a full home theater than this.

Performance

For a one-piece soundbar, the Arc has a surprising amount of power. While it doesn’t quite reach into the thunderous sub-bass range it can if paired with a Sonos Sub, the speaker can still shake the walls a bit at maximum volumes. The kick drum hits in our bass test track, The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” are powerful and weighty at high volumes, without any noticeable distortion.

Yes’ “Roundabout” sounds full and detailed on the Arc. The opening acoustic guitar plucks get plenty of resonance and string texture. When the track really kicks in, the electric bass sounds punchy and stands out, while the other elements in the busy mix like the guitar strums, drums, and vocals can all be distinctly heard. It’s a strong, room-filling sound with nice balance.

The Crystal Method’s “Born Too Slow” shows off the Arc’s impressive bass response even without a subwoofer. The driving backbeat gets palpable force that sounds properly ominous, while still giving the strong high-mids in the rest of the track plenty of room for balance. The snares, guitar riffs, and shrieking vocals all stand out against the thumping beat for an exciting, energetic sound.

The climactic battle in Avengers: Endgame is powerful and engaging on the Arc. The rumble of ships swooping around and the swell of the soundtrack get lots of rumbling low-end presence. Sound effects like the crackle of portals receive accurate placement thanks to the directional tweeters, providing a sense of height in the front-facing sound field. That said, in my apartment I didn’t pick up much reflective audio from the sides. Pairing the Arc with two Sonos One speakers for true surround is a very good idea if you want truly immersive audio.

The remastered version of Phantasm also sounds very good on the Arc. The growling and snarling of the hooded monsters can be heard clearly, and the gunshots that fend them off are punchy and powerful. In the scene near the end in the portal room, the high-pitched whining and low, eerie thrumming of the portal sounds overwhelming and creepy, evoking a sense of dread. Dialogue can be clearly heard through all of this, with strong directionality and stereo panning.

One-Piece Sound With a Punch

The Sonos Arc is an admirable step up from the Beam and Playbar, combining Dolby Atmos-compatible audio, directional tweeters, strong standalone bass, and voice assistant support. It costs twice as much as the Beam, but it packs in more features and a lot more power, justifying the expense. Add excellent music performance and extensive support for streaming audio services (along with AirPlay 2), and you have an excellent all-in-one sound system.

If you don’t mind giving up voice assistant support, the LG SL10YG soundbar offers impressive power and includes a wireless subwoofer for about $200 less than the Arc. And for even less, the Roku Smart Soundbar can be combined with the Roku Wireless Speakers and Roku Wireless Subwoofer for a genuine surround experience for under $500. If you want the best blend of power, features, and functionality, though, the Sonos Arc is your best bet and our Editors’ Choice.

Apple HomePod mini Review

I’ve been a contributing editor for PCMag since 2011. Before that, I was PCMag’s lead audio analyst from 2006 to 2011. Even though I’m a freelancer now, PCMag has been my home for well over a decade, and audio gear reviews are still my primary focus. Prior to my career in reviewing tech, I worked as an audio engineer—my love of recording audio eventually led me to writing about audio gear.

The Bottom Line

The Apple HomePod mini speaker offers Siri voice assistance and smart home control in an attractive little orb design for just $99, but the Amazon Echo delivers substantially more audio power for the same price.

PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

Apple HomePod mini Specs

There’s no shortage of smart speakers to choose from these days, but recent months have placed the focus on affordable, often spherical options. Apple’s new HomePod mini, a $99 alternative to the larger, more powerful $299 HomePod, competes primarily against the $99 orb-like Amazon Echo (4th Generation) and the non-spherical $99 Google Nest Audio. If audio is your top priority, Apple’s speaker is outperformed by Amazon’s, as well as some other, non-smart wireless models in the $100 price range—the HomePod mini delivers solid, clean mono audio, but the Echo is substantially larger and more powerful, offering a stronger sense of bass response. That said, if you’re already thoroughly invested in the Apple/iOS/HomeKit realm, the HomePod mini is still a strong smart speaker for the price.

HomePod mini Design and Features

The orb-shaped, 0.8-pound HomePod mini is available in space gray or white, and measures 3.3 by 3.9 inches (HW), with a flat panel on the top and on bottom preventing it from being a perfect sphere. The outer paneling is covered in an attractive, “acoustically transparent fabric” grille, and the top is a touch-sensitive control panel.

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Internally, the speaker employs a single full-range, down-firing driver and dual passive radiators to enhance bass response. The down-firing driver’s audio is then dispersed by an “acoustic waveguide” that aims to capitalize on surface reflections to create 360-degree audio dispersion.

The HomePod mini might be small enough to pack in a suitcase or tote, but to be clear, it requires a power source in order to work. The hardwired cloth-lined charging cable terminates in USB-C, so the speaker can get its juice from a computer, or by connecting it to the included power adapter and plugging it into the wall.

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The top panel glows white when audio is playing (or an array of foggy rainbow colors when Siri is listening or speaking) and has dedicated plus/minus buttons for adjusting volume. A single tap on the top panel plays or pauses audio, a double tap skips forward a track, and a triple tap navigates backward a track. Touching and holding the panel summons Siri, which you can also do by saying, “Hey Siri.” The controls are responsive and easy to operate.

Setup is automated and simple—just having an iPhone or iPad connected to Wi-Fi near the speaker is all it takes when you turn it on for the first time. The process involves agreeing to use Siri’s “recognize my voice” functionality, as well as syncing your Apple Music and iCloud settings, if you wish. Siri does a little demo for you, telling you how you can ask for music to be played or news to be read, though you can get more granular in Apple’s Home app.

The HomePod mini is compatible with Bluetooth 5.0 and 802.11n Wi-Fi. Of course, the speaker also works with Apple AirPlay 2, so you can stream directly from Apple devices. There’s no physical connectivity here, however, like an aux input.

HomeKit, Siri, and Other Smart Functionality

The Apple Home app is designed to help you connect and automate smart home devices that are compatible with Apple’s HomeKit standard. For instance, you can connect a smart light bulb from Nanoleaf and integrate it into your Home app, then use Siri voice commands on the HomePod mini to control it. Siri can turn it on and off, of course, but can also follow commands to turn the light, say, purple. Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant offer similar functionality, so you just need to make sure the smart home products you buy support the standard you want to use.

With Apple’s intercom messaging function, you can send a voice message to multiple HomePod speakers throughout your home, and anyone can respond with their own voice message. Intercom messages can be sent to anyone who is part of your Home group inside the Home app. To send a voice message, you can simply say, “Hey Siri, intercom dinner’s ready,” and the message gets sent out, not just to other HomePods, but to any Apple devices you have set up in the app.

If you ask for a store’s hours on the HomePod mini, you might find that Siri has the directions to the store waiting for you when you get in your car and check the GPS via CarPlay. Ask Siri to find photos of zebras, and images of zebras will appear on your iPhone’s screen within seconds. Furthermore, Siri can recognize up to six voices on the HomePod mini, so Siri should also know that you asked about zebra images, and send them to your phone specifically.

As for audio sources, you can stream anything to the speaker from another compatible device (like an iPhone or laptop) via AirPlay 2. The speaker can also directly access Apple Music, Apple Music Radio, and Apple Podcasts, as well as iHeartRadio, Radio.com, and TuneIn radio streams. Some third-party audio apps, like Amazon Music and Pandora, have built-in integration, in which the HomePod mini will appear as a speaker option from within the app.

I have about 100GB of music stored on my iPhone 8, and nearly all of it was purchased over the years from the iTunes Store (I know, how old-fashioned of me). Before setting up Apple Music, my command, “Hey Siri, play Radiohead, ‘Decks Dark’” failed. When I clarified that I wanted to play music stored off of my phone, Siri complied, but getting a specific song to play proved difficult—Siri was happy to play “all music” on my iPhone or “shuffle music” on my iPhone, but requests like, “Hey Siri, use my iPhone’s Music app to play Radiohead,” and, “Hey Siri, play the playlist Testing Suite from my iPhone,” didn’t work. Of course, you can always play music directly from your phone to the speaker manually via AirPlay 2, but the lack of integration of store-bought iTunes files with Siri voice commands is a bit disappointing.

With Apple Music up and running, Siri and the HomePod mini are both much happier. The speaker works smoothly, and music can be called up quickly.

How the HomePod mini Handles Privacy

In the era of digital voice assistants, it’s reasonable to wonder: Is Siri always listening to me? Apple claims that, no, Siri isn’t listening when you don’t directly ask a question. But if you want to stop Siri from listening unless you expressly tell it to, you can turn off the HomePod mini’s always-on mic by saying, “Hey Siri, turn off Hey Siri.”

Beyond this, Apple claims that when you ask Siri for anything—info from the internet, to play a song, ingredients for a recipe, etc.—the information exchange utilizes “random identifiers” to convey data back and forth. These random identifiers, Apple says, aren’t traceable, so your searches are kept private. If you also disable the "send feedback" option, you have a smart speaker that should offer sufficient privacy to allay most concerns.

HomePod mini Mic and Audio Performance

The HomePod mini’s four-mic array is designed to pick up voice commands from far away. We tested it with some quiet vocal commands from across a room, and can attest to an impressive reach. Obviously, if music is playing, you’ll have to speak up louder, and the mics once picked up a commercial during a football game—a voiceover said, “Hey Siri, who’s leading the NFL in touchdowns,” and the HomePod mini immediately came forth with an answer. Someone in the booth during the broadcast also said something like, “Hey, seriously,” and this activated Siri, as well. I wasn’t listening to music, so this wasn’t annoying, but the potential to accidentally trigger Siri is there.

As for audio performance, Apple’s “computational audio” here seems to be an example of the company creating a new term for one that already exists: digital signal processing (DSP). Nearly every speaker we test these days uses DSP to manage various aspects of the audio experience—most importantly, to prevent distortion when a speaker’s volume is maxed out. But DSP can also raise bass levels when the volume is turned low so that the audio still sounds full and rich. Apple’s computational audio does these very things, along with aiding in the 360-degree audio dispersion made possible by the waveguide.

Whatever you want to call it, when a company implements DSP well, it’s usually a good thing—but make no mistake, the existence of computational audio in the HomePod mini isn’t more impressive than the existence of DSP in any other speaker. Thankfully, Apple’s version here allows the HomePod mini to get fairly loud for its size and price. At maximum volumes, you get a solid sense of bass depth, but the dynamics are limited to a notable degree. Again, this is par for the course with DSP, especially with a speaker this size.

On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the HomePod mini avoids distorting at top volumes—the deep bass thump is lessened to a thinner sound, but you still get a decent sense of low-end depth. At lower volume levels, the speaker does a good job of preserving the sense of bass depth so that the track still seems to pack a low-frequency punch without actually being played at a high volume level.

Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the HomePod mini’s general sound signature. The drums here can sound thin on speakers that lack enough bass depth, but on the HomePod mini they sound relatively full and even a little heavy at times. It’s Callahan’s baritone vocals that seem to stand out the most in the lower register, with plenty of low-mid richness. Thankfully, the lows are balanced out with crisp high-mids and highs, giving the vocals some treble edge and the acoustic guitar strums some bright presence. At top volumes, we again can sense the DSP squashing the dynamics to a degree, but it doesn’t sound bad, and at slightly more moderate levels, the dynamics are a little more vibrant.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives enough high-mid presence for its attack to retain its punchiness, while the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are more implied than delivered—we wouldn’t really expect a thunderous subwoofer rumble from a speaker this size, anyway. This isn’t to say that the HomePod mini sounds brittle here—there’s plenty of added bass thump in the drum loop, just not powerful sub-bass. The vocals on this track are delivered with solid clarity and no added sibilance.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, get a little added richness through the HomePod mini—the lower-register instrumentation is pushed forward in the mix, but balanced out well with the bright presence of the higher-register brass, strings, and vocals. This style of speaker isn’t designed for critical listening, nor for sub-bass thunder, but for casual listening it delivers some solid richness and strong overall balance.

We tested the HomePod mini on its own, but adding a second speaker to create a stereo pair can work wonders—just getting some stereo separation adds to the perception of a larger soundstage and more power. The difference between stereo mixes on a single HomePod mini versus a stereo pair of two is profound, but you’re also doubling the price.

Comparing the HomePod mini with some similarly priced speakers, like the fourth-generation Amazon Echo, almost doesn’t seem fair. Yes, they’re the same exact price, but Amazon’s speaker is significantly larger, louder, more powerful, and provides a substantially stronger sense of bass depth. If audio is your top priority, it’s not even close—the Echo beats the HomePod mini (as well as the Google Nest Audio, for that matter) hands down.

Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant? Which $99 Smart Speaker Is Right for You?

Ultimately, the value of Apple’s HomePod mini comes down to how much you want Siri in your home (or to expand Siri’s reach in your home). If audio quality is your top priority, you can get better performance with the $99 Amazon Echo or with a non-smart, portable Bluetooth speaker like the $129 JBL Charge 4. But if you already use Siri as your primary voice assistant, or you’re invested in Apple’s HomeKit smart home system, the HomePod mini won’t disappoint—its audio capabilities are solid, and its overall value is strengthened by its smart features.