An Arc-specific wall mount will cost you an extra $79 though. That’s unlike the Playbar, which pointed the speakers at you directly when mounted but fired sound at the ceiling when placed on a TV stand. Last, the Arc’s mounting hardware is on the back, so it’s facing the same direction whether you put it on a TV stand or on the wall. A set of tiny status LEDs above the Sonos logo give you some visual feedback so you know when it’s actually registering your commands.īy subscribing, you are agreeing to Engadget's Terms and Privacy Policy. There’s also an option on the speaker to mute the microphones used for Alexa and Google Assistant voice controls. On the Arc itself, you can play/pause, adjust volume and swipe to skip tracks. The onboard controls were moved from the right side to the top center, and they’re now touch instead of physical buttons. Sonos also softened the design into a rounded cylinder instead of a boxy rectangle. The Arc is nearly 10 inches wider than the Playbar (45 inches total), which is necessary to accommodate the two additional drivers, but it’s not quite as deep. That aesthetic choice continues a preference the company has had for a while: speakers that blend in rather than stand out. Instead of the gray-and-black two-tone units of the mid-2010s, it’s an all-black or all-white soundbar with tone-on-tone Sonos lettering in the center of the front.

The Arc looks more like modern Sonos gear. You can tell this is a drastically different device at first glance.

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