The best Sonos soundbars of 2025: Should you buy the Arc Ultra, Beam, or Ray?

If you're shopping for a new soundbar, Sonos remains one of the top brands to beat. The company offers a range of models to suit different budgets and room sizes. The best Sonos soundbars deliver clear, dynamic sound for movies, TV, and music.

After testing every current Sonos soundbar, I recommend the Sonos Arc Ultra as the best overall pick. This flagship model offers impressive Dolby Atmos performance and introduces the brand's new Sound Motion technology, which produces deeper bass without the need for a separate subwoofer. For smaller spaces or tighter budgets, the Sonos Ray is a great alternative. It's not as powerful or immersive as the Arc Ultra, but it's a lot more compact and affordable, making it ideal for bedrooms or apartments.

All Sonos soundbars integrate with the company's mobile app, letting you adjust settings, stream music, and sync speakers for multi-room audio. The app experienced a flawed update last year, which introduced several bugs; however, most of these issues have since been resolved. While a few quirks remain, the best Sonos soundbars continue to stand out for their excellent sound quality and easy expandability.

Our top picks for the best Sonos soundbars

Best overall: Sonos Arc Ultra - See at Amazon

Best on a budget: Sonos Ray - See at Amazon

Best midrange model: Sonos Beam (Gen 2) - See at Amazon

Best subwoofer add-on: Sonos Sub 4 - See at Amazon

Best rear speaker add-on: SonosEra 300 - See at Amazon

Best overall

The Arc Ultra is the best Sonos soundbar available. It replaces the brand's original Arc from 2020 and delivers some notable improvements. The Ultra is an absolute beast of an audio system, perfect for anyone seeking a powerful, all-in-one Dolby Atmos soundbar with deep bass.

This single soundbar unit can produce up to 9.1.4 channels of Dolby Atmos surround sound. It also has dedicated up-firing audio drivers to bounce sound off your ceiling, resulting in audio coming from all around the room, including above your head. In my tests, the Arc Ultra delivered an incredibly immersive experience, whether watching movies or listening to music. The sound is so expansive that I had a hard time believing it all came from just one device under my TV.

One of the Arc Ultra's secret ingredients is its new Sound Motion driver. This component packs multiple woofers into a compact space, offering deeper bass than the original Arc without increasing the soundbar's size. The Sound Motion driver can't quite match the performance of a dedicated subwoofer, but it adds more low-end presence and depth to movies and shows, delivering a full, rich quality that few stand-alone soundbars can match.

The Arc Ultra also has exceptional dialogue clarity. The device offers an optional AI speech enhancement mode, but I rarely had to rely on it because the bar's internal drivers are already so well-tuned for delivering clear speech. If you do find yourself needing an extra boost, the speech enhancement emphasizes dialogue even more without muddying explosions or altering other sound effects. It offers four levels of adjustments to choose from, including one designed for listeners with hearing loss

On the downside, the Arc Ultra is Sonos' most expensive soundbar, and it's disappointing that it doesn't support DTS:X, another 3D audio format that rivals Dolby Atmos. It also lacks HDMI video passthrough, so you can't use the bar to route extra devices to your TV, like a gaming console or streaming player. But these shortcomings are small compared to all the Arc Ultra gets right. If you want a single, powerful speaker in your living room that can handle all your home theater needs, the Arc Ultra is the best Sonos soundbar available.

Read our Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar review.

Check out our guide to all of the best soundbars.

Best on a budget

The Sonos Ray is the brand's most affordable and compact soundbar. Thanks to its small footprint, it's the best Sonos soundbar for bedrooms and apartments. For comparison, it's less than half the width of the Arc Ultra and a few inches shorter and less deep than the Beam (Gen 2). Despite its stature, it far outdoes the capabilities of most speakers embedded in TV sets, especially lower-end models.

In terms of audio quality, you can expect a smooth experience that brings any movie to life. You won't get the window-rattling lows or all of the flourishes offered on Sonos' pricier soundbars, but the Ray is impressive for its size, with a surprisingly detailed sound signature.

Streaming music on the Ray over WiFi is great, too, offering better quality than a Bluetooth connection would provide. That said, it is a bummer that the Ray doesn't also include Bluetooth support as an alternative for those instances when WiFi might not be an option.

The Ray is also a bit lacking in wired connectivity. It doesn't include an HDMI port and can only connect to a TV (or PC) via an optical cable. This does mean it has wide compatibility among older televisions, but it also means that it doesn't support lossless audio formats, Dolby Atmos, or automatic pairing with your TV remote.

Still, the Ray is a solid performer for the money, boasting audio quality that defies its compact size.

Check out our guide to all of the best budget soundbars.

Best midrange model

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) serves as a middle ground between the brand's flagship Arc Ultra and entry-level Ray. It's powerful enough to fill a medium-sized space with sound, but it's not significantly larger than the Ray, so it still works well in a bedroom or smaller living room. (That's where I predominantly use it.)

Beyond size, the midrange Beam really differentiates itself from the cheaper Sonos Ray by adding an HDMI eARC connection and support for Dolby Atmos. This means it automatically works with many modern TV remotes, and it features a wider soundstage. For under $500, the Beam punches well above its weight class. It's a proper home theater in a box, perfect for most living rooms or other places that could use an audio upgrade.

But while the Beam supports decoding multi-channel audio formats with boisterous and vibrant performance, it doesn't feature any up-firing drivers. Instead, it relies on virtual processing to simulate a sense of overhead audio, which isn't as effective. As a result, you won't get the same kind of atmospheric overhead sound effects as you would on the more expensive Arc Ultra.

Still, movies sound impactful, and the Beam fills my space well, even when set to a volume level of under 50%. "Dune" is a great showcase for the Beam, with booming effects and a drum-heavy soundtrack that pounds along.

Music also sounds rich and full. It's impressive enough to serve as the DJ for home gatherings. Streaming music via WiFi through the Sonos app works well and encompasses a vast amount of services, but the soundbar also supports AirPlay for a more immediate listening experience. That said, like the Ray, the Beam is missing Bluetooth support.

Best subwoofer add-on

If you crave more bass, the best add-on you can buy for your Sonos soundbar is a subwoofer, specifically the Sonos Sub 4. It can wirelessly connect to the Ray, Beam, or Arc Ultra, so you can hide it in the back of a room or even on its side under a couch.

The subwoofer's force-canceling drivers produce deep, commanding bass for intense, dramatic effect during movies. But the woofer never becomes unwieldy in reverberations or rattling.

If you're an especially big bass head, you can even pair the Sonos Sub 4 with a second Sub 4 or Sub 3 unit. You can learn more about dual subwoofer compatibility on the Sonos website.

Given its premium performance, the Sub 4 works best with an Arc Ultra, though you can still use it with the smaller Beam or Ray. But for those more compact bars, the less expensive Sonos Sub Mini is a great alternative. It's not ported, so it doesn't have the same audio characteristics as the Sub 4 — it's a little tighter and more punchy — but it can still add extra dimension to your home theater setup.

Best rear speaker add-on

The Sonos Era 300 is built to work as a stand-alone wireless speaker or as an add-on speaker for select Sonos soundbars. Two Era 300 units can be paired together and used as rear speakers in conjunction with an Arc Ultra or Beam to enable a true surround sound experience. (The Ray is not compatible with the Era 300.)

The Era 300 features built-in drivers that fire in all directions, including upward. This allows it to provide genuine Dolby Atmos support with audio effects that bounce off your ceiling. If you have a Beam (Gen 2) or Arc Ultra, the Era 300 will work with them to provide an even more convincing sense of overheard audio and a wider Dolby Atmos sound stage.

However, adding a pair of Era 300 speakers to your Sonos soundbar setup does require a fair amount of physical space, and they're a bit pricey.

If that's a problem for your room and budget, a pair of smaller, cheaper Era 100 speakers can also do a solid job as wireless rear speakers. The Era 100 even works with the Sonos Ray. That said, the Era 100 does not have up-firing Dolby Atmos drivers.

How we test Sonos soundbars

I've been testing Sonos soundbars since the brand's first model, the Playbar, was released in 2013, so I have extensive experience with all of the company's offerings. For this guide, I reviewed all of the brand's current soundbars to determine what kind of user each is best suited for.

My evaluation involved pairing each soundbar to the same TV. This way, I could gauge how they performed independently and compare them all in the same environment. I focused on aspects such as audio quality, physical size, connectivity, software features, and ease of use to help inform my decisions about which circumstances they work best for.

In my hands-on time, I also used the best Sonos soundbars in other rooms around my house to get a sense of how they worked in different spaces. I based a lot of my assessments on how the soundbars performed while watching movies with high-quality surround sound mixes. However, I also watched sitcoms and older films to hear how they sounded with more modest tracks and lower-quality sources. For music, I streamed songs from my phone and used the Apple Music app on my Apple TV streaming box.

With the exception of the Sonos Ray, which only supports a digital optical connection, I opted for an HDMI eARC connection to achieve the best-quality audio on each soundbar.

Sonos soundbars FAQs

Can you wall-mount a Sonos soundbar?

Yes. all of the best Sonos soundbars featured in this guide support wall mounting. Sonos sells mounts designed for each model, but you'll also find third-party options that cost less. Mounting your soundbar can help declutter your setup, especially if you have limited space on your TV console.

Can you pair a subwoofer to a Sonos soundbar?

All of Sonos's current soundbars work with the brand's Sub 4 or Sub Mini subwoofers. The flagship Sonos Arc Ultra even supports dual subwoofers using the Sub 4 or Sub 3 for deeper bass. Just note that Sonos soundbars don't support subwoofers from other brands.

If you prefer a soundbar that comes with a subwoofer out of the box, check out our guide to the best soundbars with subwoofers.

Can you pair rear speaker units to a Sonos soundbar?

Sonos soundbars can connect to select Sonos speakers for a true surround sound experience. You can pair two Sonos Era 100 speakers with the Arc Ultra, Beam (Gen 2), or Ray for wireless rear channels. The Beam and Arc Ultra also support pairing with Sonos Era 300 speakers for an even more immersive Dolby Atmos audio experience.

If you're looking for a soundbar or speaker system that already includes dedicated rear satellites, see our guide to the best surround sound systems.

Can you pair Sonos soundbars with the Sonos Ace headphones?

Yes, the Sonos Arc Ultra, Beam, and Ray all support the brand's TV Swap feature. This lets you wirelessly connect your Sonos Ace headphones to your soundbar and switch between them seamlessly while watching TV. It's a handy way to enjoy late-night movies without disturbing anyone else.

Can Sonos soundbars play Dolby Atmos surround sound?

Both the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sonos Beam (Gen 2) support Dolby Atmos. However, only the Ultra has up-firing audio drivers to produce overhead Atmos sound effects. In contrast, the Beam uses processing to simulate overhead sounds, which isn't as convincing.

To learn more about the format, check out our Dolby Atmos guide. For more soundbar recommendations with Atmos support, visit our roundup of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars.

Is the Sonos app reliable?

Sonos released a new mobile app in May 2024, and many customers reported issues with various glitches and missing features. However, the company has since fixed many of those problems.

When reviewing the Arc Ultra, we encountered minor issues with delayed speaker switching, but didn't encounter any major bugs. Though the Sonos app still isn't perfect, its lingering flaws aren't big enough to be a dealbreaker.

Is Sonos better than Bose?

Sonos and Bose make excellent soundbars, but which one is better depends on your specific needs.

Based on our testing, the high-end Sonos Arc Ultra edges out the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar thanks to its improved bass performance. Meanwhile, the midrange Bose Smart Soundbar beats the Sonos Beam in Dolby Atmos performance due to its up-firing drivers.

At the entry level, the Sonos Ray and the Bose TV Speaker are more evenly matched, offering very similar audio quality. However, we like that the Sonos Ray has WiFi streaming support, which the Bose lacks. That said, some buyers may prefer that the Bose model has an HDMI port, which the Ray is missing.

Both brands support multi-room audio, but their ecosystems don't mix, so it's best to stick with one. You can learn more about Bose's speakers in our guide to the best Bose soundbars.

What other audio products does Sonos sell?

In addition to soundbars, Sonos sells wireless speakers, including the Sonos Era 100, Era 300, Move 2, Roam 2, and Five. The brand also sells over-ear headphones called the Sonos Ace.

Check out our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers for Sonos speaker recommendations.

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