Despite Broken Brand & App Half Repaired Sonos Launch New Soundbar With Mayht Technology
Despite their brand being broken and their app only half fixed US audio brand Sonos is testing the market with the launch of a new Arc Ultra soundbar and Sub 4.
The Company claims that their new offering which is expected to cost around $1,950 in Australia, delivers new clearer dialogue and is the first of their product range to include a unique transducer technology from Mayht, a Danish Company that Sonos acquired in 2022.
The marketing buzz for the new technology is “Sound Motion” which Sonos claims allows the Arc Ultra to produce richer, even more immersive sound than the original.
They have not said how it interfaces with their problematic app which has crashed Sono’s systems in the past.
Apparently, Sonos believes its mobile app has reached a good enough place to have a crack at launching a new product.
Under siege CEO Patrick Spence claims “We have reached a level of quality (With the app) that gives us the confidence to launch our extraordinary new products,”.
Sonos claims that another app update timed to the Arc Ultra’s release will supposedly help the software “surpass the performance of the previous app across important metrics.” 90 percent of the previous app’s features will have been restored with the forthcoming update, according to the company.
As for their new soundbar technology Sonos management who have been scrambling to hose down problems at the US audio Company claim that their Mayht technology is “one of the most significant breakthroughs in audio engineering in nearly 100 years”.
The market is yet to reach their opinion as this is the first Sonos product released with Mayht developed software built in.
The Arc Ultra has fourteen drivers which is three more than the previous Arc which is why Sonos has added the word Ultra to their marketing.
Also built in are seven tweeters, six mi woofers, and the built-in Sound Motion woofer.
With that array of speakers, Sonos says the new soundbar is capable of delivering 9.1.4 output.
The bar looks similar to the last Arc soundbar however it does have new centre speaker array and dedicated side, and upward-firing drivers disperse audio horizontally and vertically to create an immersive sound field.
These are all tied together by the custom colinear waveguides for the left, right and centre channels that reportedly “bring stunning clarity to the whole front soundstage”.
The Company is also punting on delivering what they describe as “Speech Enhancement.”
It’ll support Trueplay EQ tuning — including for Android users — and also offers Bluetooth audio playback which was missing previously.
The new product was supposed to have been launched two months ago, now Sonos is looking to improve falling sales with the release of the Arc, Sonos shares fell on the news with the stock down 27% year to date.