Sonos Entertainment Set with Arc and Sub: The Ultimate Soundbar and Subwoofer Combination for Your Home
A great soundbar changes how you watch television. A great soundbar paired with a great subwoofer changes how you experience everything. The Sonos Entertainment Set with Arc and Sub is precisely that pairing, bringing together two of the most acclaimed home theater products available into a single bundle that delivers breathtaking audio for movies, television, music, sport, and gaming without a single speaker cable to worry about.
Elevate your entertainment with the sound clarity of Arc and the powerful depth of Sub. Add multi dimensional Sonos sound and bass to shows, movies, and games for a truly immersive experience. Easily connect your system over Wi Fi and enjoy control with your remote, the app, and your voice.
If you have been watching television through your TV’s built-in speakers or through a basic soundbar without bass reinforcement, this bundle will transform your living room into something genuinely different.
Why Does the Arc and Sub Together Make So Much Sense?
The Sonos Arc is an exceptional soundbar on its own. Its eleven drivers, upward firing tweeters, and Dolby Atmos support deliver a front sound stage and overhead audio experience that very few soundbars at any price can match. But every soundbar, no matter how accomplished, has a physical limitation when it comes to deep bass. The slim profile required for a soundbar to sit neatly under a television simply does not allow for the driver size and cabinet volume needed to produce the kind of low frequency response that makes cinema content genuinely visceral.
The Sonos Sub solves this completely. Dedicated to producing nothing but bass, with a cabinet design and driver configuration built exclusively for that purpose, the Sub fills in the frequency range the Arc cannot cover on its own. Together, the two components cover the full audio spectrum from the deepest bass frequencies to the highest treble details, producing a sound that is complete, balanced, and genuinely impressive at every point on the dial.
The fact that the connection between them is entirely wireless means the combination requires no additional cable management and no compromise on where you place the Sub in the room.
The Sonos Arc: Eleven Drivers, Dolby Atmos, and Exceptional Clarity
The Sonos Arc is the heart of this entertainment set and understanding what makes it special helps explain why this bundle is worth serious consideration.
The Arc features eleven Class D digital amplifiers perfectly tuned to Arc’s acoustic architecture, eight elliptical woofers that ensure faithful playback of mid range and vocal frequencies in addition to rich bass, three precisely angled silk dome tweeters that create crisp high frequencies and crystal clear dialogue, and a Speech Enhancement feature that emphasises the frequencies of the human voice to clarify dialogue.
The driver count and the precision with which they are engineered and positioned is what separates the Arc from lesser soundbars. Eight elliptical woofers working together produce a mid range reproduction that gives voices real weight and presence. Three silk dome tweeters angled in different directions create a high frequency spread that extends well beyond the physical width of the soundbar itself. The result is a front sound stage that feels genuinely wide and dimensional rather than flat and confined.
The Speech Enhancement feature is one of those practical details that makes a real difference in everyday use. The most common complaint people have about television audio is difficulty understanding dialogue, particularly during action sequences or scenes with heavy background music. Speech Enhancement addresses this directly, ensuring voices remain clear and intelligible regardless of what else is happening in the soundtrack.
The Arc supports Dolby Atmos, the spatial audio format used in most premium streaming content on Netflix, Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime Video. The upward firing drivers create height channels that place audio above the listener, with overhead sounds moving across the ceiling and height effects that add a genuinely three dimensional quality to the listening experience. Rain falls from above. Aircraft fly overhead. Action sequences have a vertical dimension that standard stereo audio cannot produce.
A far field microphone array uses advanced beamforming and multi channel echo cancellation so your voice assistant can be readily activated, and Trueplay software dynamically tunes the speaker to the unique acoustics of the room.
The Arc is also a full Sonos smart speaker when the television is off. It streams music from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, and dozens of other services directly through the Sonos app, and it sounds extraordinary doing so. The combination of eight woofers and three tweeters produces a music listening experience that rivals dedicated stereo speakers costing significantly more.
The Sonos Sub Gen 3: Bass That Transforms Everything
The Sonos Sub is not a standard subwoofer with a Sonos badge attached. It is an entirely original design built around a set of engineering principles that make it genuinely different from any other subwoofer in its category.
Two force cancelling drivers face inward for powerful bass without any cabinet buzz or rattle. Two Class D digital amplifiers are perfectly tuned to the acoustic architecture. Audio settings automatically equalise to balance Sub and the paired Sonos speaker. Trueplay software dynamically tunes to the unique acoustics of the room. Dual acoustic ports are precisely tuned to enhance performance.
The force cancelling driver configuration is the core of what makes the Sub special. Two woofers mounted facing each other in a custom designed cabinet produce bass by pushing air, but their mechanical forces act against each other and cancel out. This eliminates the cabinet vibration that afflicts almost every conventional subwoofer design. The result is bass that is completely free of the buzz, rattle, and structural resonance that so often undermines the quality of subwoofer performance. You hear the bass as pure sound rather than as a combination of sound and unwanted mechanical noise.
The Sub’s distinctive sculptural design, with its open centre cavity and smooth curved surfaces, is not purely aesthetic. The internal cavity is part of the acoustic design, with the dual acoustic ports tuned precisely to extend and control the bass output. The Sub genuinely looks beautiful in a living room rather than looking like a piece of equipment that needs to be hidden, and it is equally elegant whether standing upright alongside the television or lying on its side and sliding under a sofa.
The Sub connects to the Arc wirelessly over your home Wi Fi network. There is no cable to run between the soundbar and the subwoofer, no proprietary wireless dongle, and no separate pairing process beyond adding it through the Sonos app. It simply joins the system as a fully integrated component the moment it is added.
Adjustable EQ settings in the app include bass, treble, and loudness controls, giving you the ability to fine tune the balance between the Arc and the Sub to suit your room, your content preferences, and your personal taste. If you prefer thunderous bass for action films, the app accommodates that. If you prefer a more balanced presentation for music and dialogue heavy drama, that is equally achievable. The system adapts to you rather than imposing a fixed sound character.
Trueplay: Room Calibration That Makes Both Components Sound Their Best
Every room is acoustically unique and the way bass behaves in a room is particularly variable. A corner placement produces more bass than a mid wall position. A room with hard floors and minimal soft furnishings sounds brighter and more reverberant than a carpeted room with heavy curtains. The Sub’s position relative to walls and furniture affects how its bass output distributes throughout the space. Trueplay accounts for all of this automatically.
Trueplay software dynamically tunes to the unique acoustics of the room, analysing the acoustic characteristics of your specific space and adjusting both the Arc and the Sub’s output to produce the most balanced and natural sound in that environment. The integration between the two components is also calibrated by Trueplay, ensuring the crossover point where the Sub takes over from the Arc is set correctly for your room and that the relative levels of the two components are properly balanced for your listening position.
The practical result is that the system sounds right in your room rather than sounding right in a generic test environment. Most people notice a meaningful improvement in both dialogue clarity and bass quality after running Trueplay compared to the uncalibrated default settings.
Wireless Setup: Minimal Cables, Maximum Impact
Setting up the Sonos Entertainment Set is straightforward and cable light. The Arc connects to your television via the included HDMI cable using the HDMI eARC port found on all modern televisions. The Sub connects to the Arc over Wi Fi with no cable between them whatsoever. Power cables for each component are the only other connections required.
The entire system setup is handled through the Sonos app on your smartphone or tablet. The app guides you through adding each component, naming your room, connecting to your streaming services, and running Trueplay. Most people complete the full setup including calibration in well under an hour from the moment they open the boxes.
Once set up, the Arc responds to your TV remote via HDMI eARC, meaning volume control and input switching work directly from the remote you already use without any additional programming. The Arc also responds to touch controls on its top panel, to the Sonos app, and to voice commands via Amazon Alexa and Sonos Voice Control.
Control Options: Your Remote, Your Voice, Your App
Easily connect your system over Wi Fi and enjoy control with your remote, the app, and your voice.
The Arc’s far field microphone array with advanced beamforming means voice commands work reliably from anywhere in the room even when content is playing at high volume. Amazon Alexa is built into the Arc, giving you full Alexa functionality including smart home control, information queries, timers, and music requests. Sonos Voice Control provides a music optimised alternative that responds with particular speed and accuracy to playback commands. Both are available simultaneously.
Apple AirPlay 2 is fully supported, allowing iOS and macOS users to stream audio directly from any compatible Apple device to the entertainment set with a single tap. This is particularly useful for streaming music directly from iPhone or iPad without needing to open the Sonos app, and it supports multi room AirPlay 2 streaming that can include other AirPlay 2 compatible devices in your home simultaneously.
A Foundation You Can Build On
One of the most compelling aspects of the Sonos Entertainment Set is that it is a complete and satisfying home theater system on its own, but it is also a foundation that can be expanded at any time.
Adding a pair of Sonos Era 100 or Sonos Era 300 speakers as rear surround channels through the Sonos app transforms the Arc and Sub combination into a full 5.1 or 5.1.2 wireless surround sound system with no additional installation required beyond placing the rear speakers and plugging them in. The transition from the Entertainment Set to a full surround setup is handled entirely in software.
Because the Arc is a full Sonos component, the entire entertainment set is also part of your Sonos whole home audio ecosystem from day one. Music playing on the Arc can be grouped with Sonos speakers in other rooms throughout your home simultaneously. Every streaming service you use is available to the entertainment set through the Sonos app. The living room system and your whole home audio system are one and the same.
Speech Enhancement: Never Miss a Word
One of the most practically valuable features of the Arc for everyday television viewing is Speech Enhancement. Modern television production frequently mixes dialogue at lower levels than music and sound effects, and television speakers have neither the frequency response nor the clarity to render voices properly. The Arc’s Speech Enhancement feature processes the audio signal in real time to boost and clarify the frequency range where human voices sit, making dialogue consistently intelligible without affecting the impact and dynamics of the rest of the soundtrack.
For anyone who has ever reached for the remote to turn on subtitles because they could not follow a conversation in a drama, or who has struggled to hear quiet dialogue in a film with a loud score, Speech Enhancement is a revelation. It is the kind of feature that becomes part of how you watch television permanently rather than something you enable occasionally.
Quick Specs at a Glance
What is in the set: Sonos Arc soundbar and Sonos Sub Gen 3 wireless subwoofer Arc drivers: Eleven Sonos engineered drivers including upward firing tweeters for Dolby Atmos Arc amplification: Eleven Class D digital amplifiers Arc connectivity: HDMI eARC, Wi Fi, Apple AirPlay 2, Ethernet, optical with adapter Arc voice control: Amazon Alexa, Sonos Voice Control Sub connection: Wireless over Wi Fi, no cable to Arc required Sub drivers: Two force cancelling inward facing woofers Sub amplification: Two Class D digital amplifiers Sub placement: Upright or on its side, anywhere in the room Trueplay: Yes, available Speech Enhancement: Yes Colours: Black and White Cable runs required between components: None
Final Thoughts
The Sonos Entertainment Set with Arc and Sub is one of the most satisfying home audio purchases you can make. The Arc delivers the most complete front sound stage of any soundbar in its category, with Dolby Atmos height effects, exceptional dialogue clarity, and music performance that stands entirely on its own merit. The Sub adds the physical dimension of bass that turns good home theater audio into great home theater audio. Together they create a listening experience that makes everything you watch, hear, and play feel bigger, more present, and more immersive.
The wireless connection between them eliminates the cable management headache that has traditionally made subwoofer integration complicated. The Sonos app makes setup, calibration, and daily control effortless. And the expandability of the Sonos ecosystem means this Entertainment Set can grow into a full surround sound system whenever you are ready.
If you want great home theater sound without complexity, without compromise, and without a room full of cables, the Sonos Entertainment Set with Arc and Sub is the answer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q1. What is included in the Sonos Entertainment Set with Arc and Sub?
The set includes the Sonos Arc soundbar and the Sonos Sub Gen 3 wireless subwoofer. Each comes with its own power cable and the Arc includes an HDMI cable for connecting to your television. Together they form a complete 2.1 channel wireless home theater system that can be expanded with rear surround speakers at any time.
Q2. Does the Sonos Arc support Dolby Atmos?
Yes. The Sonos Arc supports Dolby Atmos and uses upward firing drivers to create genuine height channels that place audio above the listener. Dolby Atmos content from Netflix, Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, and other compatible streaming services is reproduced with a genuinely three dimensional quality that standard stereo or even standard surround sound cannot achieve.
Q3. How does the Sub connect to the Arc?
The Sub connects to the Arc wirelessly over your home Wi Fi network. There is no cable between the subwoofer and the soundbar, no proprietary wireless dongle, and no complicated pairing process. You simply add the Sub through the Sonos app and it joins the system as a fully integrated component. The only cable the Sub requires is a power cable to a wall socket.
Q4. Can I place the Sub anywhere in the room?
Yes. Because the Sub is wireless, you can place it wherever works best aesthetically and acoustically in your room without any cable constraint. It can stand upright beside the television cabinet, sit beside a sofa, or lie on its side and slide under a sofa completely out of sight. Trueplay then calibrates its output for wherever you have placed it.
Q5. What is Trueplay and how does it benefit the Arc and Sub combination?
Trueplay is Sonos’s acoustic calibration technology. It analyses the acoustic characteristics of your room including the size, shape, furnishings, and the position of each component, then automatically adjusts the output of both the Arc and the Sub to produce the most balanced and natural sound in your specific space. It also calibrates the crossover between the Arc and the Sub to ensure seamless integration between the two components.
Q6. Can I add rear surround speakers to this system later?
Yes. The Entertainment Set is a foundation you can build on. Adding a pair of Sonos Era 100 or Sonos Era 300 speakers as rear wireless surround channels through the Sonos app transforms the system into a full 5.1 or 5.1.2 wireless surround sound setup with no additional installation required beyond placing the rear speakers and adding them in the app.
Q7. Does the Arc work as a music speaker when the TV is off?
Yes. The Arc is a full Sonos smart speaker as well as a soundbar. When the television is off, it streams music from all Sonos supported services including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Deezer, and many more. The Sub also contributes to music playback when paired with the Arc, adding genuine bass depth to music as well as to home theater content.
Q8. What is Speech Enhancement and should I use it?
Speech Enhancement is a feature built into the Arc that emphasises the frequency range of the human voice in real time to improve dialogue clarity. It is particularly useful for television dramas, films with quiet dialogue or loud soundtracks, and any content where understanding spoken words has been a challenge with previous audio equipment. Most people who try Speech Enhancement find it becomes a permanent part of their everyday viewing setup.
Q9. Does the system support Apple AirPlay 2?
Yes. The Sonos Arc supports Apple AirPlay 2, allowing you to stream audio directly from any compatible iPhone, iPad, or Mac to the entertainment set with a single tap. This works without needing to open the Sonos app and supports simultaneous streaming to other AirPlay 2 compatible speakers in your home.
Q10. What voice assistants does the Arc support?
The Arc has Amazon Alexa built in and also supports Sonos Voice Control. Both are available simultaneously and both work hands free using the Arc’s far field microphone array with advanced beamforming and echo cancellation, which ensures reliable voice recognition even when content is playing at high volume.
Q11. How difficult is the setup process?
Setup is straightforward and guided entirely by the Sonos app. You connect the Arc to your TV via HDMI eARC, plug in the Sub wherever you want it, and follow the app’s step by step instructions to add both components, connect to your streaming services, and run Trueplay. Most people complete the entire setup including calibration in under an hour without any technical expertise.