Well we wanted it to finally happen, it took forever to happen..., but it happened.  What is that?  Sonos replaced their playbar with a new and updated soundbar.  No knock on the playbar, it did a great job and had a great lifespan, but it was time for something new.  Sonos introduced an outstanding new soundbar with Dolby atmos around June of 2020.  Wait what...what is Dolby atmos?  Basically a new type of surround sound data which introduces sound from above us instead of just the sides.  Dolby atmos can be generally heard one of two ways. 

1) A custom home theater system with speakers around you (in the walls), and now adding speakers in the ceiling.  This is great for flyovers, or scenes with action directly above you. 

2) A soundbar or any speaker with upward firing speakers. 

These upward speakers distribute sound toward your ceiling allowing it to reflect downward back toward you simulating sound from above.  These speakers and soundbars are generally approved by Dolby laboratories.  A manufacturer could not design and bring out a soundbar saying it has Dolby atmos if it does not meet the specifications and requirements of Dolby laboratories.  Here is their page listing the Sonos arc as a Dolby atmos soundbar. If your looking for their general page showing all devices with Dolby atmos you can see that here.  Going back to these upward firing speakers, you can see these in the picture below. The soundbar offers a total of 11 speakers, two firing upwards.  It also features 11 class D amplifiers matched to each speaker and the architecture of the soundbar.  Basically it has one amplifier for each speaker, and that amplifier and speaker is tuned to the design of the soundbar.  Sonos did their job in the design and sound quality of this unit.

When it comes to soundbars, if your looking for one of the best, you would want to check out the Sonos Arc.  Sonos can be generally used for one of two reasons. If you wanted a great home theater (without going totally custom and having a 7, 9, or more speaker system), or for wireless home audio. This would allow you to play music from your portable devices wirelessly to the Sonos devices. You can see more about that with a previous blog from us here.

So let's get into the Dolby Atmos aspect a little bit. Dolby Atmos is just a sound data which travels along a existing type of surround sound. Here are a few notes about this. 

1) It needs to use either ARC or eARC, requiring an HDMI cable. What is ARC or eARC, I thought that was the soundbar name? ARC stands for audio return channel, eARC stands for Enhanced audio return channel, and yes it does stink that Sonos named their soundbar the same name as the type of audio return channel Dolby atmos uses. So when we refer to arc, we can either be referring to the Sonos Dolby atmos soundbar, or the HDMI port on your TV that has ARC or eARC, in parentheses next to it. You can see the picture below of an HDMI IN port on most TV's that have ARC and eARC. 

2) So what is happening with HDMI ARC is a two way communication.  Before HDMI ARC inputs on TVs, the signal only traveled in one direction.  Makes sense right, your cable box, bluray, streaming device, game system has an HDMI output and the TV has an HDMI input.  Out of your source device and into the display device (TV).  With HDMI ARC & eARC, you still use an HDMI connection (with an HDMI cable), however the signal can now travel bi-directional.  So if your connecting your soundbar or receiver (with HDMI ARC or eARC), to your TV these units can talk back and forth with each other.  Audio is sent from the TV to the soundbar even though the TV HDMI port says HDMI IN.  The TV input that says HDMI eARC or ARC has the ability to also be an audio output.  This is why when connecting a soundbar or receiver with ARC you only want to use the TV HDMI port that has eARC or ARC.  The remaining HDMI ports on the TV will not be able to send audio back to your soundbar or receiver, and can only act as inputs.  To further provide an example, lets say you had your streaming device (Roku, firestick etc...) and Sonos arc soundbar.  Now let's look at the picture on the right above.  We see three HDMI inputs labeled HDMI 2, 3, & 4.  HDMI 3 is the eARC/ARC input.  This is the only input you can use to connect your Sonos arc to, as HDMI 2, & 4 can't supply audio out to the Sonos arc soundbar.  You then connect your streaming device to either HDMI 2 or 4 and your all ready to go.

3) The Sonos Arc soundbar does has the option of being connected with an HDMI to optical adapter.  If your TV doesn't have and HDMI input with ARC or eARC, then you can use this option, however you would lose Dolby atmos with this. Toslink or optical does not support Dolby Atmos surround sound.

4) So I just hook it up and am getting Dolby atmos right?  Not exactly.  I would first refer you to these videos below I have made regarding this. These both take in account using an HDMI cable with ARC or eARC to connnect your Sonos Arc to your TV.  Here I made two videos explaining more how to verify if you are receiving Dolby atmos on your Sonos arc. I could try to go on explaining it in great detail, but I think the videos do a better job.  Dolby atmos uses Dolby TrueHD, or Dolby Digital Plus to travel along.  Remember how we said earlier Dolby atmos is just data that travels with an existing type of surround?  The surround modes that support Dolby atmos are Dolby TrueHD, and Dolby Digital Plus, (this could change).  This means that if your TV does not support or allow for these surround sound modes, or if your streaming device does not, it is possible you would not have Dolby atmos on your soundbar or receiver. 

5) So does all this above only apply to the Sonos arc soundbar?  No, theoretically this would apply to all Dolby atmos soundbars and receivers.  I get it, it can seem more involved, complicated and crazy than you would think or want.  But this is the world of electronics.  One other big thing I want to mention.  I can almost guarantee that someone will have connected their soundbar perfectly just like described above, and they have checked their audio settings and set it in Dolby Digital Plus, however they are not getting Dolby atmos on their Sonos arc or receiver.  Is this surprising?  Not really.  We could talk about this in a whole new blog...which we may do.  This comes down to how nice the software of your TV plays along with the software of your soundbar or receiver.  Basically hello software bugs, or the software being incompatible even though the engineers planned it to be compatible.  In my opinion electronics today all works around the software it was programmed with.  We can think of these TVs as a computer first, with a big display.  Yes in theory this software from all manufacturers should work great together, and never have any problems.....yeah right.  So unfortunately these products don't always play nice together, and this is something we all have to deal with even as installers and techs.  Sometimes everything works great, but I assure you software bugs are out there and can be a problem. 

6) One way to help prevent this is to only purchase electronics from respectable manufacturers.  In my opinion my first choice of TV to match up with a Sonos arc or other electronics items would be Sony, followed by Samsung, and then LG.  Yes I am aware of everyone with Samsung and LG sets, we do sell Samsung.  This is not a knock saying you have a poor choice of a TV.  And no I am not saying you will never have a problem with Sony and your soundbar or receiver.  However I have to look at it also from an installer, and technicians perspective.  What is going to have a great picture, be very reliable, and have the BEST software with the least amount of bugs or possible problems.  Because problems, mean more time on the job site, call backs, and possibly disgruntled clients.  Samsung QLED TVs and LG OLED sets are very nice, so no I am not ripping on everyone with those TVs.  These are just some of the things we may want to think about before we go and purchase our TV and soundbar.  I hope this helped explain some things about Dolby atmos, what arc is (both on a TV and the Sonos arc), and how it works.  Now if only all electronic brands could play nice together........