Sonos Beam Ultra review: The best compact soundbar just got better

It's been almost half a decade since Sonos dropped the Beam (Gen 2) and made a lot of wishes come true by adding Dolby Atmos support for three-dimensional audio decoding.

That support relied on some impressive virtualisation, though, and ever since then we've been begging for a Beam with actual upfiring drivers to boost its verticality and immersiveness.

Well, here it is – and that's not the only upgrade Sonos has put on the table. The Beam Ultra isn't a Beam (Gen 3), obviously, and it's curious to consider why. It's certainly a contender for the best soundbar for most people, though, despite a notable price boost.

What I know for sure, though, is that after a week-and-a-half using it as my soundbar – and this is coming from a daily Beam (Gen 2) user – is that it's an incredibly interesting addition to Sonos' lineup, which might just make more sense than any other soundbar Sonos has ever made.

Price and Availability

The Beam Ultra was announced at the turn of September, and will actually go on sale at the end of the month – on 29 September, to be precise. You can pre-order it now, if you're eager and know you want it.

Pricing is straightforward, since the numbers are the same in a bunch of territories: £699 in the UK; $699 in the US; €699 in the EU; and, breaking the trend, AU$1099 in Australia.

That price makes the Beam Ultra a chunk more than the Beam (Gen 2), which remains on sale – and which it sounds like Sonos will continue making.

The Beam (Gen 2) came out back in 2021, so it's no longer a spring chicken, but that price gap is worth mulling over. I've written a comparison piece after A/B testing the two soundbars side-by-side, which should help on that front.

Design and Features

When Sonos first unveiled the Beam Ultra, I'll admit that I didn't initially read the fine print and assumed it would be almost identical to the Beam (Gen 2) but for the upgrades. In fact, Sonos has made more fundamental changes than the Beam label suggests.

The Ultra soundbar is a little bigger than both of the previous Beam generations, by around 10cm in overall width and by minuscule margins in a couple of other dimensions.

While that sounds like a minor difference, in person the Beam Ultra is indeed noticeably bigger. It remains compact despite this, but if you have a first or second-generation Beam that barely fits its space, you're going to need to measure to check if the Beam Ultra will work for you.

This change in dimensions also means that the Beam Ultra has a new mounting system for wall-mounting (which sees it 'float' when mounted, rather than sitting on a shelf-like design), as it won't work with the older Beam's mounts.

On the design front, it's not just bigger, the Beam Ultra also has a different look – emphasising the addition of upfiring drivers. The top of the soundbar now continues the perforations that run around its outside, to let that sound out upwards.

Touch controls persist, but they're now mounted around the edge of the soundbar's top, in a sort of raised ridge that runs around the outside. It's a neat solution, and while I barely use touch controls since the soundbar sits over by my TV, I've tried them out plenty for this review.

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Underneath the bar, there are four raised feet to keep it stable, another subtle difference since previous Beams just sat completely flat.

On the back of the soundbar, a recess conceals the I/O on offer, which comprises a power port, an HDMI port for eARC connections, and a USB-C port that can take various adapters for optical or other connections (those adapters are optional extra purchases). Back there you'll also find a mute switch to turn off the microphones (which will disable various features, too).

The Beam Ultra comes in black and white, as with all of Sonos' recent launches, and in the white colour I've been testing, as provided by Sonos, it's a pretty lovely soundbar to look at. It's simple and elegant enough, but understated such that it doesn't draw the eye, to distraction which is just what I want.

On the features side, Sonos has added some new smarts. Those two upfiring drivers aren't the only additions, since the number of overall drivers now stands at nine, compared to the Beam (Gen 2) with five total. It's a 7.1.2 arrangement, with a new central channel design that Sonos hopes will make for clearer dialogue.

The Beam Ultra is part of the launch of Sonos27, a big update to the Sonos app (pause for trauma flashbacks here), and that brings some other smarts – or will do in the next few months. Sonos is promising AI-powered voice controls, for instance, but they're not here yet, and the same goes for Alexa+ integration.

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What is here, though, is a new portable surround setting that lets you use a pair of Play or Move 2 speakers as surrounds for your Beam Ultra without them needing permanent resting spots – or, indeed, even fixed spots, as you can position them where you like.

Once added as surrounds, you can simply place them to your left and right, and they'll be auto-detected as rear surrounds when you're using your soundbar. Pick them up and move away, though, and they'll behave as they would normally.

Crucially, this feature will also work on the Beam (Gen 2) and Arc Ultra, so it's not locked to the Beam Ultra, but it's a cool little idea.

What is unique to the Beam Ultra for now is an upgraded version of Sonos' Speech Enhancement, now powered by AI for better results. You can choose between four levels to tune how noticeable it'll be, too.

One curious but welcome addition is Bluetooth, which had been absent from previous Beams, which were Wi-Fi only. That makes the Beam Ultra arguably more adaptable and straightforward for playlist-happy guests to use.

So, that's a nice list of new features, but there are also a couple of continued absences. Having brought Dolby Atmos well into the fold at this point, and with DTS Digital Surround support, it's a shame that DTS:X remains frozen out and unsupported. There's also no HDMI passthrough here, which is something Sonos seems not to want to embrace.

Sound and Performance

Much of the justification behind the Beam Ultra in the first place revolves around how much it can upgrade the sound quality of the Beam, a soundbar that has proven itself for so many people.

The Beam Ultra delivers, though. Even before turning to the verticality that it brings to the party, I found that its general sound quality was a clear step up compared to the Beam (Gen 2) when I swapped back and forth. Even without the speech enhancement mode, that new centre channel does indeed make for clearer dialogue in many scenes, and clarity overall was much better.

Early on in Blade Runner 2049, there's a scene where Dave Bautista handles some maggots before a car flies overhead and then lands. It's a sequence that goes from very quiet to very loud in a flash, involving a lot of overhead noise, and the difference when I swapped to the Beam Ultra was significant.

The overhead audio was clearly upgraded, as you would expect given the absence of physical upfiring channels on the older Beam, but I wasn't expecting that earlier part – with the details of the gloop dripping from Bautista's gloves – to be so much more clearly rendered at the same volume.

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This was an impression that repeated throughout my testing. Top Gun: Maverick's vertiginous action sequences were clear and powerful, again demonstrating how much that vertical sound can improve matters. Finishing off The Wire (at long last), though, and simple scenes of dialogue were never muddled or muddy – something that plenty of other soundbars sometimes mess up.

The Beam Ultra can also get quite a chunk louder than the Beam (Gen 2). In my testing between the two, I routinely had to turn down the Ultra when I swapped to it, despite starting on the same volume rating in the Sonos app, and the ceiling it can reach is impressively booming.

I also got the chance to test the new portable surround setting that Sonos has added, using two of the five-star Play portable speakers as surrounds. This system is pretty terrific – put your Play or Move 2 in positions to make them rear channels, and when the speakers are both there and the TV's on, they'll automatically get used (and calibrate for their positioning).

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Move them, though, and they'll function as normal, so you lose nothing by having them there when you want. The fact that you need a pair of these pricey portable speakers, though, does make me think that most people would be better off with some Era 100 SLs set up as traditional rear surrounds for a much lower price.

Beyond the portable surrounds, quite a lot of the hype around the Sonos27 app seems distant to me. The AI voice control features aren't live yet, so it's hard to judge what they'll really add to the party, and in regular use I tend to turn microphones off in as much of my home tech as I can, regardless.

Still, even without those bells and whistles, the fact is that I'm really pleased with the sonic performance of the Beam Ultra. It's a clear upgrade on the Beam (Gen 2) from a clarity and power point of view, while the addition of better overhead audio is another big step up to make the difference obvious.

Verdict

The Beam Ultra is a terrific proposition if you're in the market for a one-bar solution at this price, with the capacity to easily expand into a bigger system over time. It sounds phenomenal, remains impressively compact, and provides a clear upgrade over the Beam (Gen 2) from a quality point of view.

Of course, its price also means the 'Ultra' in its name is fair enough, and the premium it demands does mean that the Beam (Gen 2) will likely remain the best choice for a huge proportion of people – especially for smaller rooms or those simply less fussed about vertical audio.

For those who do care, though, I actually think the Beam Ultra is the best soundbar Sonos makes, pound for pound, at this point. It has such huge advantages in terms of installation and footprint, but doesn't feel like much of a downgrade compared to bigger options, especially if you have surrounds to pair it with.

Also consider

It's obvious at this point, but the Beam (Gen 2) is the clear alternative that most buyers will likely be considering as they look at the Beam Ultra, and the simple fact is that it remains a brilliant soundbar. It's smaller, significantly cheaper (and that gap will only widen during sales), and still sounds absolutely superb, making it a great choice if your budget is lower.

For those who want something quite different, I think the Marshall Heston 60 is well worth a look. It's also compact, but cheaper than the Beam Ultra, and brings impressively punchy audio and a design that's far removed from the clinical simplicity of Sonos. That could mean it's right up some people's street – but not for everyone!