If you own the Sonos Arc, an update delivers more control for how the bubble of sound appears around you.
3D sound is about to get a little more interesting, as the Sonos Arc sees an improvement delivered by update to let you take the sound higher.
Sonos is known for adding features to its products over the air via firmware updates, and this appears to be one of those, as last year’s Sonos Arc gains support for height, or more specifically, controlling the height yourself.
Height plays a part in 3D sound in and of itself, thanks to how the technology works. While surround sound is all about sound positioned in front of you, behind you, and sometimes to the side of you (depending on the type of surround you have set up), 3D sound also fires sound above and around you, creating a bubble of sound.
To make a bubble of sound, you need sound that can fire from above you, and that’s where special ceiling mounted speakers can come into play, but that’s not always the case. Typically, 3D sound is associated with the requirement of a 4K TV because the soundtrack needed to play this dimensional sound arrives with 4K titles, and partly why 3D sound is often interpreted as 4K audio, but it’s a technology that doesn’t always need speciality speakers firing at the top.
Soundbar takes on 3D audio typically include some upward-facing speakers to fire sound up to the ceiling to bounce the sound in an effort to create a timed bubble of sound, and the Sonos Arc is no different in this way, working in much the same way to Atmos soundbar efforts from other brands, including Samsung, LG, and JBL.
However Sonos is changing something this week, and giving some of the height control to its users.
Seen on an update to the app and Arc system this week, there is now “Height Audio” in its settings, allowing you to emphasise just how high the 3D channels sound around you by expanding on the height audio channels in a Dolby Atmos system.
In short, Height Audio appears to increase the volume of the dimensional sound that an Atmos soundtrack plays, improving dimensionality in the process dependent on what you might prefer.
That will likely add to the TruePlay tuning you can already use for the system, and basically gives people who like to control their home theatre sound a little more headroom, pun intended.
Sonos Arc owners should see the feature with an update to their system later this week.
