When I review audio gear, the most important thing is sound quality. I know, that seems like the most blindingly obvious statement in the world, but I say it because many of us end up buying speakers, headphones, and soundbars based on promised features or impressive-sounding specs. After all, if you can’t get to a store to hear the product in person, what else do you have to go on?
This tendency gets reinforced when you’re looking at two similarly priced products from two different companies, each with a strong reputation. A great example is the Sonos Arc Ultra ($1,099/ £999 / AU$1,799) and JBL Bar 1000 MK2 ($1,200 / £899 ). Both are high-end Dolby Atmos soundbars, priced within $100 of each other.
All-in-one or future expansion?
Setting aside the key question of sound quality for a moment, it’s worth thinking about what you want from a soundbar in the first place. Are you looking for a one-and-done solution, where you open the box, set up the system, and never think about your home theater sound again? Or are you more forward-thinking, and want a great soundbar that you can add to over time as your budget allows and as your needs change over time?
If you’re in the latter category, Sonos is the better option. The Arc Ultra doesn’t include a subwoofer or surround speakers, but it’s compatible with multiple Sonos products that can fill those roles. This lets you pick the right components for your home theater instead of needing to use the ones that came in the box.
This is a more expensive path to a multi-speaker setup, but it’s far more versatile. The Bar 1000 MK2 only works with the sub and surrounds that JBL includes. If you don’t like how they perform, or your needs change, you’re stuck.
How much music?
The main purpose of a soundbar is to get better TV sound. But if you’re going to drop a grand on a speaker, it should do more than make your movies pop – you should expect it to be capable music player too.
Again, sound quality should be the most important factor (I promise I’m getting there), but you should also consider how you want to play music. If you’re a Spotify user, with no personal collection of music sitting on a computer, and no interest in subscribing to any other services, either the Sonos Arc Ultra or the JBL Bar 1000 MK2 will work fine for your needs. You can access both directly from within the Spotify app; easy-peasy.
On the other hand, if you use multiple services and have an extensive personal collection of digital music, the Sonos platform is more powerful and versatile than JBL’s One app. The Sonos app works with virtually every music service natively – even Apple Music and Spotify – letting you search and stream from a variety of sources within a single app. Moreover, you can create multi-source playlists that blend tracks from every service into a single list.
Still, as savvy audiophiles will remind you, Sonos lacks support for Google Cast and Tidal Connect, which means some music services won’t be able to stream at their highest level of quality (e.g., at sample rates above 48kHz). With the Bar 1000 MK2, you can stream up to 96kHz.
And what about the rest of your home? Sonos is a wireless multiroom streaming platform first and foremost. Adding new devices to new rooms in your home takes less than three minutes and each new speaker can be controlled from the Sonos app. Multiroom isn’t JBL’s greatest strength. Getting new JBL Wi-Fi speakers set up is a cinch in the JBL One app, but if you want to control them from a single interface, you’ll need to use Google Home or the Amazon Alexa app – neither of which is as easy to use or as powerful as the Sonos app.
Dolby Atmos Music
One of the more exciting parts of owning a Dolby Atmos soundbar is listening to Dolby Atmos Music. Both the Arc Ultra and Bar 1000 MK2 can play Dolby Atmos Music, but only the Arc Ultra can play these tracks without the use of a smart TV or a separate streaming device like an Apple TV 4K.
If you have an Apple Music or Amazon Music account, you can stream Dolby Atmos Music tracks directly to the Arc Ultra via the Sonos app. For Tidal, you still need to use a smart TV or streaming device with the respective version of the Tidal app for that platform
One input to rule them all?
Sonos is heavily focused on simplicity. That’s a mission I can get behind, right up until it limits what I can do with a product. The Arc Ultra’s connections are as simple as it gets: One HDMI ARC/eARC port. That’s it. No HDMI inputs, no analog inputs, and no optical digital inputs (though you can buy an optical-to-HDMI adapter if you need one).
On the one hand, a single connection does make things easy. On the other hand, if your TV only has three or four HDMI ports, you’re now down to two or three ports for all of your HDMI-connected devices.
The Bar 1000 MK2 alleviates this problem and actually increases your number of available ports with its three HDMI inputs. If you’re still rocking an older, non-Dolby Atmos TV, this arrangement has a hidden benefit: by connecting a Dolby Atmos-capable streaming media player to one of these inputs (instead of a TV port), you’re getting the best of both worlds – Dolby Atmos in up to Dolby TrueHD quality, and 4K HDR video with Dolby Vision support. The Arc Ultra can only work with the audio signal it gets from your TV.
It would have been nice if JBL had made the Bar 1000 MK2’s optical input discrete, but sadly, it can only be used as an alternative to the HDMI eARC port.
Sound surprise
With its included subwoofer and detachable surround speakers, it would be reasonable to assume that the JBL Bar 1000 MK2 has better sound quality than the single-speaker Sonos Arc Ultra, but that’s not what I found when I put these two systems head-to-head.
The biggest surprise was the low-frequency sound. I’m not claiming that the Arc Ultra can punch as low or as hard in the bass department as the Bar 1000 MK2’s subwoofer with its massive 10-inch driver, but the Arc Ultra’s Sound Motion dual-membrane, quad-motor, bi-amped woofer is astonishing.
Though it stops short of rattling windows, the Arc Ultra’s low end is truly cinematic, giving action scenes an immersiveness that sucks you in. It’s so powerful, I advise Arc Ultra owners to consider buying surround speakers before investing in a subwoofer.
Speaking of immersion, it’s impossible to overlook the role that two discrete speakers placed on either side of your listening position can have on the movie and TV-watching experience. With the Bar 1000 MK2’s detachable units set to their loudest level, I enjoyed surround sound moments more thoroughly than with the Arc Ultra. That said, the Arc Ultra does an impressive job at virtual surround sound, and its Dolby Atmos height channel effects are better defined than the Bar 1000 MK2.
Where the Arc Ultra scores two unambiguous victories is in dialogue clarity and music rendering. As I noted earlier, a soundbar’s primary mission is to deliver better TV sound. These days, speech intelligibility is a major challenge, especially as streaming services shift us away from traditional two-channel sound to 5.1 or higher surround sound. The Arc Ultra does a stellar job of separating and elevating dialogue from the rest of the soundtrack, making it much easier to hear than competing systems. Not to say that JBL’s dialogue clarity is bad (it’s actually quite good), but it’s not as crystal clear as the Arc Ultra.
If you don’t anticipate doing a lot of music listening with your soundbar, the Bar 1000 MK2 is plenty enjoyable for casual tunes – the kind you might put on in the background while doing other tasks. For dedicated listening, however, it struggles as I noted in my review: it has trouble with its midranges, and the highs have a tendency to get shouty and shrill, particularly at higher volumes.
By contrast, the Arc Ultra is a better music speaker in nearly every respect. On its own, Dolby Atmos Music is a highlight, and it gets even better when you pair it with a set of Sonos Era 300 wireless speakers as surrounds. It’s not perfect – I noted that some Dolby Atmos Music tracks can produce an undesirable level of sibilance in the highs unless you dial down the treble – but overall, the Arc Ultra reproduces two-channel and surround sound music mixes in typical Sonos style: warm tones, good detail and definition, with a nice balance of frequencies.
Getting the right soundbar
Ultimately, the Sonos Arc Ultra and JBL Bar 1000 MK2 are both excellent Dolby Atmos additions to your TV setup. If you’re buying your first soundbar or upgrading from a smaller speaker, these systems will wow with their performance.
But given the Arc Ultra’s advantages in streaming music support, expandability, plus dialogue and music delivery, I recommend it over the Bar 1000 MK2 unless you’re looking for an all-in-one, set-it-and-forget-it option. In that case, the Bar 1000 MK2 fits the bill nicely.
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