Last month, Sonos debuted its latest premium soundbar in the midst of a difficult year. The company initially delayed the launch of the $999 Arc Ultra to spend time fixing serious issues that had plagued the app since a failed update in the spring. With the introduction of soundbars, Sonos introduced its first product with Sound Motion technology, which improves bass performance from small components. This new transducer allowed the company to make other improvements to the Arc Ultra over the original Arc, so it goes beyond just improved low-end tone. So what exactly is Sound Motion, and is it available on other Sonos products?
What is Might?
The story of Sound Motion begins with a company called Mayht. In April 2022, Sonos acquired Mayht Holding BV, a Netherlands-based audio company, for approximately $100 million. At the time, Sonos said Might had “invented a new and revolutionary approach to audio transducers.” More specifically, the company has redesigned the speaker’s basic components to be smaller and lighter without sacrificing overall audio quality.
In an interview with TechCrunch in January 2022, Mayht CEO Mattias Scheek said the company started working on developing speaker technology in 2016. He explained that the company intends to “defend” and license the technology rather than manufacturing the driver itself. Early potential use cases ranged from soundbars to compact subwoofers to small smart speakers. The company’s new approach is the foundation of Sonos’ Sound Motion.
What is SoundMotion?
The first implementation of Mayht’s technology in Sonos products through Sound Motion is within the Arc Ultra soundbar. Sound Motion is a flat, brick-like driver with a motor on the side and a membrane in the center, and according to Sonos’ calculations, it’s wider for twice the bass than the first Arc. A range of motion is possible. Four lightweight motors expel more air inside the soundbar, improving bass tone.
By replacing one large motor with four compact units, Sound Motion transducers are up to three times smaller than comparable “traditional” drivers. But again, it still produces the same amount of bass. These four motors power four voice coils, two moving in one direction and two in the opposite direction, allowing dual opposed diaphragms to cancel forces and minimize vibration. Sonos replaced the fabric components with injection-molded plastic for stable, linear travel. We also designed an aluminum rib to connect the motor to strengthen the structure.
The motor itself also has a unique design. Sonos has included dual magnets inside each to increase power and give you more options when it comes to product design.
Sonos Sound Motion Driver (Sonos)
“Especially when you talk about soundbars, you’re always constrained by the size of the product,” Chris Davies, vice president of audio at Sonos, explained to Engadget. “If you can narrow down your profile this much, you have more opportunities to create something new and different.”
The Arc Ultra has twice the bass output as the Arc, but is about the same size as its predecessor. This is not only due to the fact that the Sound Motion transducer is smaller than a traditional woofer, but also because its performance is so much improved that Sonos only needed one to double the bass output. As I experienced firsthand during my review of the Arc Ultra, the difference is immediately noticeable when playing electronic hip-hip, thumping, chaotic rock tunes from Better Lovers and Kaytranada.
The Sound Motion technology is placed on the right side of the soundbar, while the amplification electronics occupy the same space on the left. Because of its location, you’ll hear bass coming from one side of the Arc Ultra if you’re standing close, but if you’re at a comfortable sitting distance from your TV, the bass will blend in seamlessly.
“You can get more bass out of a smaller package,” Davis explained. “You can also do that in other ways that give you flexibility in terms of product design, product architecture, and so on.”
Sonos Sound Motion in Arc Ultra (Sonos)
That flexibility allows us to go beyond simply adding bass to improve Arc Ultra’s overall audio performance. Because Sound Motion is designed to produce more bass from compact components, Sonos was free to redesign the midrange and treble architecture as well. The company used multiple sizes for both the midrange driver and tweeter to provide more placement options and were able to enhance sound that spreads throughout the room.
“This is an evolution of what we’ve been doing,” he continued. “For Atmos content, we’re doing 9.1.4 rendering, which is really an extension of what we’ve done in the past, but now we can take advantage of all these different elements and we’re going to have more channels. ”
Sonos went with two wide front channels to keep the soundstage immersive, and was able to use four separate height channels to avoid crowding the spatial sound in the front and back. A reconfiguration inside the Arc Ultra, also thanks to Sound Motion, now allows you to scale three levels of audio enhancement based on your needs.
“We’ve put a lot of energy into doing a better job in terms of dialogue clarity,” he said. As a result, the company was able to offer clearer dialogue than any soundbar to date, Davis said.
Will Sound Motion be included in future Sonos products?
Simply put, absolutely yes. You don’t spend $100 million on something just to build it into one product. I’m sure Sonos doesn’t just use it inside the soundbar. The company has already confirmed in press materials that it expects to “introduce more innovative products using Sound Motion in the future.” Sonos further explained that the use of this technology will depend on the “sound profile, design needs and price range” of future speakers, and said that each “acoustic architecture” is designed to suit the intended customer experience. .
It’s easy to see how a small component that can produce huge amounts of bass could benefit Sonos’ more compact speakers. The company consistently lacked deep low-end tones with products like the Era 100 and Move 2, even though these speakers exhibited excellent clarity and detail. If Sonos could somehow incorporate Sound Motion drivers into future versions of these products, the overall fidelity would improve significantly. Additionally, the Ray, the company’s most compact soundbar, could be a much more appealing product for small spaces if you don’t immediately need a separate subwoofer for adequate bass performance. . For example, with Arc Ultra, you only need to use the soundbar for music because you have enough soundbar when your truck needs it.
