Sonos launched its all-new soundbar last month and ahead of the first customers who will get the next-gen Sonos speaker starting next week, reviews are starting to come in.

So far, it looks like the Sonos Arc is living up to its appointment as the company’s top of the line speaker and may be one of the best wireless soundbars available on the market… with one notable caveat.

The headlining new features of the Sonos Arc include Dolby Atmos support and an all-new design both inside and out that leverages 11 premium drivers for multi-directional sound.

Compared to the traditional Atmos system, the Arc sounded different — it’s definitely tuned to deliver very loud dialogue, and it’s still a soundbar, so the overall left / right soundstage isn’t as wide — but it delivered a surround effect that was easily as convincing.

TechCrunch said that “Sonos has managed a miracle of audio engineering with its latest home theater speaker.” The review was less disappointed by the single HDMI ARC port for audio and praised the sound separation and virtual sound immersion of the premium soundbar.

I mentioned this briefly above, but it’s amazing what the Sonos Arc can accomplish in terms of sound separation and virtual surround immersion with just a single speaker.

It’s easily the best sound rendering I’ve experienced from a Sonos soundbar, and likely the best audio quality from a soundbar I’ve heard, period.

In closing TC said, “If you want the best, most versatile and well-designed wireless soundbar available, the Sonos Arc is the speaker for you.”.

I could immediately recognize the audio quality upgrade moving from the old soundbar to the Arc.