The small soundbar that turned Sonos into a living-room default has finally grown a pair of real height drivers. The Sonos Beam Ultra was unveiled on September 1, 2026 at US$699, and it swaps the psychoacoustic guesswork of the Beam (Gen 2) for hardware that genuinely fires at your ceiling.
The driver count goes from five to nine: five tweeters and four low-profile woofers, each fed by its own Class-D amplifier. One tweeter faces forward for the centre channel, two fire sideways for stereo width, and two point upwards, loaded into a directional horn. Sonos claims a true 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos presentation from that array. For comparison, the 2021 Beam (Gen 2) ran five amplifiers with one centre tweeter, four elliptical midwoofers and three passive radiators, and manufactured its height effects entirely in software.
Growing the array meant growing the box, though not by much. The Beam Ultra measures 29.53 x 2.48 x 4.13 inches and weighs 6.35 lbs, against 25.63 x 2.68 x 3.94 inches for the Beam (Gen 2). Sonos frames that as slightly lower and 3.9 inches wider, the point being a bigger soundstage that still does not creep up over the bottom edge of a TV panel or block its remote receiver.
Connectivity is deliberately lean. There is a single HDMI eARC/ARC port with no passthrough, plus Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 and Apple AirPlay 2. A USB-C socket accepts analogue sources through the optional Line-In Adapter, or wired networking through the Combo Adapter. Dolby Atmos arrives via Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD. DTS:X is not supported, which remains the one line on the spec sheet that will send some buyers elsewhere.
Software is the other half of the story. The bar runs Sonos 27 and adds AI Speech Enhancement with four selectable levels, so dialogue lift is a dial rather than a switch. Trueplay room correction works from both iOS and Android, Night Sound tames peaks, and the bar can borrow portable Sonos speakers such as Play or Move 2 as wireless rear channels. TV Audio Swap pushes the soundtrack to Sonos headphones when the house is asleep.
Above it sits the Arc Ultra, the US$1,099 flagship with 14 drivers and a claimed 9.1.4 presentation, so the Beam Ultra is not being asked to lead the range. It is being asked to make the compact tier credible again.
What Hi-Fi has heard the bar at a demo session and came away impressed, but the magazine is holding its star rating until the Beam Ultra reaches its dedicated test room. Pre-orders opened on September 1, 2026, in black and white, with shipping from September 29, 2026.
Earlier on GismoLand: Rega Planar 6 RS Edition. Six contenders on the What Hi-Fi test bench.
