Soundbars are an inexpensive, fashionable option for home entertainment setups that deliver amazing sound, are simple to use, and easily operate with the newest technology.
Perhaps you’re in the market for a soundbar and have done your research and discovered that the Vizio Elevate and the Sonos Arc are both excellent choices.
Indeed, these two renowned brands are popular in developing industry-leading, soundbars.
To make things easier for you, I’ll walk you through a comparison of the two soundbars.
So without wasting time, let’s start.
Meeting The Soundbars
Before I go into detail about the differences in design, features, and performance, I’ll say a few words about the soundbars and their prominent manufacturer.
Vizio Elevate
Vizio is a brand that is known for producing great-value speakers in general.
The Vizio soundbar, Elevate 5.1.4 is a good, versatile soundbar that has a lot to offer. Its key features are it is a Dolby atmos soundbar that basically has Dolby atmos support, nowadays Dolby atmos is a thing that most speakers/ home set-ups should have it is a cutting edge technology.
It’s suitable for listening to a wide range of audio use, be it music, movies or even gaming. The stereo soundstage on the Vizio Elevate is fantastic.
Long story short, the Vizio Elevate is a simple and affordable method to add authentic 3D Dolby Atmos sound to your living room.
Sonos Arc
With the launching of Sonos Arc, Sonos showcased its excellent craftsmanship to the world and its competitors.
Sonos Arc completely changed the game, and it is here to show that they mean business.
Despite their Sonos Beam posing a serious challenge to the competition, it was primarily intended at the consumer market, specifically those who were tired of their TV’s terrible sound.
On the other hand, Sonos Arc cost twice as much but is capable of satisfying even audiophiles.
Simply put, Arc is the pinnacle of Sonos’ living room technology.
Elaborating on their Designs, Who has the edge?
For starters, they are surely attractive.
The soundbars from Vizio and Sonos are both made of plastic. It is, however, high-quality plastic that does not feel cheap.
The Vizio Elevate soundbar measures 2.7 inches in height, 48.1 inches in width, and 6.5 inches in depth. Yes, it is quite lengthy and It will take up more room.
Sonos Arc, on the other hand, measures 3.4 x 45 and 4.5 inches, making it slightly taller but not as deep as Elevate.
At first glance, you’ll notice that the Sonos Arc is more discreet and has a minimalist yet stylish look.
Elevate is not bad either, it is distinguished by its unique rotating speakers design.
Vizio includes the subwoofer with the soundbar, while Sonos Arc doesn’t, it is sold separately at a similar price closed the arc speaker.
The Sonos Arc subwoofer has a glossy finish that looks nice and smooth, whereas the Vizio has a matte simple finish.
Connectivity and Features, How far can they go?
Things take a turn when it comes to features.
The Vizio Elevate has the advantage because it supports both Dolby and DTS: X/Dolby Digital signals, but the Sonos Arc can only play Dolby and DTS material.
While DTS:X isn’t as popular as Dolby Atmos, having the choice to choose which soundtrack you want to hear is a good feature to have, and the Vizio Elevate provides it.
On the other hand, Sonos Arc has a built-in voice assistant, whereas Elevate does not. With Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, you can fully control the Sonos Arc.
Vizio, on the other hand, is not far behind. If you want to program the voice assistant yourself, it has a 3.5mm input.
You can stream music to the Vizio Elevate via Bluetooth, WiFi, or its built-in Chromecast for wireless music listening.
The Sonos Arc, on the other hand, supports WiFi streaming and Apple Airplay 2.
When it comes to connectivity, Vizio has the upper hand with two HDMI inputs and one HDMI output with eARC.
Unfortunately, Sonos Arc is restricted to only one HDMI eARC.
Performance, Who’s the better performer?
The Sonos arc has eight circular woofers and three angled silk-dome tweeters for good sound quality.
However, as previously stated, it will not recognize DTS:X signals, therefore it will not function properly when watching a video with a DTS soundtrack.
The Vizio Elevate has 18 drivers in total, including a dedicated center channel, 5 tweeters, and multiple woofers.
Additionally, it can rotate upwards for a far better Dolby Atmos and DTS:X signal. The 3D sound experience is real with this one.
In terms of Dolby Atmos performance, both speakers provide as expected. You’ll enjoy fantastic surround sound. The upcoming Batman film will undoubtedly feel like having Robert Pattinson in your room. A Dolby atmos speaker is always appreciated.
Just keep in mind that a soundbar surround sound system will never be able to match the quality of a home theater system, something that is built solely for that.
Still, both soundbars outperform my expectations, with the Vizio having a little advantage on sound quality due to its rotation capability.
Final Words, Conclusion
I’ll share my point of view to wrap up the article and announce the winner.
I can’t lie. I am a big fan of Sonos, they simply produce top-notch speakers. Sonos Move was a speaker I had the chance to test and own, I’ve never had a better companion than that one.
However, when it comes to Sonos Arc and Vizio Elevate debate, I have to give this one to Vizio.
I am not saying that Sonos Arc is bad in any way, but the value Elevate brings to the table is simply unbeatable, you will be hard-pressed to find me a better solution than this one, go on, I am waiting?
If Sonos Arc is not capable of beating it, what makes you think another soundbar will?
Anyway, Vizio offers us better connectivity and better features at a much more reasonable price. On the other hand, Sonos Arc feels more premium, and looks better but limits us when it comes to connectivity and features.
In the end, it all boils down to your budget and preferences, If you are a fan of Sonos like me, no one is stopping you from purchasing it. Hopefully, I did my job and respectfully picked the right “winner”
Until next time, Enjoy!
Further Reading
Accompanying either Vizio Elevate or Sonos Arc soundbar, you need speaker, you know to complete the home cinema system. I’ve got the prefect speakers just under $300.
In case you want to check out full review of Razer Barracuda X gaming headsets and SteelSeries Arctis Prime for cost-effectivity and find out is 7.1 Surround Sound Good For Gaming.
Audio Engineer
You’ll never find anyone more passionate about audio as me. I love to share my knowledge with others and help people find the right equipment for them.
