Design and build:

Comparing Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage vs Sonos Arc, the Beosound Stage has a unique design. It sits on a base and is available in few different color options like Bronze Tone/Warm Taupe or Anthracite. The bar is taller in height than the Sonos Arc. Similar to Arc, it is wall mountable. The top of the bar should be facing the user, and this will need some space. It has a brushed aluminum top which gives a premium feel, but it might reflect some TV light. The base is made of plastic and the bar has fabric covering for which you need to take additional care.

Sonos Arc also does not follow the boring rectangular design. It is a bit longer than the Beosound Stage and has circular sides. It is made of plastic and covered with plastic grilles. They are suitable to pair with 65 to 75” TV screens. The Stage soundbar is said to be a good fit for 40 to 65” TVs. Overall, both the soundbars have great build quality but the different style of Beosound Stage attracts us.

Performance:

Comparing Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage vs Sonos Arc, the Beosound Stage is a 3.0 channel bar compared to the 5.0.2 of the Arc. The low ends of the Sonos Arc is better than Beosound Sound. It can deliver a powerful surround sound performance with the help of side-firing drivers. These can be improved further with the addition of Sonos Sub and Surrounds (Sonos Era 100 and 300). With Beosound Stage, you do not have this option.

Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage soundbar has 11 speakers. There are 1.5” full range and 0.75” tweeter for front left and right channels. There are also 2 1.5” full range driver, 0.75” tweeter and 4 4” woofers in the bar. It can deliver smooth performance with punchy bass. It has a bright, detailed and crisp audio performance with excellent clarity in vocals. Along with dedicated center channel, there is also voice enhancement option. This makes movies and TV shows are enjoyable.

Low ends shows its presence, it has good depth and punch. However, it will not deliver thunderous bass. It has clear and accurate trebles. In terms of Atmos effects, the Beosound Stage might fall behind the Sonos Arc. It has average height effects that are decent and enjoyable. With a 3.0 channel setup, the bar focuses on the front area, and this is where the sound seems to be coming from instead of the sides. The bar has decent, yet average surrounds and it mostly converts contents to stereo.

Sonos Arc has 11 drivers and is a great choice for music and movies. It has loud and clear dialogues. As a standalone bar, the audio performance is top notch. It has room calibration feature known as Trueplay Tuning. However, it will only work with Apple iOS devices. The bar has outstanding Atmos effects. It can represent low and loud effects of movies effectively. The high ends are clear and detailed but not harsh. It is a musical soundbar that delivers good instrumental sounds.

As already mentioned above, the surrounds are quite impressive and stretches around the user. Compared to Beosound Stage, it has great height effects thanks to the up-firing drivers. The bar has good ambient sound. Overall, the soundbar produces lively and engaging sound.

Features: 

Comparing Sonos Arc vs Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage, the Beosound stage has both Airplay 2 and Chromecast. Sonos Arc only has Airplay 2. With Airplay, Apple users can stream content from preferred apps and Apple devices. The bar can be a part of Sonos multiroom ecosystem where you can create a maximum of 16 groups with 32 devices. It will work with Sonos S2 OS only.

Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage can also have multiroom system with Beolink Multiroom feature. Both these bars work with Spotify Connect

Connectivity:

Comparing Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage vs Sonos Arc, the Beosound Stage has more connection ports. It has HDMI out, HDMI in, 3.5mm, and 2 Ethernet ports. One of the Ethernet ports is for LG OLED TVs (LG OLED TV 2019 and up models). Sonos Arc has HDMI-to-optical adapter, HDMI out and an Ethernet port.

If you have older TVs with optical connection, then the Beosound Stage will need additional purchase of optical-to-HDMI connector. Unlike Sonos Arc that only has Bluetooth, Beosound Stage has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Control options:

On Beosound Stage you will get touch sensitive buttons for volume, play/pause, skip track backward/forward, Bluetooth, reset and standby options. For Sonos Arc, the following options are available, volume up/down, play/pause, mic mute/unmute and skip next/previous track. While none of the bars have remote, you can use the mobile apps.

Beosound Stage has Bang & Olufsen app and Sonos Arc works with Sonos S2 app. Unlike the Beosound Stage, the Sonos Arc has both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for voice control. It has 5 far-field microphone array for picking up voices.

Settings:

Beosound Stage offers few audio settings compared to the Sonos Arc. They have some common options like night mode, voice mode, bass and treble adjustments. The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage has different sound modes like TV, Music, Movie, Night listening, None.With Sonos Arc, you can adjust the height level.

Cost:

Comparing Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage vs Sonos Arc, the Beosound Stage is quite expensive. It exceeds $2000 whereas the Sonos Arc is available under $1000.

FAQ:

 Can I upgrade the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage soundbar?

The Beosound Stage from Bang & Olufsen is a single soundbar. It does not offer to expand it by adding subwoofer or surround speakers. This makes it suitable for users who ‘feel’ they do not want additional speakers for their room setup.