If you’ve ever had to rewind a scene because the dialogue was just too hard to catch, you're definitely not alone. Sonos is trying to fix that with a new feature for its Arc Ultra soundbar called Speech Enhancement, and it just rolled out as a free software update on May 13, 2025.
The idea is simple: make voices in movies and shows easier to understand without cranking up the volume or turning on subtitles. But behind the scenes, this feature is powered by artificial intelligence and nearly a year’s worth of research, including testing with people who experience hearing loss.
Lately, it feels like hearing what characters are saying has become a full-time job. Whether it’s rushed production, weird mixing choices, thick accents, or just bad room acoustics at home, the spoken word often gets buried under music and sound effects. Turning up the volume usually just makes everything louder, including explosions and background noise. And while subtitles help, they can distract from the visuals.
It’s even more of a struggle for those with hearing loss. In fact, according to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), around one in three adults in the UK and nearly one in four in the U.S. have some level of hearing loss, many without even realizing it. That’s a big group of people who often miss out on key parts of the story.
Sonos didn’t just tweak the volume settings. Instead, they built a system that uses machine learning to pick out and enhance the dialogue specifically. The soundbar listens in real time, figures out what’s being said, and brings those voices forward, without messing up the rest of the soundtrack.
It’s smart enough to adjust on the fly. For example, during a noisy action scene, the feature will dial up the speech clarity more aggressively. In quieter moments, it eases off so you don’t lose the natural balance of the original mix. The goal isn’t to make things louder—it’s to make voices clearer.
“By implementing machine learning into our speech extraction technology, we figured out how to separate dialogue from other sounds in the center channel and clarify speech in real time,” said Harry Jones, Sound Experience Engineer at Sonos. “This lets us draw out just the dialogue at the most needed times, without overly impacting volume or taking away from the holistic cinematic experience.”
The new Speech Enhancement tool lives in the Sonos app and lets you pick from four different settings depending on how much help you need:
The Max level is a notable addition. It’s meant to give people with hearing challenges an easier time following conversations, without having to rely on hearing aids or subtitles.
To make sure this actually works for a wide range of people, Sonos partnered with RNID and tested the feature with 37 participants of different ages and hearing abilities over nearly a year. The feedback helped shape how each level performs across all kinds of content, from quiet dramas to loud action scenes.
They also worked with award-winning film sound mixer Chris Jenkins to make sure the feature didn’t mess with the creative intent of the shows or movies. His role was to help keep the original atmosphere and emotion of the audio intact, even when the speech is being pulled forward.
“Sonos' new Speech Enhancement feature is a huge step forward in addressing dialogue challenges that come with the breadth of content available to people today," said Jenkins.
"It's also a testament to the importance of retaining human touch when building with AI - there were countless hours of listening sessions where we worked through the details together, adjusting each setting to make sure it delicately enhances dialogue while remaining true to the creator’s intent.”
This update is only available on the Arc Ultra soundbar for now. If you own one, you’ll find the Speech Enhancement settings right in the main Sonos app screen, ready to use. There’s no word yet on whether this feature will make its way to other Sonos models.
But for Arc Ultra users, especially in households where some people hear better than others, it’s a welcome tool that gives everyone more control over how they watch and listen.
Speech Enhancement isn't a brand-new idea—other soundbars have similar modes—but Sonos is aiming to make it more intelligent and customizable. Instead of a one-size-fits-all setting, users can fine-tune their experience depending on their needs, hearing ability, or even the type of content they’re watching.
As streaming content continues to grow more complex in terms of audio design, features like this might become just as important as bass or surround sound settings. At the very least, it could mean fewer rewinds and a lot less “Wait, what did they just say?”
