I’m posting this to see whether other Sonos Arc Ultra owners have experienced the same issue, because at this point I’ve done enough testing to know I’m not just imagining it.
My problem is very specific: on certain scenes with male voices yelling, raising their voice, or getting very intense, my Arc Ultra produces a harsh distortion / clipping / breakup sound in the dialogue. It is not just bright treble or sharp sound. It sounds like the vocal peak itself is breaking up and getting rough in a way that does not sound normal.
This does not seem like a simple one-unit defect, because I had this issue on my first Arc Ultra, replaced it with another one, and the replacement Arc Ultra is doing the same thing too.
I have tested this across multiple sources and settings already:
Sources tested
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Sony native apps
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Roku
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Panasonic 4K player
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PS5
Audio formats tested
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PCM
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Dolby Digital Plus 5.1
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Dolby Atmos
Other things tested
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eARC on and off
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pass through changes
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digital audio out changes
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Dolby Dynamic Range changes
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different HDMI cable
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different volume levels
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two separate Arc Ultra units
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ungrouped all speakers so the Arc Ultra runs on its own
The issue still happens.
What makes this more confusing is that I cannot always reproduce it with music, and general music playback often sounds fine. It is much more noticeable on shouted male dialogue than on regular music. That is why I’m starting to think this may be a very specific dialogue / vocal reproduction issue rather than a general speaker problem.
For anyone willing to compare, please test this exact Better Call Saul scene because it is one of the clearest examples of what I’m hearing:
Better Call Saul — Season 5, Episode 7 (“JMM”)
Scene: Jimmy yelling at Howard
Timestamp: roughly 45:31–46:26
Main problem area: around 46:04 onward, when Jimmy’s voice gets more intense
That scene is a very good reference point because the raised male dialogue there triggers exactly the kind of harsh, broken, clipping-like edge I’m talking about. BUT its not just this scene in general I noticed it on so many shows.
I’m trying to figure out a few things:
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Has anyone else experienced this on the Arc Ultra?
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Is it more common with Sony TVs, or are people hearing it on other brands too?
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Did anyone actually solve it?
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Did replacement fix it for you, or did multiple units behave the same way?
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If you test the Better Call Saul scene above, do you hear the same thing?
At this point, after going through two Arc Ultras, multiple sources, multiple formats, and a lot of settings changes, I have a hard time believing this is just a random isolated problem on my end.
If you have an Arc Ultra, I’d really appreciate it if you could test the Better Call Saul scene and let me know what you hear. I’m looking for serious comparisons from people who have actually tried to reproduce it, especially if you’ve noticed issues with male yelling or intense dialogue sounding distorted. Heres the youtube clip if you need another source. https://youtu.be/jjYXNonafzo?si=paTqV0Zb5QWU3_6l
