For the past couple of weeks, I was problematic about my Sonos Playbase.
I thought it had a physical defect because after three years of usage, the sound all of a sudden was very tinny--all treble and no bass.
For troubleshooting, I went through process of resetting each Sonos (I have a 5.1 system of Playbase, Sub and 2x Play:1), and setting it up from scratch and then tuning with Trueplay at the end. I did this twice. There was no improvement.
So I wrote CEO Patrick an email and got a reply from Sonos Support. They assigned me a Case # and I was waiting for an RMA from Sonos appointed distributor Tat Chuan Acoustics in Singapore (I’m located in the Philippines).
I decided to separate the satellites so I could use the Play:1’s with the Sub for music in the meantime.
While playing Spotify, I went into the app and tapped on “Remove Surrounds”. Instantly, and to my pleasant surprise, the Playbase sounded normal again.
I re-added the two Play:1s back as satellites and the Playbase’s sound was still good.
I get to set the Surround Distance as 2 to 10 feet, a feature that I never used before since it’s unavailable when tuned with Trueplay.
Then it happened--the sound went back to being tinny. It happened right after I performed a Trueplay tuning using my iPhone 11 Pro.
So I figured that was the problem, more particularly, it was the iPhone’s mic. Maybe it’s clogged with dirt, so Trueplay was compensating for that.
I the used my wife’s iPhone XS for Trueplay retune.
There, my Sonos system was behaving normally.
Turns out there was nothing wrong with my system, and can now relax and go back to enjoying this great system.
This has got me thinking, since Trueplay relies on the phone’s mic, it is limited by the quality or condition of that mic.
My suggestion is for Sonos users to try a setup without Trueplay to compare the sound “untuned”.
I hope this info helps others out there.
Hi
Welcome to the Sonos Community and thanks for sharing your experience!
There are a few things than can affect the effectiveness of TruePlay, and the condition of your microphone would indeed be one of them. Do people you talk to on the phone complain of the quality? If not, it might be something else. The first thing I would try is a reboot of your iPhone.
However, as you’ve got everything working well now, you might not want to try anything at all!
Thanks for the welcome!
My iPhone 11 Pro’s mic is fine.
No one at the other end of the line ever mentioned my voice wasn’t coming in clearly.
My video recordings, with back camera and selfie camera had good audio.
My voice memos sounded clear.
Still, because if the odd result of Trueplay, I decided to clean the mic ports using a toothbrush and compressed air.
I retuned Trueplay using the same iPhone and the result was improved. It no longer sounded like a treble boost/bass reduction.
The difference between having Trueplay on or off was marginal, but I preferred the untuned sound. Trueplay was a bit lacking in the mids and so wasn’t a full-range sounding as untuned.
I will try to retune again but with my iPad Pro, to see if the Trueplay tune is better with that devices.
in the meantime, I’m setting the Trueplay switch to the off position.
Will keep this thread updated.
thanks
I performed a Trueplay tune with my iPad.
The tuned sound is identical with the risky from my iPhone 11 Pro with the cleaned mic port.
It’s good, but I prefer the quality of the spud without the tune.
I’m now not convinced Trueplay is breed than a manual tune.
Is *better
Hi
Thanks for sharing again!
It’s mostly subjective. Some prefer the sound with TruePlay enabled, some prefer it disabled, and some can’t tell the difference.
It’s also to do with adapting to the acoustics of the room - if the speaker doesn’t “feel” the need to adapt much, there won't be much difference heard. During my training it was demonstrated to me with a bucket - put the bucket upside-down over the speaker and it sounds different. Do TruePlay, and the speaker - still under the bucket - sounded a lot better. An extreme example, I know, but it was a good demonstration!
Yes I completely agree it’s subjective. I’m just sharing my personal experience. For years, I left Trueplay on, but thanks to my recent problems, I’ve discovered how much more enjoyable the system is. I find myself watching more movies because it has become more immersive.
I guess it’s prudent for customers to compare the two and decide for themselves which they prefer. That’s what I failed to do.
At the end of the day, the tuning is the Sonos opinion of what is good sounding. Not everyone will agree with that opinion.
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