TruePlay is AWFUL, it's time for something to change

  • 20 July 2022
  • 9 replies
  • 1301 views

  • Contributor II
  • 4 replies

So the update today has given me cause to renew my absolutely awful relationship with TruePlay. I’ve had Sonos gear for a couple of years. Every time I have tried to use TruePlay has been an absolute nightmare. 9/10 tunings sound utterly awful, like truly terrible, thin, sibilant, metalic.

I have to go through all sorts of contortions, scanning parts of the room and not others, different devices until finally I get something passable. And even then I ALWAYS have treble set to -10 and would go lower if I could.

These are expensive speakers. TruePlay almost ruins them. I am not alone in this. A bit of googling uncovers others with the same issue. I just can’t understand how Sonos can accept such an erratic EQ as the only EQ option apart from a simple bass/treble.

It could be remedied quite easily. Either a better EQ (6 bands would be enough) and let us choose manual EQ instead of TruePlay. Or at least give us some trueplay options, that is, let us choose say TruePlay warm, Trueplay crisp, TruePlay vocal etc.

TruePlay can never work as a one-size-fits-all EQ. We all have different preferences for how we like our music/TV to sound.

Please Sonos...


9 replies

I was under the impression that Trueplay was about producing accurate sound, making allowances for the room acoustics. I’ve never seen it promoted as having different user profiles.

However, as an android user who can’t benefit from Trueplay anyway, what do I know? 

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @rb2k 

Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Keep the ideas coming!

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

I've never used it (apart from the Move with it built in), and haven't missed it to be honest.

Seems if you have an ARC it's nigh on mandatory reading the posts on here.

Just a random thought… if Sonos had never invented TruePlay, which was added as a free firmware upgrade, would anyone be complaining about their Sonos sound?

Just a random thought… if Sonos had never invented TruePlay, which was added as a free firmware upgrade, would anyone be complaining about their Sonos sound?

Most definitely…

Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Just a random thought… if Sonos had never invented TruePlay, which was added as a free firmware upgrade, would anyone be complaining about their Sonos sound?

Yes.

Mostly because I could compare my pair of 5s to my Denon/Infinity setup with the tuning for them on and off.  Off sounded similar to Sonos but with the room equalization on the sound was much more even. Once I was able to run TruePlay I felt the same about the Sonos sound.

Without TruePlay I might have kept my AVR and passive speaker systems that I fed with my old ZPs.

Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Was the reason of having to do another TruePlay a result of you updating to 14.12 ? If so, see below, where mid-highs and trebles have been sent into overdrive. Fix coming soon we’re led to believe..

 

Was the reason of having to do another TruePlay a result of you updating to 14.12 ? If so, see below, where mid-highs and trebles have been sent into overdrive. Fix coming soon we’re led to believe..

 

That would be very welcome but I’ll believe it when I see it. TruePlay for me has always produced a horrible thin, metalic result with screeching treble for music.

Weirdly though, the re-tune since 14.12 produced a boomy result from the Arc on TV content. I was not able to find an EQ that worked for both music and TV. 

I’ve ended up moving my Fives into a seperate stereo pair, with better results. But I only have one sub so thanks to Sonos, I can now only use it half the time :-(

Userlevel 5
Badge +13

Hi @rb2k 

Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Keep the ideas coming!

How about SONOS giving back our volume that we had before this awful 14.12 update..what was a great 35 volume setting for me  is now at 50…ridiculous!

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