No more SONOS for me

How is the volume at 50 or 80?

When mine sounds like a whisper, I turn up the volume until it's louder.  Of all the complaints, this one completely baffles me.  Are the numbers really that important?

I just watched TopGun Maverick in Atmos @ 65%, Trueplay on, sublevel +11, bass 0, treble +5, height +3. 
My neighbour has to be annoyed now, but it was fun, although it’s not wat it supposed to be. Can’t wait to watch the movie again when the bug gets fixed. Great movie btw….. Yeha, great balls of fire ☄️ 

The change in Volume control step size is a big improvement for many listeners who were having trouble listening at night. One number would be too loud but the adjacent number would be too quiet. By spreading things out a bit at the lower end it’s much easier to control the system at lower Volumes. 

At 100 there is no difference in the output now compared to prior.

Low end manufacturers are very aware of this control bias and make sure that their unit gets loud with just a little control rotation or low numbers. The unsophisticated user perceives these units as being “powerful” and these users will reject a higher end product that has much more power, but a less aggressive control characteristic.

This is a good example of how you can’t make everyone happy all the time.  I understand that people are having real issues with the sub and sound profile of the ARC, and I would be frustrated about that as well.  However, I have often seen posts about not being able to control the volume at lower levels.  One of the complaints often stated is that volume is way too loud at a setting of 1, and folks wanting more fine grained control at lower levels.

I have lost track of the number of times I have said this here in posts of Connect Amp users and even Sonos Amp ones, saying that it is not loud enough. What surprises me is that Sonos went the wrong way and had to dial back to this approach.

If I may digress on TopGun for a little - Apple TV now has it on sale and after I watched it on my 50 inch plasma with 2 quality front speakers driven by a small but powerful stereo amp, it was a fantastic watch. First movie in years where I thought at the end, I want to watch it again. And my simple but HiFi quality sound set up was shaking and rumbling the room as when the afterburners come on for the first carrier take off for the real mission. Don't need more kit for sound, with the phantom centre delivering crisp dialogues. Don’t need a sub, the two fronts are bass capable enough. In fact I suspect that anything more on the sound front is there only in a multiplex.

So slickly shot and edited, that any layperson can easily get a situational awareness of what is happening on the screen if they watch with smart phone stashed away. There must be errors as part of making a movie of such actions, but this one stood out for me: I think 200 push ups is the domain of Seal/Delta/SAS. Not US naval aviators!

Maverick is the best sequel ever made imho, couldn't have done it any better.

Go my Blu-Ray on order!.

That's why I've been looking into Atmos kit but to be honest first watch at the Cinema cannot be beaten.

So the logical consequence of this is that if you can find another system that is louder than Sonos at 20 but quieter at 100, you would choose the other system.  As others have said, there may be valid criticisms of the changes Sonos have made, but this complaint is just weird.  If Sonos isn’t as loud as you need it to be at 100, you have a problem.  If not, then just listen at the volume you want.

I am not convinced that reflecting from the ceiling Atmos effect at home will come close to Atmos speakers aimed at you in the Cinema. Let us know what you think once you are able to listen to Atmos effects via Blue Ray at home.

I’d say a ‘simple’ home 5.1 setup beats this hands down.  I’ll leave the Atmos side as I’ve not heard a repeatable and convincing home Atmos setup without physical elevated speakers myself - ARC included.

Godfather 2, Aliens, Empire Strikes Back and more I think.  Seriously though, Maverick was good fun - although I thought it was basically Star Wars.  It even had a trench run to a weak point while avoiding the SAMs 🤣