Arc poor dialogue

Dialog on my Arc sounds really good. Have you performed Trueplay tuning?

Yes on many occasions. Enabled enhanced audio, turned off “loud” etc. Still significant amount of poor performance for dialogue. 

What is “enhanced audio”? What model TV do you have? What type of audio are you getting to play out of the Arc? Stereo PCM? Dolby Digital Plus? Dolby Atmos?

You might consider performing Trueplay with a different iOS device.

For me, dialog is not poor quality but just not loud enough sometimes even with night mode and speech enhancement on and getting dolby 5.1 signal and true play. 

So far sonos has refused to give us ability to adjust center channel manually. 

Yeah agree, Sonos needs to allow control of the centre channel, Im constantly having to raise and lower the volume to hear voices, but then other sound gets to loud.

Ive found a solution to this problem. Update your sonos arc to the latest version (14.12).

Then perform a factory reset on all of your speakers starting with the arc.

Set up you arc like you normally do.

Mine is connected to a lg c9 65. 

Set the audio on passtrough via the options.

Still some movies are bugged like the matrix via the lg netflix app.

If i choose 5.1, the dialogue is like 10% of what is supposed to be. If I choose original audio the dialogue is perfect! Dolby atmos is also perfect.

Hatefull eight via the amazon prime lg app on 5.1 is perfect.

Sonos has made changes to the way the Arc handles dialogue in update 14.12. This is documented here: 

Since the extra clarity is a result of the update, maybe your solution does not need a complete reset, that will result in the system losing all settings.

I don't have an iPhone so I can't run the Trueplay tuning process.

I noticed that you mention the "loud" option so I am wondering if you are referring to the "Loudness" option in the EQ settings?

I am a little hard of hearing (being in my mid 50's) and on some movies on Sky Q there is no subtitle option like on the 'Great Movies' channels.

Should this loudness option be turned off if it enhances dialogue?

Cheers

Any solution for this?  I have just purchased arc and the center channel dialog is ridiculously too low with some content, Dolby atmos movies from hbo max for example are low dialog with super loud music, meanwhile a non surround broadcast has super loud dialog

The frequency response of our hearing varies with intensity. “Loudness Compensation”, usually abbreviated as “Loudness”, is designed to compensate for this variation when the overall level is low. This effect is very obvious in the bass area and many listeners simply assume that Loudness adds bass. At concert hall levels, our hearing response is much more uniform and Loudness Compensation should not have any effect.

Experiment with the Loudness ON and OFF. Your best approach might be with Loudness ON and the bass reduced, but only you know what sounds “best” (to you). Don’t be afraid to boost the treble at bit. There is also a “Dialog” setting that you can fuss with while watching TV.

Another dimension of this issue is “compression”. You might notice that the difference between loud and quiet on many TV shows and movies is almost non existent. Everything is more or less at the same level. Compression has advantages when the audio is played in noisy environments. While none of the quiet details will be lost in the noise playing on dreadful TV speakers, the result is not very exciting in quiet rooms, playing on good equipment. Dolby Atmos tracks assume that you are listening in better environments and there is much less compression. For someone with your hearing issues, this is not productive. In my opinion the source material should be uncompressed and the playback equipment should provide adjustable compression. The compression can then be adjusted to suit the listening situation. In past eras this was expensive, now it’s a cheap option. I wish that the equipment manufacturers, reviewers, and the public would not be so stubborn. Unfortunately, compression is considered to be a bad feature and too many people try to avoid it. The pop music producers issue highly compressed product and this sells lots of music. Pop music producers understand the value of compression.