Sonos Arc + Apple TV 4K + Vizio E-Series (E70-F3)

I’ve got a 2018 Vizio P-Series (P75-F1) w/ a Beam 5.1 setup right now. Have an Arc on order too to test out vs the Beam setup which I am already happy with. Sounds like your Arc will arrive sooner than mine. Interested in if the Atmos works. I mainly use the built in apps and Airplay directly to the TV where needed (i.e. HBO). Also have a Apple TV 4K but it is in the bedroom on another TV. 

From what I read the Vizio does pass through Atmos through DD+ but is also dependent on the apps (Prime Video and Vudu work for sure) and I’ve read conflicting things on Netflix which is supposed to work. Whether Atmos works through the Apple TV 4K though I’m not sure since the TV needs to decode Atmos from the ATV 4K’s Dolby MAT output to DD+.

Hey guys I appreciate this question because I’m also looking for answers as on if I will be able to get atmos on my Vizio v series 2018 70in via HDMI-Arc, I also have a Apple TV 4K? I recently preordered my arc and two fives? 

Unfortunately for me, I don’t care a thing in the world about the built-in apps. Atmos not working via the Apple TV 4K will be a deal-breaker for me if it doesn’t work (unless the 5.1 Dolby Digital just blows me away with the sound quality). And yes, although I’m not sure if the TV needs to “decode” the MAT container rather than “strip” (for lack of a better term) and pass along the Dolby Digital Plus bitstream, your point is very well taken. That’s the $799 question. ;-) 

Fingers crossed for both of us! 

I have this set as well (P75-F1) and am very curious if it is able to pass DD+ to the Arc. I have a playbar already mounted directly under the set, so upgrading to the Arc is a significant investment (new mount, cable re-runs in the wall to provide for proper spacing, etc...) Really appreciate any first hand experience you can share with the P75-F1.

Thanks!

My Sonos Arc is out for delivery and should arrive within a couple of hours. Dying to know whether or not Atmos will work. Will be reporting back soon! 

PS - I’m really, really surprised to see how few Vizio owners seem to be active on the Sonos boards (here and Reddit). Tons of LG, Samsung, and a decent smattering of Sony TV owners, but Vizio seems to be few and far between. 

My Arc arrived this afternoon and I’ve spent a few hours playing around with it. I have wildly mixed feelings so far. A few initial observations. (Note: this is my first Sonos, for what that’s worth) 

SPOILER ALERT: No Atmos via Apple TV 4K. 

BUILD QUALITY: In a word - impressive. Well-packaged, and loved the fabric sleeve it came in. My unit is perfect and looks like a million bucks. Or at least $800. Looks great under the TV and is shockingly unobtrusive. The kids weren’t in the room when I set it up and didn’t even notice it at first.

SETUP: Gotta say, I love the concept of what they’re trying to accomplish here. One HDMI cable to the TV and a power cable. Far and away the cleanest, easiest, fastest audio component setup I’ve ever done (and I’ve done a LOT). Setup through the app was relatively painless, though Trueplay failed a couple of times before it completed. 

AIRPLAY 2: Freaking love this. Love the integration with Apple Music. Love the fact that I can stream music from any iOS device. Love that I can select the Arc along with my HomePods to play music. Very, very cool. 

SOUND QUALITY (GENERAL): I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it yet. The sound field is impressively wide which is cool. I haven’t had a chance to really get it thumping yet, but I haven’t really noticed the muddy bass issue that so many others have. At the same time, it hasn’t really impressed me from a bass perspective yet, either. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a shocking amount of sound coming out of this (fairly) little bar, but I haven’t been “wowed” so far like I was expecting (hoping) to be. It sounds good - really good… but I was expecting exceptional. 

And I’m sure it’s because of the room (open in the back to dining room / kitchen), but it doesn’t do anything at all for rear effects. I’ve got two One SLs coming tomorrow to see how adding those as surrounds impacts the sound. 

Haven’t ordered a Sub 3 yet because the reviews had said the bass was so good that you may not need it. But in my opinion the Arc could really, really benefit from the additional bass a sub would bring. 

ATMOS: Have had quite the roller coaster of emotions here. Thought I was getting Atmos out of the Apple TV 4K and was thrilled! Netflix? Atmos! Disney+? Atmos! Apple TV+? Atmos! Plex? Atmos! But then, I noticed that it was reporting that EVERYTHING I was playing on the Apple TV was showing as “Dolby Atmos (DD+)” in the Sonos app. Including things I damn well knew weren’t (hello The Abyss on Plex). A quick reboot of the Apple TV later and goodbye Atmos. :-(

However I HAVE been able to get Atmos on several of the built-in apps on the TV, including Plex so I was able to download and listen to the official Dolby Atmos demo trailers (Leaf, Amaze). Cool sounding? Yep! Wide soundstage? Absolutely! Height effects? Couldn’t hear any at all. Like AT ALL. And I’ve got a nice, big, flat, low ceiling for the Arc to bounce off of so I’m fairly surprised that the effect was so unnoticeable. Had the kids listen as well and they didn’t seem to be able to hear any, either. So, that’s fairly disappointing. Like, not sure if it was worth spending the money disappointing.

DTS: With the exception of one short, weird stretch where Plex (on ATV) wasn’t playing any audio At all on anything that didn’t have a straight up AC3 track, I’ve been very pleasantly surprised that Arc’s total lack of DTS support hasn’t been an issue. Plex (or the Apple TV, not sure which) seems to transcode any DTS (or AAC) audio to some variant of Dolby Digital and plays fine. So that made me happy. 

STEREO: Hulu on Apple TV only seems to output in Stereo 2.0 which is odd (the built-in app outputs in Dolby Digital 5.1). Along with a bunch of poorly ripped movies in my Plex server in AAC Stereo that leads me to being concerned about how Arc handles stereo audio. Any regular receiver could easily take (matrixes) stereo audio and at least play it using a Dolby Pro Logic decoder, but I’m honestly not sure if Arc does any sort of processing to Stereo signals. That could be an issue for me, but I need to test more to see how it all works. 

WRAP-UP: A very mixed bag for me, personally, so far with so, so many “buts.” I want to love it… but I don’t yet. Sounds good... but not amazing and not fundamentally better than what I’d be replacing. Could probably benefit from the addition of the Sub and a pair of One SLs... but for nearly $2,000 it damn well ought to sound good at that point. I’m not getting Atmos from my Apple TV… but so far I haven’t heard any Atmos content that makes me care. AirPlay 2 functionality is awesome…. but I’ve already got a house full of HomePods. 

Will report back as I learn more and add more pieces. Happy to answer any questions anyone has in the meantime. 

I have a Vizio M658 - 2019 M Series Quantum. No atmos from ATV. And worse…. no Atmos from built in Apps (Netflix/Prime etc).

Inbuilt apps push out DD+ but only 5.1. ATV is DD only. Lousy. 

So irritated at Vizio for lousy support on a new TV and a little irritated the ARC only has one HDMI. If I don’t see a easy solution (I don’t) I might return the ARC. I have a beam + SUB + Surrounds. It’ll continue to serve just fine but was looking forward to being ‘blown away’.

Don’t get me wrong, the ARC sounds good, but for $1000 (Canada) I just don’t know if I can live with not getting ATMOS.

On another note I knew I did my research before buying the Arc. Such as it is, there is no clear information but here, strait out of the M658 manual.

That’s about all it says about Atmos. 

For whatever reason my “initial impressions” post is stuck in moderation hell, so if you’d like to see my thoughts (until my post gets cleared here), you can check it out on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/h80ckc/sonos_arc_first_impressions_vizio_e70f3_apple_tv/