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

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31 replies

B
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

Picked up a Roku. Still no joy with Atmos. Vizio will pass through DD+ from the Roku. But not atmos. 
 

Essentially there is Zero Atmos content available to me through my TV. Did I mention it is a 2019 TV. I don’t think the replacement mode is out yet. It’s current.


I’m utterly disappointed. To top it off I’m underwhelmed with the sound - feels like it’s holding back. Some of the depth is missing. Bass is off and it seems there is a thread about it so I posted a few hours ago. I did some tests and the bass response is definitely suspect. 
 

All in all I think I have my first disappointing Sonos product. It’s so so close I don’t want to give up yet! Not all on Sonos, Vizio to blame a as well. But Sonos just made the arc to simple for its own good. Shame. It’s as simple as the beam really but is dealing with a more complex codec platform. 
 

I’ll think it through for a few days and it might become my first Sonos return. I have to think if I can live with a $1000 atmos Soundbar for the next 5+ years that won’t do atmos unless Vizio update something. Sonos do seem to care about customers but Vizio. Not too sure. May be my first and last Vizio TV. And if Vizios solution is another Vizio product… they can stuff it! Shame because the picture quality is very impressive on this TV to my eyes. 

Beam. 2x Play:1 - 2x Play One (gen 2) - Sub - 2x Play 5 - Move
H
Userlevel 6
Badge +7

It’s been a super-weird day with the Arc. A few more random observations: 

  • Got a pair of One SLs to use as surrounds. Setup was a complete pain in the ass. It took over an hour and a half and multiple factory resets on both speakers to get past all of the errors. Then when I did get them connected they didn’t want to update. Then they didn’t want to register. Then they didn’t want to pair as surrounds to the Arc. A terrible and utterly unexpected experience - the exact opposite of the quickness and ease of setting up the Arc. Far and away the most disappointing aspect of the entire deal so far. 
     
  • 5.1 (or, really, 5.0 since I don’t have the Sub yet) sounds really, really nice. Is it super high-end? No, but it’s effective. And I’m currently running the One SLs on power banks with AC outputs (https://www.omnicharge.co/products/omni-20/) while I figure out placement which is pretty amazing - and flexibility counts for A LOT in my book these days. 
     
  • Also, points for the One SLs just being pretty adorable. They’re just about the same size and shape of my HomePods while packing about the same punch which really makes me pretty happy. 
     
  • For basic TV watching (we’ve been catching up on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD on Netflix), the Arc + Ones is quite lovely. Dialogue is loud and clear and surround effects on shows with 5.1 are effective. Bass still isn’t quite there yet without the Sub, but the soundstage is every bit as decent as my old setup (though, admittedly, since the TV is shoved into a corner I could never get the Left and Right speakers very far away anyway). 
     
  • For no reason that I can tell, sometimes - but not always - the Sonos app believes that I’m getting Atmos out of my Apple TV on things that are definitely not Atmos. Sometimes the TV will even think that and show the Audio Out Dolby Atmos icon. Makes zero sense to me. 

I’m definitely warming up to it with the addition of the surrounds, but the jury’s still out. Still haven’t decided if I’m going to keep it (nearly $2k all in is a LOT to throw at this - way more than I spent on the TV itself), but I’m digging the ability to AirPlay 2 music to it, I’m digging having surround in my weirdly-shaped living room (which I could never figure out a good way to do before), and the basic simplicity of it is starting to grow on me.

More to come. 

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!
S
Userlevel 3
Badge +3

Thanks for the response! I will give this a shot through Plex as well.

H
Userlevel 6
Badge +7

Thanks for the response! I will give this a shot through Plex as well.

Good luck to you! Let us know what you think! 

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!
H
Userlevel 6
Badge +7

Wouldn’t mind trying the 5.1.2 test tones you mention. Can you share the link and let us know how you played it on your system?

Absolutely! Here’s the direct download link: 

https://www.heimkino-atmos.de/.cm4all/uproc.php/0/Trailer/Dolby%20Atmos/dolby-test-tones_5_1_2.mp4?_=15dddc34420&cdp=a

And here’s the link to the Reddit post with some additional commentary: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/hc21uu/dolby_atmos_512_test_video_file_download_link/

To play it, I loaded it onto my Plex server (I’ve got a library just for “demos” like this, including THX, DTS, and Dolby trailers and demos), and played it on my Vizio E70-F3’s built-in Plex app since the Apple TV can’t pass Atmos through this TV. It worked perfectly since it was encoded in “streaming” E-AC3 that works over the Vizio’s HDMI-ARC connection (as opposed to being encoded in Dolby True HD which won't work over HDMI-ARC (the non e-ARC version) due to lack of bandwidth). 

(Side mini-rant: obviously Dolby didn’t anticipate the situation that Sonos Arc owners find ourselves in, but it sure would be nice if TrueHD could fail-down gracefully from lossless TrueHD with Atmos to lossy E-AC3 while retaining Atmos for lower bandwidth situations. I’m sure there are many wonderful reasons why it can’t - maybe would require a hardware encoder at the sending device? - but it sure would be nice)

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!
H
Userlevel 6
Badge +7

(Ugh - I wrote up a whole thing but for some reason it got flagged for moderation. I don’t know why the Sonos forum doesn’t like me. Regardless, here’s the links)

Absolutely @starlan! Here’s the direct download link: 

https://www.heimkino-atmos.de/.cm4all/uproc.php/0/Trailer/Dolby%20Atmos/dolby-test-tones_5_1_2.mp4?_=15dddc34420&cdp=a

And here’s the link to the Reddit post with some additional commentary: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/hc21uu/dolby_atmos_512_test_video_file_download_link/

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!
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