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danielkea
Enthusiast II
June 22, 2020

Sonos Arc flat sound and no life in non Atmos.

Hi,

 

I am having terrible problems with my Arc, I really am concerned it’s faulty. My set up is arc, sub and two ones through Apple TV. 
 

Anything in Atmos sounds great but everything else is terrible! When playing something in 5.1 and the app reporting 5.1 hardly any sound comes from the surrounds or bass even with music and effects. I have had to turn it up to 15 to get anything from them and even then it’s flat. If I compare it directly to the beam and 2 ones I have on another room with the same content the surround audio is much louder and immersive?!! Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

 

i find it just flat and lifeless for anything but Atmos content?

i also found that when watching something in Atmos yesterday the speech kept popping too?

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    21 replies

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    danielkeaAuthor
    Enthusiast II
    July 8, 2020

    I think you have misunderstood, atmos works fine. No issues and it is working...it’s the rest of the audio. 

    Tylertron21
    July 8, 2020

    I understand your issue. In non atmos content the ATV sends LPCM to the Sonos. The Sonos arc does not support LPCM so it outputs 2 channel stereo sound. So you are missing allot of the channels. Try messing with the Apple TV audio settings to see if this improves. I know of people turning off Atmos manually in non atmos content and forcing 5.1DD. You are far from the 100th person to bring up the issues with ATV and The Arc. 

     

    Edit: the Arc can read the ATV output for atmos just fine in the MAT container. Just not LPCM (multichannel pcm) for 5.1, non-atmos content.  Let us know if you go into the audio settings and change things around. 

    danielkeaAuthor
    Enthusiast II
    July 9, 2020

    Thanks for the help, even 5.1 sounds awful really as have toggled in the past. I have the same set up in another room minus the arc for a beam and the beam set up with the same content through the same device (Apple TV) just sounds BETTER which really should not be the case of a 349 sound bar bs a 799 sound bar. 

    WernerK
    Contributor I
    November 20, 2020

    Already found a solution for this problem? I just bought an ARC with Sub3 and I find the sound quality very poor. Flat sound out of the TV and Airplay streams. Netflix Atmos sounds better, but it completely lacks suround effects...

    IainHall
    Contributor I
    December 21, 2020

    My ARC is just a few hours old - but, I’m very disappointed.  I go right the way back to Year One of Sonos, and have about 10 rooms worth of kit, but the ARC is awful, even the Beam in the bedroom sounds better.

    I’m not that bothered by Atmos, as we don't watch that many films - the TV sound is ‘ok’, but the music is just awful.  

    Guess I will have to reconnect my old speakers to the ZP80 for music, and keep the ARC for TV, but it does mean lots of clutter

     

     

    Jimothy
    Contributor I
    January 21, 2021

    HI @Whistler and @danielkea.

    Thanks for reaching out to us about your concern.

    I would recommend with you the following steps to be done for us to better understand what is going on with the Sonos Arc.

    • Play Music on the Sonos Arc and submit a diagnostic.
    • Watch regular video/movie like cable or any non Atmos video/movie and submit a diagnostic. (TV source only)
    • Watch video with Atmos and and submit a diagnostic. (in TV app Only like Netflix, Youtube, Amazon Prime, etc..)
    • Watch video with Atmos and and submit a diagnostic. (from Cable Box  Only like Apple TV, Cable Box, Blueray player, Xbox, etc)

    These steps would allow us to clearly understand and make comparisons to be able to understand Sonos behavior. 

    Please let me know if you still have further questions or concerns.

    Thanks,

    I see this generic response every time someone addresses the terrible sound quality of the arc. The fact of the matter is SONOS scamed us on the arc it is an over priced extremely well marketed P.O.S. rip off and i do not believe SONOS has any intention of correcting the terrible sound quality of the ARC. 

    GuitarSuperstar
    Lead Maestro
    January 21, 2021

    @Jimothy I just watched Mission Impossible: Fallout on Blu-ray in lossless Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Atmos, and it sounded incredible playing out of my Sonos Arc/Sub/Play:1s setup.

    "Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
    Jimothy
    Contributor I
    January 21, 2021

    @Jimothy I just watched Mission Impossible: Fallout on Blu-ray in lossless Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Atmos, and it sounded incredible playing out of my Sonos Arc/Sub/Play:1s setup.

    Im watching netflix and it sounds atrocious. Cant make out a single word. I have the exact same setup. Has sounded terrible for the past 7 months i have owned it. 

    Jimothy
    Contributor I
    January 21, 2021

    Sounds like im listening to my laptop turned up really loud only worse dialogue.

    Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
    January 21, 2021

    Have you tried to submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and called Sonos Support to discuss it, or posted the diagnostic number here for a Community Moderator to pick up?

    There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

    When you speak directly to the phone folks, there are more options available beyond just the diagnostic analysis.

    Bruce
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