Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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Hi All.

It’s a relief that Sonos has identified the bug that’s causing the bass distortion in Sonos Arc. Thank you @Ryan S for working with the Sonos Communty to identify the problem quickly.

Having said this, I believe that Sonos still needs more work to make the Arc sound as it was advertised. Currently, multiple people on Reddit including myself are reporting the highs being too high which sort of feels “harsh”. This improve the speech clarity and brings out details in the movies, but the warmth in speech is lost because the voices sound thin and metallic (for eg. actors I know having heavy voices don’t sound heavy). I was expecting the mid-range to be a lot better considering the Arc has 8 woofers.

I have tried TruPlaying twice without success (Turning TruPlay off produces muffled sound). Adjusting the treble also did not help much. Loudness turned on and off does not make a big difference either. May be, this is how the Arc is tuned?!

Anyone else feels that Arc is over-emphasizing the highs with compromised mids?

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Scott - SonosAnswer

Sonos Product Management

Hello everyone. I’m a product manager at Sonos. Thank you for sharing your experiences with Arc. The development team is monitoring this community and listening to your feedback.

As we do with all Sonos products, we’ll continue to improve the experience for Arc through numerous software updates into the future. Last week we issued our first update (12.0.1) to fix a bug some customers were experiencing with low-frequency distortion at higher volumes.

If you have specific music tracks or timestamps for TV shows and movies that you want to bring to our attention, please use this form. It is helpful if you can submit a diagnostic when you’re listening to the content. Instructions for doing so can be found here.

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Ken_Griffiths

I got an arc recently I was not impressed with the high frequency, first thing I noticed out the box was how toppy and bright it was, listening to female newsreaders who are kind of whistling as they say any words with the letter “s” in it. I boxed it all up for a while and got it out again yesterday and upgraded the software so it’s now on 15.5 but still far too bright. I compared a music track between my 2 x Era 100’s and the Arc, the Era’s are not bright at all, but the Arc was much too toppy, like the treble is at maximum all the time.

I’ve turned the treble down to -3 but it’s not really improved.

I got it from John Lewis and as it’s been opened can’t really take it back very easily. Wish I got it from Sonos direct now.

Is the Arc wall-mounted, or not? If so, do you use the mount with the built in magnets?
Is the issue any better with Trueplay enabled/disabled?
Did you check with Sonos Support if the device was perhaps faulty?
What was wrong with using the manufacturers one year warranty, that’s if it is faulty?
John Lewis in the U.K. are unlikely to quibble if you return something within 12 weeks - I have returned a £400 food processor in the past in that kind of time period, because it would not fit beneath the Kitchen worktop and cupboards in our Kitchen.. we had to move to the next size down.

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Ken_Griffiths

@corky123,

One further thing - did you try ‘bonding’ the two Era-100’s to the Arc as a Home Theatre - some users seem to say that makes the entire system sound better. It ought to be worth trying those things before putting the Arc back in its box.

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corky123

Trending Lyricist I

Hi Ken,

thanks for the quick response, no it’s not wall mounted just sitting on a low tv unit, although the tv is wall mounted so is sitting approx 1 foot below the tv.

I did try true play before and it made no difference, just tried it again but this time I did not walk around the room too much I kind of just rotated slowly in the middle of the living room as I read someone reported they cured the harshness by not moving around the room, but If you just sit on the sofa it knows you are not moving etc. so need to test some more.

no I did not check with Sonos support, I guess I can discuss with JL if I get no joy.

forgot to say it’s a complete setup, so Arc, Sub gen 3, 2 x One’s gen 2.

Before I got the arc and sub I just used the Ones for stereo music and have always been very impressed with them, so upgraded to the Era 100’s and these are even better, so I then added the Ones to the arc and sub.

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LH777

Lyricist I

I am having the same issue with a recently purchased Arc. Dialogue sounds extremely underwhelming and tinny. Have tried all available settings.

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Airgetlam

Since you’ve tried everything, probably best if you were to call Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

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Bruce

A

Anonymous

Same here. Watching movies and playing Xbox with the latest update. Hopefully they can update this issue. Probably should of got a Bose

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robinbroekhuis

Lyricist I

What a disappointment.

Was upgrading my Play 1 to Era 100.

Found out they don’t work with the Playbar in setup. So got myself the Arc. (And the combination of my Sub).

Installed everything and turned the TV on. The sound from the Arc compared to the Playbar is just metallic mono like. Like TV speakers.

All setup with TreuPlay and tweaked some settings, but can’t get used to the sound of the Arc. It’s just flat. Considering returning it

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buzz

Grand Maestro

Are you using S1 or S2? PLAYBAR is compatible with S1 and S2.

When you are playing TV, ARC will report the type of audio it is processing. What type of audio is your TV sending to ARC?

Be sure to check for silly things, such as the TV is still using its own speakers, not sending anything to ARC. Or both the TV’s speakers and ARC are active.

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Mutiny

Trending Lyricist I

I kinda have the same issue but with recently purchased single Five.

On a 75+ volume sound becomes very thin and harsh as if low end is completely gone. The difference is instant and so obvious that i can physically feel it no matter where i am in the living room. TP on/off, no difference. No issues with my HT Beam 2 + Ones + Sub 3 setup though.

What’s happening?

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106rallye

You should maybe call Sonos.

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