Enthusiast II

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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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robinbroekhuis

Lyricist I

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.

My bad. I was a bit short on the right info.

The setup in the living room is now a Sonos Arc, Sub Gen.1 and two Era100.
‘Old setup’ was Sonos Playbar, Sub Gen.1 and two Play 1’s.

Connected the Sonos Arc to my Samsung QE65Q90.
Set everything right to make use of eARC. Sound of the TV is off.
I’ve hit Treuplay with different devices on different spots (walking across the room and sitting a the spot in front of the tv for tuning.
Played with the EQ and different settings.
But can’t find a sweet spot or even the feeling(or a better feeling) of sound that my ‘old’ Playbar pushed around.
Voices are just in front of the TV instead of being in the conversation.
Arc is downgrading/tuning the experience of the bass of the Sub.
Music and TV experience with the Arc is just flat, thin, metallic, mono like.

Watching TV with a (T-Mobile/Odidio) TV app on Samsung sends Dolby Multichannel 2.0 PCM (over all speakers)
Watching Netflix (Standard) sound Dolby Multichannel PCM 5.1 on most series/movies
Not played Dolby Atmos specific content, but my main problem is with the sound/experience the Arc is producing in this setup.

Also listening music is ‘just not great. (But the main reason in the living room, is using it for TV)

I moved my Sonos Play 1’s to the bedroom and installed a new Sonos Ray for the setup.
If you ask me even this setup sounds better and more warm than the setup with the Sonos Arc in my living room.

In my office room I’ve a set of Sonos One’s with a Sonos Sub Mini for listening music while I’m working.
Maybe the sub is overkill there, but also much better sounds experience.

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Mutiny

Trending Lyricist I

You should maybe call Sonos.

I did and they told there is an internal limiter to keep the speaker from damage.

I am very confused. What’s the point in powerful speaker if i can’t use its full power.

I mean it sounds very good on 70-75 volume and i would probably never go higher than that. Still this is all very strange to me.

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Ken_Griffiths

You should maybe call Sonos.

I did and they told there is an internal limiter to keep the speaker from damage.

I am very confused. What’s the point in powerful speaker if i can’t use its full power.

I mean it sounds very good on 70-75 volume and i would probably never go higher than that. Still this is all very strange to me.

Maybe see what the volume dB level is, using a mobile App, at the point when the limiter kicks in and then see how it compares to the attached chart (as a rough guide). If it’s not that loud, then you might want to go back to Sonos Support and see what they say.

I would put your mobile, out it’s case/cover, say 6-8 feet away out in front (and level) with the speaker to take your readings, using a variety of different audio sources to the point where you notice the limiter.

I use an Arc with an LG C9 TV and in our lounge and I would probably not go too far above 65% volume for ‘loud’ listening, but I appreciate we each hear things differently in our different environments, but hope the suggestion here assists.

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Mutiny

Trending Lyricist I

You should maybe call Sonos.

I did and they told there is an internal limiter to keep the speaker from damage.

I am very confused. What’s the point in powerful speaker if i can’t use its full power.

I mean it sounds very good on 70-75 volume and i would probably never go higher than that. Still this is all very strange to me.

Maybe see what the volume dB level is, using a mobile App, at the point when the limiter kicks in and then see how it compares to the attached chart (as a rough guide). If it’s not that loud, then you might want to go back to Sonos Support and see what they say.

I would put your mobile, out it’s case/cover, say 6-8 feet away out in front (and level) with the speaker to take your readings, using a variety of different audio sources to the point where you notice the limiter.

I use an Arc with an LG C9 TV and in our lounge and I would probably not go too far above 65% volume for ‘loud’ listening, but I appreciate we each hear things differently in our different environments, but hope the suggestion here assists.

Thank you Ken, i will definitely try your suggestion.

The thing is that in my full HT setup in the other room i will not go past 50 for loud movies/games etc. I do also think that it is more than enough. Even when i go to, say, 95 the sound signature does not drastically change. It’s just the same but obviously louder.

However my single Five is in the living room, bigger space. And Five is not than punchy before 50 to be honest. It is a very capable speaker though, i instantly fell in love with it on my first listening. The only purpose of it is music. But when i go above 75 i can instantly feel like the low end and midrange is gone. Only harsh, almost metallic treble is left.

Maybe i should try different room and position to troubleshoot, still i didn’t expect this to happen.

UPD - so, yeah, 75 in my living room is around 85 dB. I guess i just shouldn’t go above that). Interesting, i have never experienced something like this with my other speakers before.

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Ken_Griffiths

I would have thought that there’s perhaps a legal/moral responsibility these days to not be too far over the 85dB limit, but I’m certainly no expert in this area, but would say if the audio-output is not being ‘limited’ much below that level then the speaker is probably working as expected.

I was going to say if the limiter ‘clearly’ kicked-in earlier and noticeably below that volume-level to perhaps go back to Support and see what they may think about it.

Another thought occurred to me aswell…

Is the Arc in your case wall-mounted by any chance? If so, see this YT video…

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Mutiny

Trending Lyricist I

I would have thought that there’s perhaps a legal/moral responsibility these days to not be too far over the 85dB limit, but I’m certainly no expert in this area, but would say if the audio-output is not being ‘limited’ much below that level then the speaker is probably working as expected.

I was going to say if the limiter ‘clearly’ kicked-in earlier and noticeably below that volume-level to perhaps go back to Support and see what they may think about it.

Another thought occurred to me aswell…

Is the Arc in your case wall-mounted by any chance? If so, see this YT video…

Below that level it is absolutely marvelous, i am just stumped by drastic change in sound signature at higher volumes.

No Arc for me, i am talking about a recently purchased single Five for the living room. I do, however, have a full HT setup with Beam in the other room and didn’t experience something like since for years of having it.

Thank you very much for the tips!

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Ken_Griffiths

Below that level it is absolutely marvelous, i am just stumped by drastic change in sound signature at higher volumes.

No Arc for me, i am talking about a recently purchased single Five for the living room. I do, however, have a full HT setup with Beam in the other room and didn’t experience something like since for years of having it.

Thank you very much for the tips!

Ah sorry I thought because of the thread title here, it was a Sonos Arc you were referring too - my bad.

I see now that you have another thread on the go with Sonos Staff, so hope you get the answers you’re looking for.🤞

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