Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128943 views

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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SirDBK

Contributor I

Has anyone tried doing full reset on arc and then re-trueplaying? I just did and it sounds considerably better and for the first time the bass from arc alone was impressive, beforehand was flat and over trebly, as soon as the arc came back online before I even trueplayed or added sub/surrounds It sounded completely different. I done the update last week too so god knows what’s going on, but might be worth a go for some people?

Can anyone else confirm this? I’ve received an RMA and updated the speaker right after I unpacked it. The issue is not gone for me.

I have done a bit more digging hence the edit seems the surrounds were helping a bit with the bass!! Apologies for that but it is definitely sounding better than it has before, tbh I thought it soundedvbetter before the latest update

P

pyro225

Enthusiast II

Has anyone tried doing full reset on arc and then re-trueplaying? I just did and it sounds considerably better and for the first time the bass from arc alone was impressive, beforehand was flat and over trebly, as soon as the arc came back online before I even trueplayed or added sub/surrounds It sounded completely different. I done the update last week too so god knows what’s going on, but might be worth a go for some people?

Can anyone else confirm this? I’ve received an RMA and updated the speaker right after I unpacked it. The issue is not gone for me.

I have done a bit more digging hence the edit seems the surrounds were helping a bit with the bass!! Apologies for that but it is definitely sounding better than it has before, tbh I thought it soundedvbetter before the latest update

I agree up until 50% the old update sounded far better to my ears. Above that was obviously horrible. Now we seem to have the crippled release...

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arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

Are you listening, Sonos?

PS: I submitted my diagnostics a long time ago.

M

Masterpopper

Lyricist III

Are you listening, Sonos?

PS: I submitted my diagnostics a long time ago.

No, they are not listening. It’s quite sad :(

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Synomenon

Lyricist III

I don’t know if I’d want to buy this much in hardware from a company that just axed a large number of people that might have been supporting said hardware.

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cronos177

Lyricist III

Please Sonos hear us out help us to get more complete EQ settings. Most of us will be very satisfied.

M

Mitchellsx

Renowned Enthusiast II

Any news on this issue yet? Has anyone spoken to support directly on the phone and had an indication a fix is in the works ?

@Jean C. any update.

thanks

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CuzFeeshe

Enthusiast I

@Jean C. I’m a bit different here… I’m new to the forum, have just replaced a $5000 full dolby atmos/surround system with the Arc (in order to appease my wife by simplifying the living room)…. and for some reason have zero problems. Sounds amazing.

HOWEVER, I was playing around with the Dolby Atmos app on my XBox One, which has Atmos demos in it, and found a single demo that seems to highlight a harsh, metallic sound in the sibilance of the woman narrators voice that I didn’t hear in my prior system. Mind you… this is the ONLY example I’ve had with my Arc so I thought it might be helpful.

What is the source of the media that is being played (TV app, external streaming device, cable, broadcast, DVD/DVR)? XBox One.
What volume lever do you experience the issue? Almost all volumes
Is the Arc wall-mounted? No
If wall-mounted, does removing the speaker from the wall bracket and setting it on a credenza or table improve the issue? N/A
Is Trueplay configured on the Arc? Yes

In order to replicate, add the “Dolby” app onto an XBox One, and under “Demo Content” choose “Atmos Explainer”. The highs in the sibilance are pretty harsh.

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

@Jean C. I’m a bit different here… I’m new to the forum, have just replaced a $5000 full dolby atmos/surround system with the Arc (in order to appease my wife by simplifying the living room)…. and for some reason have zero problems. Sounds amazing.

HOWEVER, I was playing around with the Dolby Atmos app on my XBox One, which has Atmos demos in it, and found a single demo that seems to highlight a harsh, metallic sound in the sibilance of the woman narrators voice that I didn’t hear in my prior system. Mind you… this is the ONLY example I’ve had with my Arc so I thought it might be helpful.

What is the source of the media that is being played (TV app, external streaming device, cable, broadcast, DVD/DVR)? XBox One.
What volume lever do you experience the issue? Almost all volumes
Is the Arc wall-mounted? No
If wall-mounted, does removing the speaker from the wall bracket and setting it on a credenza or table improve the issue? N/A
Is Trueplay configured on the Arc? Yes

In order to replicate, add the “Dolby” app onto an XBox One, and under “Demo Content” choose “Atmos Explainer”. The highs in the sibilance are pretty harsh.

Id advice you take a diagnostic report shortly after playing this content (less than a few mins) and inclyde it in your report

Jean C.

Retired Sonos Staff

Hello All,

Sorry for the delay, I have only just now been able to review this thread and taken a quick cursory glance at the half dozen or so diagnostics submitted (thank you for those).

The one commonality that I’m seeing on all of these reports is that the ARC status on the Arc (I know) is either disabled, blocked, or inactive.

Have you examined the CEC settings on your TVs (and for good measure made sure that the Arc is in the HDMI/ARC port)?

If you do a full reboot of your TV (unplugging it fully from power/plugging it back in) change anything in the audio settings or quality?

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