Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

Here is another video that confirms the problems with Arc

On 7 July, I ordered Sonos entertainment set comprising of Arc + Sub Gen 3 + pair of Play one SL through SONOS. 10 July, received the sub gen 3. On 13 July received the Arc and pair of Play One SL. 

I came from Playbar + Sub gen 2 (sold) + pair of Play:1 (sold).

Today (13 July), I tested the Sonos ARC on its own.

Connect Sonos ARC through HDMI-ARC on my Sony Bravia KDL-EX55-720 (10 years old TV).

Impressive is all I can say. Loving it. 

Dolby Digital 5.1 is the best I can get due to age of TV. 

Will add in surround and sub gen 3 tomorrow. 

Can’t wait. 

These types of reports make me think more and more that these MUST be some defective Arc hardware out there!

Also possible that different people have different expectations. Not everybody is a critical listener. If Sonos knew something we don’t (like a hardware problem), they would have stopped the shipment of Arcs to prevent further damage. Who knows? 

It is for sure Sonos dropped the ball with Arc release.
 

I am from Australia.

Not sure if Sonos has different production batches for US, Europe and or Asia Pacific. 

Maybe do a poll and see which continent has more complain?

Different people definitely has different expectations. 

I like 2 doors car. Wife likes 7 seat car/van.  

I am not a critical listener, if I am one, I would setup a proper theater environment to properly enjoy the sound system.  

Just by watching movie with Sonos Arc on its own, I can hear the sound bouncing off my left and right. That in itself is already better than Playbar. 

It’s going to get better tomorrow when I connect up the surround and Sub. 

Looking forward to get a Sony X95H…. that will elevate it further with Dolby Atmos…. 

Glad it worked out for you. Have fun !

Same with mine, just a terrible “transistor radio” sound from my Arc. 

I sent mine back with 5 days to go.  Sticking with my Playbar for now, but I just ordered a B&O Beosound Stage.   From reviews I've read everyone seems to really love it.  Quite pricey though.

Will be interesting to see how it fares to current top tier soundbars. My only concern is that it favors wall-mount vs TV stand.

Cool let me know how u like the B&O.  Almost purchased one but afraid no rear surround so movies might not be immersive enough for me.  

why has this thread been marked as “Answered” when the problem still very much exists?

No support for DTS-X and from what I can see mediocre reviews. They say it doesn’t need a sub and hopefully it doesn’t because there isn’t an option to add one. $2250 CDN is major hooch for a sound bar. I hope it works for you and I can understand some people’s frustration with the ARC. Not sure what the right answer is for those who are unhappy. There are thousands of positive reviews of the ARC from the general public, most of the professional reviewers seem to like it. Peter Pee on YouTube seems to like it although admittedly it’s not perfect. I believe there will be more updates that will make the ARC what it was meant to be. I’ve also read that the Playbar had a rocky start when it was introduced. It appears Sonos work to make it better worked. I’m a first time Sonos owner. I want to add more Sonos equipment to my home but I will admit that is on hold for now. My setup of the ARC, Gen 3 sub (just added it yesterday after returning my Gen 2 to Best Buy) and two one SL’s is impressive as it sits. Had some friends over yesterday and they were very impressed with what they heard out of this set up. I admit I had a higher expectation of Sonos and while I am impressed I expect better and believe it will be improved on. 

This review may have already been posted here but one more but honest.  I'm surprised by the early reviews that did not notice anything, probably paid by sonos and I will always be critical in the future.  Check out this video.  
 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZxAC4BdTE&feature=youtu.be

I've got my fingers crossed on the B&O Stage.  You're right no sub or DTX-T, but at least it has DTX which Sonos can't seem to provide.  After conversing with others who have heard both I'm pretty confident it will sound much better  than either the Playbar or Arc with subs.  We'll see.

Ok, third post on this thread. I finally sat down and re-tuned with an iPhone 6 running 12.0.2 (previously ipad pro 11” and iPad Air 2). I also decided to just sit on the couch and wave the phone around a bit rather than walk around. 

This is the first time I feel like the life wasn’t sucked out of the sound, and there is now some ok midrange. I can actually listen to music without it being distracting. I’ve only been through a few songs, but I’m more and more convinced that the right EQ can produce a good sound from the arc.

That doesn’t mean I’m ready to say I’m totally happy with it, and I’m still mulling over a return. I don’t like the lack of communication from Sonos. A few simple thing would go a long way:

1. At least acknowledge how the arc sounds very different from other sonos speakers, that this is very disappointing to many customers, and open a dialogue about what can be done. 
2. Talk about what, if any, investigation is going into why trueplay seems to be producing wildly different results. 
3. Talk about providing more control over the system. Trueplay + Bass/Treble is fine for a default mode, but why not have an advanced mode with a proper manual EQ? Even if that would take a while to build, just say it’s coming. 

Totally agree, the sonos manager introduced himself however long ago and then never came back with anything since, more indication of what is going on in the background would put a lot of people at ease. @Scott - Sonos (11 days to be exact)

This. I could have given them one more month if it wasn’t for the lack of communication. Support staff (whatever that’s left) has been active on other threads, but they are not responding to two main threads- bass and metallic sound issue. 

Just recently found this thread, would anybody be so kind to summarise this thread up for me so i don't have to read through all the 418 replies haha. Is there a solution to the metallic sound or anything that helps/reduces it?

This is the best I found some people say what device you use to trueplay but not sure I believe that cause I noticed no difference 

No - not for those affected by the issue.  Sonos has been pretty silent on the issue as well.  There may or may not be a hardware issue/bad batch as some people don’t seem to be having any issues/complaints whatsoever.  Others think all the issues can be fixed with software updates.

Bottom line is - your guess is as good as anyone’s at this point!

@dhewitt  Try it out. Many are happy with their Arcs! I have 0 complaints about metallic sounds… Lots of replies doesnt mean everyone here is complaining theres tons of back and forths and also people posting examples of their problem content. So not 418 complaints

Hi all, I got my Arc a few days ago to replace Beam. I am not very sure but it feels like the Arc is performing a little bit better after each day uses. However, I still find the following points to be true as mentioned by others:

1. does suffer from the metallic sound issue. Currently, I would have to turn down the treble a bit in order to address the issue.
2. does not do mid-high range as warm and soulful as Playbar/Beam, but rather harsh.

The issues are found either being used alone or paired with Sub and Ones. Overall, after tweaking the settings, it outperms the Beam with no question. Yet, as a flagship product, I was expecting it to perform better easily.

Hello all,

While we are aware that some are experiencing or have experienced audio issues with their Arc,we are working on it but I do not have an update for you at this time.

If you are experiencing a thin, tinny quality in your audio that I see that some are describing as “cheap radio” sound, I would encourage you to test playback through a streaming music service of your choice and then make an audio or recording on your mobile phone or camera. Then reach out to us directly so that we can log the issue and evaluate the units on an individual level.

For those that have already exchanged your units, did this resolve the audio quality issue? 

Issues exist. So many people can’t be wrong at once (Few YouTubers have also acknowledged). Arc is still very much a beta product. LPCM support is also a few months away (this matters a lot if you do gaming, use Apple TV 4K, etc). Unless you absolutely cannot live with what you have right now, I would wait it out. Just my 2 cents.