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arpatil1
Enthusiast II
June 17, 2020
Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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
    July 2, 2020

    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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    BMF
    BMF
    Prodigy III
    July 1, 2020

    For me, it’s not just via HDMI, Music also sounds EQ’d to sound very top end heavy and tinny.

     

    The Sound profile, from an EQ perspective it more towards what I would expect from built in TV speakers. I expect a sound bar to sound richer and more pleasant. Playbar sounded great as did Beam. Beam had a more narrow soundstage, but given its size that would be expected.

     

    Arc sssoundsss like it isss EQ’d with all the high midsss emphasssissed sssso all the harsssshnesss get to be a bit grating ….. the sssame way built in ssspeakersss do. (You get the point)

     

    which is one of the reasons people buy external sound bars, yes it is louder that the built in speakers and has surround, but the EQ or sound profile on Arc sounds way thinner and “cheaper” to my ears than Playbar and even Beam.

     

    i still have 2 Beams and prefer to listen to music on them than Arc.

     

    I love Sonos, have lots of your kit and believe in your products….. there is just something too harsh and cheap sounding about Arc.

     

    To be clear, my expectations were not for Arc to be a full pro cinema experience. Given the price, size and reviews I expected Playbar with Atmos. It does not sound anywhere near as pleasing with movies as Playbar or Beam.

     

    I really do believe it is an EQ and maybe Phase issue…. I believe you can sort it

      mattadamsone
      Enthusiast I
      July 1, 2020

      I can confirm that on my system I’m hearing low end issues on playback from streaming, music, and airplay. The midrange is lacking too, especially noticeable on music playback. I am VERY surprised to see that Sonos is just now realizing that everything is sounding bad. Please pay attention Sonos. Read the threads on your own forum. 

        jkozlow3
        Enthusiast II
        July 1, 2020

        @Jean C. 


        OK, so I think we can rule out HDMI as the culprit now.  Sounds like Sonos has a lot of tuning to do on the Arc to make it sound right with music playback as well.

          TapDatApp
          Enthusiast I
          July 1, 2020

          This issue is by no means exclusively happening with HDMI sources from my experience. Music sounds just as harsh and metallic. And the fact that a notable difference (although not perfect) can be heard when Trueplaying with an older iOS device as many have noted here seems to point to a very different issue. 

            mattadamsone
            Enthusiast I
            July 1, 2020

            And just to add. I’m setting my Beam right next to the Arc for side by side testing and across the board, there is a BIG difference in sound on all sources when you compare the Beam and the Arc. In every case, the low end is deeper, smoother on the Beam. The midrange issues I hear are unique to the Arc

              shane_sd
              Lyricist III
              July 1, 2020

              This is my non audio-programmer brain speaking, but when I put my ear up against the Arc, the center channel alone is handling lead vocals in music. To get music mixed for true stereo to do that, there must be processing in place. I wonder if it’s this processing + an overall tuning for movie voices that has lead to such a emphasis on the upper range.  I’m so curious to hear what the Arc would sound like with a “Stereo Mode” feature like I’ve had with other soundbars.

              shane_sd
              Lyricist III
              July 1, 2020

              And just to add. I’m setting my Beam right next to the Arc for side by side testing and across the board, there is a BIG difference in sound on all sources when you compare the Beam and the Arc. In every case, the low end is deeper, smoother on the Beam. The midrange issues I hear are unique to the Arc

               

              I’m going to join in on that party. I’m setting up my Beam now to test. 

              CuzFeeshe
              Enthusiast I
              July 1, 2020

              Hello @CuzFeeshe,

              Thank you for the diagnostic report and welcome to the Sonos Community by the way.

              Does your X Box One or TV have an eArc port?

              Can you test the Arc directly from the X-box to see if the harshness continues?

                

              @Jean C. Unfortunately, no.  I’m using an LG C8 and XBox One S, either of which has an eArc.  However, as mentioned, this is the only example of the “harshness” I could find.  Everything else has been sounding amazing after the initial “bass” fix.

              I have some sound engineering experience - I read the 2 threads here before my Arc arrived and I was worried.  I’m fairly critical on sound.  I’m using a beam + sub in a different room.  On the beam I ended up adjusting the bass and treble up to get the sound I liked. On the Arc I actually found playing it with virtually flat EQ sounds better and allows a warmer tone on the midrange.

              I am wondering if anyone else hears what I’m hearing with that specific Dolby demo.  The OTHER Atmos demos in that XBox One app sounded phenominal.

               

               

               

                gswanso2
                Lyricist III
                July 1, 2020

                all you have to do is read the RTINGS.com review to see the problem we are all talking about. The question is whether sonos would even recognize the measurements from that review as a problem. Maybe it sounds the way they think it should. I would just like to know that before the 60 day return window is up. 

                  kmoney
                  Lyricist II
                  July 2, 2020

                  Same issue here (Arc and Sub v3) - deeply disappointed in the sound quality right off the bat.  Coming from a decade-old Bose Cinemate GS Series II system, this setup as it currently stands loses out pretty dramatically. 

                  Out of the box it had a “dull” sound.  Trueplay with an iPhone 11 Pro resulted in this tinny, treble-y sound described by everyone else.  I was going to try Trueplay using the iPad (again, mentioned by others) but apparently support for the 2020 iPad Pro is lacking (receive a network error) so I’m stuck.  The piercing highs are honestly uncomfortable to listen to even at mid-volumes so I turned off Trueplay and bumped the treble and bass a bit to get something halfway decent.  It still emphasizes the highs too much and is lacking mid-range but I’m going with this weak config and keeping my fingers crossed Sonos addresses this before nearing the 45 day window or I’ll be returning it.

                  Update - ran the “bass fix” update and retuned with an old iPhone 6S and the overall sound is certainly better.
                   

                  That said, I swear it slowly reverts back to the awful, piercing treble experience. I just retuned again last weekend after I noticed the treble again and it was improved but is back again. I’m watching Neverending Story with my son and the intro theme is honestly painful at mid-volume (Apple TV 4K, HBO Max). I also noticed through the song that the highs would suddenly cut down a bit and then come back up, then cut down about 7 seconds later??  Maybe it’s just the song or mix on that intro (of all things) but it was very noticeable for me.


                  Interesting the Rtings review mentioned the piercing highs as well. Guess we’re not crazy!

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