I submitted a diag while watching a movie on amazon prime called “For Love or Money”. It was one of the worst offenders so far. Even after turning down the treble it’s too harsh. My setup is a Apple TV > LG C7 >  Sonos. 
 

the diag confirmation is 625831310

Yeah I have a full 5.1 setup, sub and 2 rear SLs, the sub is better than the Samsung sub and the sound from the rears is actually more noticeable on the Sonos, its just the ARC is the weak link, for me the the overall sound on the q90r was more rounded and meaty.

And that's my feeling about the sub and rears - really really good.  Also my Playbar is much fuller and as you say "meaty" compared to the Arc which has an irritating shrillness I can't get rid of.  

I still like my Sonos stuff and maybe if they can fix the Arc I would try it again but for now the Playbar is the better sounding of the two.

another interesting video, not solution to the problem maybe but maybe a bit on the way!  
 

https://youtu.be/jmKsMLzv4m8

It’s a joke - I have been trying to sort an exchange THEY agreed since last Monday 6th July. It asked if I wanted an advance delivery and to leave card details and I would have it within 5 working days! Monday 12th still heard nothing so chased them and it was lost in the system apparently but still heard nothing and if it’s not hear by Monday it will be over 14days and they will bill be for a second Arc as you only have 14days to return since raising the exchange it’s a joke this company has gone from hero to zero in about 6 weeks… SONOS READ THIS - YOU SOLD ME SOME JUNK - YOU ACKNOWLEDGES IT WAS JUNK NOW FOLLOW THROUGH AND REPLACE IT WITHOUT ME BEING OUT OF POCKET FOR YOUR MISTAKE!!!

I was about to buy the Sonos Arc today until I read this thread as well as the other thread about the  muddy/bad bass. I am very disappointed to hear that after such a long time between the Playbar release(2013) and the Arc(2020), that they seemed to have rushed the Arc and maybe there is real hardware issues. I own many Sonos speakers

And it does not give me much confidence that the Sonos team do not get back to genuine concerns to loyal customers who are willing to pay extra for a product that is on the higher end of the market.

I will stick with my Playbar for now, but if this is not resolved, then it does not look good for the future of Sonos products. This will only force me to sell all my Sonos speakers eventually and invest in another ecosystem

Just found out that they have also stopped monitoring support@sonos.com as I am dealing with my return. Only option is to call them and wait hours hoping somebody would pick up. One of the WORST support I have dealt with. Laying off majority of support staff after releasing much anticipated product in the history of the company speaks a lot.

I’m starting to think there is a case to report them to trading standards and maybe watchdog for this diabolical service here in the uk

It does seem a bit odd doesn’t it? To send out a product as bad as the arc is disappointing enough but then to go completely silently when people try to exercise their right to a refund / exchange is even worse. I had wondered if they are delaying as they hope an update will fix the issue… The number of returns they are going to get is going to cost them... but that doesn’t explain why I’m waiting 3 weeks for a refund on a returned sub ???  Even just an email saying we are struggling with customer service due to COVID would appease me. 

All these magazines that gave this product a great review should be boycotted!!!!! The Beam a way better soundbar and at half the price!!!!

I can't even get support for an order that they haven't shipped. Took my money and have gone completely radio silent.

I hope all is well internally within the company and they are working on a plan to get things back on track.

Did you face any issues with the returns as some other folks are experiencing?

Come on, everyone, let’s keep our heads and our cool. This isn’t some conspiracy and lots of people, myself included, quite like our Arc setups. Which explains the website reviews and the overall quite glowing consumer reviews on Amazon and Best Buy.  

The Arc is not a bad product despite the experiences some people have had / are having and we don’t need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you’re having issues with the Arc for whatever reason, I strongly recommend returning it and getting something you’ll be happy with. Life’s too short to live with bad sound. Or if you really, really want the Arc, then hold on to it and wait for Sonos to issue updates that may “fix” the issue or, better yet, return it, watch the boards, and re-buy it once things seem corrected to your satisfaction. 

But all of this “these reviews must be paid,” “worst soundbar ever,” “let’s boycott magazines”…. this is all just bordering on silliness. We’ve all paid a lot for this gear and if you’re unhappy I get that. If I didn’t like my Arc or was experiencing terrible issues I would have already boxed mine up, sent it back, and been on the hunt for something else. 

There are bigger problems in the world than this - and this is fixable one way or the other. 

I hear that companies may pay for some reviews to happen, either directly or through ad buys (I have no idea if Sonos does this) - as well as provide the product FOC. Reviews may claim not to be influenced but

I tried saying something like this but have been singled out by some who claim Im a SONOS Defender ( is that a job, if so do I get paid..?? Waiting for my paycheck ) anyways, I totally agree with you and this is the reason I pitched in to comment on to someones post asking what to do or how to summarize this thread because they were interested.

There is some people that are very happy with their arcs, some others have some issues but think it is a matter of tweaks and some group that vocally says its trash and the worst soundbar ever!!! (not making it up look up WORST in this community forums and you’ll find some posts. Strangely theres a wide standard deviation here. But my advice is if you are excited for the Arc no need to wait a year or read 1001194 posts here. Try to get one and try it out! If you dont love it return and look for something else.

For those of you worried your return hasn't gone smoothly I understand the frustration witht the state of SONOS support right now, and shame on you SONOS for cutting support now, but at the same time the current state of the world is crazy and most companies have very long wait times ( my friend waited 3 hours tot alk to an airline the other day) but I seriously doubt sonos is gonna deny your return because you waited for them to get back to you. Open a support ticket before your return period ends, so you can reference this ansd say you tried to return. 

Nope. I filled the online form and got the UPS labels right away. The only problem was receiving confirmation for one of the returns. I had to call the support and they sorted it out. Their wait times are very long though (could have atleast kept their support email open). Definitely not the Sonos they used to be. Thanks to Covid and thanks to their IPO.

Definitely not the worst and trash soundbar like people have claimed. Arc has its issues that can be unacceptable to some people depending on their taste. Personally, I like fuller dialogues as opposed to treble boosted clear and forward. As Sonos is not communicating clearly, there was no way for me to know whether it’s a software issue or just the way it is meant to be. Dialogues also tended to be much quieter where I had to raise the volume constantly, but it made the action scenes very loud which was unacceptable. Bass was plenty but wasn’t clean at all (Maybe my HomePod has spoiled me). I accepted the lack of pass-through ports and LPCM/DTS support, but I could not compromise the sound quality. Overall, my $199 HomePod was performing better than Arc for me in my room setting. Clear and fuller dialogues, cleaner bass, and consistent volume. Arc’s L/R separation was not noticeable for me and my TV also did not support Atmos. Hence, I did not feel it was worth my money. Let’s see if that changes in the future. In the near term, I don’t think it will.

They aren’t an airline tho, or a business that would be massively directly affected by COVID. They shouldn’t have a 1 week wait to reply to an email, 3 weeks to set up a return etc. It’s simply not good enough and I am currently out of pocket by around £1200. Fortunately I can afford to purchase a replacement and wait for a refund but not everyone will be in this position. It’s shamefully bad. Even just put some notice on social media about what is going on.

Mine is trash. Maybe yours is better. Everyone who has listened to it says it’s very bad so it’s not subjective. My standard tv sound is better quality. It’s actually offensive!!!  I guess some might be defective. But when Sonos won’t engage it’s hard to comment. 

Definitely does not stand up to the hype and all the glowing reviews, at least for me. Just by doing a little more research, you can easily find speakers that will blow this thing out of the water for $799 lol. In the end, you decide what your money is worth. 

Don’t know what else to say but I think you have a defective unit. I legit turned off my sub and rears watched a movie, then turned off the arc and used my TV speakers ( mind it I have an OLED, not the latest and greatest, but the flagship of that year) and I have no idea how anyone caan say the TV speakers are better. I understand the comment about voices being forward and that not being his preference, that I can understand. For me I do prefer that because it is much more intelligible, and clear. I have experienced a couple of movies where the mixing wasnt ideal and sounds like shooting were too loud compared to other things. But I do not think this is Arc related.

Regardless I want to reiterate! SONOS needs to look into this either give users more control about the center channel and highs, fix the Trueplay were some phones are making the issue worse instead of correcting for it. And additionally step up their support immeditely. Not fair some people want to return and are unable to. 

To the person that said SONOS is not an airline, I am aware. But they have indeed being hit hard by covid. They laid off like 10 percent of the workforce and support centers are reduced due to covid regulations etc. You cant have an office full of callers at the moment!! I’ve seen this across different companies as well. Not defending them more like trying to understand what is going on. I understand it is frustrating and they have to step their game up ASAP. I must say this is not representative of how the company is (in general before these moments). 

To the Homepod situation, homepods are $300 if you stereo pair them they are quite capable especially for music. And I think theyd sound better than the arc. I know there is discounts to $200 now since theyre older. Homepods also sound better than sonos ones. So I don’t find it hard to believe you say they sound better than the Arc especially for music I’d assume so. For movies of course you wont get surround sound, you wont get atmos, you wont get speech enhancement and for many I think they’d prefer a sonos system!

The more I hear someone trying to justify the Arc's poor sound quality and making excuses for Sonos ,the more it makes me angry.  There is really no good reason to put out a new product, have many complaints and returns but offer no explanation what is wrong and what can or cannot be fixed.  I believe it is a hardware issue and Sonos doesn't know exactly what to do about it.  If it was only a matter of tweaking Trueplay it would have been done by now.

Ok “bonedaddy” you say bad sound quality yet many Sonos customers are happy and reviewers give it glowing reviews. So Maybe theres something OFF here. some bad units? Some bad tuning? both? software bug? Manufacturing versions? I am not sure.

No one here is justifying bad sound quality. The issue is some people say its bad some others say its good. But you do you. I know this thread is about a specific issue. And that needs to be addressed it is not OK that so many users are having this issue. SONOS needs to step up. No one is defending them

@Paul A @Kyle A @Krishma M 

Hello could one of you give us an update on this thread, we need to know if this issue is being worked on? When we could see an update etc etc ?

thanks