Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128944 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.

Show previous replies

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Roy Hobbs

Lyricist III

@Jean C. My TV has eARC and my Arc still a hash tinny/metallic sound when playing through my AppleTV 4k, Xbox one S or though the TVs built in apps.

I’ve tried trueplay with an older iPhone 6, iPhone 11 Pro and a 2018 iPad Pro. Nothing helps. I also still have the bass issue of I disconnect my Sub.

Very disappointed

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BenR

Lyricist III

Just an update on my end (I posted here a few days ago).

After running trueplay with an iPad Air 2 (previously with latest iPad Pro 11”), I think the sound in the midrange improved, slightly less harsh and fuller, but still NOT where I’d like it to be. I have an iphone 6 sitting around I might try. I wish I had a professional mic to measure frequency response.

I can confirm that the issue definitely is present for streaming music and content via hdmi. I do not think it is related to the hdmi source (which is an LG C9 with earc enabled). Not sure where that idea originated.

I have not had time to run a full diagnostic, but I can if it’s felt that information is actually helping. The thing is, I don’t see much reason to believe it is a ‘bug’ so much as the eq/tuning is just not resulting in a an accurate or pleasing sound. I feel you’d likely need a full range microphone recording to really diagnose. I’m hoping Sonos can potentially work with Rtings and/or other real-world testers to better understand what’s happening.

I’m still seriously considering a return, and I’ve already had to caution friends who are thinking about diving into the Sonos ecosystem. There is still time to course-correct.

P

PowdeRiver

Lyricist III

I’ve used an older iPad Air and iPhone 11 and noticed no difference

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Reefy

Enthusiast I

Just an update on my end (I posted here a few days ago).

After running trueplay with an iPad Air 2 (previously with latest iPad Pro 11”), I think the sound in the midrange improved, slightly less harsh and fuller, but still NOT where I’d like it to be. I have an iphone 6 sitting around I might try. I wish I had a professional mic to measure frequency response.

I can confirm that the issue definitely is present for streaming music and content via hdmi. I do not think it is related to the hdmi source (which is an LG C9 with earc enabled). Not sure where that idea originated.

I have not had time to run a full diagnostic, but I can if it’s felt that information is actually helping. The thing is, I don’t see much reason to believe it is a ‘bug’ so much as the eq/tuning is just not resulting in a an accurate or pleasing sound. I feel you’d likely need a full range microphone recording to really diagnose. I’m hoping Sonos can potentially work with Rtings and/or other real-world testers to better understand what’s happening.

I’m still seriously considering a return, and I’ve already had to caution friends who are thinking about diving into the Sonos ecosystem. There is still time to course-correct.

I spoke with Sonos technical manager today. He said that Sonos is looking into the Bass issue. But wouldn’t confirm that they are looking into anything else. He said that the metalic sound and the high treble “non balanced” sound may just be how the arc is supposed to work. He didn’t quite say that but he would confirm it. He said if I don’t like the Arc sound that I should just return it and go back to the playbar. Which of course I can. He said they are destined differently and this may just be normal. He kept saying that in general Sonos will make updates to the software etc.

T

TapDatApp

Enthusiast I

Just an update on my end (I posted here a few days ago).

After running trueplay with an iPad Air 2 (previously with latest iPad Pro 11”), I think the sound in the midrange improved, slightly less harsh and fuller, but still NOT where I’d like it to be. I have an iphone 6 sitting around I might try. I wish I had a professional mic to measure frequency response.

I can confirm that the issue definitely is present for streaming music and content via hdmi. I do not think it is related to the hdmi source (which is an LG C9 with earc enabled). Not sure where that idea originated.

I have not had time to run a full diagnostic, but I can if it’s felt that information is actually helping. The thing is, I don’t see much reason to believe it is a ‘bug’ so much as the eq/tuning is just not resulting in a an accurate or pleasing sound. I feel you’d likely need a full range microphone recording to really diagnose. I’m hoping Sonos can potentially work with Rtings and/or other real-world testers to better understand what’s happening.

I’m still seriously considering a return, and I’ve already had to caution friends who are thinking about diving into the Sonos ecosystem. There is still time to course-correct.

I spoke with Sonos technical manager today. He said that Sonos is looking into the Bass issue. But wouldn’t confirm that they are looking into anything else. He said that the metalic sound and the high treble “non balanced” sound may just be how the arc is supposed to work. He didn’t quite say that but he would confirm it. He said if I don’t like the Arc sound that I should just return it and go back to the playbar. Which of course I can. He said they are destined differently and this may just be normal. He kept saying that in general Sonos will make updates to the software etc.

This is unfortunate. Why would they tune the Arc completely differently than the Playbar, Playbase, and Beam that came before it? It sounds so obviously worse. There’s nearly 200 replies in this thread alone about it. And worse yet for Sonos, it sounds cheap. But as we all know, it certainly wasn’t.

The experience I’ve had with the Arc is damaging my brand loyalty and the part that’s most upsetting is we are all being super vocal about the issue and doing everything we can to help Sonos recognize it, taking to the proper forums where they want to host the discussion, scheduling calls with Support after waiting weeks for an email response, but yet they are increasingly silent in even admitting there’s an issue. At the end of the day, it feels like no real progress has been made here.

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PowdeRiver

Lyricist III

If they figure out the ongoing bass issue I’ll keep it. I hope they look into pushing the mids a little more or making it sound warmer maybe it’s just personal preference at that point but I really liked the sound of the playbar. Maybe there should be a separate mode for tv vs music.

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BenR

Lyricist III

I spoke with Sonos technical manager today. He said that Sonos is looking into the Bass issue. But wouldn’t confirm that they are looking into anything else. He said that the metalic sound and the high treble “non balanced” sound may just be how the arc is supposed to work. He didn’t quite say that but he would confirm it. He said if I don’t like the Arc sound that I should just return it and go back to the playbar. Which of course I can. He said they are destined differently and this may just be normal. He kept saying that in general Sonos will make updates to the software etc.

This is definitely my worry, that it will just be put down as ‘this is how the ARC sounds’. But there are several issues with that.

The sound I’m hearing from the arc is not, in my experience (as a former snobby audiophile), just a sound ‘signature’, but rather a very lacking and inaccurate reproduction of the source.
An accurate and flat frequency response is not always the primary goal of a speaker or sound system. Often, especially with brands like Sonos, the goal is just a pleasing and ‘impressive’ sound. My arc is achieving neither. My personal taste as always scewed towards accuracy and detail over warmth and ‘richness’, but this is not that.
Even if Mr Sonos himself (/s) came over to my house, listened to my arc setup, and said “Yeah, that sounds as it should.”, it’s WAY different from what Sonos has established their products sound ‘like’. An audio brand generally cultivates a particular style, and then tries to ensure their products complement each other and fit into that style. This is especially important when the various components are often all playing together. If they think the arc is working correctly, they should have created new brand for it.

R

Reefy

Enthusiast I

Just an update on my end (I posted here a few days ago).

After running trueplay with an iPad Air 2 (previously with latest iPad Pro 11”), I think the sound in the midrange improved, slightly less harsh and fuller, but still NOT where I’d like it to be. I have an iphone 6 sitting around I might try. I wish I had a professional mic to measure frequency response.

I can confirm that the issue definitely is present for streaming music and content via hdmi. I do not think it is related to the hdmi source (which is an LG C9 with earc enabled). Not sure where that idea originated.

I have not had time to run a full diagnostic, but I can if it’s felt that information is actually helping. The thing is, I don’t see much reason to believe it is a ‘bug’ so much as the eq/tuning is just not resulting in a an accurate or pleasing sound. I feel you’d likely need a full range microphone recording to really diagnose. I’m hoping Sonos can potentially work with Rtings and/or other real-world testers to better understand what’s happening.

I’m still seriously considering a return, and I’ve already had to caution friends who are thinking about diving into the Sonos ecosystem. There is still time to course-correct.

I spoke with Sonos technical manager today. He said that Sonos is looking into the Bass issue. But wouldn’t confirm that they are looking into anything else. He said that the metalic sound and the high treble “non balanced” sound may just be how the arc is supposed to work. He didn’t quite say that but he would confirm it. He said if I don’t like the Arc sound that I should just return it and go back to the playbar. Which of course I can. He said they are destined differently and this may just be normal. He kept saying that in general Sonos will make updates to the software etc.

This is unfortunate. Why would they tune the Arc completely differently than the Playbar, Playbase, and Beam that came before it? It sounds so obviously worse. There’s nearly 200 replies in this thread alone about it. And worse yet for Sonos, it sounds cheap. But as we all know, it certainly wasn’t.

The experience I’ve had with the Arc is damaging my brand loyalty and the part that’s most upsetting is we are all being super vocal about the issue and doing everything we can to help Sonos recognize it, taking to the proper forums where they want to host the discussion, scheduling calls with Support after waiting weeks for an email response, but yet they are increasingly silent in even admitting there’s an issue. At the end of the day, it feels like no real progress has been made here.

Ya. They’ve lost lots of goodwill with me. My impressions was that they made great quality stuff. But now it just seems trial and error. Last week they released new firmware for the bass but that still didn’t fix the issue and they are back trying to fix it. Just throwing darts at a board. I feel like we bought a kickstarter project.