Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128929 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?

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

S

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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antx

Lyricist III

Thank you for opening this thread, I wanted to open one but kept procrastinating.

Everybody talks about the bass issues ( alright yes that is an issue)
My point is its not just the bass issue overall Sonos Arc and even the Sub does not sound right
1. Arc has a very metallic tone, too crisp and harsh to the hears its like having 100% Treble and only the tweeters are working.
2. Arc lower volume is really low and cannot hear any voice, with enhancing voice yes I do hear it better but why do I want to do that unless its night time and I am having a very low volume level
3. Arc sound is not balanced and something is off, I am still wondering why no acknowledgement on this from Sonos
Sonos Sub Gen 3 - No comments, personally previous Sub gen 2 performed better, but I am not able to tell what is the difference in this sub since low frequencies are always difficult to measure.

Yes, I have tried different EQ settins, trueplay, my living room is well laid out with carpet, paintings, couch etc so room acoustics are fine. I had LG SJ9 sold it just after getting the Sonos ARC and now regretting. The LG SJ9 for its cost sounded much better (of course the bass was thin in that)

I have 30 more days before I could return I think in the US the return period is only 45 days. So if Sonos does not comment back or reply to my emails. Both Arc + Sub goes back. I am totally disappointed.

Ryan S

Retired Sonos Staff

I agree. Mine just sounds off and not what I expected at all - especially after listening to so many other Sonos products over the years. Being that Sonos is reluctant to help with with an RMA at the moment I still have mine. I’m going to wait to see what happens with next week’s update for the bass issue and then make a final decision on a return.

Oops. I accidentally tagged your answer as the best. don't know how to fix it. @Ryan S

Ohhh. I dunno either!

I fixed it.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The team is very focused on the bass issue right now, but I’ve flagged this with them too. I’ll let you know if there’s any news to share.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

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arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

I agree. Mine just sounds off and not what I expected at all - especially after listening to so many other Sonos products over the years. Being that Sonos is reluctant to help with with an RMA at the moment I still have mine. I’m going to wait to see what happens with next week’s update for the bass issue and then make a final decision on a return.

Oops. I accidentally tagged your answer as the best. don't know how to fix it. @Ryan S

Ohhh. I dunno either!

I fixed it.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The team is very focused on the bass issue right now, but I’ve flagged this with them too. I’ll let you know if there’s any news to share.

Hey @Ryan S . Thanks for the quick response. We totally understand that the bass issue takes priority right now. We will come back to this once that’s fixed.

K

kenwk1234

Lyricist II

the highs being too high which sort of feels “harsh”.

Anyone else feels that Arc is over-emphasizing the highs with compromised mids?

Yes same here, I am glad I am not the only one. This will be hard to fix as I am guessing the ARC is purposely “tuned” in this way. Also I think a lot of ppl will not even notice this if they don’t have a reference point to compare with. (eg. stereo system or other soundbar).

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gswanso2

Lyricist III

I could not agree with this more. I cannot believe that all the media fawned over the Arc given this very noticeable issue. I will be saving the box and my old soundbar - if this is not fixed within the next 45 days, it will definitely be going back.

Can’t believe Sonos either did not notice this issue or thought that it sounded good.

M

maurice.pothoven

Trending Lyricist II

Here also flat metallic sound and missing mid range. Voices sound very low and ambient much louder.

i turned off Trueplay, this made the flat sound worse

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gswanso2

Lyricist III

Honestly, my $120 Vizio sound bar beats the Arc in all respects, except when playing Dolby Atmos media.

This is not a preference issue - the sound coming out of the Arc is not correct.

H

Heilo the Dog

Lyricist I

Having the exact same issue. I believe there’s an issue with the Trueplay calibration when done via an iPhone (at least me and my husbands iPhone 11). Tries tuning with a first generation iPad Pro and the results were much better. That incredibly harsh, metallic trebly heavy sound is gone. Can anyone else see if this works better for them.

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arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

Having the exact same issue. I believe there’s an issue with the Trueplay calibration when done via an iPhone (at least me and my husband's iPhone 11). Tries tuning with a first-generation iPad Pro and the results were much better. That incredibly harsh, metallic trebly heavy sound is gone. Can anyone else see if this works better for them?

@Heilo the Dog I noticed the exact same thing. TruPlay done with iPad Pro did bring down those harsh trebles, albiet with compromised details. Then I redid the TruPlay again with my iPhone XS, and no surprise - the harsh and metallic treble came back. I plan to repeat this process multiple times to validate our hypothesis.

BMF

Prodigy III

Interesting, performed the TruePlay with an 11 Pro Max, but have an iPad Pro, 1st generation I can try tomorrow.

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