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Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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D

I recently purchased two Arc soundbars. Bought the second one because I changed my mind on the color option. I gave both a go and found the same issue with both bars…that is the dialogue is incredibly forward and shrill to my ears. I find the dialogue is so loud and so forward that it makes it very difficult to enjoy the speaker, in fact it’s even causing ear fatigue and pain ¼ way through a movie. 

I’m coming from a PlayBar paired to a Sub Mini and 2 Play Ones as rears. So that is my baseline of comparison as well as a more decked out system in our living room that is a 5.1.2 Atmos Receiver setup. 

I want to raise the volume up to a decent level but I find when I do the dialogue is just so present and ear piercingly loud and shrill. It was exhausting to my ears after as little as 20 min. I tried making adjustments the next day. I turned off the dialogue enhancement. Turned down the Treble. I still was feeling like my ears where hurting as I was still feeling a lingering ear pressure / discomfort from the prior days run of less than 30 min listening to action sequence at the end of Rogue One. 

The pain kicked in again and I had to take Ibuprofen and a Prednisone to get my ears to settle down. (I have prednisone for my ears for flying. I have a history of ear pain from the pressure while flying that is well mitigated by taking 5 mg of prednisone an hour or two before landings).
 

So maybe my ears are somehow more sensitive to the highs of the dialogue…who knows. I do know that I can crank the same system with the PlayBar in place with Zero issues and no ear fatigue or pain. I know that I can crank my Atmos setup in the living room very loud and have Zero ear pain or ear fatigue. 5 speakers in the living room setup are Martin Logan speakers and there’s an SVS Sub as well. 
 

The only other time I’ve had ear fatigue is when I had ELAC speakers as my front stage. They are not very sensitive speakers and so you have to really drive them with quite a bit of power to get them to sing and sound great. I would get fatigued after about an hour of quite loud music listening with the ELAC speakers.

 

I don’t feel like I’m pushing the Arc soundbar unreasonably high or anything and yet I’m having this really unpleasant ear pain and fatigue with the dialogue and highs.
 

I’m going to give it one more shot now that my ears have rested for 4 days. Going to try the Arc again starting with the Treble turned down, with the dialogue enhancement turned off. I want to see if the arc can still sound any good with these restrained settings while also hopefully not causing me ear fatigue or pain.

 

I really want this to work but it sucks this is an issue when the PlayBar setup is quite good and has a rich warm tone to the music and has great rich bass that the Arc just lacks in. 
 

Has anyone found any solution to this problem with their Arc? 

 

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Yes..suffered with same issue. With 14.12 this shrill metallic sound is greatly reduced...prior to 14.12 always felt I am listening to raw electronic signals whenever someone talks and instrumental sounds so metallic too...now it is kind of ok after 14.12..but still terrible sssshhhh sound with voice is causing discomfort.


 

 

 

D
Userlevel 1
Badge

I recently purchased two Arc soundbars. Bought the second one because I changed my mind on the color option. I gave both a go and found the same issue with both bars…that is the dialogue is incredibly forward and shrill to my ears. I find the dialogue is so loud and so forward that it makes it very difficult to enjoy the speaker, in fact it’s even causing ear fatigue and pain ¼ way through a movie. 

I’m coming from a PlayBar paired to a Sub Mini and 2 Play Ones as rears. So that is my baseline of comparison as well as a more decked out system in our living room that is a 5.1.2 Atmos Receiver setup. 

I want to raise the volume up to a decent level but I find when I do the dialogue is just so present and ear piercingly loud and shrill. It was exhausting to my ears after as little as 20 min. I tried making adjustments the next day. I turned off the dialogue enhancement. Turned down the Treble. I still was feeling like my ears where hurting as I was still feeling a lingering ear pressure / discomfort from the prior days run of less than 30 min listening to action sequence at the end of Rogue One. 

The pain kicked in again and I had to take Ibuprofen and a Prednisone to get my ears to settle down. (I have prednisone for my ears for flying. I have a history of ear pain from the pressure while flying that is well mitigated by taking 5 mg of prednisone an hour or two before landings).
 

So maybe my ears are somehow more sensitive to the highs of the dialogue…who knows. I do know that I can crank the same system with the PlayBar in place with Zero issues and no ear fatigue or pain. I know that I can crank my Atmos setup in the living room very loud and have Zero ear pain or ear fatigue. 5 speakers in the living room setup are Martin Logan speakers and there’s an SVS Sub as well. 
 

The only other time I’ve had ear fatigue is when I had ELAC speakers as my front stage. They are not very sensitive speakers and so you have to really drive them with quite a bit of power to get them to sing and sound great. I would get fatigued after about an hour of quite loud music listening with the ELAC speakers.

 

I don’t feel like I’m pushing the Arc soundbar unreasonably high or anything and yet I’m having this really unpleasant ear pain and fatigue with the dialogue and highs.
 

I’m going to give it one more shot now that my ears have rested for 4 days. Going to try the Arc again starting with the Treble turned down, with the dialogue enhancement turned off. I want to see if the arc can still sound any good with these restrained settings while also hopefully not causing me ear fatigue or pain.

 

I really want this to work but it sucks this is an issue when the PlayBar setup is quite good and has a rich warm tone to the music and has great rich bass that the Arc just lacks in. 
 

Has anyone found any solution to this problem with their Arc? 

 

 


 

 

Airgetlam

I’m sure the folks at rtings would be happy to be paid by the manufacturers for their review process. ;)

Bruce
Ken_Griffiths

Rting.com was the only source I trusted in your list and it was actually the review which triggered my sonos Arc purchase , apparently they also do paid reviews as my hears works just fine and environment that works for beam should work for the ARC, thank you for the educated reply. 

I have both the Beam (gen2) and Arc …and the Arc’s sound is superior when placed in the same Living Room here. If it’s not your environment …and/or Trueplay/EQ customisation hasn’t resolved the sound issues for you, then have you considered your Arc might be faulty, or whatever device is connected and sending the audio to it?

You can always go onto submit a Sonos diagnostic report from the ‘Settings/Support’ area of the Sonos App. Make a note of the reference generated and when practicable, contact/chat to Sonos Support Staff about the matter via this LINK and see what they can suggest to resolve your matter.

Paid or unpaid reviews - my earlier post was just pointing out a small random sample from a good ‘many’ reviews online that all speak very favourably when it comes to the Arc …and many Arc users have posted to say the same thing too. 

However we all hear things differently, I guess …and if the Arc is not faulty and the audio output is simply inot to your own liking, then you’re probably best to sell it on and replace it with something you are satisfied with.

T
Badge

I own over 30 sonos speakers 7 tv's each one has a beam and my 135 inch screen projector screen has an Arc, I got to say it's the worst speaker sonos made. Regardless of the money factor the beam sounds way better in pretty much everything you throw at it. I'm happy I found this thread as I felt I'm loosing my mind, I tried to mount it over and under the screen , tried to tune it using ipad but nothing, the ARC sounds like a cheap speaker  specifically when dealing with voice from any source. Sonos please fix it or admit you have a shitty product and replace it for us . Side note I own it for enough time for it to bed in or whatever it needed to do and over the past year no improvement was made to my hears

These online reviews can’t all be wrong. Perhaps it’s your ((h)ears🤔?), or your setup/environment...

Rting.com was the only source I trusted in your list and it was actually the review which triggered my sonos Arc purchase , apparently they also do paid reviews as my hears works just fine and environment that works for beam should work for the ARC, thank you for the educated reply. 

Ken_Griffiths

I own over 30 sonos speakers 7 tv's each one has a beam and my 135 inch screen projector screen has an Arc, I got to say it's the worst speaker sonos made. Regardless of the money factor the beam sounds way better in pretty much everything you throw at it. I'm happy I found this thread as I felt I'm loosing my mind, I tried to mount it over and under the screen , tried to tune it using ipad but nothing, the ARC sounds like a cheap speaker  specifically when dealing with voice from any source. Sonos please fix it or admit you have a shitty product and replace it for us . Side note I own it for enough time for it to bed in or whatever it needed to do and over the past year no improvement was made to my hears

These online reviews can’t all be wrong. Perhaps it’s your ((h)ears🤔?), or your setup/environment...

T
Badge

I own over 30 sonos speakers 7 tv's each one has a beam and my 135 inch screen projector screen has an Arc, I got to say it's the worst speaker sonos made. Regardless of the money factor the beam sounds way better in pretty much everything you throw at it. I'm happy I found this thread as I felt I'm loosing my mind, I tried to mount it over and under the screen , tried to tune it using ipad but nothing, the ARC sounds like a cheap speaker  specifically when dealing with voice from any source. Sonos please fix it or admit you have a shitty product and replace it for us . Side note I own it for enough time for it to bed in or whatever it needed to do and over the past year no improvement was made to my hears

L
Userlevel 5
Badge +11

So, I see the post on the home page about a “Clarity upgrade” for the Arc. After 40 pages of complaints about the sound quality, especially the rampant sibilants, I am starting to reconsider my planned October purchase of an Arc+sub+surrounds.

Has this newly hatched upgrade helped anyone who has had this problem? Should I stay or should I go?

 

This metallic sound is an ancient topic now, I think it was improved over time, but also I think a lot were making rash statements about it sounding bright when the ARC, like any speaker needs time to “bed in”

Thats my experience anyway, as when I first purchased, mine sounded bright “metallic” sounding but over time it improved and I no longer get that problem, (perhaps firmware improved it) but Im pretty certain “bed in” helped a lot.

14.12 bought other issues. There is thread on here discussing it.

 

jonmichael
Userlevel 4

So, I see the post on the home page about a “Clarity upgrade” for the Arc. After 40 pages of complaints about the sound quality, especially the rampant sibilants, I am starting to reconsider my planned October purchase of an Arc+sub+surrounds.

Has this newly hatched upgrade helped anyone who has had this problem? Should I stay or should I go?

Last post here in the thread (before yours) was a month ago, so maybe that helps to answer your question?… if not, just stick around anyway.😀

You’ll always find those in support and those against, but the real answer here is to just try things for yourself, as there is a Sonos 100-day returns policy and money back guarantee in any case.

Yep, last post here was a month ago alright, but I just got here! I expect to stick around!😊

Old guy with toys.
K
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

I have Playbar, Sub and Surrounds. Read too much bad press about the Arc to warranty upgrading at the moment.

Even there newest update 14.12?, has multiple complaints about the Sub.

At least they've nearly sorted the 14.06 Surround connectivity problems out.

Ken_Griffiths

So, I see the post on the home page about a “Clarity upgrade” for the Arc. After 40 pages of complaints about the sound quality, especially the rampant sibilants, I am starting to reconsider my planned October purchase of an Arc+sub+surrounds.

Has this newly hatched upgrade helped anyone who has had this problem? Should I stay or should I go?

Last post here in the thread (before yours) was a month ago, so maybe that helps to answer your question?… if not, just stick around anyway.😀

You’ll always find those in support and those against, but the real answer here is to just try things for yourself, as there is a Sonos 100-day returns policy and money back guarantee in any case.

jonmichael
Userlevel 4

So, I see the post on the home page about a “Clarity upgrade” for the Arc. After 40 pages of complaints about the sound quality, especially the rampant sibilants, I am starting to reconsider my planned October purchase of an Arc+sub+surrounds.

Has this newly hatched upgrade helped anyone who has had this problem? Should I stay or should I go?

Old guy with toys.
M

Decided to return the Arc and keep my Beam for now. At least until Sonos sort out the Arc sound or I decide to get a Bose or similar. Such a shame …..

M

I’ve submitted the diagnostic reference 1985465114. I’ll contact support tomorrow and see what they say.

M

I’ve sent the diagnostics. Here is the reference 1985465114.

I’ll contact support tomorrow 

Ken_Griffiths

I just bought an ARC as an upgrade from the Beam Gen 1 and seem to be having the same issues. Hopefully someone can give me a definitive answer.

regardless of trying to tune using Trueplay including sitting in the same place, not turning my iPhone upside down etc, I still can’t get a “warm” sound. The audio is very precise but seems to have a bright effect. Watching content with dialog from a man that I know has a deep warm voice, it sounds thin. It’s like using the tv speakers. Low bass noises are good but it just lacks mid range. I’ve changed the EQ bass and treble setting but nothing works.

What am I doing wrong ? My old Beam had more warmth to the sound than the new Arc. Does it have to be “run-in” for a while to get the mid range working?

It’s difficult to comment without being able to hear it… So you maybe best to submit a system diagnostic and note or post it’s reference back here and then contact/chat with the Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see if they can see any issues with the device.

M

I just bought an ARC as an upgrade from the Beam Gen 1 and seem to be having the same issues. Hopefully someone can give me a definitive answer.

regardless of trying to tune using Trueplay including sitting in the same place, not turning my iPhone upside down etc, I still can’t get a “warm” sound. The audio is very precise but seems to have a bright effect. Watching content with dialog from a man that I know has a deep warm voice, it sounds thin. It’s like using the tv speakers. Low bass noises are good but it just lacks mid range. I’ve changed the EQ bass and treble setting but nothing works.

What am I doing wrong ? My old Beam had more warmth to the sound than the new Arc. Does it have to be “run-in” for a while to get the mid range working?

H

So, all the reviews of the ARC are generally exceptional - all praising rich warm sound.  So what are we doing wrong?

I don’t know what they are hearing, all I can think is places like what hifi are paid reviews… Ive never felt the ARC has a rich warming sound and ive had mine a year and half.

I assure you that I am a simpleton, wannabe HiFi enthusiast that saves up my money in order to afford my sonos speakers and I truly enjoy the sound from my Arc. True that the Playbar sounded warmer to my ears but by no means is the Arc lacking in warmth which is a signature sound to Sonos as compared to BlueSound speakers. It all comes down to preference and as far as wireless HiFi speakers go I choose Sonos. I am not denying that others are having issues with their Arc’s so maybe a quality control issue exists? Maybe some do not care for the sound signature that Sonos offers? Maybe some source material being listened to is of poor quality? My whole family appreciates the sound and when friends and neighbors have stopped by they are impressed with what the Arc can do.

D
Badge +4

Is the Beam any better in this regard?  I’m thinking of changing.

M
Userlevel 5
Badge +7

So, all the reviews of the ARC are generally exceptional - all praising rich warm sound.  So what are we doing wrong?

I don’t know what they are hearing, all I can think is places like what hifi are paid reviews… Ive never felt the ARC has a rich warming sound and ive had mine a year and half.

D
Badge +4

So, all the reviews of the ARC are generally exceptional - all praising rich warm sound.  So what are we doing wrong?

D
Badge +4

I wonder if using eARC versus the Optical converter has any impact on this?  I’m using the optical at the moment because I haven’t got a spare HDMI on the TV.

D

I'm so glad this thread exists. I thought I was going crazy. Just spent an hour with support, and they're going to send me a replacement. Has anyone actually had success with a replacement or is the product just bad?

I got 2 replacements from Sonos in last few months. All sounded same. Then bought newly built one(Feb-22) from Bestbuy to just test the new built. Same metallic sound and painful sssh sound with vocals from certain streaming content.

Ken_Griffiths

Crazy that this is still unresolved.. I have never been wowed by the ARCs sound.. always sounded tinny to me what ever settings I changed, truplayed etc. Hardly any warmth in the sound

Have you asked Sonos Support about your issue? - it maybe worth submitting a Diagnostic Report and perhaps a video too of your audio issue and ask Staff to see if there is anything they can do to assist.

You can contact them via this LINK

Hope you're able to get it sorted.

M
Userlevel 5
Badge +7

Crazy that this is still unresolved.. I have never been wowed by the ARCs sound.. always sounded tinny to me what ever settings I changed, truplayed etc. Hardly any warmth in the sound

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