Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128945 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.

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anujgoel83

Trending Lyricist I

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.

I can say that my beam and arc setups are in identical positions, and can attest to the arc’s superior soundstage; however when asked to remove sub and surrounds, I did experience much of what has been discussed. I don’t see this as being a room/size/source issue( but note an intrinsic problem with tuning), I’m happy with my setup but can imagine many having an issue with arc as a standalone device

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cnjackson2000

Contributor I

Sonos. Is there a fix for the arc not filling the room with music? Too much treble not enough bass. Even with the sub. I have had my arc for three weeks now and was told there would be an update that would fix this over a week ago. So far no fix. Should I return my arc or will this be fixed?

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Reefy

Enthusiast I

Sonos. Is there a fix for the arc not filling the room with music? Too much treble not enough bass. Even with the sub. I have had my arc for three weeks now and was told there would be an update that would fix this over a week ago. So far no fix. Should I return my arc or will this be fixed?

I appreciate Sonos effort to try to fix this. But they seem to be out of ideas. It’s nice that they have a form where ppl input the song they have trouble with. The support guy yesterday pretty much told maybe the Arc just isn’t for me and I should go back to the playbar. He said it may just be how the arc is made. We are now all going through this beta testing on a released product.

I want to hear another Arc. Cause I can’t believe some of the great reviews can be based on the same unit I have. I just want find a single Arc in a store on demo.

But I have pretty much decided to return the arc and use the playbar.
I really hope the S2 app isn’t the source of the issue. So I’ll be using the S1. Hopefully they didn’t mess that up too

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cronos177

Lyricist III

All it takes is a more robust EQ settings, I’m confident the hardware with 11 speakers, each amplified independently it’s a lot of future proof. A lot can be done with that hardware. For now EQ setting would make most people satisfied for sound signatures. But in the future Sonos can come up with new ideas about the use of this hardware.

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dodgey1191

Contributor I

Hello all,

Thank you for clarifying that the issue is both from music services and from connected home theater sources, sometimes one does get tunnel-vision in looking into an issue this large.

For those of you that have moved from a Beam to an Arc, how large is the room that you are set up in with the Arc?

The Beam is designed to deliver optimal sound in more modest or compact space where the Arc is quite the opposite. I can see from some of the photographs that have been included in this thread that quite a few of your set-ups are in larger open spaces.

In the interest in trying to take all factors into account I’d be interested in more information from those of you who have moved from our smallest to largest home theater products and if possible, provide comparative diagnostic reports from your system.

@Jean C. @Scott - Sonos I also have a larger open space, roughly 25 x 15, and had a beam before this which had decent midrange.

Interestingly, the Arc’s midrange and dialogue sounds a lot better if I sit very very close to it (within 3-5 feet) at volumes up to 50%. The bright, harsh treble in dialogue is still there but I can hear some of the warmness and bass from voices more clearly. As I move back, even when volumes are turned to around 40%-50%, only the harsh bright treble comes through much more and overtakes the warm midranges which seem to disappear. This is without any environmental background noise.

The beam’s was definitely much boomier and not as tight when I was sitting around 10-12 feet away but it maintained its warmth. I’m sorry that this is not super scientific but I hope you guys can hear what we are experiencing!

Thanks again for all the hard work.

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Mitchellsx

Renowned Enthusiast II

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.

Hi Scott,

ive submitted some diagnosis forums even tho the issues are across all what I watch. Watching sky fall on Amazon prime last night, I just found there was no warmth or beef to the sound coming from the ARC. One thing I would like to see is the option to be able to manually adjust the centre speaker and the overhead speakers, as even with speech enhancement I do find sometimes the dialogue needs adjusting. I think as other people have said the EQ needs adjusting on the soundbar, the mids are just not there.

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anujgoel83

Trending Lyricist I

Yes I think we can all echo that statement, happy as I am with the arc performance, I have seriously high ceilings, and an ability to control my he upward firing drivers; independent of truplay would be great

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Sash A

Lyricist III

Can someone please test out The Office S4 Ep.19 at 30:30 when Michael sings Goodbye Toby. I am getting crackling/popping static sound pretty much through out the entire song. Is anyone else experiencing this?

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ainsley002

Renowned Enthusiast I

Having moved from the Playbar, that has a warmth, especially with the dialogue/centre, that the Arc just can’t be adjusted to reproduce at the moment and it seems to struggle even more as the volume increases.

No amount of playing with the EQ or Trueplay tuning with difference devices can sort this right now, even with a Sub in tow.

I just hope that isn't a physical “limitation” of the Arc

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CuzFeeshe

Enthusiast I

I would be interested in seeing comparative results from an audio spectrum analyzer taken from the listening position for the same music/movie. There are some decent apps for iOS that do this.

It seems many reviewers are blown away by this device, and some others are not impressed. Many purchasers of this product love it (such as me), and others find it weak/harsh.

Maybe if some of us compared the frequency response in the listening position we could figure out why. Is it just preference, or are the results we’re getting that much different based on room size, true play tuning results, speaker placement?

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