Without any Trueplay (like it has to be for all of the non iOS owners, how does it sound?

Trueplay should refine the sound and tune it to the surroundings - not be a requirement and sound as bad as it does out of the box.

This is not quite right. Any “high-end” soundbar or even home theater system has room correction features. This is borderline required for these soundbars because theres so much the room can affect the audio you hear. There is no way to tune a soundbar for every room space, echo etc. You also cannot adjust the soundbar speaker setup, you cant move your side channels or center channels like you would with a home theater setup. So “processing” is all they can do to make the sound work in your setup. Also trueplay is used to calibrate surround speakers and atmos height speaker performance (Arc).

If you ask without trueplay, then go for a cheaper soundbar without these “high end” features. The criticism here is that you need iOS to do it. I understand why it sucks for android users and why SONOS does it. But honestly if youre going to get a sonos surround setup ($2k or even sonos soundbar with surround speakers you need to do truplay for best performance. Don't settle for non-truplay you went and spent all the dough so try to borrow an iphone for a bit at least. You only need to do this once(maybe a couple of times) 

But buying sonos and not using truplay is plain silly, because thats one of their strenghts the processing and audio adjustment for the room. Thats what soundbars with surround setup need to be able to produce better than expected sound for the soundbar design. 

Literally the arc does audio processing to make sound bounce around your room walls (including ceiling)… if you dont truplay it just wont be optimal.

Sonos released new version of iOS app today. 12.0.4. Did somebody try the truplay dance with it? Solved it this sound problem?

Looks like it is an “App only” update, my speakers seem to still be on 12.0.3 after updating the App

I would expect that Trueplay changes/updates don’t necessarily require a speaker firmware update. Pretty sure the app does all the EQ calculations locally and just sends an updated profile to the speakers, so if the changes are just in how those calculations are made, it would only need the app to be updated. 

Just return the samsung Q950T and buy Arc package last week.
Huge difference!
Arc is very nice and accurate sound for Movie and Music.

Highly recommend to see the below video before you do the setup by Trueplay and S2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu8TLAco2tI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssJ2XnsSJ-I&t=36s

I believe Metallic Sound because you did not do the best way for Trueplay.

Pls try the link’s method for Trueplay and Sonos APP setup.

I have to say Arc+Sub+ONE SL bet almost all soundbar on the market if you don't care DTS.

on the muddied bass thread they have just said its all fixed with the update...its not!

No, One rep said the muddy bass issue was fixed according to SONOS. They said 0 about metallic sound or trueplay consistency issues………… So let’s not misinform.

I am however, disappointed, no more was explained or a better statement wasn’t made. However, I do not have or perceive any bass issues with my Arc

I bet you do if you play the right things - try drive on Netflix at 35:00 and volume at 50%+ with no sub

or eminem without me 50% +
 

I listened to the song at 60 percent volume I can’t hear anything wrong.

i played it for a while then switched trueplay off both are in this recording 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XqMQ8NUzCr3sgjU_b13cowWr3t50Blol/view?usp=drivesdk

Interesting I can’t listen now as it’s late but intrigued o compare in the morning! 

I still get the feeling some people have defective units and are hearing very different things than others OR the Arc is buggy under specific circumstances that others aren’t experiencing.

There are tons of people here and on the Sonos subreddit that have done nothing but praise the Arc - many of which have stated that the Arc was a significant upgrade from their Playbar or Beam.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hXBHZAPA5uQi2H3wpYD8gHJkS5IwCcVL/view?usp=drivesdk
 

here is the drive movie one. I expect you to venmo me for ruining my newtflix algorithm;) haha

oh well This one I did turn up higher had to disable limit 60 percent I had. I can’t hear anything awful the bass like sounds a bit weird like clubby. But in the sonos one it sounded similar. 
I do agree it’s not the strongest bass or like as thumpy as you’d like wirh this type of club music.  But it certainly doesn’t sound like shit 

That’s so not how this song should sound like lol. I do listen to this song quite often ( Being an Indian). Balance is off by miles. But hey, this is a $799 soundbar that’s not made for Music. So it’s fine.

The netflix song you mean? I mean obviously this is the first time I’ve heard this song but having the “balance off” doesn’t mean the speaker is broken. If you can give me the name of the song I can try playing it on my sonos one to check “what it is supposed to sound like” then again, maybe to you the sonos one is also not good? Not sure. I do have a homepod but I boxed it since I’m gifting it.

I didn’t love the homepod music performance as I said before, but I recognize the bass is punchier.

I’m still not happy with trueplay. It improves some things for sure (less reverb, balances audio for seating position, boosts bass to my liking) but the mids still disappear and the metallic treble and harsh sibilant sound still exists. I get better results using an old iPad mini vs. newer iPhones but still not totally satisfied. 
 

At this point I’ve just resorted to turning trueplay off and I just boost sub and bass eq a smidge and I call it a day. I personally don’t think the Arc sounds too bright without trueplay. But trueplay still ruins it.

Also you can hear on that video just how tinny and mid lacking the arc is compared to the play base (even if we let them take a rest from the lack of bass as the Playbase has a woofer in it they should be able to cater for the rest)

The song is called Makhna. Like you said, speaker doesn’t have to be “broken” to have the balance off. It just indicates how poor and unfaithful the sound reproduction is.
 

Never said Sonos Ones are bad, so don’t put words in my mouth for the sake of argument. They are actually pretty good, just a tad bright for me. I already had a HomePod with 360 degrees sound, so I couldn’t justify keeping them only for music.

Anyway-  Just grab any decent pair of headphones/earphones and listen to the song.

having said this, I think I am gonna sign off from the thread now. It’s pretty clear you love your Arc while I think it’s bad at that price. No point in proving anything to anyone further. 

To those who are having issues, I hope Sonos really solves them unlike the muddy bass problem where they said they are still working on the issue and now just declared out of nowhere that there’s no problem now without pushing any update.

I didnt meant to say you said the ones are bad I said “maybe” because I didnt know. I will stream it to the sonos one later.

Again I recognize the arc isnt the best speaker for music. But I do love it for movies and tv. I have the 5.1 setup though, so I am usually less affected by this. But I think some people still hate the arc even with 5.1 setup

Sebas with all due respect ... I do not understand why you only fear in this forum and in the one of the low to contradict people who are not working well and to say a thousand and one wonders of your team. I see that you are very happy with it ... I think they have already told you once. You should open a thread to praise your sound equipment and let people here who are not happy express themselves without having a reply from you ... I think what you want to achieve is that the problems of this forum do not take it seriously that has to take it. Do not take it the wrong way but the only thing you get is to reduce the problems of this thread. And be careful that you provide solutions but it is clear that it is not for you without knowing or how it sounds to him, it seems to me that you are making a mistake. Sorry for my English.

Sebas with all due respect ... I do not understand why you only fear in this forum and in the one of the low to contradict people who are not working well and to say a thousand and one wonders of your team. I see that you are very happy with it ... I think they have already told you once. You should open a thread to praise your sound equipment and let people here who are not happy express themselves without having a reply from you ... I think what you want to achieve is that the problems of this forum do not take it seriously that has to take it. Do not take it the wrong way but the only thing you get is to reduce the problems of this thread. And be careful that you provide solutions but it is clear that it is not for you without knowing or how it sounds to him, it seems to me that you are making a mistake. Sorry for my English.

Perfect

Sebas with all due respect ... I do not understand why you only fear in this forum and in the one of the low to contradict people who are not working well and to say a thousand and one wonders of your team. I see that you are very happy with it ... I think they have already told you once. You should open a thread to praise your sound equipment and let people here who are not happy express themselves without having a reply from you ... I think what you want to achieve is that the problems of this forum do not take it seriously that has to take it. Do not take it the wrong way but the only thing you get is to reduce the problems of this thread. And be careful that you provide solutions but it is clear that it is not for you without knowing or how it sounds to him, it seems to me that you are making a mistake. Sorry for my English.

English is good!

Not at all, even on my last post I said. Lets focus on metallic sound and tinny sound. Lets focus on the issue at hand. Not sure why a poster commented here saying SONOS had said nothing was wrong with Arc. I clarified, SONOS said the muddy bass issue was fixed according to them. An user commented back saying no it isnt play this and that. And we went off track.

My advice to the user with a much worse sounding Arc than mine (in the bass department) is to get an exchange. Because as my recording shows mine doesnt sound like that. 

Here we are talking about another issue metallic sound.I do agree the arc can sound overly bright and some reviewers mentioned this too. This can easily be fixed by DSP. Things like shattering glass sound very rough. Or even drum cymbal sounds. 

 So if we stick to that is better. @Scott - Sonos @Krishma M  have not said peep about this issue. They also haven’t gotten back to us regarding the wide variance in truplaying across different devices. We have yet to get an official response on this forum. 

sebas1509 - I didn't realise you had a sub probably made makes all the difference

I turned it off for the test also I believe I had trueplay off as well