Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128946 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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shane_sd

Lyricist III

Just curious are most people, specifically those with sibilance and harsh treble using Trueplay? I have a surround setup with the Arc + Sub + Play 1’s and I find the default EQ to not be bright at all and in fact a little flat and boring. Definitely not anything I would consider bright. Turning on and using Trueplay however with my iPhone X, wife’s iPhone XS or 2017 iPad results in a very bright and harsh sound. All bass (sub is great) and a lot of bright high end and not a lot of midrange or overall warmth in the sound. Retuning with my wife’s very old iPad Mini (probably like a 2014 model or so) however resulted in much better sound that I’m happy with it.

This doesn’t just apply to the Arc. Trueplay results in a brighter, different sound with my other Sonos speakers too so I retuned them all with the old iPad Mini. I think the Arc soundstage just amplifies it even more. So I think the device used for tuning makes a difference which I didn’t believe at first when I read it here until I found one that worked well.

If people are finding the non Trueplay default EQ overly bright though, can’t say I have that issue.

Of course. We just spent $800+ so you better believe we’re exhausting every option to get it to sound right.

Mine is going back to Sonos. I truly believe there is a bad batch of these out there.

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oriboaz

Prodigy I

I use trueplay. To my ears, brightness and harshness is there even without trueplay. It’s more pronounced with trueplay. I have Arc + sub + 2 sonos ones.
I tried trueplay with various devices: iphone 11 pro, ipad air latest gen, iphone 6s. The latter was the best, but still too harsh.

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phollin2

Lyricist III

I use trueplay. To my ears, brightness and harshness is there even without trueplay. It’s more pronounced with trueplay. I have Arc + sub + 2 sonos ones.
I tried trueplay with various devices: iphone 11 pro, ipad air latest gen, iphone 6s. The latter was the best, but still too harsh.

Exactly same setup and experience as me

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GC3

Headliner I

Maybe there is a bad batch. Mine sounds great after 2-3 weeks daily use. Arc + surrounds + sub. Replaced a Beam 5.1 system, which replaced hardwired Denon AVR and NHT 5.1 speakers.

The Arc-anchored Sonos system much better than the Beam, and while not getting as really loud as well as the AVR-based system the quality of sound is more or less on par for me.

Atmos is effective in my usage as well.

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starlan

Enthusiast I

Just curious are most people, specifically those with sibilance and harsh treble using Trueplay? I have a surround setup with the Arc + Sub + Play 1’s and I find the default EQ to not be bright at all and in fact a little flat and boring. Definitely not anything I would consider bright. Turning on and using Trueplay however with my iPhone X, wife’s iPhone XS or 2017 iPad results in a very bright and harsh sound. All bass (sub is great) and a lot of bright high end and not a lot of midrange or overall warmth in the sound. Retuning with my wife’s very old iPad Mini (probably like a 2014 model or so) however resulted in much better sound that I’m happy with it.

This doesn’t just apply to the Arc. Trueplay results in a brighter, different sound with my other Sonos speakers too so I retuned them all with the old iPad Mini. I think the Arc soundstage just amplifies it even more. So I think the device used for tuning makes a difference which I didn’t believe at first when I read it here until I found one that worked well.

If people are finding the non Trueplay default EQ overly bright though, can’t say I have that issue.

Of course. We just spent $800+ so you better believe we’re exhausting every option to get it to sound right.

Mine is going back to Sonos. I truly believe there is a bad batch of these out there.

Oh I get it believe me. I retuned with 4 different devices after all so I’m exhausting all options as well. Overall, I’m happy now but wasn’t initially. With Trueplay off it sounds lifeless, with it on way too bright until I found the one iOS device that gave me a tuning I liked.

The 45 day return window is pretty solid thankfully if you’re not happy and gives people enough time to really test it out and maybe for Sonos to fix or update the tuning based on initial user feedback.

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zztop610

Contributor II

This is what I predicted. People are trying to explain: like this is what is supposed to sound like and Sonos wil not fix this.

all because Sonos is dead silent about this problem. Not give us an answer if it will be fixed/ tuned or not.

I have a 100 day return period. But for me this way all the fun is gone. Really thinking of returning the arc ASAP. Then I can move on. Maybe try Bose soundbar 700.

I am thinking of doing the same. Enough with this nonsense. Will buy the Samsung Atmos soundbar

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arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

This is what I predicted. People are trying to explain: like this is what is supposed to sound like and Sonos wil not fix this.

all because Sonos is dead silent about this problem. Not give us an answer if it will be fixed/ tuned or not.

I have a 100 day return period. But for me this way all the fun is gone. Really thinking of returning the arc ASAP. Then I can move on. Maybe try Bose soundbar 700.

I am thinking of doing the same. Enough with this nonsense. Will buy the Samsung Atmos soundbar

Has its own issues. Good luck!

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lzy1987

Enthusiast I

Not sure why this problem is still not acknowledged by Sonos. That harsh treble is just present across all contents I played.

Feels like I'm still using TV speaker but with better bass. I had occasions I was using TV speaker and I thought I was using the Arc.. that is how bad the sound is to me..

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shane_sd

Lyricist III

Not sure why this problem is still not acknowledged by Sonos. That harsh treble is just present across all contents I played.

Feels like I'm still using TV speaker but with better bass. I had occasions I was using TV speaker and I thought I was using the Arc.. that is how bad the sound is to me..

Yup.

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zztop610

Contributor II

This is what I predicted. People are trying to explain: like this is what is supposed to sound like and Sonos wil not fix this.

all because Sonos is dead silent about this problem. Not give us an answer if it will be fixed/ tuned or not.

I have a 100 day return period. But for me this way all the fun is gone. Really thinking of returning the arc ASAP. Then I can move on. Maybe try Bose soundbar 700.

I am thinking of doing the same. Enough with this nonsense. Will buy the Samsung Atmos soundbar

Has its own issues. Good luck!

LOL, man I just can’t seem to catch a break!

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