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.

Show previous replies

G

gswanso2

Lyricist III

the issue is not solely related to trueplay as I did not use trueplay (do not have an iphone). but perhaps the Arc will not produce quality sound without a proper trueplay calibration

A

arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

the issue is not solely related to trueplay as I did not use trueplay (do not have an iphone). but perhaps the Arc will not produce quality sound without a proper trueplay calibration

You should grab an iPhone from somebody and do the TruPlay. Sound improves by a huge margin. TruPlay has its issues, but no TruPlay is worse IMO.

A

austinVill

Lyricist II

Agree on this one. Upgraded from beam to arc and the best way to describe it is thin… like laptop speakers that get irritating when turning up. Yes soundstage is wider and there is some vocal depth but it’s not warm and its tiny sounding. I know the bass issue which was one thing but eq on the mids is off. the beam when listening to Phil Collins is more warm with better vocal depth making you want to turn it up. Wife picks beam every time in blind music tests and that’s a problem. I’m hoping this is just an eq issue but something is off here on the midrange.

E

esspydermonkey

Contributor I

I’d like to add that I’m also having this issue. Certain voices seem to emphasize the issue greater than others. John Oliver’s for example also makes it sound as if the tweeter is blown. Glad this issue is flagged but currently I’m disappointed with the Arc.

P

Pawl

Lyricist III

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.

I’m really starting to believe that the Sonos S2 app needs to be corrected. it seems that people are having issues since the Sonos app update.

M

Manyman

Lyricist III

Ok, you guys are addressing this as a software issue. I hope it is. Might be. Might also be crap speaker elements and bad hardware in general. Money rules and this type of marketing rip offs has been seen many times. Arc is really bad at this point and I hope some tweaks with dsp or whatever will make it better..

I’m heavily invested into Sonos gear and love many of the products also still angry about the legacy stuff. Sonos, you got the hype, do it right. All the way. Please.

D

Dangerboy79

Contributor II

I agree. I updated from a Playbar to the arc and I like the the sound of the Playbar for music much more. The Playbar had a warmth with music. The arc sounds very “tinny”. Lacks the midrange and has no warmth. I have tried many configurations: Moving the sub, adjusting the loudness, equalizer etc. nothing has helped. I like the clear dialogue for movies but the harshness in the music has me wanting more.

T

Talvish

Enthusiast II

I’m definitely feeling this as well. There is a warmth and depth that seems to be missing in the Arc even when compared to the Beam.

BUT I’ve never had the the Beam and Arc in the same room so wasn’t sure what the dynamic was (the Arc is in a bigger, less enclosed room). But even when you sit close to the Arc and listen, something sounds off, when compared to the Beam.

When I first bought the Beam late last year, I was very impressed with the sound. When I turned on the Arc, I just felt like something was missing.

Note: Unfortunately, I’m also an Android user so cannot use TruePlay. That said, TruePlay wasn’t used on the Beam either.

BMF

Prodigy III

When I first bought the Beam late last year, I was very impressed with the sound. When I turned on the Arc, I just felt like something was missing.

Yes, that was exactly my feeling!

I have beams in 2 other rooms and much prefer listening to music on them.

I am sure it will get sorted

A

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.

So I repeated the Truplay again with both iPad Pro and iPhone XS. I can confirm that harsh trebles go away with iPad Pro Truplay, though it does not sound as detailed and clear. Vocals sound like they are using mask. iPhone Truplay did bring the clarity back, but the “highs are too high” scenario came back with lacking mid-ranges.

I think the enhanced truplay that Sonos is implementing might be a culprit here. This is specifically affecting iPhones. @Ryan S Can you forward this to the team if you think it’s worthwhile? Thanks!

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community