Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128947 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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craigski

Local Superstar

12.0.2 just came out, installing now

No System Update though.

Trueplay Update ?

No clue cause yet again Sonos has not provided any info...

Lets hope someone who is experiencing the ‘bright’ sound with their Arc can update their App, do another Trueplay and report back.

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phollin2

Lyricist III

Fingers crossed this helps. I have just installed the update and true played again. The trueplay felt like it took longer (I got to go around the room twice). Maybe they have updated that. Jury is out on whether it’s altered the sound profile...

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King Colin

Avid Contributor I

No change for me!!!!!!!Still harsh!!!!

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oriboaz

Prodigy I

Upon the first trueplay attempt post update, the sonos app crashed after the “sit where you watch” phase of trueplay. I reran trueplay and it went through fine. In my experience, sound seems somewhat better, but still brighter than I would like.
I look forward to further fixes and tweaks by Sonos.

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shane_sd

Lyricist III

I got my hands on an iPhone 7 this morning. I downloaded the Sonos S2 app and Trueplayed my room.

The sound was definitely improved. It’s like the Arc took a step forward in presence. I use to describe its sound as “small.” Now not so much. It’s still silly bright but I’m not experiencing ear fatigue.

Of course I hear they released an update and to my surprise, I had the updated app on the iPhone 7. So I’m not sure if they changed something or if the tune from the iPhone 7 is helping things.

I’m very aware of the power of the brain, so I like to keep things flat (eq, loudness, sub off) as I’m evaluating the sound. I believe something has improved though I’m not sure if it’s the tune from an iPhone 7 or the update.

I’m going to swap in the Beam for further reference.

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phollin2

Lyricist III

No change for me!!!!!!!Still harsh!!!!

Same here! No noticeable difference

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GReeeeN

Trending Lyricist I

I got my hands on an iPhone 7 this morning. I downloaded the Sonos S2 app and Trueplayed my room.

The sound was definitely improved. It’s like the Arc took a step forward in presence. I use to describe its sound as “small.” Now not so much. It’s still silly bright but I’m not experiencing ear fatigue.

Of course I hear they released an update and to my surprise, I had the updated app on the iPhone 7. So I’m not sure if they changed something or if the tune from the iPhone 7 is helping things.

I’m very aware of the power of the brain, so I like to keep things flat (eq, loudness, sub off) as I’m evaluating the sound. I believe something has improved though I’m not sure if it’s the tune from an iPhone 7 or the update.

I’m going to swap in the Beam for further reference.

What phone did you use to TunePlay prior to the update?, it could just be your experience moving to an iPhone 7 rather than the update itself. (7 TunePlay performed significantly better than the X/Xs prior to the update in my experience, there is a clear issue with X/Xs which is immediately noticeable).

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CuzFeeshe

Enthusiast I

I got my hands on an iPhone 7 this morning. I downloaded the Sonos S2 app and Trueplayed my room.

The sound was definitely improved. It’s like the Arc took a step forward in presence. I use to describe its sound as “small.” Now not so much. It’s still silly bright but I’m not experiencing ear fatigue.

Of course I hear they released an update and to my surprise, I had the updated app on the iPhone 7. So I’m not sure if they changed something or if the tune from the iPhone 7 is helping things.

I’m very aware of the power of the brain, so I like to keep things flat (eq, loudness, sub off) as I’m evaluating the sound. I believe something has improved though I’m not sure if it’s the tune from an iPhone 7 or the update.

I’m going to swap in the Beam for further reference.

What phone did you use to TunePlay prior to the update?, it could just be your experience moving to an iPhone 7 rather than the update itself. (7 TunePlay performed significantly better than the X/Xs prior to the update in my experience, there is a clear issue with X/Xs which is immediately noticeable).

I’m using an original iPhone X. It actually worked nicely for Trueplay tuning.

IndustrialEcho

Lyricist III

I was on the phone yesterday with tech support and he had me send in the diagnostics from the Sonos app. He said it came back with some bad “bashes”, he would not elaborate, but obviously it is not performing like it should, but I still have a feeling this has nothing to do with the tinny lack of bass. I am afraid this is a hardware and not a software problem :( I am so bummed, I was really looking forward to this being a great speaker, but when I go back to my Playbar, which I still have, I get more bass and a fuller sound. I was doing my best to sell my wife on the fact that it would be great to have this new speaker which costs a lot, but alas, playing the Arc is not helping. And music through it is just awful! The dialogue on movies with the Arc is a bit better, but to loose the lows is a non starter. My setup has the sub and to Sonos Ones as well.

Formerly with a Playbar, now with an Arc, but unfortunately, due to poor sound quality, soon back to the Playbar. / Sub / 2 Sonos Ones

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bonedaddy

Trending Lyricist I

I was on the phone yesterday with tech support and he had me send in the diagnostics from the Sonos app. He said it came back with some bad “bashes”, he would not elaborate, but obviously it is not performing like it should, but I still have a feeling this has nothing to do with the tinny lack of bass. I am afraid this is a hardware and not a software problem :( I am so bummed, I was really looking forward to this being a great speaker, but when I go back to my Playbar, which I still have, I get more bass and a fuller sound. I was doing my best to sell my wife on the fact that it would be great to have this new speaker which costs a lot, but alas, playing the Arc is not helping. And music through it is just awful! The dialogue on movies with the Arc is a bit better, but to loose the lows is a non starter. My setup has the sub and to Sonos Ones as well.

This is exactly my experience with the Arc. I just regretfully sent it back to Sonos this morning. My Playbar doesn't look as nice as the Arc but the sound is so much smoother and voices are way better too. I just couldn't take the shrillness of the Arc any longer. Of course I lost my discount code on the return…. :tired_face:

My advice is to stay with the Playbar or Beam until this is sorted out.

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