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Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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K
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

I bought the arc two days,and l have tried everything to get rid of this harshness and tinny sound in the audio.I am very disappointed at the 

moment with the product,and l hope Sonos will address this problem. I wonder does the soundbar need a “running in” 

Do we wait for a fix or send it back???
 

K
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

RTINGS said in there review something the same:

Sonos Arc soundbar is just okay for dialogue and TV shows. It has a dedicated center channel for accurate reproduction of voices, which is great. It also has an overall bright sound signature which can help dialogue stand out, although some may feel like there's not enough bass. 

 

 

K
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

I have the arc since release date. From the beginning I find the voice (like watching news, talk shows) very tiny. Like the arc is only using the small tweeter and not the midrange drivers.

I was hoping to get used to it but I’m not. For comparison I bought a Denon DHT-S716H a 3.0 soundbar about the same size and price of the Arc. 

This confirmed my suspicion: while the Arc is much better than the Denon on soundstage, bass, clarity etc, the Denon is much, much better on voices, much richer and fuller.

This proves to me there is something wrong with the Arc. 

it’s a real shame I really really want to keep the Arc, but if this problem is not fixed In my return window , I have to send ik back. 
 

Sonos please fix this! It’s a pity that this is ruining a potential great product. 

 

 

Have you tried with trueplay off and loudness off? My experience is it is an improvement to tinnyness with certainly trueplay off … still not right but better


trueplay on or off makes a tiny tiny difference. Not noteworthy. 

P
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

I have the arc since release date. From the beginning I find the voice (like watching news, talk shows) very tiny. Like the arc is only using the small tweeter and not the midrange drivers.

I was hoping to get used to it but I’m not. For comparison I bought a Denon DHT-S716H a 3.0 soundbar about the same size and price of the Arc. 

This confirmed my suspicion: while the Arc is much better than the Denon on soundstage, bass, clarity etc, the Denon is much, much better on voices, much richer and fuller.

This proves to me there is something wrong with the Arc. 

it’s a real shame I really really want to keep the Arc, but if this problem is not fixed In my return window , I have to send ik back. 
 

Sonos please fix this! It’s a pity that this is ruining a potential great product. 

 

 

Have you tried with trueplay off and loudness off? My experience is it is an improvement to tinnyness with certainly trueplay off … still not right but better

K
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

I have the arc since release date. From the beginning I find the voice (like watching news, talk shows) very tiny. Like the arc is only using the small tweeter and not the midrange drivers.

I was hoping to get used to it but I’m not. For comparison I bought a Denon DHT-S716H a 3.0 soundbar about the same size and price of the Arc. 

This confirmed my suspicion: while the Arc is much better than the Denon on soundstage, bass, clarity etc, the Denon is much, much better on voices, much richer and fuller.

This proves to me there is something wrong with the Arc. 

it’s a real shame I really really want to keep the Arc, but if this problem is not fixed In my return window , I have to send ik back. 
 

Sonos please fix this! It’s a pity that this is ruining a potential great product. 

 

 

M
Userlevel 1
Badge +1

Rushed product or just not enough resources for proper, full R&D?  Can they actually fix these issues with simple software / firmware updates?

 

Will there be a recall?

Not enough people complaining so no chance of recall but yeah they could certainly improve it with software updates I guess. Reduce the tweeter volume  and it will be sorted. But it’s too expensive to wait for 6 months or so for that update lol

S
Badge

Rushed product or just not enough resources for proper, full R&D?  Can they actually fix these issues with simple software / firmware updates?

 

Will there be a recall?

B
Userlevel 4
Badge +7

I’m convinced people that don’t hear the brightness on the ARC might have hearing loss in the higher frequencies (Which is usually the first to go). I have the ARC and Beam and recently had a Playbar and I can hear exactly what rtings.com speak about with the “Bright” sound, along with others on here. The Playbar and Beam had a nicer “warmer” sound, especially with music. The ARC sounds like it has too much treble.

None of this is to say the ARC doesn’t have a much bigger and more powerful sound stage, just it is a lot more harsh in the upper frequencies.

1 x Arc, 1 x Beam Gen 2, 1 x Amp, 2 x Sonos In Ceiling Speakers, 2 x Sub, 9 x Sonos Ones, 5 x Symfonisk Lamp
M
Userlevel 1
Badge +1

My arc sounds harsh too, trueplay makes it sound like a laptop or a mobile phone lol so have to set the treble to -8 or -10 to make it sound at least good enough to bear it for a 2 hr movie. Trueplay off makes the dialogues sound very low as compared to other sounds but at least the treble is not that harsh.

 

i think I better return it and go for a full atmos system.

O
Userlevel 4
Badge +6

What I am experiencing is a harsh sound, with very pronounced “SSSSS” sounds throughout any video that is playing. It’s not that the arc is creating sounds that are not there --- it is just amplifying the SSSSS part. (I listened to the same video via a different speaker, such as the beam, and I can pick out the SSSSS, but it is much smoother and pleasant on the beam). 

I get this problem over HDMI ARC from my TV and also when sound is pushed to Arc via airplay 2 directly via the Apple TV 4K.

I have tried trueplay tuning with various Apple devices: iPhone 11 Pro, iPad Air (latest generation), iPhone 6S. I’ve done various trueplay “dances”, neither  of which seems to alleviate the problem. My system is a full 5.1 system, including a sub and two one SLs. The TV has HDMI ARC but not HDMI eARC, so all sound coming to Sonos Arc is Dolby Digital 5.1 

I do hope that Sonos fixes this very soon! I love the Sonos brand, and until now I have been a fierce Sonos advocate. I am very hopeful that this is just a software issue and that very soon Sonos will be able to fix it!

K
Userlevel 1
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I was going to return the ARC & SUB after watching Hamilton on Disney+(hollow sounding IMO), but surprised to find out that my order actually qualified for 100 day trial (order placed in May).  Given with the extended timeline I will hang on for another month and hope the sound is going to improve via updates.

A
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

@Scott - Sonos Hi there. I have submitted my feedback through the form. It does not really have any particular movie or time stamp information as I am facing the issue in all the DD5.1 content. Currently, dialogue sound hollow like they are coming from a laptop speaker. This happens only when playing DD5.1 files. Stereo 2.0 Youtube sounds good- dialogue sound fuller. 

Arc has been tuned with an older iPad pro which fixed the the harsh treble issue i was having before.

Another feature request: Please give us the control over center channel, at least the volume control if not EQ. Sometimes, dialogues become quite and I have to raise the volume to hear them. Then things get super loud when action scene comes up. I dont like the sound quality I get with the night mode.

S
Userlevel 2
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There is an issue here that cannot be chalked up to preference or room size. Was the bass issue that was supposedly solved a result of a more revealing speaker or a less than ideal room? No. A major issue was found that got past all the intelligent folks at Sonos. 

Something isn’t right about the Arc. It sounds small & thin resulting in a harsh sound. It’s almost as if the polarity is off. I don’t want to exaggerate the issue either. It’s tolerable. It just doesn’t sound like a high end product. Sounds cheap. I’d like for Sonos to unbox a unit that they’re shipping out to see if something happened during manufacturing. 
 

 

J
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Drive - Netflix - 35:00 volume over 55% horrible bass popping sound. Under 30% sounds good.

 

on my B&W LCR8 / denon setuo it sounds superb all the way through the colum


Thank you for testing on other equipment!

Everyone should be testing on more than one piece of equipment before simply posting “this scene sounds terrible on the Arc” when half of these examples are probably issues with the source audio itself. All that does is muddy the waters and detract from the issue making it more difficult for Sonos to investigate.

P
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Drive - Netflix - 35:00 volume over 55% horrible bass popping sound. Under 30% sounds good.

 

on my B&W LCR8 / denon setuo it sounds superb all the way through the colum

C
Userlevel 3
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Reading the above, there is some irony here, we have a scene that is supposed to sound terrible, and the Arc reproduces these ‘terrible’ sounds and they sound ‘terrible’ ? I would argue that is not an ideal test.

In my last comment I said it doesn’t just happen there, did you miss that part? It is possible that the parabolic mics they use on the show give off that feedback and the Arc exaggerates it.

I would agree…. there are several possibilities here.  One is that there are recording imperfections that better quality speakers and dynamic separation reveal.  This was a big complaint when CD’s originally came out and exposed limitations of records.  The ‘hiss’ was gone and suddenly you could hear these things.  Also, with the “brighter” sound on the Arc maybe you can hear things that you can’t hear on the beam.

Another possibility is that there are still some sound reproduction/translation issues in the Arc that need to be adjusted.  Obviously with more speakers and the directional abilities a lot had to be re-done on the Arc.

Testing the same soundtrack at low volumes and higher volumes to see whether the imperfections are still there is one way to see.  If the exact same sounds are reproduced at all volumes it’s clearly in the recording or in the way the sound is being translated, which means it probably isn’t an imperfection in the hardware.

Also, I have no way of hearing what you are hearing.  I can hear popping/crackling in that part of the office but it may not be exactly what you are hearing.

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Reading the above, there is some irony here, we have a scene that is supposed to sound terrible, and the Arc reproduces these ‘terrible’ sounds and they sound ‘terrible’ ? I would argue that is not an ideal test.

In my last comment I said it doesn’t just happen there, did you miss that part? It is possible that the parabolic mics they use on the show give off that feedback and the Arc exaggerates it.

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

Reading the above, there is some irony here, we have a scene that is supposed to sound terrible, and the Arc reproduces these ‘terrible’ sounds and they sound ‘terrible’ ? I would argue that is not an ideal test.

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

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?

Yikes! I confirm. i get crackling sounds. sounds pretty bad. 

I submitted the form and diagnosis . It is terrible, Beam never did this. If bass and this doesn’t get straightened out by my return window this thing is going bye bye. Arc should cost $499 even that is pushing it. How can a product be released like this. Such a fail.

I just tried this…. I could hear it clearly at higher volume.  Then I lowered the volume quite a bit and got near the speaker… I could still hear some popping/crackling.

THEN I went in the bedroom and pulled up the Beam and tried it…. and I could still hear the crackling.  Granted, it was more difficult to hear because the Arc is producing a greater dynamic range, but it was clearly there.

THEN I pulled out my Bose headphones, plugged them into my iPad, and did the same thing… I could clearly hear the popping/crackling.

I think the popping and crackling to an extent is part of the original soundtrack.  The joke is that he’s screaming into the microphone enough the tax their PA equipment.

I’m thinking in this case maybe the arc is doing a terrific job reproducing popping and crackling of PA equipment in a soundtrack.

I will test this further but I hear this not just at that part, that is where it’s consistent and exaggerated. This happens all the time. Pop here pop there i feel like something is wrong always lol

C
Userlevel 3
Badge

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?

Yikes! I confirm. i get crackling sounds. sounds pretty bad. 

I submitted the form and diagnosis . It is terrible, Beam never did this. If bass and this doesn’t get straightened out by my return window this thing is going bye bye. Arc should cost $499 even that is pushing it. How can a product be released like this. Such a fail.

I just tried this…. I could hear it clearly at higher volume.  Then I lowered the volume quite a bit and got near the speaker… I could still hear some popping/crackling.

THEN I went in the bedroom and pulled up the Beam and tried it…. and I could still hear the crackling.  Granted, it was more difficult to hear because the Arc is producing a greater dynamic range, but it was clearly there.

THEN I pulled out my Bose headphones, plugged them into my iPad, and did the same thing… I could clearly hear the popping/crackling.

I think the popping and crackling to an extent is part of the original soundtrack.  The joke is that he’s screaming into the microphone enough the tax their PA equipment.

I’m thinking in this case maybe the arc is doing a terrific job reproducing popping and crackling of PA equipment in a soundtrack.

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

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?

Yikes! I confirm. i get crackling sounds. sounds pretty bad. 

I submitted the form and diagnosis . It is terrible, Beam never did this. If bass and this doesn’t get straightened out by my return window this thing is going bye bye. Arc should cost $499 even that is pushing it. How can a product be released like this. Such a fail.

R
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

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?

Yikes! I confirm. i get crackling sounds. sounds pretty bad. 

C
Userlevel 3
Badge

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?

A
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

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

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

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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