Exactly. The bass issue was fixed by Sonos but people still are complaining about it. When Sonos “fixes” the metallic sound “problem” many people will still hear it and never be satisfied.

Well…. people are still complaining about the bass b/c it’s not fixed. Not all the way. This isn’t a matter of perception.

Sonos has acknowledged they’re working on the metallic sound issue...soooo I don’t think that’s a matter of perception either.

It’s pretty simple:

Sonos said the bass issue has been fixed. But people are saying it hasn’t been fixed or, according to you, it hasn’t been fixed “all the way”. Therefore those people won’t ever be happy with the bass from the Arc. They have the option to live with it and pray for another “fix” or return it and get something they will be happy with.

In the future, IF Sonos says the metallic sound issue has been fixed, some people will say they still hear it and it hasn’t been fixed. Therefore those people won’t ever be happy with the sound from the Arc. They have the option to live with it and pray for another “fix” or return it and get something they will be happy with.

I think some people here should just return it and use their hard-earned money and get something they will be happy with so they can enjoy watching movies and listening to music again without complaining about it.

You enter a forum to give your opinion of a problem that does not affect you ... I would like you to have it and that at home you would have invested in more sonos speakers ... we would see if you say it so lightly, you would put it into practice. It is noted that for speaking from ignorance they do not charge in the forums.

@kenwk123 Read this whole thread and your comment re: hollow Hamilton on Disney+ is exactly how I’m feeling. I’ve had Arc + Sub + 2 SLs (Atmos-enabled via Sony TV) for 2 days and I’ve tuned 5x both with iPhone XS and iPad mini 2 to try and figure out why the orchestra doesn’t have fullness/richness and feeling of enveloping you with sounds.  There is some hissing with the “s” in different scenes as well which is slightly lessened by playing with treble.  Avengers Endgame wormhole battle scene sounds much better, dialogues are still slightly bright (Thor talking to Captain America, etc.) and I want to chalk it up to the recording of Hamilton.  BUT I had a Samsung HW-Q90R previously and that sounded MUCH better (returned b/c of sub disconnecting all the time) so I’m not convinced it’s just the way it was filmed as another user in this thread mentioned it may be. Any other workarounds that have helped improve your experience with specifically Hamilton? 

Well I returned mine but in general if u do true play don’t walk around the room. Instead try to wave the phone around where u r sitting when listening.  Also re:q90, u must adjust the 5ghz channel or risk interference with wireless sub.  Anyway good luck on trying to tune the Arc.  

@kenwk123 Thanks.  I did tune walking just around the sofa/sitting area but not sitting completely just from a seated position in one place for the 2nd part of the tuning.  I’ll try that next.  The Q90,  nothing worked for me with that sub issue and it was just too annoying to keep reconnecting.  Also had a different issue with Vudu going black screen everytime I used it.  I did notice a few screen “blackouts” yesterday while changing between inputs on the TV...wondering if it’s just a blip because of eARC (but that’s another thread to investigate).  (If you don’t mind sharing, what did you end up going with for sound and is Hamilton better now?! lol)

I have not purchased any soundbars yet as I am still waiting for Vizio and Klipsch bars.    In the mean time I am changing my entire stereo system so I have something to mess around with.

I purchased the ARC because of the terrific sound of the beam for music and movies. I really liked the highs that the beam produced and the clarity was unmatched by any of the other sound bars I have used. The ARC also sounds phenomenal but I have not yet been able to get the EQ setting correct. The highs still sound brilliant but I am not getting the warm tones in voices that I had with the beam. The only way to achieve this is to turn off true play on my ARC (always used it on the beam). The problem is that without Trueplay, the sound loses some “brilliance” in the high end and doesn’t sound as crisp. Hoping that a software update can help with Trueplay to keep the warmth in voices but also provide the super clean highs. 

@LittleStes I spent several hours today re-tuning to get a better sound from the Arc because of my specific obsession with wanting a warmer sound from Hamilton in Disney+.  A few things that immensely helped my sound today was moving the Arc to the front edge of my TV stand (more for Atmos-specific firing) and the way I did the Trueplay tuning...I followed Peter Pee’s reco on YouTube (“How to place the Sonos Arc for best Atmos effect”) towards the end he talks about how to hold the phone/iPad mic when tuning and following that really helped my sound be much fuller. I do hear some places where the vocals are still bright and a little bit of the “ssss” effect but none of that comes through when testing with Avengers Endgame wormhole battle scene or with Mad Max Fury Road on 4K Blu-Ray, just Hamilton (and I can more than live with that for now).   After re-tuning, I only use EQ to pull treble to -2 (probably more personal preference) and it sounds much better to me.  Now if only we could have a speaker-specific EQ...

@sillysharma thanks for the suggestion, I’ll check out that video and see if it helps!

So I originally thought that tuning from my couch only made this perfect but after a week of critical listening I noticed it was lacking in the low mids so I spent some more time over the weekend tuning and now have got it to a really good position where I actually have the EQ set to 0 and 0 and the sub also on 0. 
 

from what I can gather, if I go too close to the walls of the room, it seems to pick up too much bass and therefore drops the bass and low mids which is boosting the highs. 
 

I got the best result using an iPhone XS tuning my entire room (also going into the adjoining kitchen), does ding the last 25% or so of tuning time sitting on the couch but always staying around 3-4 feet away from the walls at all times. 

@Krishma M @Scott - Sonos ??????????????

Hi folks. We all know that some of us here are still experiencing problem with the Arc and our team are still working with all the reported issue and should be fixed via a future software update.
For now, if the S2 app and speakers are updated, try the basic steps like checking with different contents (TV, Music in Sonos app). If wall-mounted, does removing the speaker from the wall bracket and setting it on a credenza or table improve the issue? Is Trueplay configured on the Arc? Try to enable/disable Trueplay, if there would be any different. Is the bass EQ setting flat or adjusted in some way? If it’s all the same after playing around, try to reboot the Arc or reset to its factory settings. If the issue still persists, call 800-680-2345 from Monday to Friday from 10 am to 9 pm ET for further steps and maybe proceed with replacement as we all want you to enjoy your Sonos products.

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding.  We and the community are always here to help.

Hi Krishma,

First, thank you for periodically responding and making it clear this issue is still being worked on. I really hope that is truly the case. I worry that recent silence from people who have complained previously (like myself) is not taken as evidence the problem is fixed; so it’s important to hear these updates. 

Personally, I am still unsatisfied with the mid-range response of the arc, but I’ve been able to live with it after re-tuning trueplay using an iphone 6 (originally used a 10” iPad Pro (2019)) and only moving the phone slightly while staying seated in the primary listening position. I do not use the wall mount, and am in a medium-to-large space with flat standard-height ceiling. 

You mention reseting to factory settings, is there some reason to believe this is important? Do you have any way to provide more information about what the engineering team is trying, and when we might see a possible fix, even if just in beta?

Thanks.

To be vocal: I still find Arc to be too sibilant. I have started watching the movie “the Firm” on Netflix, and all “S” sounds are very harsh to my ears. I do hope that Sonos is working on this, and that the engineers keep an eye on this thread.

I appreciate the support staff looking at this thread, but I am starting to get worried that the responses are mostly “canned” responses. In fact, many of the support’s staff responses are rehashes of the same information over and over again. I don’t know what sort of visibility they have to the engineers, but the answers given to us here by the new support staff are not satisfactory. 
 

What I would really appreciate, and would go a great deal towards alleviating my concerns, is for someone from the Sonos engineering team (not support staff) to chime in here. Let us know, for example, that they have actually identified a problem. Let us know if they have a hunch on what the problem is. Let us know that some beta software is in the works to address this, etc. 

I say all this as a big Sonos fan. I love my Sonos devices, and have them around the house. I like to boast to my friends about my wonderful setup. But, with the way Sonos has been handling the rollout of Arc with its multiple problems (harsh sounds, sounds cut outs that people are reporting, LPCM), I am starting to feel disappointment. I have a lot of credit towards Sonos, but lately they have been doing little to regain and maintain it.

Spot on! I’ll really evaluate my next purchase of sonos products the next time. I’ve invested a lot but lately ive been worried how sonos is handeling things..or not handeling actually 

Does anyone notice an improvement with the new 12.0.6 update?

I’ve been keeping an eye on this thread in the hope I see something positive to encourage me to update my Beam with an Arc before I move away from Sonos.

I really don’t like the current sound signature of the Arc.

The strange part about this is that there are a tremendous number of Arc owners who love their Arc. Sound being such a personal experience is the only thing I can chalk it up to. My Arc setup is incredible “for me” and my spouse loves it as well. I’ve asked her about her Arc experience and in her mind and to her ears she is very impressed with the soundstage and overall performance. I do hope that you’re able to make the Arc work for you and the others who are unhappy with their purchase. Based on reviews and forums that I’ve read and followed those who are not pleased are definitely in the minority. 

I’m happy you’re happy.

Any updates this tinnyness is ridiculous 

Yeah we need an update.. ive been waiting 3 months for a fix  :(

Time to move on folks, I’ve resigned myself to the fact it is what it is and to look elsewhere.

If you’re unhappy with your Arc it may be best to sell it on now whilst it commands a higher price due to new units being in short supply.

I guess it’s possible later generations may be engineered differently but if any sound affecting software update was to be released regarding this issue for existing units it would have been done by now I reckon.  

I had taken my Arc to richersounds to compare against there Arc in the demo room, they both sounded the same to me and they guy in richersounds agreed with me that they did, he thought they both sounded very good. My advice is with anyone with this issue who is thinking about swapping for another, do not bother as i promise it will be exactly the same. I know content of certain things is worse than others and only got to test out for a couple of minutes in store. The tech guy in store said to me it was not tinny but just a bright sound profile and a lot of people prefer the bright sound profile and this is maybe why sonos has gone this way with this bar. To me it still sounds tinny however i do get what he means when comparing it to the LG SN11RG in store which sounded very warm and to my ears a lot better, however he said the Arc sounded a lot better than the LG & for this reason i am convinced Sonos WILL NOT rectify this issue as most think it sounds better like this. Obviously its annoying for us who are having this issue, i know room acoustics and different peoples ears will have a lot to play in just to what extreme we are having this issue, but i am just going to live with it for now, i have added x2 surround one SL’s and they seem to help slightly, but on standard content it is still really annoying, i do believe the issue may have gotten slightly better however over the past couple of months with the firmware updates but nothing to write home about, the issue is still there.

To summarise believe it or not this issue we are having, most people PREFER this sound profile and for this reason there will not be an update to FIX this issue, i do however believe in future updates that they will improve on this issue we are having to give a bit more of a neutral sound to make everyone happy, but due to probably 90% or over of people that are happy with this, not much is going to change. Of course this is just my opinion, but an opinion that makes sense in Sonos’s case anyway. My advice is if your un-happy with the sound profile of the arc, return it if you cant live with it because there will be no FIX for this issue.

Just to clarify i have this tinnyness issue and its really annoying but i think i am happy to live with it for now as it is not hurendous and who knows i might get used to it and like it (unlikely) but you never know. I have tried other soundbars and none on the market work quite as flawlessly as this ARC minus the tinniness.

I must admit in most viewing I have not heard this tinniness, I have had some tinny sound in some content but Im unsure if it was just the content.

The content I have have had this tinny sound is-

Point Break 4k, a scene when they was talking in the back of the van, sounds very tinny.

Netflix Dirty John, the woman's voices at times sound really tinny also, both these examples could be the content though.