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Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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M
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So I had purchasesd the Arc the first time from Amazon. I noticed I was having an issue with sound from the center channel. I decided to buy another one from bestbuy and see if I had the same problem. Turns out the one from bestbuy worked great. Noticeable difference. I sent the Amazon order back. In the beginning after getting the one from bestbuy I noticed that the dialog was low on some movies. I found that if I ran trueplay and focused on the back of the room near my seating position and stayed away from the soundbar I could hear a noticeable difference in the dialog from the center. I also noticed thst trueplay worked much better using my iPhone 6s over the iPad. I attribute thst to the 2 microphones on the iPad. So if sonos wants to replace it... I would definitely let them. I think there was some units that had a hardware issue. Then run trueplay on the replacement the way I suggested. 

 Hey I purchased mine from Amazon as well do you experience this harsh staticky vocal sound that I’m explaining? My worry is replacing it for nothing and it’s just issue across them all. Today is my last day to return on Amazon and get refund or I can get a replacement from Sonos. They told me it’s 1 year warranty.

C
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I true played twice using an iPhone X, the first time I had some setup issues with the arc so decided to redo whilst ensuring to wave above the arc and this yielded a massively better result. Overall sound is more than satisfactory and miles ahead of the beam, though curiously deactivating the sub makes the arc sound pretty terrible, so not sure what this is about as its phenomenal with sub and surrounds

I commented about that on my dedicated thread about TruePlay, https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/trueplay-tuning-a-variety-of-speakers-playbar-arc-beam-with-newer-iphones-results-in-tinny-sound-6843248

 

I agree that waving the affected iPhones directly over the Arc or esp. the side tweeters results in making the TruePlay tuning sound a bit better, but that’s just a workaround of forcing the iPhone to sample a bunch of treble from small tweeters. It compromises the overall fidelity of TruePlay tuning and still doesn’t sound as “correct” as TruePlay tuning with an unaffected device like a 2nd gen iPad Pro.

Maybe so, obviously I haven’t tried on an older device, but I can’t say I’m hearing an overly ‘bright’ midrange deficient presentation in any way, which perhaps is more worrying; as surely points to a hardware problem on certain batches?

No, I don’t think it indicates a batched problem. If one is correctly following the TruePlay tuning instructions, you aren’t supposed to wave the phone directly above the Arc. When you do so above or to the sides of the sound bar, you are basically aiming the microphone at treble-only tweeters that generate surround effects. That’s basically just counteracting and masking the newer iPhone microphones attempting to filter out treble.

 

I tried this process with an affected phone and can confirm, purposely bringing the mic closer to the tweeters during the TruePlay process does get rid of some of the bright tinny nature, but it’s still not the same as the TruePlay improvements you get with TruePlay tuning using one of the unaffected devices.

 

In your situation, I'd probably suggest turning off TruePlay and just using the "balance surrounds” feature to equalize, rather than the unscientific approach of forcing TruePlay to listen to some treble up close.

S
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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...

C
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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.

 

P
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I have been trying to organise a return of my arc for over a week. I have emailed them 3 times to chase it - twice getting a generic response asking if they have solved the problem to my satisfaction (with no other reply or action) and once apologising saying the ‘return has been stuck in the system’ and that they will be in touch to tell me how to proceed with the return (that was 3 days ago). 

I get things are bit tougher with COVID but this seems a bit odd doesn’t it ???

I also returned a sub to them, which was received by them at the end of June but I am still waiting for a refund. I have emailed them and have had no response. Is their customer service usually this bad???

 

IndustrialEcho
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I have been trying to organise a return of my arc for over a week. I have emailed them 3 times to chase it - twice getting a generic response asking if they have solved the problem to my satisfaction (with no other reply or action) and once apologising saying the ‘return has been stuck in the system’ and that they will be in touch to tell me how to proceed with the return (that was 3 days ago). 

I get things are bit tougher with COVID but this seems a bit odd doesn’t it ???

I also returned a sub to them, which was received by them at the end of June but I am still waiting for a refund. I have emailed them and have had no response. Is their customer service usually this bad???

 

I tried too to no avail. I thought I could chat to return it, but no and then they said go online, but that did not work. Just call and get ready to be on hold for a loooong time :/

Good luck. I just brought mine to UPS ….

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

G
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So I spoke to Sonos support who basically said the diagnostic does not show any issue and when I am home I can record a video for them. Not sure what my iPhone microphone will offer them that my ears have not already told them. 

I asked if they can run my serial number to see if they have any known issues with the batch. They told me they have no know issues with the Arc so running the serial would not do anything. So that threw me though a loop and I queried without much luck. 

Bit irritated! 

I am guessing that is because the Arc is likely tuned as Sonos believes it should be. This isn’t like the bass issue - the Arc was purposefully tuned this way. They don’t view anything wrong with it. My guess is people are just going to have to return their devices if they don’t like the sound (which I plan to do).

A
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Interesting I can’t listen now as it’s late but intrigued o compare in the morning! 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hXBHZAPA5uQi2H3wpYD8gHJkS5IwCcVL/view?usp=drivesdk
 

here is the drive movie one. I expect you to venmo me for ruining my newtflix algorithm;) haha

 

oh well This one I did turn up higher had to disable limit 60 percent I had. I can’t hear anything awful the bass like sounds a bit weird like clubby. But in the sonos one it sounded similar. 
I do agree it’s not the strongest bass or like as thumpy as you’d like wirh this type of club music.  But it certainly doesn’t sound like shit 

 

That’s so not how this song should sound like lol. I do listen to this song quite often ( Being an Indian). Balance is off by miles. But hey, this is a $799 soundbar that’s not made for Music. So it’s fine.

The netflix song you mean? I mean obviously this is the first time I’ve heard this song but having the “balance off” doesn’t mean the speaker is broken. If you can give me the name of the song I can try playing it on my sonos one to check “what it is supposed to sound like” then again, maybe to you the sonos one is also not good? Not sure. I do have a homepod but I boxed it since I’m gifting it.

 

I didn’t love the homepod music performance as I said before, but I recognize the bass is  punchier.

The song is called Makhna. Like you said, speaker doesn’t have to be “broken” to have the balance off. It just indicates how poor and unfaithful the sound reproduction is.
 

Never said Sonos Ones are bad, so don’t put words in my mouth for the sake of argument. They are actually pretty good, just a tad bright for me. I already had a HomePod with 360 degrees sound, so I couldn’t justify keeping them only for music.

Anyway-  Just grab any decent pair of headphones/earphones and listen to the song.

having said this, I think I am gonna sign off from the thread now. It’s pretty clear you love your Arc while I think it’s bad at that price. No point in proving anything to anyone further. 

To those who are having issues, I hope Sonos really solves them unlike the muddy bass problem where they said they are still working on the issue and now just declared out of nowhere that there’s no problem now without pushing any update.

J

Hi folks. The issue with the muddy or bottoming out bass from the Arc in a stand-alone configuration (no satellites or Sub) is no longer occurring. If your system is up to date and still the same issue we need to troubleshoot as normal. I’d suggest checking with the content (TV, Music in Sonos app) if it’s the same. 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 EST for further steps and resolution. We’re always here to help. Thanks for the patience! 

Hi @Krishma M , can you please provide some detailed information about the fix for the mentioned issue?

What firmware or software upgrade "corrected" the bass and metallic issues?

There are any relations with Trueplay?

Hope you can clarify the community about your statement.

 Thanks and best regards

 

J
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So.... The question... Are all arc's affected, and is it just that some people don't mind or hear it (hard to believe) or are there units that simply sound better than other?

I am contemplating whether to get the arc or not, but I am unsure right now…

The fact that there is no more feedback from Sonos is worrisome to say the least, it makes me believe they're letting it be as it is, which means probably no arc for me.… 

This is a problem, I have a beam with sub right now (and two one's as rears, and a five gen2 in the kitchen) but the beam just doesn't really does it for me in the music department. With  the Arc now no longer being an option, there is no real alternative from Sonos right now.... 

This might mean i'd might have to say goodbye to Sonos altogether, I don't think there will be another soundbar added to the product line anytime soon....

 

 

 


@MJAhoud It is probably a combination of people just hearing things differently and/or being more sensitive to certain things. When you go shopping for components there are speakers and amps/receivers that can be bright or warm (why a lot of people liked tube amps), my component system had a warm receiver and warm speakers, it took a lot of shopping and some returning (internet was in it’s infancy then). Not every person is the same. There is a well know speaker company where the running joke used to be “No highs, no lows, it must be ****.”
 

The Arc is marketed as a sound bar for movies and part (if you wish) of a home theater system, it does that fairly well. It is not a full blown stereo meant to play a dance party. We have all become used to having a product do everything good (not great) that many become frustrated when something doesn’t do everything great and only does one thing well, in this case movies/tv. I could see the Arc being designed to be brighter in order to do dialog in movies. Also a lot of people just don’t know any better and will live with the hot new thing, you see this with certain brands of automobiles.
 

Either Sonos designed the Arc to be bright/harsh, the Arc sounded fine to them and they don’t see a problem, they realize there is a problem that affects a certain group of people and they don’t know how to fix it, or they just don’t care that a minority are bothered by it. They did however release a product with a bass issue, which they later fixed. A broader EQ may solve the problem for a majority of the minority that are complaining about harsh treble. Only being able to adjust the bass and treble is some pre-2000 car stereo crap.

I bet three 5’s, two 1’s, and a sub would be a outstanding all around 5.1 and music set up, but it’s not really possible or cost effective, and at that point you may as well go wired. 

I drug two of my speakers and sub out to use for music and my gf is annoyed that they are “cluttering up” the room. lol  

I’m not going to throw Sonos under the bus, the Arc (with sub) delivers what it is supposed to with tv/video, I won’t tell someone not to get one, I’m just really sensitive to bright/harsh highs. Heck, it’s probably just fine for music for most people! Look at all, the people running around with the earbuds that come with your phone and those things sound pretty lousy.  It does a lot of things well and is lower profile, better than tv speakers by far, if it is worth the price is subjective. I’ll admit, it IS the best looking soundbar out there and it does work.

A
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I true played twice using an iPhone X, the first time I had some setup issues with the arc so decided to redo whilst ensuring to wave above the arc and this yielded a massively better result. Overall sound is more than satisfactory and miles ahead of the beam, though curiously deactivating the sub makes the arc sound pretty terrible, so not sure what this is about as its phenomenal with sub and surrounds

I commented about that on my dedicated thread about TruePlay, https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/trueplay-tuning-a-variety-of-speakers-playbar-arc-beam-with-newer-iphones-results-in-tinny-sound-6843248

 

I agree that waving the affected iPhones directly over the Arc or esp. the side tweeters results in making the TruePlay tuning sound a bit better, but that’s just a workaround of forcing the iPhone to sample a bunch of treble from small tweeters. It compromises the overall fidelity of TruePlay tuning and still doesn’t sound as “correct” as TruePlay tuning with an unaffected device like a 2nd gen iPad Pro.

Maybe so, obviously I haven’t tried on an older device, but I can’t say I’m hearing an overly ‘bright’ midrange deficient presentation in any way, which perhaps is more worrying; as surely points to a hardware problem on certain batches?

No, I don’t think it indicates a batched problem. If one is correctly following the TruePlay tuning instructions, you aren’t supposed to wave the phone directly above the Arc. When you do so above or to the sides of the sound bar, you are basically aiming the microphone at treble-only tweeters that generate surround effects. That’s basically just counteracting and masking the newer iPhone microphones attempting to filter out treble.

 

I tried this process with an affected phone and can confirm, purposely bringing the mic closer to the tweeters during the TruePlay process does get rid of some of the bright tinny nature, but it’s still not the same as the TruePlay improvements you get with TruePlay tuning using one of the unaffected devices.

 

In your situation, I'd probably suggest turning off TruePlay and just using the "balance surrounds” feature to equalize, rather than the unscientific approach of forcing TruePlay to listen to some treble up close.

I have tried turning off trueplay and balancing as you suggest, but it always sounds massively better with it active. By saying waving above arc, I meant for a brief time during the process, perhaps 5 seconds or so

A
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Watched Lord of the Rings (Fellowship) last night and it was horrible. Piercing. Couldn’t hear voices. 
 

Haven’t returned my quite yet. Waiting on the update.

Return it. It’s crap. Will never work for you. 
Mine, on the other hand has been fantastic and it’s no issues with connectivity or Atmos content. 
You’re a very small minority of unhappy buyers. The Arc continues to be sold out everywhere with few complaints. Not sure exactly what the expectation was but if you want it to sound like a $40,000 home theatre set up then start saving your money to buy a $40,000 home theatre. 

L
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Just got Bose 500 soundbar with the sub 500 for the same price as Arc. There’s no competition whatsoever. Music is miles better, fuller dialogues and sub-bass is awesome, thanks to the sub (compact sub that doesn’t overpower apartment and annoys neighbors). Movies and music both shine. Those who live in apartments and don’t want a Sonos sub, and having sound quality issues could consider this option. ONLY if you don’t care about Atmos. 


I sold my 500 over the weekend and replaced it with an Arc. Compared to the Bose, the Arc has a massive soundstage, which was a sore point that always used to bug me with the 500. Everything was tightly localised to under my TV. The bass response comparing bars alone is night and day with the Arc. Everyone has different taste preferences, so good to hear you are enjoying your setup.

In regards to the metallic sound, I had read this thread extensively before purchasing the Arc. Day one I had exactly what has been described above. Harsh treble, thin midrange and weak bass. I Trueplayed the bar using my 3 year old iPhone X. Admittedly, it has the usual ‘pocket fluff’ buildup in the mic.

The next morning I re-ran Trueplay with a 2018 iPad Pro (3rd gen 12.9”). The difference is remarkable. No harsh sibilance and midrange is full again. Previously, I was running -7 treble and noticed all of the ‘metallic sound’ comments. Now, the bar is at 0 Treble and -3 Bass sounding wonderful. 

There is definitely something odd going on with device specific Trueplay. Mic ports tend to fill with dust which would invariably lower treble response measurements. 

 

 

I also run trueplay with an iPhone SE original at first and then thought I would try my iPad pro 11” (1st generation) both true plays seemed the same to my ears. I don’t actually notice this harshness, I have listened to some content and voices have sounded bright, but I put that down to the content as most content I listen to is fine.

I run treble a -3, just because in general the soundbar sounds slightly brighter than my previous soundbar.

K
Userlevel 2

Just a follow-up to my last comment. I have noticed that the dialog sounds more metallic when playing a movie in Atmos. It's also more pronounced on certain apps. For instance. Disney + has a really big problem with low audio. It sounds like they are over compressing the audio. So I have to turn the volume up +10 more than on other apps. There is a big difference in the dialog with too much treble when playing a Disney + Marvel or Star Wars movie in Atmos. There is still a small treble problem when playing the same movie in Dolby Digital plus, without atmos. The metallic sound is reduced when not using Atmos. So far the majority of audio problems seem to be from certain apps, especially disney +.

I'm curious what streaming apps are people in this thread using to test the Arc? 

P
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This is such a joke people are bored of posting now on here and Sonos will probably just accept everyone is putting up with it… we need updates!

S
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@oriboaz  btw before this update: I played that scene you talked about on the arc and then airplayed to a homepod. I think you shouldnt point at one content to blame. This is because this Sssss could be mic related. On the homepod I can clearly hear the Sssssss as well when she speaks. I think the reason the Arc shows more of an issue there is because it goes higher frequencies so it can be a bit harsh but I need to try it again after this update. Update and retune and lets see

P
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I’m not sure if my opinion would be much different if I hadn’t come from Samsung Q90r. Which had its own issues in regards to speakers disconnects and poor software support, but comparing the sound quality of that and I mean the general overall sound not just the atmos, that sounded so so much better, was great sounding what ever you played. So having to pay a lot more to get a full Sonos system I would expect this to be just as good if not better than the Samsung in sound quality, that’s why I have such an issue with the sound from the ARC. I can’t believe Sonos would just release a product like this and that’s how it’s meant to sound.

 

 

 

 

Do you have the full 5.1 setup or just the Arc? This is interesting since I saw someone on reddit saying they liked the full 5.1 Arc more than q90r

I used to own the Samsung n950. While the soundbar sounded great by itself, the surrounds and the sub sounded dead when listening to non-Atmos movies. I don’t have this problem with my Sonos 5.1 system.

O
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I think there are several problems:

  1. Trueplay is buggy. Different devices give wildly different results. Older iPhones are generally better. However, even with an older iPhone, I need to do several rounds of Trueplay before I get something that doesn’t sound truly horrendous. 
  2. The Arc’s sound profile puts an emphasis on high frequencies, which makes some shows very harsh on S sounds. This is quite bothersome. 
  3. I suspect that the mid-range is somewhat de-emphasized, especially with the pronounced high frequencies. 
  4. EQ settings are very blunt; the treble adjustment mainly makes the sound muffled when set to a negative value.

Having said the above, well-mixed shows or movies can actually sound good. I watched Baby Driver and enjoyed the sound very much. However, many TV shows are not as well mixed, which causes problems. The worst offender, for me, was Locke & Key, episode 4, at the two minute mark. It's just an SSS fest. 
 

I must remark that Arc doesn’t create SSS sounds. They are audible on other speakers. It’s just that it exaggerates them. 
 

I am eagerly waiting for a fix. I firmly believe it’s a software issue, and I have faith it will be fixed.  I just hope it will be sooner rather than later. I, too, would like to have some updates from Sonos. For instance, someone like Scott could chime in again and let us know that Sonos is acknowledging there is an issue and that they are actively working on a fix. 

S
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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.

S

While searching the community posts for some indication of the angle of the upward firing speakers on the Arc (anybody know if it’s 15 or 20 degrees off the vertical?), I see people are complaining about tinny sound from their Arc. I found this on YouTube which suggests there is an issue using certain models of iPhone with Trueplay when calibrating your system...

 

N
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@sebas1509 I had the Bose ST300 bundle. I auditioned both the playbar and Bose when I initially bought Bose. Wide Soundstage and vocals of Bose was not match for Playbar. I found playbar to be more musical than Bose, however for movies and TV, my ears found Bose to be much better. Additionally the Airplay, HDMI and a great price for Bose was icing on the cake.

And if I understand your comment you say the Sonos Arc is superior than the Bose ST300 bundle you previously had? I think this is the predecessor to the Bose 700, correct me if I am wrong.

 

Thats correct, however both share the same sound profile and drivers. The difference between the two is mostly about the addition of Voice assistants on the Soundbar 700 and support of HDMI 2.1. Additionally they took away HDMI input from Bose Soundbar 700. It was available on ST 300. 

M
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Are you listening, Sonos?

PS: I submitted my diagnostics a long time ago.

No, they are not listening. It’s quite sad :(

A
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I have been trying to organise a return of my arc for over a week. I have emailed them 3 times to chase it - twice getting a generic response asking if they have solved the problem to my satisfaction (with no other reply or action) and once apologising saying the ‘return has been stuck in the system’ and that they will be in touch to tell me how to proceed with the return (that was 3 days ago). 

I get things are bit tougher with COVID but this seems a bit odd doesn’t it ???

I also returned a sub to them, which was received by them at the end of June but I am still waiting for a refund. I have emailed them and have had no response. Is their customer service usually this bad???

 

I tried too to no avail. I thought I could chat to return it, but no and then they said go online, but that did not work. Just call and get ready to be on hold for a loooong time :/

Good luck. I just brought mine to UPS ….

It’s a joke - I have been trying to sort an exchange THEY agreed since last Monday 6th July. It asked if I wanted an advance delivery and to leave card details and I would have it within 5 working days! Monday 12th still heard nothing so chased them and it was lost in the system apparently but still heard nothing and if it’s not hear by Monday it will be over 14days and they will bill be for a second Arc as you only have 14days to return since raising the exchange it’s a joke this company has gone from hero to zero in about 6 weeks… SONOS READ THIS - YOU SOLD ME SOME JUNK - YOU ACKNOWLEDGES IT WAS JUNK NOW FOLLOW THROUGH AND REPLACE IT WITHOUT ME BEING OUT OF POCKET FOR YOUR MISTAKE!!!

Just found out that they have also stopped monitoring support@sonos.com as I am dealing with my return. Only option is to call them and wait hours hoping somebody would pick up. One of the WORST support I have dealt with. Laying off majority of support staff after releasing much anticipated product in the history of the company speaks a lot.

D
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@Krishma M @Scott - Sonos @Ryan S 

Krishma, Scott, we didn't seem to get a reply from our last comment. Could you please find out for us if this metallic sound issue is likely to be fixed anytime soon or even at all? The bass issue was fixed very promptly after it was reported and this is certainly not the case for this issue, i understand different problems can take longer to rectify, but i want to know if im pointlessly hanging onto my arc in the hope of a fix and it never comes or is not expected for months, my return window is soon about to end so a prompt response would be great.

i understand it may take some time to chase this with the relevant people but on behalf of everyone with this issue we would really appreciate if you could find out what is going on. This soundbar does not sound right to me at all.

Thanks.

 

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

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