Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128955 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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phollin2

Lyricist III

I first reported mine as faulty/unsatisfactory at the end of June and I am still waiting for Sonos to resolve this. They offered to set up an exchange but requested some information from me. I have sent this twice and on both occasions, they have just sent me a generic email response asking if they have resolved my case to my satisfaction… no actual response for 3 days.

Unfortunately, I am highly invested into sonos so not as simple as just getting a refund.

Think they are going to lose customers over this and end up with lots of returns.

Sort it out sonos. Not a happy customer!!!.

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dmlear57

Trending Lyricist I

The video is very interesting. It’s a bit frustrationg to spend $800 on a product that doesn’t work as advertised and the fix is to buy another another $700 product????

I don’t doubt the sub is a nice product but one reason I spent more on the Arc was to not have to buy a sub.

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phollin2

Lyricist III

The video is very interesting. It’s a bit frustrationg to spend $800 on a product that doesn’t work as advertised and the fix is to buy another another $700 product????

I don’t doubt the sub is a nice product but one reason I spent more on the Arc was to not have to buy a sub.

Don’t think the sub fixes it. I have a sub and my arc sounds terrible

V

vtjt

Lyricist III

The video is very interesting. It’s a bit frustrationg to spend $800 on a product that doesn’t work as advertised and the fix is to buy another another $700 product????

I don’t doubt the sub is a nice product but one reason I spent more on the Arc was to not have to buy a sub.

That wasn’t my takeaway from the video… my takeaway was to say that generally, for a soundbar, it seems handles bass well. That’s what my ears hear. It has some DSP issues at particular frequencies, but obviously software/Trueplay is CAPABLE of correcting them… just needs some software tweaks to do so. Same applies on the treble side.

K

knafets

Lyricist III

For testing purposes I just unplugged my arc and watch some tv using the (mediocre) built in tv speakers. I’m astonished what a relief this is for my ears. No more bright piercing voices.

just stunned how bad the arc is.…

I wanted to wait for a software updated but right now I feel like I just want to get rid of this thing ASAP.

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vtjt

Lyricist III

For testing purposes I just unplugged my arc and watch some tv using the (mediocre) built in tv speakers. I’m astonished what a relief this is for my ears. No more bright piercing voices.

just stunned how bad the arc is....

Try retuning with a different device, preferably an older one, if you can. Having updated the Arc software and retuned with an older device, the harshness is pretty much gone. I mean there is still some favoring of treble frequencies in spots, but nothing like before. Generally it sounds good to an unpicky ear. If you are saying your TV speakers sound better, you might need to get your Arc replaced.

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arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

For testing purposes I just unplugged my arc and watch some tv using the (mediocre) built in tv speakers. I’m astonished what a relief this is for my ears. No more bright piercing voices.

just stunned how bad the arc is....

Try retuning with a different device, preferably an older one, if you can. Having updated the Arc software and retuned with an older device, the harshness is pretty much gone. I mean there is still some favoring of treble frequencies in spots, but nothing like before. Generally it sounds good to an unpicky ear. If you are saying your TV speakers sound better, you might need to get your Arc replaced.

I did all that you said. Treble did go way, but the dialogues were unchanged. My TV speakers have the same dialogue quality. can’t tell the difference. You would think a soundbar with a dedicated center channel would have much better vocals, but no. I don’t think the airplay functionality and lack of few wires is worth $799.Good luck.

K

knafets

Lyricist III

For testing purposes I just unplugged my arc and watch some tv using the (mediocre) built in tv speakers. I’m astonished what a relief this is for my ears. No more bright piercing voices.

just stunned how bad the arc is....

Try retuning with a different device, preferably an older one, if you can. Having updated the Arc software and retuned with an older device, the harshness is pretty much gone. I mean there is still some favoring of treble frequencies in spots, but nothing like before. Generally it sounds good to an unpicky ear. If you are saying your TV speakers sound better, you might need to get your Arc replaced.

I did all that you said. Treble did go way, but the dialogues were unchanged. My TV speakers have the same dialogue quality. can’t tell the difference. You would think a soundbar with a dedicated center channel would have much better vocals, but no. I don’t think the airplay functionally and lack of few wires is worth $799.Good luck.

exactly this. I just wanted to reply with exactly the same story.

ps I tuned with an iPhone 7

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phollin2

Lyricist III

For testing purposes I just unplugged my arc and watch some tv using the (mediocre) built in tv speakers. I’m astonished what a relief this is for my ears. No more bright piercing voices.

just stunned how bad the arc is.…

I wanted to wait for a software updated but right now I feel like I just want to get rid of this thing ASAP.

This is exactly my experience. It’s now been disconnected and I’ll sit patiently with my £800 ornament whilst I wait for Sonos to get back to me. What a mess!!

K

knafets

Lyricist III

@arpatil1 What are you’re plans? I am looking at the Bose soundbar 700

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