I would also like to know if anything is being done about this.  It is a very common problem.  Surely boosting dialogue in the arc is a fix that can be done.  I still can't believe I have to keep adjusting volume on pretty much everything I watch.  Yes I have doe trueplay, yes I have reset the router and yes I have tried speech enhancement and night mode. 

There is also a thread in av forum with similar complaints.

I did make the issue tolerable with re-calibrating true play with an older ipad instead of my iphone X. The high treble and tinny sound did dissipate alot. But still wasn’t very impressed with the sound. However, After getting a pair of sonos 1 for surround and sub gen 3. It is freaking amazing, but very expensive. I’m not sure if Sonos is going to fix the issue. But from my experience from trying to recalibrate with true play a million gazliion times to try to fix the sound. I feel like it really depends on the device you use because of the mic from the phone. I could technically be wrong, I’m just speaking from user experience. I’ve tested with a bunch of different apple devices. 

Hi I recently upgraded to the Sonos Arc + Sub and after about a week with it I’m noticing the vocals (whenever someone is speaking) sounds distorted almost like it’s clipping and has a raspy sound to it. I noticed other people are reporting similar issues and are claiming it happens after setting up Trueplay but for me I noticed it before I even bothered setting Trueplay to begin with. 

I first noticed it watching stand up comedy on Amazon Prime it was instantly noticeable compared to other movies and cable tv I was watching and I thought maybe it was just because it was live stand up that’s just how it sounded but then I was watching Jumanji The Next Level and noticed it again and now I’m noticing it all the time.

For what it worth mentioning my tv is the Sony x900h and I have the Arc hooked up to the eArc HDMI 3 port. Everything seems to be connected correctly and set up correctly. 

Also after the first couple days randomly the sound cut out and then came back after about 10 seconds and it has done that twice now in total and oddly after that is when I started noticing this raspy vocal distortion. I even tried rebooting unplugging everything and it still sounds bad. To be honest I feel let down and considering returning it. 
 

Oddly For music so far everything sounds great especially the Sub too no issue (only tested through YouTube & Sonos Radio). I called Sonos and did a bunch of diagnostic tests and a factory reset as well and still noticing the sound. They said everything is correct and offered to replace my unit for free but I feel like it’s not a defect and it’s just how the soundbar is designed.

For example in Jumanji The Next Level in certain scenes whenever Kevin Hart is speaking i notice the sound but when other actors are I don’t it’s almost like it’s a frequency issue depending on the tone in the persons voice the speaker pumps out this harsh staticky background noise.

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. 

Don’t think there is anyone from the Sonos staff who is actually reading this.. 

 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.

Had my ARC for about 5 months. Have trueplayed with iPhone 11, iPhone 6s and older iPad.. still find the ARC to bright and lack of mid.. I also have a sub and rears. I sometimes find my Beam has a better overall sound upstairs. The ARC just sounds too Tin can sounding what ever I do. I had a Samsung Q90r before and that sounded much better, The sub wasn’t as good but the bar itself was much better.

@Krishma M any update on this 

I returned mine, but I will share something about “needing the sub.” As an experiment, we turned the sub down and move it to a different room, the Arc sounded better than without the sub hooked up (of course it lacked bass.) The Arc could be much better on it’s own if it was faked into thinking it has a sub. I’m not saying anyone is trying to make you add more product, but…

Many claim you MUST add the sub for the Arc to sound good, then you MUST add the rears for it to sound good. Heck, at that point your are well into a pretty decent a/v component set up, even a low end set up would sound as good or maybe better. I will say that the Sonos sub is a winner, the Arc not so much for the price. 

Add me to the list of people with this problem.

New Sonos owner and not impressed, dialog in particular sounds terrible, too much emphasis on “S” sounds so a person can say.

“Sssonosss is sstill sssounding hissssy on viocessss”.

Have the full set, Arc sub, and 2x OneSL but my TV speaker actually reproduces voice more cleanly, why bother with this product when its so poor?

I sold it, and bought a pair of B&W 702 S2 .. sounds a bit better. thanks Sonos for the support!

Im looking at selling my Sonos setup. just getting fed up with the poor sound of the ARC, yes the sub is great and the rears are very active ( we do need some upfiring speakers tho!) The ARC just lacks that immersive feeling for me and its just so tinny sounding still.. I had a Samsung q90r before and thats on a different level when watching movies...

Now that’s a heck of a step up!

Are people still getting this issue? What levels of EQ settings are you all setting to get rid of the treble harshness-6 -7

@Krishma M Do you know if this issue is still being looked into by Sonos Tech? Thanks

So nothing new?

@Krishma M Can you give us an update on this long on going issue with the Sonos Arc?

Is there no answer to the Arc sound quality from Sonos? I received my Arc 7 days ago and am very disappointed with the harsh, tinny sound especially noticeable on TV speech. Some things actually sound better on the internal speakers of the LG TV. The only real improvement is in the bass which works well on music and Netflix films. For this amount of money I expected a lot more and its going to be returned to Sonos next week if I don’t find an answer.

Just wanted to briefly add my experience with my new Arc.

After the first calibrations with my iphone 11 pro max I got the hollow metallic sound everyone is complaining of. I was thinking of returning it.

Next, after reading this thread, I tried to calibrate the Arc in a different way. 
Instead of walking around the whole room with my iphone, I tried to focus only in the immediate vicinity of the listening seated position, walking away from it only for more or less of one meter and rotating my iphone in a path like the 8 number. 
The sound improved a lot with trueplay enabled. I added 3 notches to bass and removed 2 notches from treble. 

Now I’m happy with my Arc. Full and warm sound ;-)

Tgx

Hi tgx (and all),

I recently got the Arc and was at first in love with it which running through the normal test stuff - gaming, 4K movies etc. it was great. Got the sub to go with it the next day. Awesome. 
 

Then i started watching normal stuff like cable TV and other stuff like Netflix at regular volume and the sound stage completely fell apart like the folks here are complaining about. Metallic, hollow, tinny etc. I tried night mode, voice enhancer, adjusting treble and bass, and truplay. 

While it was good at the higher “demoing my new system” volume it was actually shockingly bad at anything else. I own several Sonos speakers - i love they sound the produce even straight out the box before even touching the EQ and at all volumes. 

One major issue i see is not having any sound modes to choose from. I feel like a standard forced “Stereo” or “Stereo 2X” would really help for just watching standard tv. TV typically has horrible results with any soundbars that lack a simple forced stereo mode. There was way too much sound coming out of the center channel only and silly stuff like commercials bouncing sound all over the room - like fake 5.1 simulation. Constantly adjusting the volume even with night mode enabled.
 

@tgx how has the bar done with normal cable tv viewing after your new true play tuning? If not Have you tried anything like YouTube TV or Hulu? 

In the end I returned mine ( and sub)with a very heavy heart as i what wanted a Sonos soundbar for years, then waited a good 2 years after that for the enviable upgrade (the Arc) to launch. 

couldn’t have been more disappointed…
 

I suppose the soundbar works best with dolby encoded sources. With pure stereo sources the performance is good but not exceptional.

I think a proper trueplay calibration is crucial for the Arc to sound good. 

A proper Equalization feature is however sorely needed so that you could shape the sound according to your own personal testes. I’m speaking of multiple eq bands or parametric eq. Bass and treble controls  are not enough.

Tgx

I’ve been a huge Sonos fan and finally figured out how to get Atmos hooked up to my older TV using an aftermarket device. With that said I am also extremely disappointed with the tinny sound produced by the ARC. I have the sub along with ones for the surround. I also added fives in the front left and right that I group when listening to music. That sounds amazing… but as I said earlier watching normal TV is horrible. My TV speakers sound better than that. I am seriously consider returning everything and going back to an old fashion amp and wired speakers. Sonos you have a huge fan that’s extremely disappointed!!!!!

I’ve been a huge Sonos fan and finally figured out how to get Atmos hooked up to my older TV using an aftermarket device. With that said I am also extremely disappointed with the tinny sound produced by the ARC. I have the sub along with ones for the surround. I also added fives in the front left and right that I group when listening to music. That sounds amazing… but as I said earlier watching normal TV is horrible. My TV speakers sound better than that. I am seriously consider returning everything and going back to an old fashion amp and wired speakers. Sonos you have a huge fan that’s extremely disappointed!!!!!

Okay so I just tried a few things that really helped with the trueplay experience. YOU MUST take your case off and make sure all windows are closed and only go from head height to waist height not to the roof and to your feet and try and limit the area you walk around to a smaller space around your sitting area. This made it sound soooo much better!

Hope any of this helps you guys

I just purchased my first Sonos products. Arc and 2 One SL’s. I was very excited unboxing these lovely speakers. Such attention to detail in all regards. Very Apple! Set up was fairly straightforward. Used Trueplay. I am a HiFi nut and have a good idea about sound and relevant gear so it was a good experience so far. Watched a couple of TV shows and was a little disappointed with the tinny speech. Then I turned to some movies and series on Netflix and it all went pear shaped. The dialog was so soft I had to increase the volume ...but then the music or special effects came on and i was blasted out of my seat by the extreme volume. Movie after movie (and shows) all do the same thing.

I recalibrated the system. Moved speakers. Changed settings on my Apple TV 4K. No difference. Tinny and super quiet dialog. 

Looks like I am not alone with this. Complaints are all over the internet. So what’s with the overwhelming positive reviews by the press and review sites with not a single one picking up on the issues???

I will give it one more try but if it does not improve greatly its all going back. I am stunned that with this many complaints Sonos is not commenting or coming out with any fixes. Looks like no more Sonos for me.

@mauiartist Is your TV equipped with eARC? What type of audio are you getting from the Arc?