Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128965 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?

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

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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.

Show previous replies

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kenwk123

Lyricist III

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?

Are there more who had the courage to send back and dare to buy a new Arc? is that the way to solve it maybe I should look into it.

I sent mine back with 5 days to go. Sticking with my Playbar for now, but I just ordered a B&O Beosound Stage. From reviews I've read everyone seems to really love it. Quite pricey though.

Cool let me know how u like the B&O. Almost purchased one but afraid no rear surround so movies might not be immersive enough for me.

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GReeeeN

Trending Lyricist I

why has this thread been marked as “Answered” when the problem still very much exists?

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Alberta Beagle

Prominent Collaborator I

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?

Are there more who had the courage to send back and dare to buy a new Arc? is that the way to solve it maybe I should look into it.

I sent mine back with 5 days to go. Sticking with my Playbar for now, but I just ordered a B&O Beosound Stage. From reviews I've read everyone seems to really love it. Quite pricey though.

Will be interesting to see how it fares to current top tier soundbars. My only concern is that it favors wall-mount vs TV stand.

No support for DTS-X and from what I can see mediocre reviews. They say it doesn’t need a sub and hopefully it doesn’t because there isn’t an option to add one. $2250 CDN is major hooch for a sound bar. I hope it works for you and I can understand some people’s frustration with the ARC. Not sure what the right answer is for those who are unhappy. There are thousands of positive reviews of the ARC from the general public, most of the professional reviewers seem to like it. Peter Pee on YouTube seems to like it although admittedly it’s not perfect. I believe there will be more updates that will make the ARC what it was meant to be. I’ve also read that the Playbar had a rocky start when it was introduced. It appears Sonos work to make it better worked. I’m a first time Sonos owner. I want to add more Sonos equipment to my home but I will admit that is on hold for now. My setup of the ARC, Gen 3 sub (just added it yesterday after returning my Gen 2 to Best Buy) and two one SL’s is impressive as it sits. Had some friends over yesterday and they were very impressed with what they heard out of this set up. I admit I had a higher expectation of Sonos and while I am impressed I expect better and believe it will be improved on.

Beagle

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Danio1137

This review may have already been posted here but one more but honest. I'm surprised by the early reviews that did not notice anything, probably paid by sonos and I will always be critical in the future. Check out this video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZxAC4BdTE&feature=youtu.be

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bonedaddy

Trending Lyricist I

I've got my fingers crossed on the B&O Stage. You're right no sub or DTX-T, but at least it has DTX which Sonos can't seem to provide. After conversing with others who have heard both I'm pretty confident it will sound much better than either the Playbar or Arc with subs. We'll see.

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BenR

Lyricist III

Ok, third post on this thread. I finally sat down and re-tuned with an iPhone 6 running 12.0.2 (previously ipad pro 11” and iPad Air 2). I also decided to just sit on the couch and wave the phone around a bit rather than walk around.

This is the first time I feel like the life wasn’t sucked out of the sound, and there is now some ok midrange. I can actually listen to music without it being distracting. I’ve only been through a few songs, but I’m more and more convinced that the right EQ can produce a good sound from the arc.

That doesn’t mean I’m ready to say I’m totally happy with it, and I’m still mulling over a return. I don’t like the lack of communication from Sonos. A few simple thing would go a long way:

At least acknowledge how the arc sounds very different from other sonos speakers, that this is very disappointing to many customers, and open a dialogue about what can be done.
Talk about what, if any, investigation is going into why trueplay seems to be producing wildly different results.
Talk about providing more control over the system. Trueplay + Bass/Treble is fine for a default mode, but why not have an advanced mode with a proper manual EQ? Even if that would take a while to build, just say it’s coming.

M

Mitchellsx

Renowned Enthusiast II

Ok, third post on this thread. I finally sat down and re-tuned with an iPhone 6 running 12.0.2 (previously ipad pro 11” and iPad Air 2). I also decided to just sit on the couch and wave the phone around a bit rather than walk around.

This is the first time I feel like the life wasn’t sucked out of the sound, and there is now some ok midrange. I can actually listen to music without it being distracting. I’ve only been through a few songs, but I’m more and more convinced that the right EQ can produce a good sound from the arc.

That doesn’t mean I’m ready to say I’m totally happy with it, and I’m still mulling over a return. I don’t like the lack of communication from Sonos. A few simple thing would go a long way:

At least acknowledge how the arc sounds very different from other sonos speakers, that this is very disappointing to many customers, and open a dialogue about what can be done.
Talk about what, if any, investigation is going into why trueplay seems to be producing wildly different results.
Talk about providing more control over the system. Trueplay + Bass/Treble is fine for a default mode, but why not have an advanced mode with a proper manual EQ? Even if that would take a while to build, just say it’s coming.

Totally agree, the sonos manager introduced himself however long ago and then never came back with anything since, more indication of what is going on in the background would put a lot of people at ease. @Scott - Sonos (11 days to be exact)

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arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

Ok, third post on this thread. I finally sat down and re-tuned with an iPhone 6 running 12.0.2 (previously ipad pro 11” and iPad Air 2). I also decided to just sit on the couch and wave the phone around a bit rather than walk around.

This is the first time I feel like the life wasn’t sucked out of the sound, and there is now some ok midrange. I can actually listen to music without it being distracting. I’ve only been through a few songs, but I’m more and more convinced that the right EQ can produce a good sound from the arc.

That doesn’t mean I’m ready to say I’m totally happy with it, and I’m still mulling over a return. I don’t like the lack of communication from Sonos. A few simple thing would go a long way:

At least acknowledge how the arc sounds very different from other sonos speakers, that this is very disappointing to many customers, and open a dialogue about what can be done.
Talk about what, if any, investigation is going into why trueplay seems to be producing wildly different results.
Talk about providing more control over the system. Trueplay + Bass/Treble is fine for a default mode, but why not have an advanced mode with a proper manual EQ? Even if that would take a while to build, just say it’s coming.

Totally agree, the sonos manager introduced himself however long ago and then never came back with anything since, more indication of what is going on in the background would put a lot of people at ease. @Scott - Sonos (11 days to be exact)

This. I could have given them one more month if it wasn’t for the lack of communication. Support staff (whatever that’s left) has been active on other threads, but they are not responding to two main threads- bass and metallic sound issue.

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dhewitt

Lyricist III

Just recently found this thread, would anybody be so kind to summarise this thread up for me so i don't have to read through all the 418 replies haha. Is there a solution to the metallic sound or anything that helps/reduces it?

P

PowdeRiver

Lyricist III

This is the best I found some people say what device you use to trueplay but not sure I believe that cause I noticed no difference

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