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.

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jkozlow3

Enthusiast II

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?

No - not for those affected by the issue. Sonos has been pretty silent on the issue as well. There may or may not be a hardware issue/bad batch as some people don’t seem to be having any issues/complaints whatsoever. Others think all the issues can be fixed with software updates.

Bottom line is - your guess is as good as anyone’s at this point!

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

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?

No - not for those affected by the issue. Sonos has been pretty silent on the issue as well. There may or may not be a hardware issue/bad batch as some people don’t seem to be having any issues/complaints whatsoever. Others think all the issues can be fixed with software updates.

Bottom line is - your guess is as good as anyone’s at this point!

@dhewitt Try it out. Many are happy with their Arcs! I have 0 complaints about metallic sounds… Lots of replies doesnt mean everyone here is complaining theres tons of back and forths and also people posting examples of their problem content. So not 418 complaints

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smgadget

Lyricist III

Hi all, I got my Arc a few days ago to replace Beam. I am not very sure but it feels like the Arc is performing a little bit better after each day uses. However, I still find the following points to be true as mentioned by others:

does suffer from the metallic sound issue. Currently, I would have to turn down the treble a bit in order to address the issue.
does not do mid-high range as warm and soulful as Playbar/Beam, but rather harsh.

The issues are found either being used alone or paired with Sub and Ones. Overall, after tweaking the settings, it outperms the Beam with no question. Yet, as a flagship product, I was expecting it to perform better easily.

Jean C.

Retired Sonos Staff

Hello all,

While we are aware that some are experiencing or have experienced audio issues with their Arc,we are working on it but I do not have an update for you at this time.

If you are experiencing a thin, tinny quality in your audio that I see that some are describing as “cheap radio” sound, I would encourage you to test playback through a streaming music service of your choice and then make an audio or recording on your mobile phone or camera. Then reach out to us directly so that we can log the issue and evaluate the units on an individual level.

For those that have already exchanged your units, did this resolve the audio quality issue?

Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question.

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arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

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?

No - not for those affected by the issue. Sonos has been pretty silent on the issue as well. There may or may not be a hardware issue/bad batch as some people don’t seem to be having any issues/complaints whatsoever. Others think all the issues can be fixed with software updates.

Bottom line is - your guess is as good as anyone’s at this point!

@dhewitt Try it out. Many are happy with their Arcs! I have 0 complaints about metallic sounds… Lots of replies doesnt mean everyone here is complaining theres tons of back and forths and also people posting examples of their problem content. So not 418 complaints

Issues exist. So many people can’t be wrong at once (Few YouTubers have also acknowledged). Arc is still very much a beta product. LPCM support is also a few months away (this matters a lot if you do gaming, use Apple TV 4K, etc). Unless you absolutely cannot live with what you have right now, I would wait it out. Just my 2 cents.

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kenwk123

Lyricist III

Well my guess is this is the sound signature of the ARC and if you don’t like it just move on to the next one. I can’t imagine Sonos will address this as if majority of the customers are not aware of this then no point of fixing. Further changing this might affect surround effects and then u will have another group say the soundstage collapses and lack details etc. If u are into audio then u know how many diff brands of speakers with diff sound signature to satisfy diff taste.

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arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

Well my guess is this is the sound signature of the ARC and if you don’t like it just move on to the next one. I can’t imagine Sonos will address this as if majority of the customers are not aware of this then no point of fixing. Further changing this might affect surround effects and then u will have another group say the soundstage collapses and lack details etc. If u are into audio then u know how many diff brands of speakers with diff sound signature to satisfy diff taste.

One big advantage of discrete speakers and the AVR- you can EQ it the way you want (the control you get is amazing). And since they are separate speakers placed in the physical space, surround remains largely unaffected. Of course, you need to live with a few extra wires and sizeable speakers.

I agree that soundbars can not please all the customers. Tiny 2/3 inches elliptical drivers can only do so much. DSP is fancy and have come a long way, but won’t beat Physics.

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Mitchellsx

Renowned Enthusiast II

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.

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

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?

No - not for those affected by the issue. Sonos has been pretty silent on the issue as well. There may or may not be a hardware issue/bad batch as some people don’t seem to be having any issues/complaints whatsoever. Others think all the issues can be fixed with software updates.

Bottom line is - your guess is as good as anyone’s at this point!

@dhewitt Try it out. Many are happy with their Arcs! I have 0 complaints about metallic sounds… Lots of replies doesnt mean everyone here is complaining theres tons of back and forths and also people posting examples of their problem content. So not 418 complaints

Issues exist. So many people can’t be wrong at once (Few YouTubers have also acknowledged). Arc is still very much a beta product. LPCM support is also a few months away (this matters a lot if you do gaming, use Apple TV 4K, etc). Unless you absolutely cannot live with what you have right now, I would wait it out. Just my 2 cents.

Dont necessarily agree with this you could get the Arc today and be satisfied and happy with it. Many are keeping theirs. LCPM support was never promised at launch, and yes it means your gaming wont have surround but stereo gaming sounds great and good enough for me for the time being. In terms of apple TV not sure how it even matters (basides some TVS having issues if they hasve LPCM and the arc doesnt) but my apple tv plays surround just fine and sounds great

The beta product statement I dont agree with either, because my functionality isn’t reduced or buggy. During normal use I do not notice any issues. And theres manyt people saying this on reddit and here. They got their arcs and are happy with the arc and will be keeping it. So the only way of knowing is trying it out! @dhewitt no need to wait months . Unless you decide you dont want to deal with a potential return hassle (not even that big of a hassle but ok)

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

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

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