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arpatil1
Enthusiast II
June 17, 2020
Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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
    July 2, 2020

    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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    PowdeRiver
    Lyricist III
    July 17, 2020

    Good to hear some is working on it.

      TapDatApp
      Enthusiast I
      July 17, 2020

      How is there still no real progress on this… ugh.

        anujgoel83
        Trending Lyricist I
        July 17, 2020

        Just updated to 12.0.2, WOW, didn’t have massive complaints before but this is a huge step up, much warmer mids and Bass is markedly improved

        BMF
        BMF
        Prodigy III
        July 17, 2020

        Just updated to 12.0.2, WOW, didn’t have massive complaints before but this is a huge step up, much warmer mids and Bass is markedly improved

        Isn’t 12.0.2 an “App Only” update?

         

        My Arc and all other speakers are still saying 12.0.1

        anujgoel83
        Trending Lyricist I
        July 17, 2020

        I didn’t actually update to 12.01.1 before to be fair, and I did accidentally remove surrounds so re trueplayed (iPhone X), mids are hugely different

        BMF
        BMF
        Prodigy III
        July 17, 2020

        Ahhh that makes sense then 👍

        Alberta Beagle
        Prominent Collaborator I
        July 17, 2020

        Just updated to 12.0.2, WOW, didn’t have massive complaints before but this is a huge step up, much warmer mids and Bass is markedly improved

        Are you suggesting there is an update available? 

        Beagle
        anujgoel83
        Trending Lyricist I
        July 17, 2020

        I think may have been my misunderstanding, as I didn’t update to latest os, but have experienced a HUGE boost, I think the arc is particularly sensitive to trueplay tuning, perhaps owing to the undoubtedly bright sound signature 

          oriboaz
          Prodigy I
          July 18, 2020

          I think may have been my misunderstanding, as I didn’t update to latest os, but have experienced a HUGE boost, I think the arc is particularly sensitive to trueplay tuning, perhaps owing to the undoubtedly bright sound signature 

          :point_up_tone2: I also feel like there is a trueplay problem. Arc is deliberately bright, which overly emphasizes high frequencies. Personally, I find this makes it very difficult to watch TV. 

          The Arc’s sound signature is highly trueplay dependent. I have to do many trueplay adjustments until I reach something decent-sounding.

           

          I want to love my Arc as much as I do my other Sonos devices. But with its current sound signature I cannot. I really hope and believe that there isn’t a bad-batch of Arcs, and that my Arc isn’t a dud! 
           

          So, Sonos, please get this fixed as soon as you can! 

          phollin2
          Lyricist III
          July 18, 2020

          @Paul A @Kyle A @Krishma M 

           

          Hello could one of you give us an update on this thread, we need to know if this issue is being worked on? When we could see an update etc etc ?

          thanks

          Hi folks! Just to let you know that we have received the reports and working on resolving this. We’ll surely let you know once the fix has been done. Appreciate all your patience. If you any other concerns, please let us know. Thanks! 

          Could you comment on the issues that many are having with customer service?

          You received a sub return from me on 26 June and I am still awaiting a refund. I have had no response to emails I have sent to customer service.

          I have been waiting 3 weeks to set up an exchange on my presumed faulty arc with no joy. You last emailed me a week ago promising you were looking into setting up an exchange, but nothing since and again no reply to emails I have sent to chase up.

          I am disappointed with the arc - but the current customer service response is even worse. I am sure you will understand that I am currently ~£1300 out of pocket. 

           

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