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Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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P

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.

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

J
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So nothing new?

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

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

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

Now that’s a heck of a step up!

M
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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...

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

Rick
F

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?

J
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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. 

M
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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 

M
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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. 

 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.

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

Rick
K
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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. 

M
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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.

S

@Krishma M

“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!” 

 

So, what is status of this after 4 months and calling Sonos Support, indication is not on list of any problems known?

 

Thank you.

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. 

G
Userlevel 3
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@Krishma M

“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!” 

 

So, what is status of this after 4 months and calling Sonos Support, indication is not on list of any problems known?

 

Thank you.

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.

S

@Krishma M

“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!” 

 

So, what is status of this after 4 months and calling Sonos Support, indication is not on list of any problems known?

 

Thank you.

B
Userlevel 3
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@rick.f in case you were unaware Ryan S has 'retired' from here, along with others from Sonos support I believe.

K
Userlevel 2

I am not sure if you have tried this or not. I had dialog issues too. I ran trueplay using my iPhone 6. When running trueplay I found that if you stay closer to your listening position it will boose the dialog. If you get too close to the soundbar it will limit the center channel. I would not recommend running trueplay on an iPad because of the dual microphone. Also make sure that you are getting dolby digital 5.1, or any dolby format other than 2.0 or pcm. You can check this by going into settings and then about system. It will show you what format is being provided by the Arc. I have the Arc and after following these steps I don't have any problems now. It sounds incredible. 

R
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@Ryan S @Jean C. @Scott - Sonos @

Rick
R
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Because Sonos has also admitted that this problem has been recognised by themselves.

 

6 Months ago.

@Krishma M 

“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!” 

 

all the time I was hoping that this was indeed resolved by an update. I have multiple Sonos products. So still had confidence that it would be fixed….

 

Rick
G
Userlevel 7

@rick.f Just curious… if you have a soundbar that you think has sounded “terrible” for four months, why are you still using the same soundbar?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
R
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The Sonos ARC sounds terrible !! I’m following this topic for 4 months. No answer from Sonos after all. 
 

I’m wondering if Sonos is actually reading this topic..

Rick
J
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Come on Sonos! I have the arc 5.1 system and it is by far the worst 5.1 system I have ever owned. I have reverted to just using my TV speakers as the dialogue is clear. I spent $1700 on this system and I’m way outside the return window. I definitely feel like Sonos RAPED me here. before the arc I had the beam and thought that sounded pretty terrible for the price so like an idiot I upgraded to the arc thinking that throwing more money at the system would solve the problem. It did not. I think that Sonos just makes a terrible sound bar altogether i guess. I have been listening to this thing for seven months and I have never hated watching movies more than when I turn on my TV and have to listen to this POS. If this is something fixable by a software update why the hell hasn’t SONOS fixED this yet? Anyone stating the sound is good or even reasonable for the price is either insane, deaf, or working for SONOS. 


i do agree with you, i have a  LG C8 and the dialog is a lot clearer on my tv speakers.. i feel the arc is lacking of mid and accuracy. Maybe adding a sub will fix this? Or maybe it is a trueplay problem i don’t know .. i had the jbl 9.1 at the same time and the dialog was clearer and a lot warmer, more enjoyable. 

The sub has zero affect on the terrible sound quality. It sounds just as bad just with more bass.

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