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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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    GuitarSuperstar
    Lead Maestro
    July 25, 2020

    Mine is updated and I still get a popping sound.  While watching interstellar, a minute and 30 seconds in when they show the ship re-entering earth, it starts popping and crackling.  Atmos generally sounds great, but that popping sound is annoying and ridiculous for an 800 speaker.

    Just curious… what source are you watching Interstellar from? What do the popping noises sound like?

    "Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
    oriboaz
    Prodigy I
    July 25, 2020

    Mine is updated and I still get a popping sound.  While watching interstellar, a minute and 30 seconds in when they show the ship re-entering earth, it starts popping and crackling.  Atmos generally sounds great, but that popping sound is annoying and ridiculous for an 800 speaker.

    Just curious… what source are you watching Interstellar from? What do the popping noises sound like?

     

    I just listened to this on Netflix (via Apple TV 4k, outputting Dolby Digital 5.1). It sounds great. Whatever cracking there is actually sounds like it should be there (it’s only on the surrounds, and to me sounds like objects breaking or falling. Adds to the surround experience beautifully). Having said that, the woman at the 1:10-1:25 mark sounds overly sibilant and bright. She sounds very hissy to me. The word “else” is especially harsh and whistley, for lack of a better term. 
     

    As a test, I turned off the sub and surrounds, and listened to the 1:30 scene again. I can understand why you may think there is some cracking, because the sounds come from the front. However, I think it’s just that the Arc can’t throw around the surrounds too well. 

    dhewitt
    Lyricist III
    July 25, 2020

    How is everyone getting on with the metallic sound? Did it get better over time? Did people return there Arc’s or have people kept hold of there Arc’s in hope for a software update to resolve this?

    Danio1137
    July 25, 2020

    Hi

    If anyone here reads who sent back Arc and bought another brand, which one did you buy?

    oriboaz
    Prodigy I
    July 25, 2020

    How is everyone getting on with the metallic sound? Did it get better over time? Did people return there Arc’s or have people kept hold of there Arc’s in hope for a software update to resolve this?

    It doesn’t get better over time. Some shows are better than others. It’s not metallic per se, but that the highs are over pronounced while the mid-range a little thin. 
     

    I am waiting for a fix. I still have faith in Sonos.  Personally, I find it difficult to believe that there is a wide-ranging hardware fault (Some people might disagree with this). Therefore, I have high hopes that a firmware fix will improve things. I just really want Sonos engineers to chime in on this and reassure us! 

    dhewitt
    Lyricist III
    July 25, 2020

    How is everyone getting on with the metallic sound? Did it get better over time? Did people return there Arc’s or have people kept hold of there Arc’s in hope for a software update to resolve this?

    It doesn’t get better over time. Some shows are better than others. It’s not metallic per se, but that the highs are over pronounced while the mid-range a little thin. 
     

    I am waiting for a fix. I still have faith in Sonos.  Personally, I find it difficult to believe that there is a wide-ranging hardware fault (Some people might disagree with this). Therefore, I have high hopes that a firmware fix will improve things. I just really want Sonos engineers to chime in on this and reassure us! 

    I keep testing between my 2 year old SK9Y LG dolby atmos soundbar and the arc and the LG sounds better. The arc almost sounds as if its coming from the TV speakers, there is no depth to the sound & does sound very tinny compared to the LG.

      Chris47
      Lyricist II
      July 25, 2020

      How is everyone getting on with the metallic sound? Did it get better over time? Did people return there Arc’s or have people kept hold of there Arc’s in hope for a software update to resolve this?

      I have just set my Playbar back up which the Arc replaced and it sounds so much better during normal tv like news programmes and documentaries which is where the voices on my Arc sounds terrible.

      I actually think I will return the Arc now

        BMF
        BMF
        Prodigy III
        July 25, 2020

        Interesting to see others observations regarding programme “type”.

         

        I too watched “Dark” on Netflix in Atmos and it sounded fantastic…. but News programmes etc are where I have noticed the issue with very harsh sibilance.

        Danio1137
        July 25, 2020

        Hi!
        Then I have ordered a base, I really hope the noises disappear with the base taking over that assignment.  if the problem remains, I send back the base, arc and I throw a play1 on the garbage.  

        The professional way from Sonos should now be to give a little feedback in all forums, otherwise they can shut this down, it is pointless to keep whining here if they do not even pay attention to it.

        dhewitt
        Lyricist III
        July 25, 2020

        Anyone getting the ‘tinny’ audio from new LG oled TV’s B9,C9, BX or CX? Mine does and its a B8. Wondering if it effects the new TV’s too, although i suspect its nothing to do with that but still....

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