Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128976 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?

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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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oriboaz

Prodigy I

Ok, so I updated and trueplayed several times. Using iphone 11 pro for trueplaying results in a tinny and hollow sound that sounds terrible. The iPhone 6s produces a better sound signature, but I am still not happy with Arc’s sound signature. There is still a significant difference between trueplay attempts, and I had to do multiple rounds before I got a sound that was passable. However, in all cases the high frequencies are still too sharp, and the SSS sounds are too pronounced. I know that the S sounds are there, but I expect a better balance. When I A/B test scenes between Arc and airpods, the airpods give a much more enjoyable sound signature (the high frequencies are softer and nicer to hear).

As an example, take the opening minute of Hamilton on Disney plus. The way the narrator says “silence all cellphones” is very bothersome when listened to on Arc, whereas when I use airpods it is much nicer sounding.

P

phollin2

Lyricist III

So I finally received a replacement arc today. I’ve set up and tested and the verdict is in….. it’s exactly the same as the old one!!!

Same tinny, hallow sound, annoying dynamic range (loud one minute, inaudible the next), different volumes on different channels, doesn’t push out sound to fill entire open plan room, sounds odd and artificial… can clearly tell it’s coming from sound bar which is separate from tv. Basically it’s a bit of a mess.

It’s even more noticeable as I have been using a beam for last week which is a much nicer sound (but smaller soundstage).

ive got a sub + ones as a rears. Squarish room. True play with iPhone 6s and iPad. updated with today’s update. All in all bit of a disappointing saga.

I want to repeat the great majority of users and Sonos have stated this is not a hardware issue. Replacement doesn't solve the problem ( many reported so) I have seen one user saying it did, and i attribute that to something else (not sure what).

Please @phollin2 check the new updated issued this morning (not that loing ago) you must update the app then the firmware within the app. After that you need to re-truplay! I noticed an improvemen in music. After this I am not sure what was changed or if it is a case of a truplay incosistency fix. But my bar sounds better I can say I am happy with it. If you think it still sound harsh turning down the treble one or two notches can help.

I just assumed it was a hardware problem as I didn’t expect the ‘upgrade’ from the beam to lead to a significantly worse sound. I really wanted it to be better as well as the beam is lacking a little bit, but the playbar seems a bit dated. I’m kind of invested in Sonos as the Surrounds are hardwired into the wall. If I was starting from scratch I’d look elsewhere.

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oriboaz

Prodigy I

I just assumed it was a hardware problem as I didn’t expect the ‘upgrade’ from the beam to lead to a significantly worse sound. I really wanted it to be better as well as the beam is lacking a little bit, but the playbar seems a bit dated. I’m kind of invested in Sonos as the Surrounds are hardwired into the wall. If I was starting from scratch I’d look elsewhere.

I find it difficult to believe it is a hardware problem. I really think it is a sound signature problem, and I am very hopeful it will be solved. I am very much invested in Sonos, and I love my speakers. I hope that within a few weeks the engineers will sort things out. I would be lying if I said that I haven’t considered switching to a different sound system. However, on the whole I still have very positive feelings towards Sonos, and I have trust that they will be able to improve and fix these problems.

What would really help is for Sonos to be more vocal about this. We shouldn’t be left guessing if this issue was addressed in the latest update or not. Sonos should come forward and say if they are tweaking the sound signature, or the way that trueplay is performed. Some more communication with us, preferably from the product guys/engineers in California, would be very very very much appreciated. This will instill a great deal of confidence about Sonos in me.

Additionally, I really hope that Sonos add an option for multiple trueplay settings. This shouldn’t be required normally, but with the current problems with trueplay, I want to be able to A/B test different trueplay settings, without having to worry that I’ll manage to “ruin” a satisfactory trueplay setting.

(My neighbors must think that running trueplay is my new hobby, with the number of times I’ve found myself tuning via trueplay).

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

Ok, so I updated and trueplayed several times. Using iphone 11 pro for trueplaying results in a tinny and hollow sound that sounds terrible. The iPhone 6s produces a better sound signature, but I am still not happy with Arc’s sound signature. There is still a significant difference between trueplay attempts, and I had to do multiple rounds before I got a sound that was passable. However, in all cases the high frequencies are still too sharp, and the SSS sounds are too pronounced. I know that the S sounds are there, but I expect a better balance. When I A/B test scenes between Arc and airpods, the airpods give a much more enjoyable sound signature (the high frequencies are softer and nicer to hear).

As an example, take the opening minute of Hamilton on Disney plus. The way the narrator says “silence all cellphones” is very bothersome when listened to on Arc, whereas when I use airpods it is much nicer sounding.

This is what I mean the mics have issues. I listened to hamilton on the arc was saying OMG this is the tinny issue with the Sss this is bad! and then turns out my brother who know has my playbar said the same hting he noticed the Ssss too much and was bad. And I had to turn the treble down for hamilton. I didntr see other content that had this issue. But that turned out to be related to the mics used for that performance recording. And not the Arcs fault

O

oriboaz

Prodigy I

Ok, so I updated and trueplayed several times. Using iphone 11 pro for trueplaying results in a tinny and hollow sound that sounds terrible. The iPhone 6s produces a better sound signature, but I am still not happy with Arc’s sound signature. There is still a significant difference between trueplay attempts, and I had to do multiple rounds before I got a sound that was passable. However, in all cases the high frequencies are still too sharp, and the SSS sounds are too pronounced. I know that the S sounds are there, but I expect a better balance. When I A/B test scenes between Arc and airpods, the airpods give a much more enjoyable sound signature (the high frequencies are softer and nicer to hear).

As an example, take the opening minute of Hamilton on Disney plus. The way the narrator says “silence all cellphones” is very bothersome when listened to on Arc, whereas when I use airpods it is much nicer sounding.

This is what I mean the mics have issues. I listened to hamilton on the arc was saying OMG this is the tinny issue with the Sss this is bad! and then turns out my brother who know has my playbar said the same hting he noticed the Ssss too much and was bad. And I had to turn the treble down for hamilton. I didntr see other content that had this issue. But that turned out to be related to the mics used for that performance recording. And not the Arcs fault

Nope. Listen to this using earphones, and hear the difference. It’s massive.

S

sebas1509

Enthusiast II

Ok, so I updated and trueplayed several times. Using iphone 11 pro for trueplaying results in a tinny and hollow sound that sounds terrible. The iPhone 6s produces a better sound signature, but I am still not happy with Arc’s sound signature. There is still a significant difference between trueplay attempts, and I had to do multiple rounds before I got a sound that was passable. However, in all cases the high frequencies are still too sharp, and the SSS sounds are too pronounced. I know that the S sounds are there, but I expect a better balance. When I A/B test scenes between Arc and airpods, the airpods give a much more enjoyable sound signature (the high frequencies are softer and nicer to hear).

As an example, take the opening minute of Hamilton on Disney plus. The way the narrator says “silence all cellphones” is very bothersome when listened to on Arc, whereas when I use airpods it is much nicer sounding.

This is what I mean the mics have issues. I listened to hamilton on the arc was saying OMG this is the tinny issue with the Sss this is bad! and then turns out my brother who know has my playbar said the same hting he noticed the Ssss too much and was bad. And I had to turn the treble down for hamilton. I didntr see other content that had this issue. But that turned out to be related to the mics used for that performance recording. And not the Arcs fault

Nope. Listen to this using earphones, and hear the difference. It’s massive.

Will have to try it again but for sure some content is worse than others adn this is not specific to the arc. I think what happens is the arc extends to higher frequencies than other speakers (can be seen int he freq response graphs on rtings for example) so you are hearing this extra freq you dont hear on airpods. For example look at the comparison between Arc and Playbar. up until the playbar (green) drifts off they are very similar high freq

S

sebas1509

Enthusiast II

Ok, so I updated and trueplayed several times. Using iphone 11 pro for trueplaying results in a tinny and hollow sound that sounds terrible. The iPhone 6s produces a better sound signature, but I am still not happy with Arc’s sound signature. There is still a significant difference between trueplay attempts, and I had to do multiple rounds before I got a sound that was passable. However, in all cases the high frequencies are still too sharp, and the SSS sounds are too pronounced. I know that the S sounds are there, but I expect a better balance. When I A/B test scenes between Arc and airpods, the airpods give a much more enjoyable sound signature (the high frequencies are softer and nicer to hear).

As an example, take the opening minute of Hamilton on Disney plus. The way the narrator says “silence all cellphones” is very bothersome when listened to on Arc, whereas when I use airpods it is much nicer sounding.

This is what I mean the mics have issues. I listened to hamilton on the arc was saying OMG this is the tinny issue with the Sss this is bad! and then turns out my brother who know has my playbar said the same hting he noticed the Ssss too much and was bad. And I had to turn the treble down for hamilton. I didntr see other content that had this issue. But that turned out to be related to the mics used for that performance recording. And not the Arcs fault

Nope. Listen to this using earphones, and hear the difference. It’s massive.

Will have to try it again but for sure some content is worse than others adn this is not specific to the arc. I think what happens is the arc extends to higher frequencies than other speakers (can be seen int he freq response graphs on rtings for example) so you are hearing this extra freq you dont hear on airpods. For example look at the comparison between Arc and Playbar. up until the playbar (green) drifts off they are very similar high freq