Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128929 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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S

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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K

kmoney

Lyricist II

Same issue here (Arc and Sub v3) - deeply disappointed in the sound quality right off the bat. Coming from a decade-old Bose Cinemate GS Series II system, this setup as it currently stands loses out pretty dramatically.

Out of the box it had a “dull” sound. Trueplay with an iPhone 11 Pro resulted in this tinny, treble-y sound described by everyone else. I was going to try Trueplay using the iPad (again, mentioned by others) but apparently support for the 2020 iPad Pro is lacking (receive a network error) so I’m stuck. The piercing highs are honestly uncomfortable to listen to even at mid-volumes so I turned off Trueplay and bumped the treble and bass a bit to get something halfway decent. It still emphasizes the highs too much and is lacking mid-range but I’m going with this weak config and keeping my fingers crossed Sonos addresses this before nearing the 45 day window or I’ll be returning it.

A

arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

**Updated edit**

So I think I figured it out. Spent a lot of time on this.

Its as if the “virtual surround sound” is tuned too high. Think about a cheap sound bar and you select the “virtual surround button.” It creates a “room filling” sound but this also why people are explaining the sound is irritating especially with music. You hear too much of it thus missing out on the warmth and depth of mods. I suspect people with a large room where sound doesn’t bounce off walls don’t have this problem which explains the differing view points.

Even when I pair the sub and surrounds I still feel like the arc is trying to do too much electronically to fill the room. Let the speaker do the talking and back down the algorithm for emphasizing “virtual surround sound”

This does not explain why the vocals are tinny. Center speaker is till direct, facing you. there is no virtual surround with the speech.

A

anujgoel83

Trending Lyricist I

To give some balance to this I’m not finding this at all. I found the beam severely lacking in this regard, to the point that using speech enhancement was horrible, the arc is very transparent and mids are completely transparent and full, and overall sound is fantastic.

A

arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

To give some balance to this I’m not finding this at all. I found the beam severely lacking in this regard, to the point that using speech enhancement was horrible, the arc is very transparent and mids are completely transparent and full, and overall sound is fantastic.

Hey @anujgoel83 . What device did you use for the Truplay?

A

anujgoel83

Trending Lyricist I

I true played twice using an iPhone X, the first time I had some setup issues with the arc so decided to redo whilst ensuring to wave above the arc and this yielded a massively better result. Overall sound is more than satisfactory and miles ahead of the beam, though curiously deactivating the sub makes the arc sound pretty terrible, so not sure what this is about as its phenomenal with sub and surrounds

C

chillaban

Trending Lyricist I

I true played twice using an iPhone X, the first time I had some setup issues with the arc so decided to redo whilst ensuring to wave above the arc and this yielded a massively better result. Overall sound is more than satisfactory and miles ahead of the beam, though curiously deactivating the sub makes the arc sound pretty terrible, so not sure what this is about as its phenomenal with sub and surrounds

I commented about that on my dedicated thread about TruePlay, https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/trueplay-tuning-a-variety-of-speakers-playbar-arc-beam-with-newer-iphones-results-in-tinny-sound-6843248

I agree that waving the affected iPhones directly over the Arc or esp. the side tweeters results in making the TruePlay tuning sound a bit better, but that’s just a workaround of forcing the iPhone to sample a bunch of treble from small tweeters. It compromises the overall fidelity of TruePlay tuning and still doesn’t sound as “correct” as TruePlay tuning with an unaffected device like a 2nd gen iPad Pro.

A

anujgoel83

Trending Lyricist I

I true played twice using an iPhone X, the first time I had some setup issues with the arc so decided to redo whilst ensuring to wave above the arc and this yielded a massively better result. Overall sound is more than satisfactory and miles ahead of the beam, though curiously deactivating the sub makes the arc sound pretty terrible, so not sure what this is about as its phenomenal with sub and surrounds

I commented about that on my dedicated thread about TruePlay, https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/trueplay-tuning-a-variety-of-speakers-playbar-arc-beam-with-newer-iphones-results-in-tinny-sound-6843248

I agree that waving the affected iPhones directly over the Arc or esp. the side tweeters results in making the TruePlay tuning sound a bit better, but that’s just a workaround of forcing the iPhone to sample a bunch of treble from small tweeters. It compromises the overall fidelity of TruePlay tuning and still doesn’t sound as “correct” as TruePlay tuning with an unaffected device like a 2nd gen iPad Pro.

Maybe so, obviously I haven’t tried on an older device, but I can’t say I’m hearing an overly ‘bright’ midrange deficient presentation in any way, which perhaps is more worrying; as surely points to a hardware problem on certain batches?

C

chillaban

Trending Lyricist I

I true played twice using an iPhone X, the first time I had some setup issues with the arc so decided to redo whilst ensuring to wave above the arc and this yielded a massively better result. Overall sound is more than satisfactory and miles ahead of the beam, though curiously deactivating the sub makes the arc sound pretty terrible, so not sure what this is about as its phenomenal with sub and surrounds

I commented about that on my dedicated thread about TruePlay, https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/trueplay-tuning-a-variety-of-speakers-playbar-arc-beam-with-newer-iphones-results-in-tinny-sound-6843248

I agree that waving the affected iPhones directly over the Arc or esp. the side tweeters results in making the TruePlay tuning sound a bit better, but that’s just a workaround of forcing the iPhone to sample a bunch of treble from small tweeters. It compromises the overall fidelity of TruePlay tuning and still doesn’t sound as “correct” as TruePlay tuning with an unaffected device like a 2nd gen iPad Pro.

Maybe so, obviously I haven’t tried on an older device, but I can’t say I’m hearing an overly ‘bright’ midrange deficient presentation in any way, which perhaps is more worrying; as surely points to a hardware problem on certain batches?

No, I don’t think it indicates a batched problem. If one is correctly following the TruePlay tuning instructions, you aren’t supposed to wave the phone directly above the Arc. When you do so above or to the sides of the sound bar, you are basically aiming the microphone at treble-only tweeters that generate surround effects. That’s basically just counteracting and masking the newer iPhone microphones attempting to filter out treble.

I tried this process with an affected phone and can confirm, purposely bringing the mic closer to the tweeters during the TruePlay process does get rid of some of the bright tinny nature, but it’s still not the same as the TruePlay improvements you get with TruePlay tuning using one of the unaffected devices.

In your situation, I'd probably suggest turning off TruePlay and just using the "balance surrounds” feature to equalize, rather than the unscientific approach of forcing TruePlay to listen to some treble up close.

A

anujgoel83

Trending Lyricist I

I true played twice using an iPhone X, the first time I had some setup issues with the arc so decided to redo whilst ensuring to wave above the arc and this yielded a massively better result. Overall sound is more than satisfactory and miles ahead of the beam, though curiously deactivating the sub makes the arc sound pretty terrible, so not sure what this is about as its phenomenal with sub and surrounds

I commented about that on my dedicated thread about TruePlay, https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/trueplay-tuning-a-variety-of-speakers-playbar-arc-beam-with-newer-iphones-results-in-tinny-sound-6843248

I agree that waving the affected iPhones directly over the Arc or esp. the side tweeters results in making the TruePlay tuning sound a bit better, but that’s just a workaround of forcing the iPhone to sample a bunch of treble from small tweeters. It compromises the overall fidelity of TruePlay tuning and still doesn’t sound as “correct” as TruePlay tuning with an unaffected device like a 2nd gen iPad Pro.

Maybe so, obviously I haven’t tried on an older device, but I can’t say I’m hearing an overly ‘bright’ midrange deficient presentation in any way, which perhaps is more worrying; as surely points to a hardware problem on certain batches?

No, I don’t think it indicates a batched problem. If one is correctly following the TruePlay tuning instructions, you aren’t supposed to wave the phone directly above the Arc. When you do so above or to the sides of the sound bar, you are basically aiming the microphone at treble-only tweeters that generate surround effects. That’s basically just counteracting and masking the newer iPhone microphones attempting to filter out treble.

I tried this process with an affected phone and can confirm, purposely bringing the mic closer to the tweeters during the TruePlay process does get rid of some of the bright tinny nature, but it’s still not the same as the TruePlay improvements you get with TruePlay tuning using one of the unaffected devices.

In your situation, I'd probably suggest turning off TruePlay and just using the "balance surrounds” feature to equalize, rather than the unscientific approach of forcing TruePlay to listen to some treble up close.

I have tried turning off trueplay and balancing as you suggest, but it always sounds massively better with it active. By saying waving above arc, I meant for a brief time during the process, perhaps 5 seconds or so

C

chillaban

Trending Lyricist I

I true played twice using an iPhone X, the first time I had some setup issues with the arc so decided to redo whilst ensuring to wave above the arc and this yielded a massively better result. Overall sound is more than satisfactory and miles ahead of the beam, though curiously deactivating the sub makes the arc sound pretty terrible, so not sure what this is about as its phenomenal with sub and surrounds

I commented about that on my dedicated thread about TruePlay, https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/trueplay-tuning-a-variety-of-speakers-playbar-arc-beam-with-newer-iphones-results-in-tinny-sound-6843248

I agree that waving the affected iPhones directly over the Arc or esp. the side tweeters results in making the TruePlay tuning sound a bit better, but that’s just a workaround of forcing the iPhone to sample a bunch of treble from small tweeters. It compromises the overall fidelity of TruePlay tuning and still doesn’t sound as “correct” as TruePlay tuning with an unaffected device like a 2nd gen iPad Pro.

Maybe so, obviously I haven’t tried on an older device, but I can’t say I’m hearing an overly ‘bright’ midrange deficient presentation in any way, which perhaps is more worrying; as surely points to a hardware problem on certain batches?

No, I don’t think it indicates a batched problem. If one is correctly following the TruePlay tuning instructions, you aren’t supposed to wave the phone directly above the Arc. When you do so above or to the sides of the sound bar, you are basically aiming the microphone at treble-only tweeters that generate surround effects. That’s basically just counteracting and masking the newer iPhone microphones attempting to filter out treble.

I tried this process with an affected phone and can confirm, purposely bringing the mic closer to the tweeters during the TruePlay process does get rid of some of the bright tinny nature, but it’s still not the same as the TruePlay improvements you get with TruePlay tuning using one of the unaffected devices.

In your situation, I'd probably suggest turning off TruePlay and just using the "balance surrounds” feature to equalize, rather than the unscientific approach of forcing TruePlay to listen to some treble up close.

I have tried turning off trueplay and balancing as you suggest, but it always sounds massively better with it active. By saying waving above arc, I meant for a brief time during the process, perhaps 5 seconds or so

Yeah that’s unfortunate. I don’t think this has to do with hardware batches. I have also seen that waving the device above the Arc to capture the up-firing tweeters just for a few seconds does balance the soudn a bit with an affecting phone. But it still is nowhere near as proper sounding as tuning with an unaffected older device.

Could it be better than TruePlay Off? Very possible, but this adds such an unscientific factor in that I don't think we should consider this a solution. How much you bring the TruePlay tuning mic within close range of the soundbar has dramatic effects on the end result of the tuning, both for the better and for the worse.

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