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Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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T

Think I will return my Arc and go back to the Beam. After sitting in front of it I really can’t hear £800 sound quality, really think the Beam sounded better. Been disappointing from day one, will maybe think about trying out the second iteration or later down the line when they actually update their flawed product.

J
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Just recently found this thread, would anybody be so kind to summarise this thread up for me so i don't have to read through all the 418 replies haha. Is there a solution to the metallic sound or anything that helps/reduces it?

 

No - not for those affected by the issue.  Sonos has been pretty silent on the issue as well.  There may or may not be a hardware issue/bad batch as some people don’t seem to be having any issues/complaints whatsoever.  Others think all the issues can be fixed with software updates.

Bottom line is - your guess is as good as anyone’s at this point!

@dhewitt  Try it out. Many are happy with their Arcs! I have 0 complaints about metallic sounds… Lots of replies doesnt mean everyone here is complaining theres tons of back and forths and also people posting examples of their problem content. So not 418 complaints

Issues exist. So many people can’t be wrong at once (Few YouTubers have also acknowledged). Arc is still very much a beta product. LPCM support is also a few months away (this matters a lot if you do gaming, use Apple TV 4K, etc). Unless you absolutely cannot live with what you have right now, I would wait it out. Just my 2 cents.

Dont necessarily agree with this you could get the Arc today and be satisfied and happy with it. Many are keeping theirs. LCPM support was never promised at launch, and yes it means your gaming wont have surround but stereo gaming sounds great and good enough for me for the time being. In terms of apple TV not sure how it even matters (basides some TVS having issues if they hasve LPCM and the arc doesnt) but my apple tv plays surround just fine and sounds great

 

The beta product statement I dont agree with either,  because my functionality isn’t reduced or buggy. During normal use I do not notice any issues. And theres manyt people saying this on reddit and here. They got their arcs and are happy with the arc and will be keeping it. So the only way of knowing is trying it out! @dhewitt  no need to wait months .  Unless you decide you dont want to deal with a potential return hassle (not even that big of a hassle but ok) 

Are you on the Sonos Defense Council? This isn’t the “Sonos Arc Rich and Full Sound” thread. We’re trying to get to an issue 95% of us are expressing in this thread and you’re acting like we need non-qualified customer support. Glad you’re enjoying yours. Start a thread about it.
 

 


Exactly. There are a couple of people that keep coming here and defending Sonos and it’s annoying. If you’re not experiencing a problem, great! But coming here and saying that you don’t have any issues with your Arc or defending Sonos for prematurely releasing a product that wasn’t ready for launch or is plagued with issues is annoying and counterproductive to THIS thread.

G
Userlevel 7

For those of you who are still hearing the “metallic” or “tinny” sound from the Arc, more than likely it will not change anytime soon or at all. Most people who own the Arc are happy with the way it sounds, including myself. If you personally hear a “metallic” sound and it bothers you, it will probably ALWAYS bother you, and you will never reach a point where you are completely satisfied with your sound bar. For most of you, it’s probably best to just return the Arc before your return window has closed rather than wait for something that may never come.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
V
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It’s so strange, why some have issues and some find it good.

Some people have ‘issues’ with soft sweet wine, and prefer a crisp dry. Some prefer processed cheese, others a mature Stilton. Apply same logic to sound. 

 

True, but people have these harsh bright issues, my yamaha ysp2700 was I would say, warm sounding, the ARC to me is warm sounding as well.

 

For about a month it sounded fantastic to me… then earlier this week I performed a Trueplay after updating to the latest version and suddenly it sounded tinny, weak, and metallic to me.  I did another trueplay and suddenly it sounded fantastic again - warm with a nice middle.

I think this is not a simple answer.  The performance of the Arc is especially sensitive to position and shape of the room, and in addition trueplay obviously is sensitive to the device perception of what it’s hearing (a complex speaker array may be adding to this sensitivity, along with device mic characteristics).

There was a video posted above where a reviewer showed how much better the bass performance is with the arc without the sub when using the wall to push the sound back towards the listener… but many have the arc in front of the TV and so aren’t using the wall.  Bass may be dissipating. 

It would be great if the results of trueplay were displayed, and then the user had a band equalizer to make fine adjustments.  It doesn’t go along with Sonos ‘simple’ philosophy, however it would alleviate confusion.

I was told you don’t need to do a Retune after every update.ln fact you only need to retune when you move your set-up around (apparently)!

I didn’t need to do it…. I was curious about the results.

I’m glad I did, however - I had no idea what the ‘metallic’ sound was about on this thread until I heard it myself.  Voices kind of sounded like they were talking through a tin can - like some irritating frequencies were suddenly kicked way up..

But… I’m also glad retuning brought it back to normal.  Not sure what I would have done if it stayed that way.  I will probably not do it again.

Now think of the people who can't get rid of that metallic sound and who read around here that if it's a problem of not having a carpet or if it's the HDMI cable ... I really appreciate that people contribute ideas, but the question is that i come from a play bar, sub and butts and i never made the real game and it sounded great. It was to put everything and ohhhh. But now the squeaky, metallic sound, especially on normal TV channels, is where they're most noticeable. The music only lasts 20 minutes, the voices are all ssss. Hope this has a solution. Now I listen to the music of my play 1. It feels warmer.
C

I was watching Ready Player One on Amazon prime and the majority of the main guys dialogue has the metallic crispness to it. Come on Sonos sort it out.

 

Also just as an aside, I did trueplay with an old iPad as the end result was far superior than the trueplay with an iPhone 11. What is the future of trueplay if newer devices are just no good for it? I found the trueplay result with iPhone 11 sounded worse than with it turned off. 

J
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@Jean C.  Couldn’t people just stream the songs from their device via Airplay and confirm that the Arc sounds metallic/tinny and take the display out of the equation altogether?

AdeRussell
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I’ve been following this and other “ARC not working” threads for quite some time.  Recently my ARC finally arrived and it sounds great!  I have it integrated with a SUB Gen 2 and 1 SLs for surround.  It has replaced my old Playbar/SUB/Surrounds. 

I did the trueplay tuning with an old gen 1 iPad Pro.  I made a series of measurements first with the Playbar and then with the ARC.  I did this on the 25th July - which I believe is before the 12.0.3 update.

I am not hearing any of the problems that people are reporting and it definitely is better for dialog than the playbar.  I have not listened at super-high volumes (certainly less than 50%).  Music also sounds good.

Here are the measurements I made with REW. 

First a comparison of the two full systems with sub in place and trueplay on.  As you can see from the two curves, the ARC if anything has a flatter frequency response than the playbar.  The playbar peaks badly above 10kHz.  Note that I tuned the Playbar with the same iPad Pro but at least two weeks earlier (so it is just possible that Sonos has changed the way trueplay analysis methods in the meantime).  And I definitely have NOT got the two curves mixed up!!

 

 

Next is a comparison of the ARC out of the box with the playbar.  no SUB or trueplay.  Here you can definitely see that it was trueplay that has caused the playbar to have a stronger response above 10kHz.

 

 

Finally ARC vs Playbar no SUB but with trueplay ON.

 

My listening tests bear out these measurements.  I’m not hearing any of the harsh  sounds or poor midrange I was fearing.  I am very happy. :relaxed:

S
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@Jean C.  Couldn’t people just stream the songs from their device via Airplay and confirm that the Arc sounds metallic/tinny and take the display out of the equation altogether?

Yes. That’s exactly what I have done. HDMI has been disconnected entirely. Music is my primary use so you can understand my disappointment when I realized my Beam sounds as good if not better than the Arc for music playback - and I don’t like the way my Beam sounds with music.

K
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Just got Bose 500 soundbar with the sub 500 for the same price as Arc. There’s no competition whatsoever. Music is miles better, fuller dialogues and sub-bass is awesome, thanks to the sub (compact sub that doesn’t overpower apartment and annoys neighbors). Movies and music both shine. Those who live in apartments and don’t want a Sonos sub, and having sound quality issues could consider this option. ONLY if you don’t care about Atmos. 


I sold my 500 over the weekend and replaced it with an Arc. Compared to the Bose, the Arc has a massive soundstage, which was a sore point that always used to bug me with the 500. Everything was tightly localised to under my TV. The bass response comparing bars alone is night and day with the Arc. Everyone has different taste preferences, so good to hear you are enjoying your setup.

In regards to the metallic sound, I had read this thread extensively before purchasing the Arc. Day one I had exactly what has been described above. Harsh treble, thin midrange and weak bass. I Trueplayed the bar using my 3 year old iPhone X. Admittedly, it has the usual ‘pocket fluff’ buildup in the mic.

The next morning I re-ran Trueplay with a 2018 iPad Pro (3rd gen 12.9”). The difference is remarkable. No harsh sibilance and midrange is full again. Previously, I was running -7 treble and noticed all of the ‘metallic sound’ comments. Now, the bar is at 0 Treble and -3 Bass sounding wonderful. 

There is definitely something odd going on with device specific Trueplay. Mic ports tend to fill with dust which would invariably lower treble response measurements. 

 

R
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Why is there no answer yet, there have been several updates last months, but the ARC still sounds metallic. 😔

Rick
A
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I agree. Mine just sounds off and not what I expected at all - especially after listening to so many other Sonos products over the years. Being that Sonos is reluctant to help with with an RMA at the moment I still have mine. I’m going to wait to see what happens with next week’s update for the bass issue and then make a final decision on a return. 

Oops. I accidentally tagged your answer as the best. don't know how to fix it. @Ryan S

Ohhh. I dunno either! 

I fixed it.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The team is very focused on the bass issue right now, but I’ve flagged this with them too. I’ll let you know if there’s any news to share.

Hey @Ryan S  . Thanks for the quick response. We totally understand that the bass issue takes priority right now. We will come back to this once that’s fixed.

K
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It’s remarkable that the Sonos staff is responding in other topics (so they are reading this) and not responding here. That does give me a bad feeling. 

K
Userlevel 2

I don't know if this will help anyone, but I purchased the Arc from Amazon. I received it and was not happy with the sound at all. So I decided to buy another one from best buy. The 2nd one was a night and day experience. It sounds incredible. No sharp treble. I wondered if I was just imagining the bad audio from the first unit, so I reconnected it again and could tell the difference right away. I returned the original unit and kept the 2nd one. So I am not sure if this is really a software problem or if it's a defective unit. I think in my case it was defective. 

J
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@Jean C. 


OK, so I think we can rule out HDMI as the culprit now.  Sounds like Sonos has a lot of tuning to do on the Arc to make it sound right with music playback as well.

A
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Hi folks. The issue with the muddy or bottoming out bass from the Arc in a stand-alone configuration (no satellites or Sub) is no longer occurring. If your system is up to date and still the same issue we need to troubleshoot as normal. I’d suggest checking with the content (TV, Music in Sonos app) if it’s the same. If wall-mounted, does removing the speaker from the wall bracket and setting it on a credenza or table improve the issue? Is Trueplay configured on the Arc? Try to enable/disable Trueplay, if there would be any different. Is the Bass EQ setting flat or adjusted in some way? If it’s all the same after playing around, try to reboot the Arc or reset to its factory settings. If the issue still persists, call 800-680-2345 from Monday to Friday from 10 am to 9 pm EST for further steps and resolution. We’re always here to help. Thanks for the patience! 

Only if there’s was a difference between muddy bass and exaggerated highs LMFAO

T
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I agree. Mine just sounds off and not what I expected at all - especially after listening to so many other Sonos products over the years. Being that Sonos is reluctant to help with with an RMA at the moment I still have mine. I’m going to wait to see what happens with next week’s update for the bass issue and then make a final decision on a return. 

Oops. I accidentally tagged your answer as the best. don't know how to fix it. @Ryan S

Ohhh. I dunno either! 

I fixed it.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The team is very focused on the bass issue right now, but I’ve flagged this with them too. I’ll let you know if there’s any news to share.


Now that the bass issue has been issued a fix, has this moved up in priority? 

T
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This issue is by no means exclusively happening with HDMI sources from my experience. Music sounds just as harsh and metallic. And the fact that a notable difference (although not perfect) can be heard when Trueplaying with an older iOS device as many have noted here seems to point to a very different issue. 

G
Userlevel 7

Also - for what it’s worth - the bass issue (when not using a sub) is better than it was but certainly NOT 100% fixed….

 

I don’t have an issue with the metallic sound - but I have no doubt some people do.

Exactly. The bass issue was fixed by Sonos but people still are complaining about it. When Sonos “fixes” the metallic sound “problem” many people will still hear it and never be satisfied.

 

Well…. people are still complaining about the bass b/c it’s not fixed. Not all the way. This isn’t a matter of perception.

Sonos has acknowledged they’re working on the metallic sound issue...soooo I don’t think that’s a matter of perception either.

 

 

It’s pretty simple:

Sonos said the bass issue has been fixed. But people are saying it hasn’t been fixed or, according to you, it hasn’t been fixed “all the way”. Therefore those people won’t ever be happy with the bass from the Arc. They have the option to live with it and pray for another “fix” or return it and get something they will be happy with.

In the future, IF Sonos says the metallic sound issue has been fixed, some people will say they still hear it and it hasn’t been fixed. Therefore those people won’t ever be happy with the sound from the Arc. They have the option to live with it and pray for another “fix” or return it and get something they will be happy with.

I think some people here should just return it and use their hard-earned money and get something they will be happy with so they can enjoy watching movies and listening to music again without complaining about it.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
P
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@Jean C. 

Getting this and the bass issues still after the update - just different material now. For the bass issue eminem without me sounds terrible as does drive on Netflix at 35:00 in at 50-60% filmed here have performed factory reset to no avail:

  • What is the source of the media that is being played (TV app, external streaming device, cable, broadcast, DVD/DVR)?  tidal or netflix or anything
  • What volume lever do you experience the issue? 50-60% up
  • Is the Arc wall-mounted? No
  • If wall-mounted, does removing the speaker from the wall bracket and setting it on a credenza or table improve the issue?
  • Is Trueplay configured on the Arc? Yes but get the same issue with it on and off.

i will add that the very high notes aren’t as harsh as my playbase was (which is a good thing) but it seems to be lacking mids etc and as said seems a bit tinny in comparison.

BMF
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High end digital cables are snake oil.

 

beyond an acceptable build quality, there is no difference….. as long as the 1’s and 0’s get from each end is all that matters.

 

Build quality matters in that, there could be a bad solder joint or the connector is slightly out of spec or built out of cheaper plastic…. but in terms of bass, treble etc there will be no difference.

 

the only other thing could be bandwidth, but as long as the cable is built to spec, there will be no difference.

 

yes, you could have a bad cable…. but that will be that it either works or doesn’t…. Maybe cuts in and out… but would not affect any EQ or sound quality 

M
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And just to add. I’m setting my Beam right next to the Arc for side by side testing and across the board, there is a BIG difference in sound on all sources when you compare the Beam and the Arc. In every case, the low end is deeper, smoother on the Beam. The midrange issues I hear are unique to the Arc

B
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I have the Arc, sub and 2 play 1's.  My Arc was terribly harsh sounding even after multiple Trueplay attempts.  Way worse sounding than my Playbar.  To the point anyone who listened to it mentioned the shrill sounds.  And that's without me saying anything.  

I sent mine back and will continue to use my Playbar until if and when Sonos can figure this out.  I'm not going to sit on a $900(tax) sound bar with the "hope" that it gets fixed.

Ken_Griffiths

I would have thought that there’s perhaps a legal/moral responsibility these days to not be too far over the 85dB limit, but I’m certainly no expert in this area, but would say if the audio-output is not being ‘limited’ much below that level then the speaker is probably working as expected.

I was going to say if the limiter ‘clearly’ kicked-in earlier and noticeably below that volume-level to perhaps go back to Support and see what they may think about it.

Another thought occurred to me aswell…

Is the Arc in your case wall-mounted by any chance? If so, see this YT video…

 

K
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@Danio1137 

I will certainly do not. If there isn’t an answer/ software fix from Sonos in the next week or so I am done with Sonos. 

The arc is my first sonos product. Was planning for more. But looks like Sonos is a no-go. 

4

Has anyone experienced this issue, exchanged for a new Arc, and felt that the issue was improved with a new unit? Local Best Buy has offered to replace mine, but I am wondering if it’s affecting all units or just some. To echo many other people here, it literally sounds like the center channel/tweeter has a serious problem on my Arc. All dialogue sounds like S’s are super harsh/way over pronounced, as if someone is hissing into their mic. Don’t know if I should bother exchanging it, or just wait it out until Sonos addresses the issue via firmware update. 

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