Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128983 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?

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

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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Audiofn

Trending Lyricist I

I find conversations regarding Trueplay and retuning etc. bizarre to be honest. With it switched off (like it has to be for a huge amount of users who use Android), the Arc should not be exhibiting any of the issues being so widely reported.

Trueplay is to adjust the sound according to the room/environment it is in, not to fix fundamental problems. There may be issues with tuning on specific devices’ microphones (quite ironic given the reasons for Trueplay only being supported on Apple devices) - but with it switched off these sorts of issues with bass etc. really shouldn't be there.

If you switch it off and have the problem then there is a huge issue.

And I am in this category of being an android user. I was disappointed from the very start with the sound of my Arc. I had tried adjusting the bass/treble with undesirable effects and then by borrowing my nephews iPhone to 'trueplay' the bar it did improve the sound quite dramatically. Unfortunately though it remains hardly any better than my old 5 year old, £130, samsung 2.1 system it replaces, in fact for growling bass and loudness the Samsung was way better!

This is my first dive in to the Sonos ocean and after glowing reviews I believed I was going to get a cinema experience and so I should at £800! All the Sonos fans seem to think it is okay to have a broken speaker, perhaps you may have a sub and play 1s and you believe, maybe because you have invested so much time and money in to their ecosystem, that Sonos will repair this broken soundbar. For me spending another £1000 to get that (and still some lambast the Arc with that setup) is crazy. It would be like buying a Ferrari with a 1.0 litre eco engine and saying but to get the best from it you need to upgrade and spend over double what you paid for it in the first place to make it what it should be (Actual costs exaggerated)!

From what I'm reading everyone was happy with their previous Sonos products and I have heard some that sound great, that's what I was expecting (and more) from the Arc, how underwhelmed and disappointed I am. Yes I can send it back, but before I do I want to make sure the next £800 I spend on a soundbar isn't broken.

Everything else Sonos makes is great. That’s why it’s so disappointing. Most of the other products all have a similar sound signature: warm, punchy, dynamic... belies it’s size. The Arc is just completely out of step with everything else sound wise. It’s like a completely different company made it.

At this point I really wish it was just a bigger more dynamic 5.1 Playbar replacement. I think most people would have loved that. The Atmos feature of the ARC for me is way overhyped. Most of the time it’s almost unnoticeable. If you have the perfect size room with 8 foot ceilings, flat side walls, etc it’s impressive. But with most average living rooms the pseudo effects will struggle.

M

Marco Sonos

Lyricist I

I was suffering from the same issue. After I read this thread I contacted Sonos support and was escalated to senior support who actually set up a night time appointment and called me to troubleshoot. I am playing through an LG OLED 77C9. Spectacular TV BTW. We ended up with two solutions that fixed my issue. I switched HDMI from pass through to auto in the LG HDMI settings and replaced the Sonos ARC supplied HDMI cable with a “higher” end cable. That fixed the issue and ATMOS now sounds amazing through the ARC. Night and day difference from before to after. Good luck with this possible solution for LG users.

A

Audiofn

Trending Lyricist I

I was suffering from the same issue. After I read this thread I contacted Sonos support and was escalated to senior support who actually set up a night time appointment and called me to troubleshoot. I am playing through an LG OLED 77C9. Spectacular TV BTW. We ended up with two solutions that fixed my issue. I switched HDMI from pass through to auto in the LG HDMI settings and replaced the Sonos ARC supplied HDMI cable with a “higher” end cable. That fixed the issue and ATMOS now sounds amazing through the ARC. Night and day difference from before to after. Good luck with this possible solution for LG users.

That is super interesting. Did they send you the new HDMI? That is one of the most debated things in audio, whether a digital cable (HDMI/Optical) can affect sound quality. Most argue it makes no difference, as you either are receiving the 1s and 0s or you’re not. Which one did you get?

You can pay 100s-1000s of dollars for a premium HDMI from companies like AudioQuest.

K

King Colin

Avid Contributor I

A good cable makes a huge difference. I have a Audioquest Cinnamon hooked up to my beam.The sound quality is certainly noticeable.

Whether it will solve Arc problem-give it a try!!!

M

maurice.pothoven

Trending Lyricist II

I was suffering from the same issue. After I read this thread I contacted Sonos support and was escalated to senior support who actually set up a night time appointment and called me to troubleshoot. I am playing through an LG OLED 77C9. Spectacular TV BTW. We ended up with two solutions that fixed my issue. I switched HDMI from pass through to auto in the LG HDMI settings and replaced the Sonos ARC supplied HDMI cable with a “higher” end cable. That fixed the issue and ATMOS now sounds amazing through the ARC. Night and day difference from before to after. Good luck with this possible solution for LG users.

What was the exact problem? I have a LG 55NANO866 and I’m using the original HDMI cable but I don’t have a problem with Atmos. This always works.

C

craigski

Local Superstar

If I use a ‘platinum’ premium HDMI cable, I guess the Arc would produce a more ‘platinum’ metallic sound, vs a ‘copper’ metallic sound?

D

Danio1137

If I use a ‘platinum’ premium HDMI cable, I guess the Arc would produce a more ‘platinum’ metallic sound, vs a ‘copper’ metallic sound?

:-)

L

ledzep1

Headliner II

So the Sonos supplied cable is cheap rubbish and we need to all go out and buy a high end cable to magically fix this issue?

To clarify I don't notice this issue and am using the Sonos supplied cable.

Anyone know what the Sonos cable is, is it a capable of 48gbps (hdmi 2.1) or up to 18gbps?

B

bonedaddy

Trending Lyricist I

I read this forum since the arc premiere because I have the same problem. With no warmth in the sound, unbearable highs not to mention the sssss. After the update the problem is still there. This update has not fixed anything in my case. I'm going to exchange my arc for another one, I'm still on time. But if this is not fixed I return everything. By the way I have arc, sub and two sonos 1 rear and it still sounds just as bad. I come from the playbar, with sub and 2 one, no point of comparison.

Very well put and exactly how I feel.

D

Doozeruk

Lyricist III

I read this forum since the arc premiere because I have the same problem. With no warmth in the sound, unbearable highs not to mention the sssss. After the update the problem is still there. This update has not fixed anything in my case. I'm going to exchange my arc for another one, I'm still on time. But if this is not fixed I return everything. By the way I have arc, sub and two sonos 1 rear and it still sounds just as bad. I come from the playbar, with sub and 2 one, no point of comparison.

Very well put and exactly how I feel.

And if this is the reaction from seasoned Sonos owners who are not afraid to admit the problems the Arc co-creates then the bar itself must be technically inept.

It's brave of those already deep in the Sonos system to voice serious concern (especially within the company's own forums) on how unhappy they are with the Arc. These people really have been the bread and butter for Sonos but it now seems they are unrewarded for being loyal. I see lots of posts saying Sonos will fix this, but will they, I understand the following some may want to show given the revenue they have pumped into the system and I do hope their faith is correct. I just don't understand why Sonos released this in the first place as an inferior product to its already better line.

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