Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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. 

Has anyone who is reporting issues tried a different HDMI cable? 
Just curious if a high end cable may be a solution for some. 
 

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 

‘Premium’ cables also tend to be fatter, less flexible and come with bigger HDMI connectors, and you may find they don’t physically fit, especially when space is tight behind a wall mounted TV/Soundbar.

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. 

Quit confusing the issue with facts!

Really glad to have found this thread. I just bought an Arc and was surprised by the poor audio quality. My older setup a pair of honest stereo speakers (AudioEngine A5s). At first setup, the was arc seemed sub-par in almost all respects, especially vocals. 
 

I followed one of the suggestions above - set arc pass through to auto in my LG B8 TV settings, and changed the hdmi cable. Happy to report that the sound quality has improved massively.

Unless your HDMI cable is defective change cable on digital connections should have no sound impact on on a $800 soundbar.  We are not talking about $10.000 system

I agree. This is the first time I’ve even considered switching hdmi cables for troubleshooting something. Based on the response from Sonos support (to user “Marco Sonos” above), the included cable being defective is a clear possibility.
 

More likely, the hdmi passthrough setting in LG TVs somehow causes audio issues in arc. Setting it to Auto helped fix it in my case.
 

Anyways, I’m glad that it worked out. Hoping this helps anybody else with an LG Tv running into the same issue.

Overall though, I’m not impressed so far. As a first time Sonos buyer, I was excited for this. The Arc still seems like a mediocre sounding and over-priced system with Atmos being its main saving grace. Might end up returning it after a few days and invest in build/upgrading a traditional wired home theater setup. 

Which premium HDMI cable are you using?

Can you try testing with the supplied cable and only change the setting to auto? And see if it sounds better only if change the setting and not the cable?

It’s not the HDMI cable causing the issue people.