Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

I would have a hard time believing that changing the hdmi would do anything as well.  The ARC is even worse with music, and I’m sending that over WiFi via Tidal and Spotify.  The HDMI plays no factor in music transfer for me.

Can confirm. Sound issues come back if I change the arc pass through setting back to PCM. So the HDMI cable is definitely NOT the problem. Not sure why Sonos support prescribed it to a previous poster (maybe an extra precaution).

PCM just means stereo.  There’s absolutely no reason it shouldn’t sound good in stereo as well.  What a POS.

Some users are happy with their Arc setups. That’s great and I am happy for them. Other users, me included, find their Arc setups lacking. I have a full 5.1 setup with Arc, Suc, and two Sonos ones, and I experience the harsh S issue and the hollow sound. This ruins the listening experience for me.

Users also report that moving Arc helps, or that Trueplay with older iOS devices helps. Additionally, there are specific Trueplay “dances” that users recommend.   

From the above facts, here is what I think is happening:

1. Sonos Arc was tuned at the factory to a certain room size and shape. Testing was probably done for a limited number of scenarios, and for them it works well.
2. Trueplay also assumes certain factors about a room, such as (maybe) symmetry, wall material, etc. 
3. Thus, there are problems if people have different room setups that cause distorted sound signatures. For example, in my TV room: the Arc is on a cerdenza near a reinforced concrete wall. Across from it ( about 4.5 meters) is another concrete wall. To its left (looking at it from the sofa) is a big glass doorway, and to its right is an empty space (for the dining area and kitchen). Ceilings and floor are both reinforced concrete, and there are no rugs or anything of the sort. This is very different to what you may find in North America, and perhaps differs significantly from the settings Arc was optimized for. 

Now, the above *is* a problem, and Sonos should fix it. Could it be that due to Covid19 less testing was performed? Sonos, please address thus issues! Also @Scott - Sonos @Jean C. @Krishma M and others at Sonos: please don’t let us hang dry, and give us some intermittent updates. Keep us in the loop! 

As for some users on this thread: I am ecstatic that you are not experiencing problems. That’s great for you. This does not mean that “everything is fine” and that other users must be imagining things. Believe me, I am not imagining that the sound is problematic and worse. As someone who loves their Sonos setup, I want to just be happy with it. Instead, I am constantly A/B testing with other speakers. The effect of these problems is to make me, a frequent Sonos buyer, doubt my system and start considering other alternatives. Today, Sonos Arc is frustrating; once the sound problem is fixed, my Sonos system will once again bring me great joy. 
 

I think a lot of the people who are happy with the Arc are coming from listening to tv speakers.  Which in most cases, a Bluetooth speaker would be an upgrade.  You don’t see many people on here coming from another soundbar, and definitely not a decent hifi setup, praising the arc.  Poor or limited reference points.  

Right? Honestly, Changing it to PCM makes it sound like a $50 Bluetooth speaker.

Even with this solved, I still find the mids quite lacking compared to my older bookshelf speaker setup. Hoping for a software update that fixes this soon

I also think it can be source dependant too, for me it can sound ok on Netflix and movies but when I switch back to Sky it sounds awful

I’ve had a Playbar for 5 years and since setting it up the first day I’ve hardly had to alter any settings, with this thing it’s constant trying it with different settings or trueplay on or and then when you think you have it sounding right on a certain show or movie as soon as you watch something else it sounds terrible again and at a much higher volume.

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.

I was convinced mine was faulty as I was sure an £800 sound bar couldn’t sound worse than the beam. I exchanged it and the new one is EXACTLY the same. I don’t think it’s hardware, I think the arc is just rubbish. Mine is going back.

Well said. I think all this ‘the update improved things’, moving the arc helped, adding the sub helped, replacing the hdmi helped, changing my tv setting help is essentially a placebo. I think it’s hard to accept that the sound bar you have been looking forward to is actually very poor. 

Is it possible to mark this as unanswered? I think Sonos is ignoring this thread as it is marked as answered. There is a problem with Arc (I believe it’s a firmware problem), and it should be addressed. Sonos should continue to update us that it’s being worked on.