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arpatil1
Enthusiast II
June 17, 2020
Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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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    Scott - SonosAnswer
    Sonos Product Management
    July 2, 2020

    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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    Doozeruk
    Lyricist III
    July 31, 2020

    All these comments about moving things, changing settings or cables are all irrelevant. You shouldnt have to do any of that. I had an LG SK9Y sound bar mid range from a couple of years ago and i put sound bar and sub in the same position as the old equipment with same cables etc and it sounds no where near as good as my LG. I have had another Arc sound bar sent out to me and that is exactly the same. The issue is the bar nothing else, it needs an update to sort this or if that is not possible then this is a very poor sound bar from sonos.

    Just to confirm my issue with the arc is the extremely noticeable and very bad sounding tinniness to the voices.

    This exactly, knowing that my old £130 Samsung sounded more bassy and clear but not totally enveloping like the Arc, I really would like to through my money at maybe the Samsung hw-q80r. I want good sounds and simplicity but I don't want speakers everywhere hence my purchase of the Arc in the first place. Its the same amount of cash, doesn't have the Sonos stamp but at the end of the day if it performs better then Sonos will be flying back to the Netherlands! 

      King Colin
      Avid Contributor I
      July 31, 2020

      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)!

      CuzFeeshe
      Enthusiast I
      July 31, 2020

      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.

        Viljavi
        Avid Contributor I
        July 31, 2020

        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.
          GC3
          Headliner I
          July 31, 2020

          Is there a Sonos conspiracy theory anyone has missed? Maybe we should play our records backwards and listen for secret messages about Sonos mind control?

            PowdeRiver
            Lyricist III
            July 31, 2020

            I’m leaning towards sources causing this issue and how they were recorded.

            oriboaz
            Prodigy I
            July 31, 2020

            I’m leaning towards sources causing this issue and how they were recorded.

            Nope. Although some sources are better than others, with the Beam the same sources sounded less sibilant and less harsh. 

              PowdeRiver
              Lyricist III
              July 31, 2020

              Nope, lol. That’s my experience. I’ve used different sources and different speakers and it depends on what source to how much more the sound is projected. Don’t be the guy who tells other people what they hear.

                sebas1509
                Enthusiast II
                July 31, 2020

                I’m leaning towards sources causing this issue and how they were recorded.

                Nope. Although some sources are better than others, with the Beam the same sources sounded less sibilant and less harsh. 

                Because the speakers have different frequency responses. Tuning as well as environment will affect this. The arc also extends higher frequencies than the beam. It isn’t a mysterious cause it is understood. The issue is why are some reporting more perceived siblance? The explanation for this could be environmental or tuning. An issue with trueplaying could be creating peaks in certain frequencies 5k-10kHz that are jarring to the ear.  Sources depending on the mic used will also play into this.

                Some people are more sensitive to this. So others might hear your speaker and either not mind or just their ears cant detect it. I think this can easily be fixed with DSP changes by SONOS. The issue is how do you make sure the changes are consistent and dont degrade the sound. The complexity of this bug might be the variance from different tuning/environments. Especially now that sonos supposedly increased trueplay complexity by taking height into account. Mayeb the algorithm for the Arc is changed etc.

                So yes the speaker on the Arc for an unknown reason might be more succeptible to these frequencies peaking and causing discomfort. But sources and envrionment play a role for sure.

                  jkozlow3
                  Enthusiast II
                  July 31, 2020

                  What about all the people who said it sounds like crap even without Trueplay though?

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