Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

For me, trueplay does improve things somewhat, but the sound, even after trueplay is just a little too bright. To me, this is bothersome. 

To test things, I brought back the Beam to hear it instead. I did the Trueplay dance and everything. I can still hear the areas where the brightness is prevalent, but overall the Beam’s sound is rounder, so that the brightness isn’t as pronounced. 

I am very hopeful that a DSP update will fix things and make Arc amazing. Even some more fine-grained EQ could be helpful. 

P.S. Some shows are indeed worse than others. This has to do with the way they are mastered, as well as their level of sound compression (how lossy DD5.1 is). The thing is: for the same compressed source, speech sounds better to me (has less bright/harsh artifacts) when processed by my iPad and played through wired headphones than when processed by Arc and played through the entire 5.1 system. Since the speech (center) channel is so important to the sound experience, I am not getting the most enjoyment from my Sonos system. It is the speech channel that needs adjusting. 

I stress that I love my Sonos system, and I think it has some fantastic advantages. I am “all in” on it, with multiple speakers. I want my Arc to bring my joy, and I hope that its sound signature is fixed soon. As with my other comments, I will again ask Sonos to please give us some updates on what’s happening. 

I have the LG C9 and played with “auto” vs “passthrough” setting. While I couldn’t notice any difference to audio quality, it seems to have some effect on lip sync. I compared “Meridian” on netflix, especially lip sync on dialouge between 00:00:50 and 00:01:15. I find it better in sync with setting “auto” which I find odd, as I always thought “passthrough” should come with the most direct and unprocessed output.

Returned my arc and ended up buying a Sony ST5000 instead. Couldn’t have been happier. Crisp highs and pin point spatial sounds in Atmos. It’s not nearly as plug-n-play as Sonos and has a clunky remote, but hey, no more waiting for OTA updates to fix audio bugs. 

I always wonder what “Auto” does compared to passthrough, I have used passthrough from when I purchased TV and ARC, that way I know where the decoding is done.

I presume with AUTO the decoding would still be done on the ARC, especially if all hdmi ports are set to bitstream.

I think with AUTO it effects the internal apps rather than any external device.

My brother uses apple tv 4k on lg b9 and he says auto sounds much better than passthrough. Try this out with an atmos or 5.1 sources. There will be a difference. I notice a difference on my older OLED as well (i do not get atmos) but I think passthrough just gives me stereo sound) 

Really surprised and disappointed about how thin dialogue sounds on the arc. Generally too bright for my taste, not what I expected from a Sonos product. I have a beam in the next room and for day to day TV and radio think it sounds fuller and more rounded. I have been impressed with the articulation and bass with the arc. Action scenes and sounds effects in particular are spectacular. However this is undermined by the issues so many have described in this thread. I can't understand how the product gets such rave reviews. Considering my options but arc is likely to go back to Sonos unless there is an imminent firmware fix. 

Re LG C9, I find no changes with altering passthrough to auto etc.

That explanation is exactly what I think. The bass and effects are very good, but the voices ruin everything, thin, bright, annoying voices and the hissing especially of female voices are not in keeping with the sonos signature. I would add a detail ... it lacks means and in my humble opinion that is what takes the warmth out of the whole.

That explanation is exactly what I think. The bass and effects are very good, but the voices ruin everything, thin, bright, annoying voices and the hissing especially of female voices are not in keeping with the sonos signature. I would add a detail ... it lacks means and in my humble opinion that is what takes the warmth out of the whole.

Exactly as my feel and experiences. Trueplay does help. But still feel unbalanced overall, unless some EQ settings are tweaked.

That explanation is exactly what I think. The bass and effects are very good, but the voices ruin everything, thin, bright, annoying voices and the hissing especially of female voices are not in keeping with the sonos signature. I would add a detail ... it lacks means and in my humble opinion that is what takes the warmth out of the whole.

I, too, experience this precisely. The voices are really hissy and bright. I am eagerly waiting for this to be fixed (and for now I constantly Trueplay hoping one day, by magic, I’ll find a “sweet spot”. No such luck yet). 

What EQ settings have you tweaked? I find that reducing the treble is too crude of an adjustment. 

Sonos -- please tell us that you’re working on this!

That explanation is exactly what I think. The bass and effects are very good, but the voices ruin everything, thin, bright, annoying voices and the hissing especially of female voices are not in keeping with the sonos signature. I would add a detail ... it lacks means and in my humble opinion that is what takes the warmth out of the whole.

Totally agree with this, the voices do sound very hissy and too bright. no warmth to it.