Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128989 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.

Show previous replies

B

Bjmort

Avid Contributor I

Just watched avengers endgame when everyone comes through the worm holes and attacks thanos in Atmos and oh my lord. Glorious. Amazing special separation, exceptional clarity and perfect amount of subs and surrounds. No need to adjust

C

cowieson

Lyricist III

Just watched avengers endgame when everyone comes through the worm holes and attacks thanos and oh my lord. Glorious. Amazing special separation, exceptional clarity and perfect amount of subs and surrounds. No need to adjust

Hah, I watched that after I retuned mine too! Glad you’ve got it set up to your satisfaction now!

D

dhewitt

Lyricist III

Ok I fixed it! So I trueplay tuned again but this time I did not move around the room. I just sat in my tv viewing spot and moved the phone around. And perfection!

and this was with an iPhone XS

To clarify, what issue has it fixed for you?

B

Bjmort

Avid Contributor I

Ok I fixed it! So I trueplay tuned again but this time I did not move around the room. I just sat in my tv viewing spot and moved the phone around. And perfection!

and this was with an iPhone XS

To clarify, what issue has it fixed for you?

Doing trueplay from the couch only

C

cowieson

Lyricist III

Ok I fixed it! So I trueplay tuned again but this time I did not move around the room. I just sat in my tv viewing spot and moved the phone around. And perfection!

and this was with an iPhone XS

To clarify, what issue has it fixed for you?

Doing trueplay from the couch only

I think they were asking - what issue did you previously have, which has now been fixed by redoing trueplay from the couch?

B

Bjmort

Avid Contributor I

Ok I fixed it! So I trueplay tuned again but this time I did not move around the room. I just sat in my tv viewing spot and moved the phone around. And perfection!

and this was with an iPhone XS

To clarify, what issue has it fixed for you?

Doing trueplay from the couch only

I think they were asking - what issue did you previously have, which has now been fixed by redoing trueplay from the couch?

Poor frequency response (no bass, tinny highs, no punch)

poor special separation.

Bad sub and surrounds mix

D

dhewitt

Lyricist III

Ok I fixed it! So I trueplay tuned again but this time I did not move around the room. I just sat in my tv viewing spot and moved the phone around. And perfection!

and this was with an iPhone XS

To clarify, what issue has it fixed for you?

Doing trueplay from the couch only

I think they were asking - what issue did you previously have, which has now been fixed by redoing trueplay from the couch?

Poor frequency response (no bass, tinny highs, no punch)

poor special separation.

Bad sub and surrounds mix

I have just tried this trueplay in seating position and this is by no way a fix for the metallic sound from the voices we are all having, in fact it did nothing. I’m glad it did something for you, but that does for sure not fix this issue at all.

B

Bjmort

Avid Contributor I

Ok I fixed it! So I trueplay tuned again but this time I did not move around the room. I just sat in my tv viewing spot and moved the phone around. And perfection!

and this was with an iPhone XS

To clarify, what issue has it fixed for you?

Doing trueplay from the couch only

I think they were asking - what issue did you previously have, which has now been fixed by redoing trueplay from the couch?

Poor frequency response (no bass, tinny highs, no punch)

poor special separation.

Bad sub and surrounds mix

I have just tried this trueplay in seating position and this is by no way a fix for the metallic sound from the voices we are all having, in fact it did nothing. I’m glad it did something for you, but that does for sure not fix this issue at all.

I think it proves though it’s clearly a trueplay tuning issue. It’s the way the frequencies are interacting in the room and how the information is being received and processes.

D

dhewitt

Lyricist III

Ok I fixed it! So I trueplay tuned again but this time I did not move around the room. I just sat in my tv viewing spot and moved the phone around. And perfection!

and this was with an iPhone XS

To clarify, what issue has it fixed for you?

Doing trueplay from the couch only

I think they were asking - what issue did you previously have, which has now been fixed by redoing trueplay from the couch?

Poor frequency response (no bass, tinny highs, no punch)

poor special separation.

Bad sub and surrounds mix

I have just tried this trueplay in seating position and this is by no way a fix for the metallic sound from the voices we are all having, in fact it did nothing. I’m glad it did something for you, but that does for sure not fix this issue at all.

I think it proves though it’s clearly a trueplay tuning issue. It’s the way the frequencies are interacting in the room and how the information is being received and processes.

Not sure i agree with this as trueplay is an added feature not a repair for bad sound. We shouldnt be having these such big issues with trueplay enabled or not.

B

Bjmort

Avid Contributor I

Ok I fixed it! So I trueplay tuned again but this time I did not move around the room. I just sat in my tv viewing spot and moved the phone around. And perfection!

and this was with an iPhone XS

To clarify, what issue has it fixed for you?

Doing trueplay from the couch only

I think they were asking - what issue did you previously have, which has now been fixed by redoing trueplay from the couch?

Poor frequency response (no bass, tinny highs, no punch)

poor special separation.

Bad sub and surrounds mix

I have just tried this trueplay in seating position and this is by no way a fix for the metallic sound from the voices we are all having, in fact it did nothing. I’m glad it did something for you, but that does for sure not fix this issue at all.

I think it proves though it’s clearly a trueplay tuning issue. It’s the way the frequencies are interacting in the room and how the information is being received and processes.

Not sure i agree with this as trueplay is an added feature not a repair for bad sound. We shouldnt be having these such big issues with trueplay enabled or not.

Completely disagree. Every single sound system needs to be tuned for the space it’s in. No sound system will sound great without being correctly eq’d. And that’s what trueplay is. EQ. The EQ field in the Sonos app is not a room equalising feature, it is there to colour the sound to your liking. If you like more bass or treble than what trueplay sees as ideal then you can colour to your liking.

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