Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128990 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.

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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.

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GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

Also - for what it’s worth - the bass issue (when not using a sub) is better than it was but certainly NOT 100% fixed….

I don’t have an issue with the metallic sound - but I have no doubt some people do.

Exactly. The bass issue was fixed by Sonos but people still are complaining about it. When Sonos “fixes” the metallic sound “problem” many people will still hear it and never be satisfied.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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Dysfunctional

Enthusiast II

Also - for what it’s worth - the bass issue (when not using a sub) is better than it was but certainly NOT 100% fixed….

I don’t have an issue with the metallic sound - but I have no doubt some people do.

Exactly. The bass issue was fixed by Sonos but people still are complaining about it. When Sonos “fixes” the metallic sound “problem” many people will still hear it and never be satisfied.

Well…. people are still complaining about the bass b/c it’s not fixed. Not all the way. This isn’t a matter of perception.

Sonos has acknowledged they’re working on the metallic sound issue...soooo I don’t think that’s a matter of perception either.

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GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

Also - for what it’s worth - the bass issue (when not using a sub) is better than it was but certainly NOT 100% fixed….

I don’t have an issue with the metallic sound - but I have no doubt some people do.

Exactly. The bass issue was fixed by Sonos but people still are complaining about it. When Sonos “fixes” the metallic sound “problem” many people will still hear it and never be satisfied.

Well…. people are still complaining about the bass b/c it’s not fixed. Not all the way. This isn’t a matter of perception.

Sonos has acknowledged they’re working on the metallic sound issue...soooo I don’t think that’s a matter of perception either.

It’s pretty simple:

Sonos said the bass issue has been fixed. But people are saying it hasn’t been fixed or, according to you, it hasn’t been fixed “all the way”. Therefore those people won’t ever be happy with the bass from the Arc. They have the option to live with it and pray for another “fix” or return it and get something they will be happy with.

In the future, IF Sonos says the metallic sound issue has been fixed, some people will say they still hear it and it hasn’t been fixed. Therefore those people won’t ever be happy with the sound from the Arc. They have the option to live with it and pray for another “fix” or return it and get something they will be happy with.

I think some people here should just return it and use their hard-earned money and get something they will be happy with so they can enjoy watching movies and listening to music again without complaining about it.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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Viljavi

Avid Contributor I

Also - for what it’s worth - the bass issue (when not using a sub) is better than it was but certainly NOT 100% fixed….

I don’t have an issue with the metallic sound - but I have no doubt some people do.

Exactly. The bass issue was fixed by Sonos but people still are complaining about it. When Sonos “fixes” the metallic sound “problem” many people will still hear it and never be satisfied.

Well…. people are still complaining about the bass b/c it’s not fixed. Not all the way. This isn’t a matter of perception.

Sonos has acknowledged they’re working on the metallic sound issue...soooo I don’t think that’s a matter of perception either.

It’s pretty simple:

Sonos said the bass issue has been fixed. But people are saying it hasn’t been fixed or, according to you, it hasn’t been fixed “all the way”. Therefore those people won’t ever be happy with the bass from the Arc. They have the option to live with it and pray for another “fix” or return it and get something they will be happy with.

In the future, IF Sonos says the metallic sound issue has been fixed, some people will say they still hear it and it hasn’t been fixed. Therefore those people won’t ever be happy with the sound from the Arc. They have the option to live with it and pray for another “fix” or return it and get something they will be happy with.

I think some people here should just return it and use their hard-earned money and get something they will be happy with so they can enjoy watching movies and listening to music again without complaining about it.

You enter a forum to give your opinion of a problem that does not affect you ... I would like you to have it and that at home you would have invested in more sonos speakers ... we would see if you say it so lightly, you would put it into practice. It is noted that for speaking from ignorance they do not charge in the forums.

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sillysharma

Lyricist III

@kenwk123 Read this whole thread and your comment re: hollow Hamilton on Disney+ is exactly how I’m feeling. I’ve had Arc + Sub + 2 SLs (Atmos-enabled via Sony TV) for 2 days and I’ve tuned 5x both with iPhone XS and iPad mini 2 to try and figure out why the orchestra doesn’t have fullness/richness and feeling of enveloping you with sounds. There is some hissing with the “s” in different scenes as well which is slightly lessened by playing with treble. Avengers Endgame wormhole battle scene sounds much better, dialogues are still slightly bright (Thor talking to Captain America, etc.) and I want to chalk it up to the recording of Hamilton. BUT I had a Samsung HW-Q90R previously and that sounded MUCH better (returned b/c of sub disconnecting all the time) so I’m not convinced it’s just the way it was filmed as another user in this thread mentioned it may be. Any other workarounds that have helped improve your experience with specifically Hamilton?

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kenwk123

Lyricist III

@kenwk123 Read this whole thread and your comment re: hollow Hamilton on Disney+ is exactly how I’m feeling. I’ve had Arc + Sub + 2 SLs (Atmos-enabled via Sony TV) for 2 days and I’ve tuned 5x both with iPhone XS and iPad mini 2 to try and figure out why the orchestra doesn’t have fullness/richness and feeling of enveloping you with sounds. There is some hissing with the “s” in different scenes as well which is slightly lessened by playing with treble. Avengers Endgame wormhole battle scene sounds much better, dialogues are still slightly bright (Thor talking to Captain America, etc.) and I want to chalk it up to the recording of Hamilton. BUT I had a Samsung HW-Q90R previously and that sounded MUCH better (returned b/c of sub disconnecting all the time) so I’m not convinced it’s just the way it was filmed as another user in this thread mentioned it may be. Any other workarounds that have helped improve your experience with specifically Hamilton?

Well I returned mine but in general if u do true play don’t walk around the room. Instead try to wave the phone around where u r sitting when listening. Also re:q90, u must adjust the 5ghz channel or risk interference with wireless sub. Anyway good luck on trying to tune the Arc.

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sillysharma

Lyricist III

@kenwk123 Thanks. I did tune walking just around the sofa/sitting area but not sitting completely just from a seated position in one place for the 2nd part of the tuning. I’ll try that next. The Q90, nothing worked for me with that sub issue and it was just too annoying to keep reconnecting. Also had a different issue with Vudu going black screen everytime I used it. I did notice a few screen “blackouts” yesterday while changing between inputs on the TV...wondering if it’s just a blip because of eARC (but that’s another thread to investigate). (If you don’t mind sharing, what did you end up going with for sound and is Hamilton better now?! lol)

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kenwk123

Lyricist III

@kenwk123 Thanks. I did tune walking just around the sofa/sitting area but not sitting completely just from a seated position in one place for the 2nd part of the tuning. I’ll try that next. The Q90, nothing worked for me with that sub issue and it was just too annoying to keep reconnecting. Also had a different issue with Vudu going black screen everytime I used it. I did notice a few screen “blackouts” yesterday while changing between inputs on the TV...wondering if it’s just a blip because of eARC (but that’s another thread to investigate). (If you don’t mind sharing, what did you end up going with for sound and is Hamilton better now?! lol)

I have not purchased any soundbars yet as I am still waiting for Vizio and Klipsch bars. In the mean time I am changing my entire stereo system so I have something to mess around with.

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LittleStes

Lyricist I

I purchased the ARC because of the terrific sound of the beam for music and movies. I really liked the highs that the beam produced and the clarity was unmatched by any of the other sound bars I have used. The ARC also sounds phenomenal but I have not yet been able to get the EQ setting correct. The highs still sound brilliant but I am not getting the warm tones in voices that I had with the beam. The only way to achieve this is to turn off true play on my ARC (always used it on the beam). The problem is that without Trueplay, the sound loses some “brilliance” in the high end and doesn’t sound as crisp. Hoping that a software update can help with Trueplay to keep the warmth in voices but also provide the super clean highs.

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sillysharma

Lyricist III

@LittleStes I spent several hours today re-tuning to get a better sound from the Arc because of my specific obsession with wanting a warmer sound from Hamilton in Disney+. A few things that immensely helped my sound today was moving the Arc to the front edge of my TV stand (more for Atmos-specific firing) and the way I did the Trueplay tuning...I followed Peter Pee’s reco on YouTube (“How to place the Sonos Arc for best Atmos effect”) towards the end he talks about how to hold the phone/iPad mic when tuning and following that really helped my sound be much fuller. I do hear some places where the vocals are still bright and a little bit of the “ssss” effect but none of that comes through when testing with Avengers Endgame wormhole battle scene or with Mad Max Fury Road on 4K Blu-Ray, just Hamilton (and I can more than live with that for now). After re-tuning, I only use EQ to pull treble to -2 (probably more personal preference) and it sounds much better to me. Now if only we could have a speaker-specific EQ...

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