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Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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1017 replies

K
Userlevel 2
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I couldn’t stick it any longer. I brought the arc back to the shop,and exchanged for a beam.I now find warmer audio,same quality in soundstage plus 430 Euro into my pocket as a refund. Unfortunately the Arc wasn’t for me and my Tv room. Good luck in getting a better Arc!

BMF
Userlevel 5
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I have a Samsung TV and as Music streamed directly from the Arc, not involving any TV, still sounds harsh…. I assume it is the sound signature of the Arc.

 

hopefully it can be warmed up by Software to be closer to the other Sonos speakers.

S

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.

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

A
Userlevel 6
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**Updated edit**
 

So I think I figured it out. Spent a lot of time on this.

Its as if the “virtual surround sound” is tuned too high. Think about a cheap sound bar and you select the “virtual surround button.” It creates a “room filling” sound but this also why people are explaining the sound is irritating especially with music. You hear too much of it thus missing out on the warmth and depth of mods. I suspect people with a large room where sound doesn’t bounce off walls don’t have this problem which explains the differing view points.

 

Even when I pair the sub and surrounds I still feel like the arc is trying to do too much electronically to fill the room. Let the speaker do the talking and back down the algorithm for emphasizing “virtual surround sound” 

This does not explain why the vocals are tinny. Center speaker is till direct, facing you. there is no virtual surround with the speech.

N

Just bought the Arc + Sub3, after having a demo in RicherSounds in the UK. I thought it sounded metallic in the store but the sales guy said it was due to the height of the demo room.

After finishing setup in my 4m x 4m x 2.3m living room, with carpet and other soft furnishings, the sounds is… metallic and shrill. Movies I know well sound odd. There seems to be a clear gap in the midrange. Voices have no timbre. As and Ts sound harsh. TrueSound doesn’t help at all.

This is running 14.20.1; I was hoping I’d be running and old SW version and upgrade would fix this, but no.

It seems to be worst with 7.1TrueHD audio. And the volume is all over the place; action sounds can fill out the midrange, but they become super loud, so need to be turned down. Moments later, during conversation, I’m reaching for the remote to turn up the speaker so I can hear what they’re saying. I really don’t want to be surfing the remote with everything I watch.

Switching to 5.1 seems to help a little, but not enough to be a good “fix”. Turning off the sub doesn’t help much either.

At the weekend I’m going to grab a Beam for a comparison, but I’m 90% sure this £1600 speaker combo will be returned next week. I did my research and all the reviews said Sonos was a clear winner in the tests, but honestly my Bose SoundLink Mini seems to provide better midrange over Bluetooth than this “market leader”.

If anyone has a fix for this I’m sure the community would love to hear it. And I’d love to hear what people moved to if they’re happy after returning their Arc.

V
Userlevel 1
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Want to make sure people saw Peter Pee’s latest video… does a great job looking at the frequency response of Arc, with and without Trueplay, and with and without the Sub. I think this illustrates the current issues with Arc, and I think it also shows that it could be easily remedied through software updates. I would argue that it’s likely to be.

TL;DR: there is indeed an obvious spike in the treble, there is indeed a bass issue, adding the sub does remedy the bass issue, and Trueplay (even performed with an iPhone 11) does make a big difference to flatten the frequency response of the speaker, so it would be silly not to use it.

 

R

Hi tgx (and all),

I recently got the Arc and was at first in love with it which running through the normal test stuff - gaming, 4K movies etc. it was great. Got the sub to go with it the next day. Awesome. 
 

Then i started watching normal stuff like cable TV and other stuff like Netflix at regular volume and the sound stage completely fell apart like the folks here are complaining about. Metallic, hollow, tinny etc. I tried night mode, voice enhancer, adjusting treble and bass, and truplay. 

While it was good at the higher “demoing my new system” volume it was actually shockingly bad at anything else. I own several Sonos speakers - i love they sound the produce even straight out the box before even touching the EQ and at all volumes. 

One major issue i see is not having any sound modes to choose from. I feel like a standard forced “Stereo” or “Stereo 2X” would really help for just watching standard tv. TV typically has horrible results with any soundbars that lack a simple forced stereo mode. There was way too much sound coming out of the center channel only and silly stuff like commercials bouncing sound all over the room - like fake 5.1 simulation. Constantly adjusting the volume even with night mode enabled.
 

@tgx how has the bar done with normal cable tv viewing after your new true play tuning? If not Have you tried anything like YouTube TV or Hulu? 

In the end I returned mine ( and sub)with a very heavy heart as i what wanted a Sonos soundbar for years, then waited a good 2 years after that for the enviable upgrade (the Arc) to launch. 

couldn’t have been more disappointed…
 

 


 

 

 

Z
Userlevel 2

This is what I predicted. People are trying to explain: like this is what is supposed to sound like and Sonos wil not fix this. 
 

all because Sonos is dead silent about this problem. Not give us an answer if it will be fixed/ tuned or not. 
 

I have a 100 day return period. But for me this way all the fun is gone.  Really thinking of returning the arc ASAP.  Then I can move on. Maybe try Bose soundbar 700.

I am thinking of doing the same. Enough with this nonsense. Will buy the Samsung Atmos soundbar

A
Userlevel 2
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I also have an LG C9. That’s like four people on this thread. Anyone else have an LG tv?

I have a B7, and overall sound is sublime. Definitely seems like a faulty batch of hardware 

B
Userlevel 3
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I was on the phone yesterday with tech support and he had me send in the diagnostics from the Sonos app. He said it came back with some bad “bashes”, he would not elaborate, but obviously it is not performing like it should, but I still have a feeling this has nothing to do with the tinny lack of bass. I am afraid this is a hardware and not a software problem :( I am so bummed, I was really looking forward to this being a great speaker, but when I go back to my Playbar, which I still have, I get more bass and a fuller sound. I was doing my best to sell my wife on the fact that it would be great to have this new speaker which costs a lot, but alas, playing the Arc is not helping. And music through it is just awful! The dialogue on movies with the Arc is a bit better, but to loose the lows is a non starter. My setup has the sub and to Sonos Ones as well. 

This is exactly my experience with the Arc.  I just regretfully sent it back to Sonos this morning.  My Playbar doesn't look as nice as the Arc but the sound is so much smoother and voices are way better too.  I just couldn't take the shrillness of the Arc any longer.  Of course I lost my discount code on the return….:tired_face:

 

My advice is to stay with the Playbar or Beam until this is sorted out. 

B

New to Sonos. Having the same problem. Will have to return at this rate. Is the beam much better? I’d try that with the sub and surrounds if so, otherwise it might need to be a different brand! It’s so tinny and harsh!

D
Userlevel 4
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Yup- after the update still having the same issues with the muddy bass and treble …disappointing….

Did you do a trueplay? 

Of course... 

S
Userlevel 4
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We ended up with two solutions that fixed my issue.  I switched HDMI from pass through to auto in the LG HDMI settings and replaced the Sonos ARC supplied HDMI cable with a “higher” end cable.  That fixed the issue and ATMOS now sounds amazing through the ARC.  Night and day difference from before to after.  Good luck with this possible solution for LG users.

 

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.

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) 

C

How is everyone getting on with the metallic sound? Did it get better over time? Did people return there Arc’s or have people kept hold of there Arc’s in hope for a software update to resolve this?

I have just set my Playbar back up which the Arc replaced and it sounds so much better during normal tv like news programmes and documentaries which is where the voices on my Arc sounds terrible.

I actually think I will return the Arc now

O
Userlevel 4
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I too am on the “this is a software issue that will be fixed”. I am also overly observant of audio issues at the moment.

However, what bothers me is the radio silence from Sonos. I really hope they will chime in to say that something is in the works! 

A
Userlevel 3
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It’s not the HDMI cable causing the issue people.

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.

S

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).

 

L
Userlevel 3
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Not sure why this problem is still not acknowledged by Sonos. That harsh treble is just present across all contents I played. 

Feels like I'm still using TV speaker but with better bass. I had occasions I was using TV speaker and I thought I was using the Arc.. that is how bad the sound is to me..

Y
Userlevel 2

Has anyone found a fix for this yet? It is very clear when you listen to the S’s in dialogue.

I have tried True Playing with my iPhone X, 2 old iPhone 6’s, and an iPhone XR - not much difference with them.

I have treble set to -4 and bass to 3. It hasn’t changed after getting the Sub too.

A
Userlevel 3
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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.

S
Userlevel 2
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Not sure why this problem is still not acknowledged by Sonos. That harsh treble is just present across all contents I played. 

Feels like I'm still using TV speaker but with better bass. I had occasions I was using TV speaker and I thought I was using the Arc.. that is how bad the sound is to me..

 

Yup. 

J

This is my first post and I apologize in advance if this isn’t helpful.
 

In my living room I have a Beam, Sub gen2 and two Ones connected to the S2 app. I replaced a Beam with an Arc yesterday and I experienced the same issues listed here. Muffled bass out of the box and sharp highs after True Play (with iPhone XS Max). It just sounded bad overall. 
 

There were some helpful comments in this thread and a video online that made me try retuning True Play with an OLD iPad mini. I did that this morning and it worked. The arc sounds like a different product, with music and video.
 

Last night I turned the treble down to -5 with Speech enhance on to be able to watch “Bates Motel” on Netflix and “Warcraft” on FX (via Apple TV 4K). Today After retuning True Play treble is at 0 and speech enhance is off and it sounds so much better. 
 

Thanks for the helpful posts! 

C
Userlevel 1

RTing worded the problem very well. They also mention a lack  EQ setting features. So, i wish a center channel is added.

P
Userlevel 4
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4 digits before the serial no

S
Userlevel 4
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Just recently found this thread, would anybody be so kind to summarise this thread up for me so i don't have to read through all the 418 replies haha. Is there a solution to the metallic sound or anything that helps/reduces it?

 

No - not for those affected by the issue.  Sonos has been pretty silent on the issue as well.  There may or may not be a hardware issue/bad batch as some people don’t seem to be having any issues/complaints whatsoever.  Others think all the issues can be fixed with software updates.

Bottom line is - your guess is as good as anyone’s at this point!

@dhewitt  Try it out. Many are happy with their Arcs! I have 0 complaints about metallic sounds… Lots of replies doesnt mean everyone here is complaining theres tons of back and forths and also people posting examples of their problem content. So not 418 complaints

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