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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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    106rallye
    106rallye
    August 25, 2021

    What sound format are you playing? Did you do a Trueplay?

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    chwdroid
    Contributor I
    August 25, 2021

    Indykid,

    There are MANY folks who have this same issue and NO “Trueplay” will NOT fix the issue.  As you have noticed the thin sound can be “somewhat” program dependent. That is not the case with the Beam which is consistently excellent. (I have both.)  In the long term don’t expect your ears to adjust to this substandard sound quality. The Arc does do a fair job of simulating ATMOS but the shrill timbre quickly causes ear fatigue. 

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      Indykid
      Lyricist I
      August 25, 2021

      Indykid,

      There are MANY folks who have this same issue and NO “Trueplay” will NOT fix the issue.  As you have noticed the thin sound can be “somewhat” program dependent. That is not the case with the Beam which is consistently excellent. (I have both.)  In the long term don’t expect your ears to adjust to this substandard sound quality. The Arc does do a fair job of simulating ATMOS but the shrill timbre quickly causes ear fatigue. 

      Appreciate the feedback.  And I’m an Android user so no Trueplay anyways.   Didn’t learn that until I hit these forums.  Salesman definitely sold me on being able to room adjust the ARC.  I do wonder if I could be happy with the beam and the sub.   Or there are some killer reviews on other sound bar brands.   I’ll mess with the settings for a little bit longer but will probably be returning it.  

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      chwdroid
      Contributor I
      August 25, 2021

      Indykid,

       I have suggested that, if at all possible, SONOS add a parametric eq in their app. That would be handy for Android users. 

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      Mitchellsx
      Renowned Enthusiast II
      August 25, 2021

      Just purchased the ARC. Using it primarily for movies or shows.   Dialogue seems thin or without midrange.  Basically like there is no warmth to the voice.  And perhaps an even bigger issue is the soundstage sounds “weak”.   Most voices seem contained like in a little box and trapped in the speaker.  Every now and again the soundstage improves in a scene or two but kinda few and far between.   Have messed witht the treble and bass controls and they don’t seem to do too much.  

      Looks like this is similar to some others.  Has Sonos come up with a fix??

      I have found the Sonos ARC can be hit and miss with different content, some dialogue does sound very thin.. I have a Beam upstairs and find that better at times with dialogue.

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        chwdroid
        Contributor I
        August 25, 2021

        Mitchell’s,

        As well as the thin sound do you experience a harsh sibilance on certain female voices?  

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          David22
          Lyricist III
          September 18, 2021

          (cross posting from another thread out of frustration)
          Adding a vote. Been following these threads for months (this community, reddit, and others) and have tried it all, including doubling down and adding the sub and ones to my arc, but still not satisfied with the dialogue quality at all. 
           

          There’s obviously something wrong and I’m finding it hard to believe Sonos has still not resolved the issue or provided much of an update. (Maybe it’s something they can’t fix??)
           

          I’m seriously regretting the purchase and cannot recommend Sonos at this point. 
           

          im sure there’s many more people that are not posting as so many others (thousands) are already writing about the same - if that’s you, I encourage you to post. Again, hard to believe that Sonos doesn’t understand the severity of the issue at this point, but let’s at least make sure they understand the scale of dissatisfied customers. 

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          Bernado
          Trending Lyricist III
          September 19, 2021

          (cross posting from another thread out of frustration)
          Adding a vote. Been following these threads for months (this community, reddit, and others) and have tried it all, including doubling down and adding the sub and ones to my arc, but still not satisfied with the dialogue quality at all. 
           

          There’s obviously something wrong and I’m finding it hard to believe Sonos has still not resolved the issue or provided much of an update. (Maybe it’s something they can’t fix??)
           

          I’m seriously regretting the purchase and cannot recommend Sonos at this point. 
           

          im sure there’s many more people that are not posting as so many others (thousands) are already writing about the same - if that’s you, I encourage you to post. Again, hard to believe that Sonos doesn’t understand the severity of the issue at this point, but let’s at least make sure they understand the scale of dissatisfied customers. 

          This thread is a year old and nothing's changed, if I were you I'd move it on.

          For what it's worth I didn't like the sound of the Arc either.

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          lzy1987
          Enthusiast I
          September 21, 2021

          Unfortunately this topic is "answered" as far as the Sonos team is concerned.

          I didn't like the sound also. I prefer sound that is more warm and engaging. The Arc sound signature just isn't to my preference.

          End of the day, preference is subjective. Some do love their Arc. For those deciding to get the Arc, I would recommend a demo hearing to decide for yourself. 

           

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          Thatoneguy743
          Contributor I
          October 31, 2021

          How has Sonos not resolved this issue yet!?

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