Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

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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

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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Ken_Griffiths

Correct, ambient and full only affect music, as I mentioned, part of my problem is also vocals in songs. I do change that to see if it affects the vocals, however, with all my testing I realized “talking” is the weak point here, whether in songs or movies.

@Ken_Griffiths, you might find it funny, I definitely don’t have any iphones in my immediate friend/family circle. I can for sure find one and try what you suggest to, but if that’s the case, it sucks that the product is configured in a way to only cater to a certain group of users.

Bruce and I are just users, like yourself and simply trying to help - often Trueplay can sort these kind of issues. The reason why iOS devices are used is that their microphones are a certain known standard, whereas in many Android devices they can vary considerably by make/model, so that’s why borrowing an iPhone might be helpful and it’s something you only need to do once in most cases.

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hooman64

Lyricist III

Correct, ambient and full only affect music, as I mentioned, part of my problem is also vocals in songs. I do change that to see if it affects the vocals, however, with all my testing I realized “talking” is the weak point here, whether in songs or movies.

@Ken_Griffiths, you might find it funny, I definitely don’t have any iphones in my immediate friend/family circle. I can for sure find one and try what you suggest to, but if that’s the case, it sucks that the product is configured in a way to only cater to a certain group of users.

Bruce and I are just users, like yourself and simply trying to help - often Trueplay can sort these kind of issues. The reason why iOS devices are used is is their microphones are a certain known standard, whereas in many Android devices they can vary considerably by make/model, so that’s why borrowing an iPhone might be helpful and it’s something you only need to do once in most cases.

I appreciate the help. most of the times communities like these are more useful than actual product support, or at least in my experience.

With Trueplay, is there a period that’s suggested to “recalibrate” the room? or If I need to move the surrounds and then place back where they were, approximately, I’m still good?

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Ken_Griffiths

@hooman64

I tend to TruePlay/calibrate things with the speakers set in the position where they are normally/usually placed in the room. If I do move them for any reason (it’s rare I do that), I simply switch TruePlay off, then switch it back on when the speakers are returned to their regular spot.

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hooman64

Lyricist III

@Ken_Griffiths got it, thanks for the suggestions. Let me see if I can do that here and compare the results.

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hooman64

Lyricist III

@Ken_Griffiths I ended up borrowing a phone and doing what you suggested, the system improved slightly but I still feel the vocals/conversations are trapped in a box (compare to other systems) maybe I contact Sonos support now and see what they can offer.

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DavidKlein

Lyricist I

Hi there!

Can somebody please help..

I bought both the arc and sub (gen 3) this week. I am coming from a cheap logitech 5.1 system, but sadly this (as it sounds now) doesn’t seem like a worthy upgrade..

The lows are incredible (with the sub), but the mids are pretty absent and highs to present. This makes the total profile seem metallic/hollow, instead of warm.

Do I perhaps have a faulty arc??

What to do?

Kind regards,

David

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Ken_Griffiths

@DavidKlein

It’s difficult to know what you’re hearing, but when you encounter the described poor audio quality issues mentioned (assuming you have the App settings at their default), it maybe best to submit a system diagnostic report and note it’s reference back here and then contact/chat with the Sonos Support Staff via this LINK, (during the usual opening times stated) and maybe see what they suggest.

Sometimes a video recording can possibly assist the Staff too. At the very least, they should be able to identify if there is a hardware fault or not.

Hope that assists.

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Jonathan_314

Lyricist I

I bought the sonos Arc last week and was soo dissapointed. I added a Sub gen 3 because I tought that would give the sound of the arc more “body”. The bass is better now, but there are no mid tones.

During tv shows, the vocal part drops in volume (probably because the voice goes into the midrange where there is almost no amplification)

I am really dissapointed, and would not recommend anyone buying this setup.

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Mitchellsx

Renowned Enthusiast II

I bought the sonos Arc last week and was soo dissapointed. I added a Sub gen 3 because I tought that would give the sound of the arc more “body”. The bass is better now, but there are no mid tones.

During tv shows, the vocal part drops in volume (probably because the voice goes into the midrange where there is almost no amplification)

I am really dissapointed, and would not recommend anyone buying this setup.

Yeah having had the ARC for well over a year, The midrange is not great on the ARC, ive truplayed and truplayed changed settings galore but never found I could get the midrange to sound great.

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J

Jonathan_314

Lyricist I

I bought the sonos Arc last week and was soo dissapointed. I added a Sub gen 3 because I tought that would give the sound of the arc more “body”. The bass is better now, but there are no mid tones.

During tv shows, the vocal part drops in volume (probably because the voice goes into the midrange where there is almost no amplification)

I am really dissapointed, and would not recommend anyone buying this setup.

Yeah having had the ARC for well over a year, The midrange is not great on the ARC, ive truplayed and truplayed changed settings galore but never found I could get the midrange to sound great.

850 euros down the drain! This product is useless. My poor car speakers sound better.
To everyone I know I will advice not to buy this soundbar! Complete rubbish. I made an amplifier at school that produced better sound …

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