Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

After days of research on this. It’s Trueplay creating this issue. Turning off Trueplay made the harsh s, sh and t’s go away. I’ve tuned this five times and it’s still an issue. I’ll try using another device and tune Trueplay again.  

Just submitted my return request for my ARC and my SUB. I am so glad to read that so many people thought this system sounded terrible. I thought I was crazy after everyone on Youtube raving about it and RTINGS giving it a good rating. I felt like I was watching TV in a cave. It sounds so thin and hollow. I plugged my 4 years old Vizio in and immediately my room was filled with sound again. I can’t believe how disappointed I am in this product. I also had to fight with it constantly to actually work right because it didn’t like my Orbi. Just ordered a Samsung 950A off of greentoe for $1149.

I'm so glad this thread exists. I thought I was going crazy. Just spent an hour with support, and they're going to send me a replacement. Has anyone actually had success with a replacement or is the product just bad?

I have had a Sonos Playbar for 8 years and the sound sold me on Sonos! Decided to upgrade to the Arc as I was so impressed with the Playbar that on paper the Arc was a no brainer. I had the privilege of having both sound bars hooked up and comparing the 2 almost side by side (Arc in my living room connected to TV and Playbar in kitchen used for music only now) the sound and feel of the two are very different. I cannot say one is better than the other only different. The Playbar to me had more feel to the bass and a warmer sound over all compared to the Arc. The Arc seems more defined and fared better at louder volumes especially with the bass which the Playbar’s bass had issues at volumes above 65 IMO.

Music was compared by setting the 2 speakers up as a system so I could play the same songs simultaneously from the same source (Qobuz Hi Res Audio 24bit 48kHz). My ears preferred the Playbar but the Arc sounded great! The Arc truly excels at Dolby Atmos content and I much preferred it over the Playbar for all TV related viewing. I do not seem to be having the issue of the “thin” “metallic” sound as others are describing. Only issue I had was an annoying popping/crackling sound that began midway through a movie which was resolved by unplugging the speaker and plugging it back in. No issues since.

I changed from Playbar to ARC in January and have often thought it was sounding distorted - I have just happened upon this thread - I thought it was just me and I was going mad.  During Four Weddings and a Funeral the other night, when Kristin Scott Thomas is proposing a toast ‘to Duckface’ outside the church, the distortion on her speech was excruciating.  I have tuned several times with iPhone 12, without a case and holding/moving as instructed.

I have turned Trueplay off and will see how it sounds for a few days.  It seems better on first listen.

iPhones for me always had issues. Found an old iPad and seems to sort it correctly. 

That’s very interesting - I’ll try with an ipad.

Crazy that this is still unresolved.. I have never been wowed by the ARCs sound.. always sounded tinny to me what ever settings I changed, truplayed etc. Hardly any warmth in the sound

Have you asked Sonos Support about your issue? - it maybe worth submitting a Diagnostic Report and perhaps a video too of your audio issue and ask Staff to see if there is anything they can do to assist.

You can contact them via this LINK

Hope you're able to get it sorted.

I got 2 replacements from Sonos in last few months. All sounded same. Then bought newly built one(Feb-22) from Bestbuy to just test the new built. Same metallic sound and painful sssh sound with vocals from certain streaming content.