Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc - Metallic Sound

1017 replies
128956 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?

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S

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.

Show previous replies

A

arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

Here is another video that confirms the problems with Arc

B

brolin

Trending Lyricist I

On 7 July, I ordered Sonos entertainment set comprising of Arc + Sub Gen 3 + pair of Play one SL through SONOS. 10 July, received the sub gen 3. On 13 July received the Arc and pair of Play One SL.

I came from Playbar + Sub gen 2 (sold) + pair of Play:1 (sold).

Today (13 July), I tested the Sonos ARC on its own.

Connect Sonos ARC through HDMI-ARC on my Sony Bravia KDL-EX55-720 (10 years old TV).

Impressive is all I can say. Loving it. :kissing_heart:

Dolby Digital 5.1 is the best I can get due to age of TV.

Will add in surround and sub gen 3 tomorrow.

Can’t wait.

J

jkozlow3

Enthusiast II

On 7 July, I ordered Sonos entertainment set comprising of Arc + Sub Gen 3 + pair of Play one SL through SONOS. 10 July, received the sub gen 3. On 13 July received the Arc and pair of Play One SL.

I came from Playbar + Sub gen 2 (sold) + pair of Play:1 (sold).

Today (13 July), I tested the Sonos ARC on its own.

Connect Sonos ARC through HDMI-ARC on my Sony Bravia KDL-EX55-720 (10 years old TV).

Impressive is all I can say. Loving it. :kissing_heart:

Dolby Digital 5.1 is the best I can get due to age of TV.

Will add in surround and sub gen 3 tomorrow.

Can’t wait.

These types of reports make me think more and more that these MUST be some defective Arc hardware out there!

A

arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

On 7 July, I ordered Sonos entertainment set comprising of Arc + Sub Gen 3 + pair of Play one SL through SONOS. 10 July, received the sub gen 3. On 13 July received the Arc and pair of Play One SL.

I came from Playbar + Sub gen 2 (sold) + pair of Play:1 (sold).

Today (13 July), I tested the Sonos ARC on its own.

Connect Sonos ARC through HDMI-ARC on my Sony Bravia KDL-EX55-720 (10 years old TV).

Impressive is all I can say. Loving it. :kissing_heart:

Dolby Digital 5.1 is the best I can get due to age of TV.

Will add in surround and sub gen 3 tomorrow.

Can’t wait.

These types of reports make me think more and more that these MUST be some defective Arc hardware out there!

Also possible that different people have different expectations. Not everybody is a critical listener. If Sonos knew something we don’t (like a hardware problem), they would have stopped the shipment of Arcs to prevent further damage. Who knows?

It is for sure Sonos dropped the ball with Arc release.

B

brolin

Trending Lyricist I

On 7 July, I ordered Sonos entertainment set comprising of Arc + Sub Gen 3 + pair of Play one SL through SONOS. 10 July, received the sub gen 3. On 13 July received the Arc and pair of Play One SL.

I came from Playbar + Sub gen 2 (sold) + pair of Play:1 (sold).

Today (13 July), I tested the Sonos ARC on its own.

Connect Sonos ARC through HDMI-ARC on my Sony Bravia KDL-EX55-720 (10 years old TV).

Impressive is all I can say. Loving it. :kissing_heart:

Dolby Digital 5.1 is the best I can get due to age of TV.

Will add in surround and sub gen 3 tomorrow.

Can’t wait.

These types of reports make me think more and more that these MUST be some defective Arc hardware out there!

I am from Australia.

Not sure if Sonos has different production batches for US, Europe and or Asia Pacific.

Maybe do a poll and see which continent has more complain?

B

brolin

Trending Lyricist I

On 7 July, I ordered Sonos entertainment set comprising of Arc + Sub Gen 3 + pair of Play one SL through SONOS. 10 July, received the sub gen 3. On 13 July received the Arc and pair of Play One SL.

I came from Playbar + Sub gen 2 (sold) + pair of Play:1 (sold).

Today (13 July), I tested the Sonos ARC on its own.

Connect Sonos ARC through HDMI-ARC on my Sony Bravia KDL-EX55-720 (10 years old TV).

Impressive is all I can say. Loving it. :kissing_heart:

Dolby Digital 5.1 is the best I can get due to age of TV.

Will add in surround and sub gen 3 tomorrow.

Can’t wait.

These types of reports make me think more and more that these MUST be some defective Arc hardware out there!

Also possible that different people have different expectations. Not everybody is a critical listener. If Sonos knew something we don’t (like a hardware problem), they would have stopped the shipment of Arcs to prevent further damage. Who knows?

It is for sure Sonos dropped the ball with Arc release.

Different people definitely has different expectations.

I like 2 doors car. Wife likes 7 seat car/van. :joy:

I am not a critical listener, if I am one, I would setup a proper theater environment to properly enjoy the sound system.

Just by watching movie with Sonos Arc on its own, I can hear the sound bouncing off my left and right. That in itself is already better than Playbar.

It’s going to get better tomorrow when I connect up the surround and Sub.

Looking forward to get a Sony X95H…. that will elevate it further with Dolby Atmos….

A

arpatil1Author

Enthusiast II

On 7 July, I ordered Sonos entertainment set comprising of Arc + Sub Gen 3 + pair of Play one SL through SONOS. 10 July, received the sub gen 3. On 13 July received the Arc and pair of Play One SL.

I came from Playbar + Sub gen 2 (sold) + pair of Play:1 (sold).

Today (13 July), I tested the Sonos ARC on its own.

Connect Sonos ARC through HDMI-ARC on my Sony Bravia KDL-EX55-720 (10 years old TV).

Impressive is all I can say. Loving it. :kissing_heart:

Dolby Digital 5.1 is the best I can get due to age of TV.

Will add in surround and sub gen 3 tomorrow.

Can’t wait.

These types of reports make me think more and more that these MUST be some defective Arc hardware out there!

Also possible that different people have different expectations. Not everybody is a critical listener. If Sonos knew something we don’t (like a hardware problem), they would have stopped the shipment of Arcs to prevent further damage. Who knows?

It is for sure Sonos dropped the ball with Arc release.

Different people definitely has different expectations.

I like 2 doors car. Wife likes 7 seat car/van. :joy:

I am not a critical listener, if I am one, I would setup a proper theater environment to properly enjoy the sound system.

Just by watching movie with Sonos Arc on its own, I can hear the sound bouncing off my left and right. That in itself is already better than Playbar.

It’s going to get better tomorrow when I connect up the surround and Sub.

Looking forward to get a Sony X95H…. that will elevate it further with Dolby Atmos….

Glad it worked out for you. Have fun !

B

bonedaddy

Trending Lyricist I

The video is very interesting. It’s a bit frustrationg to spend $800 on a product that doesn’t work as advertised and the fix is to buy another another $700 product????

I don’t doubt the sub is a nice product but one reason I spent more on the Arc was to not have to buy a sub.

Don’t think the sub fixes it. I have a sub and my arc sounds terrible

Same with mine, just a terrible “transistor radio” sound from my Arc.

B

bonedaddy

Trending Lyricist I

Just a follow-up to my last comment. I have noticed that the dialog sounds more metallic when playing a movie in Atmos. It's also more pronounced on certain apps. For instance. Disney + has a really big problem with low audio. It sounds like they are over compressing the audio. So I have to turn the volume up +10 more than on other apps. There is a big difference in the dialog with too much treble when playing a Disney + Marvel or Star Wars movie in Atmos. There is still a small treble problem when playing the same movie in Dolby Digital plus, without atmos. The metallic sound is reduced when not using Atmos. So far the majority of audio problems seem to be from certain apps, especially disney +.

I'm curious what streaming apps are people in this thread using to test the Arc?

Are there more who had the courage to send back and dare to buy a new Arc? is that the way to solve it maybe I should look into it.

I sent mine back with 5 days to go. Sticking with my Playbar for now, but I just ordered a B&O Beosound Stage. From reviews I've read everyone seems to really love it. Quite pricey though.

B

blader80

Contributor I

Just a follow-up to my last comment. I have noticed that the dialog sounds more metallic when playing a movie in Atmos. It's also more pronounced on certain apps. For instance. Disney + has a really big problem with low audio. It sounds like they are over compressing the audio. So I have to turn the volume up +10 more than on other apps. There is a big difference in the dialog with too much treble when playing a Disney + Marvel or Star Wars movie in Atmos. There is still a small treble problem when playing the same movie in Dolby Digital plus, without atmos. The metallic sound is reduced when not using Atmos. So far the majority of audio problems seem to be from certain apps, especially disney +.

I'm curious what streaming apps are people in this thread using to test the Arc?

Are there more who had the courage to send back and dare to buy a new Arc? is that the way to solve it maybe I should look into it.

I sent mine back with 5 days to go. Sticking with my Playbar for now, but I just ordered a B&O Beosound Stage. From reviews I've read everyone seems to really love it. Quite pricey though.

Will be interesting to see how it fares to current top tier soundbars. My only concern is that it favors wall-mount vs TV stand.

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