Canadian living in China for the last 8 years now. After a lot of research I decided to purchase a sound bar due to space restrictions living in China. In Canada I always used component AC3 systems but I have read that SB tech has come a long way. I recently purchased a 75r645 TCL which i am super happy with and its equipped with eARC so Sonos Acr and 2x One XL seems like the best choice. Due to likely protectionism taxes this unit is much more expensive (12,000 rmb) than other countries in China so it was a difficult choice over the MUCH cheaper Samsung HW-Q950A. Getting it up and running was not at all easy and a poor experience. Having the eARC and ability to control day to day operation with the TV remote was a big deciding factor over the Samsung. After 3 hours of playing with configurations randomly I finally got it working but the input lag and screen update for the remote is long and annoying. If this was a cheap product or old tech I would accept this…. but not considering the price from a brand that considers themselves top in latest tech. Secondly the sound is abysmal! Yes I updated everything and did the full set up. The rear channels come in way too hot but can be adjusted but still lack any kind of decent sound field. The blending from front to back is horrible. When I swing the camera around in a PS5 game there is an EXTREMELY noticeable sound difference between the front and back. There is virtually no side fill at all with just a hard break from front to back and a very different sound destroying the effect all together. I would compare it to my first AC-3 set up I bought in around 2001 for sound processing. When I turn it up to play games on my PS5 or watch a movie its literally unlistenable. Glassy, hard and full of digital noise. I find myself wanting to turn it down almost immediately at which point its no better than my TV speakers. Lastly this isn't a deal breaker but it just adds insult to injury…. Both Alexa and Google apps aren't available in China at the software level. Normally I bypass this with VPN but the lousy closed source Sonos software blocks me out from even activating it. To make matters worse I cant return this because its opened. So I am stuck with a literally useless 12,000 RMB (1899 USD) product. Right now my only recourse is to sell it used and buy the Samsung.
I’d say a few things you can try if you haven’t already is to try redistributing the rears a bit (widen then maybe 15-25 degrees?), make sure the PS5 is set to bitstream out, set TruePlay up and some games have a home theater surround layout you can use to set the width placement of the speakers. Maybe that can help.
Appreciate the help but I have set up many home theaters in my day. I have tried two different rooms (even though I already know this room is good for sound). I tried wall behind no wall behind. I even tried putting some area rugs on the walls in case firing off walls was giving it the glassy sound. It just sounds harsh and terrible. Makes me cringe when people shout or crashing sounds happen. Maybe I am just spoiled with proper surround set ups and the reviewers who are saying sound bars are good nowadays just have no taste for audio. This maybe the case as I find most people reviewing audio stuff tend to be tech enthusiasts rather than audiophile types. Normally I would never buy audio online but brick and mortar store barely exist in China for stuff like this. People must just like this surreal and artificial sound these days…… Or maybe its shame on me for thinking that a home theater in a box would ever be more than just a lousy copy of a real theater. I just at least hoped the tech part of this would be slick, but it wasn’t.
Your concluding comments are closer to the truth about so-called home theatre/cinema systems. And the experience isn't helped by the fact that 90 percent of contemporary media content is badly produced Get-rich quick rubbish. Add in the evident demise of the sound engineer occupation and you end up with massive disappointment and irritation all round.
I am just double upset because I am stuck with this piece of junk. It wasnt cheap. If I paid half this price I would just say ok you get what you pay for but WOW. I wasn’t expecting miracles but i was expecting listenable, slick tech and decent sound field. Came out 0/3….
Strange that the products have been so well reviewed. I’m happy with mine - I guess I must like “surreal and artificial sound” as you suggest.
Strange that the products have been so well reviewed. I’m happy with mine - I guess I must like “surreal and artificial sound” as you suggest.
Well if you think its good then its good by your measure. I guess I am just accustomed to component systems and real loud speakers so this just seems really inadequate. I am really surprised even the laymans cant tell the poor division from the front and rear sound fields is and the heavy digital noise passed 75% volume on a clean source. As for the reviewers, I think they are more tech guys than audio guys. Go and listen to some equipment with real tweeters one day and this will sound like a tin can. Stuff like this is designed to sell more than it is to sound accurate. Now this thing is packed in the box and I am back to TV speakers for now….. at least they sound more forgiving.
I respect your right to your subjective audio preferences.
Subjective because i didn’t measure it with equipment I will partly agree but I am not writing a scientific paper about this because I dont have the time. There are professional test results that agree with my statements available online. Secondly I worked directly in this field for over 10 years (12 years ago mind you) so I would consider myself somewhat expert advice. The front sound field is quite good to be fair. The rears are not good at all…. A standard test for sound field is to play a scene with lots of active surround info. If you can point where the speaker is with a decent degree of accuracy then the field is poor. I can do this at anytime easily with this set up no matter where I place them. A decent early year 2000s set up properly would not experience this issue. Secondly I am sure you could have a room full of sound experts in the room and they will all agree the sound is bright and hard. Now bright and hard does typically appeal to the masses because it seems impressive. Much like a brighter TV will grab more eyes on a show room floor but display less fidelity. Subjective perhaps but I have a ton of experience when it comes to high end audio.
There are professional test results that agree with my statements available online.
It’s a shame you didn’t read these or overlooked them prior to making your purchase decision ‘after a lot of research’.
Ya I just searched reviews and such but until I knew what the issue was I had no way of searching for it. Once I searched my findings I managed to dig up other data. As I mentioned before, I think the big issue is that most reviewers online are more tech enthusiasts than audio guys. I am very much a tech enthusiast myself but audio guys and audiophiles are more a subgenre of interest. I wouldn't call myself an audiophile for sure because they would never even consider a set up like this. But I have definitely been spoiled to a certain degree having been exposed to a lot of nice stuff. I can manage expectations to some degree given its a space saving solution but its just not nearly good enough and way overpriced. Flashiness at the expensive of smoothness and fidelity is not what I want. What just really got me is that Chinese amazon (taobao) wont accept a return so I am stuck with a 2000 dollar piece I wont use. I advertised in on used sight for 75% of what I paid and zero bites :(
There are professional test results that agree with my statements available online.
It’s a shame you didn’t read these or overlooked them prior to making your purchase decision ‘after a lot of research’.
I have a ton of experience when it comes to high end audio.
Ah I have to admit I only have experience of mid-range systems, my current one being a Cyrus DAC XP+ connected to a pair of Cyrus 8 Power amplifiers in dual mono mode playing through PMC floorstanders. I have never owned a high end system.
I was honestly unaware that Sonos, or anyone else, for that matter, suggests that Sonos is ‘high end audio’. I’d have thought their price point made that pretty clear, too.
This is strange to me.
Getting it up and running was not at all easy and a poor experience. Having the eARC and ability to control day to day operation with the TV remote was a big deciding factor over the Samsung. After 3 hours of playing with configurations randomly I finally got it working but the input lag and screen update for the remote is long and annoying.
I own multiple Sonos products and setup has been painless every single time. I was using a Samsung TV earlier but recently upgraded to a Sony A80J for eARC. Zero input lag with both.
I have no experience with high-end audio but have owned a Denon AVR with KEF Q Series speakers in a 5.1 configuration for several years before it was gifted within family. My current Sonos Arc setup compares favorably with that though the soundfield is smaller. I fixed that recently with a little experiment grouping an Amp with Q Acoustics 3030i speakers as front stereo. The Q Acoustics blend in nicely with the Sonos speakers. So, depending on how you look at it, the Q Acoustics are as good or as bad as the Sonos speakers, or the Amp is playing tricks. The one thing is Arc does not do well for music which the Q Acoustics fill in really great.
I have also tested with the Dolby Atmos test tracks having uncompressed TrueHD audio running in Kodi. I can mostly make out positional audio with my eyes closed and the surround effect is not localized. TruePlay helped a lot. I also have an Xbox Series X connected. Watched BluRay discs and played stuff like Forza Horizon 5, Halo and so far so good. But then again, I have no experience with high-end audio so can’t compare really.
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