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Contributor I
April 4, 2025
Answered

arc ultra



Dear sonos

I wanted to touch base and share my experience with the new Sonos system that I recently upgraded to. After reading several positive reviews, I was excited to upgrade my 15-year-old Sony home theatre system to the Sonos system for $5000, which was three times the amount of my old system.

However, I have to admit that I am disappointed with the sound quality. While playing music is great and I love it, watching a movie is a different story. The Arc Ultra sub 4 and two 300 era speakers are supposed to provide amazing sound, but in reality, the Arc Ultra is just a mono speaker with no adjustment for left and right channels. This results in an overwhelming center sound, making the overall home theatre experience disappointing.

Moreover, I don't have the option to adjust the volume on the left and right channels, which I feel is missing from the package. The system needs more sound from these channels to truly wow me.

I wanted to share my honest opinion with you as someone who values your judgement on technology. Perhaps you have some suggestions or tips that can enhance my experience with the Sonos system.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Your feedback and thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
Stephen

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RawjanusAnswer
Collaborator I
April 7, 2025

Unfortunately, the “centre channel is too high compared to L/R” is a known issue. It has been pointed out to Sonos several times but they don’t seem to care much.

See this threat: 

I would suggest that you contact Sonos support and make a complaint, like the rest of us. Hopefully they will prioritise a fix, if enough people complain. 

6 replies

buzz
Grand Maestro
April 4, 2025

Which model TV are you using? How is the TV connected to ARC ULTRA?

Airgetlam
April 4, 2025

And what kind of signal does the Sonos think it is getting?

Bruce
SteveGe04Author
Contributor I
April 4, 2025

Lg Via hdmi cable same as it was on my old home theatre system. 

buzz
Grand Maestro
April 4, 2025

Ancient HDMI cables are not appropriate. Here is an older article that gives the minimum spec’d HDMI cable that you should be using.

Current high quality HDMI cables will be 2,0+ or higher. While I wouldn’t want to use a 1.4+ HDMI cable for high quality video input to a display, 1.4+ will be OK for audio to ARC.

AjTrek1
April 4, 2025

A few more questions…

  1. What LG Model?
  2. Does if have HDMI eARC ?(I know...it’s bit redundant as answering #1 would probably allow us to research this feature but I’m lazy)
  3. Have you set the Audio to Pass-through?
  4. Have you set the audio to Bit Stream or auto select?
  5. What source are you using for movies (i.e Basic cable, AppleTV, Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, Hulu etc)?
  6. Have you tried running Trueplay (requires iOS device) or using QuickTune in your room?
Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
RawjanusAnswer
Collaborator I
April 7, 2025

Unfortunately, the “centre channel is too high compared to L/R” is a known issue. It has been pointed out to Sonos several times but they don’t seem to care much.

See this threat: 

I would suggest that you contact Sonos support and make a complaint, like the rest of us. Hopefully they will prioritise a fix, if enough people complain.