Hi ​@Kinetic Koala 

I am currently working on an article - it will need approval from multiple engineering sources as well as PR, so will take some time, but a response to your feedback is coming.

Hi ​@Corry P 

Thanks again for your quick response(s) and work to address this. I can confirm after consuming more 5.1 content that it does detrimentally impact the experience (via some content more than others — gaming with my Xbox had worse separation with my Arc Ultra than with my Beam Gen 2). 

I will keep my eye out for the article addressing this! In the meantime — can you at least confirm that this has been acknowledged to either be a bug or something that needs to be fixed internally?

My concern is that the article will take quite a while to come out, pushing me out of the return window, and then the response ends up simply being trying to justify this as a feature, which again makes little sense since the Ultra doesn’t help with dedicated rear sounds in 7.1 or Atmos rear content. Right now, it honestly seems like a bug with the 9.1.4 virtualization of the Arc Ultra when playing 5.1 content, but that’s just my completely uninformed perspective 😄

So at the very least for right now, confirmation that this is internally viewed as something that needs to be improved would be appreciated. 

Yeah, my return window is closing in about 10 days. I really hope sonos doesn’t pull the “feature not a bug” card here. it is clearly wrong and I get a way better 5.1 experience with my beam.

Also One’s.

Hi ​@Kinetic Koala 

At present, I cannot - the article is awaiting review by various teams; if I could do as you ask, it would not be waiting.

I do appreciate your concern. All I can really suggest if you are concerned about the timing and your refund window is that you return your purchase for a refund while you can - you can always re-entertain the idea of getting an Arc Ultra later (assuming you don’t spend the money, of course). We don’t want you to be unhappy with your purchase.

I hope this helps.

If someone bought the Arc Ultra with an upgrade coupon, would we be able to get the coupon back if we return the product? This was the reason why I didn’t send my Arc Ultra back in november. I was worried to lose my very rare 30% upgrade coupon.

Hi ​@Zorro88 

Yes. You would have to go through our sales department to do so, however, as the self-service Money Back Guarantee function on our website cannot do this for you.

I hope this helps.

With all due respect, I’m going to push back a little bit on this. For one, I already sold my friend my Beam Gen 2 (which I fault myself for, I should have waited a few weeks longer I suppose), so if I were to return the Arc Ultra, I would be without a soundbar.

Anyway -- regarding your point that “if I could do as you ask, it would not be waiting.”

I respectfully disagree.

The article that you are kindly working on that will presumably provide a deeper explanation for the issue, a potential timeline for a fix, a more detailed solution, etc. still needs time to develop and publish. I understand that.

A quick acknowledgement that this behavior is acknowledged as a bug internally by your team does not mean that the above article is now unnecessary. They are different things.

This behavior, of the Arc Ultra playing rear audio from the soundbar itself in addition to the rears when outputting 5.1 content, is nonsensical. It does not occur with Atmos dedicated rear channels or 7.1. It does not occur with other Sonos soundbars, like the Arc and even Beam Gen 2, which support 5.1 output. This behavior is not only contrary to the internal logic of how the Arc Ultra handles rears across other formats, but also contrary to how other Sonos soundbar products handle 5.1. There is no logical reason why it should be happening (again, this is separate from virtualization for Atmos mixes, which activates multiple speakers to more precisely place sounds. With a 5.1 mix, a rear sound should only fire from the rear. Adding any “help” from the soundbar in the front only detracts form the experience).

With all that said, it should be not too complicated to meet with some internal teams and at least get the acknowledgement and approval to share with us that this is unintended behavior (and hopefully that a fix is in development, but even that isn’t necessary to share now!). The article detailing more about the how and the why and the potential solution and timeline can still come later.

Again, I do appreciate all you do. Your responses here and in other threads are valued and I’m sure it’s not easy juggling all this. I just want to gently push back regarding the assertion that it’s not possible to acknowledge it’s unintended behavior -- after all, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. You can share more about the duck and what your team will or will not do about it later. But we should still be able to agree it’s a duck. :)

Is there any way to extend the return window?

Maybe if you had an open case with Sonos Support?

Hi ​@Kinetic Koala 

I do get your point, but I am not going to discuss anything publicly that was mentioned in the meeting without prior approval.

​@Stanley_4 has a point - if you have an open support case, you’ll be able to argue that you opened the case before your MBG period was up, thus being able to basically extend the period.

I hope this helps.

I almost can't believe that we won't find out for almost 3 months after product release whether the error will be fixed or not. The whole thing was so nerve-wracking that someone from Sonos recognized the problem after such a long time. In all of this, I ask myself: are there actually no more people at Sonos who test their latest products themselves at home? If they did, a fault like this would be noticed immediately. I feel like a beta tester at the moment.

I also reviewed the Arc Ultra almost a month ago in the Sonos online store and mentioned the 5.1 error in detail. Of course, I also mentioned the positive things in detail. The review was never published. I am very disappointed about this censorship.

At the moment there is hope again because of the upcoming statement. But because of the length of time it has taken, I am increasingly unsure that I will be disappointed in the end. Otherwise you could just say that our technicians will try to fix the problem and a more detailed statement will follow. Then everyone here would be happy. I'm more and more afraid that it will end up being an excuse and that everything is intentional, but they are constantly trying to improve the products...

At the moment I'm already looking at other home theater systems that work 100% reliably, outside of the Sonos world. Maybe I've just been trapped in this world for too long and it's time for something new.