Contributor I

ARC Ultra - No sound direction, tinny vocals, lacking mids?

12 replies
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Hello everyone!

I’m new to the community forum, so sincere apologies if this conversation is being repeated.

Jumped on the Sonos band wagon for the Ultra, as in my mind it could only be better than the ARC, even if incremental — so far I’m struggling with the sound, all I’m getting is, very tinny, hollow vocals and lacking any refined mids, they are non existent as far as i’m concerned. It’s all a bit of a incohesive sound combined with Sub Gen3…could this be down to the mini integrated sub robbing some of the lower frequency from the crossover?

I have tried all the required configurations as per Sonos, but it’s still coming up short for a £1000 upgrade.

Solo, it’s okay-ish, but still very bright, hollow and tinny on the vocals (notable with actors that have deep vocals), it’s not a well rounded sound...two words, “no weight”.

This was the very reason I sort to upgrade, for vocal projection on movies, because if there was one fix for the ARC it would be vocal presence on lower volume, it lacks in that department, especially when using different platforms. It’s a constant battle, of turn up volume for dialogue, and down for action scenes.

There is also the question of where is the spatial audio, or surround? It is very much one directional and not as pronounced as the ARC, there are brief occasions where it’s like wow! this is what it’s meant to sound like, but then reverts back to a tinny, one directional experience. It’s not a good surround experience if you know where sound is coming from, it’s distracting!

I’m gutted about this, I’m also thinking of returning the Ultra and sticking with the ARC.

My question to Sonos is, is there a fix within the software? Or, is this the actual product?

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NeutronLizard

Lyricist II

This is day 5 with Arc Ultra and I’m much more satisfied with the performance. The most significant change I made was slightly relocating the Arc Ultra deeper on the console. This provided some much needed resonance. I slightly repositioned the 300 Era’a and retuned Trueplay. I gave a slight bump to the bass on the surround EQ and it profoundly increased bass across the entire soundstage. As a matter of fact, the effect of my Gen 3 Sub now seems almost redundant. The original Arc seemed to need the sub to produce richness to the overall sound. That’s no longer the case and the sub is now relegated to its normal cinematic intensity and intention.

I don’t have an oscilloscope, and I can’t provide any objective measurements. I can only say that the Ultra is much closer to the performance I anticipated after reading all the reviews. Before I make a final decision to keep or return it, I’ll be putting the original Arc back in service and compare it to the Ultra.

Pauper

Contributor I

I have owned the Arc Ultra+Era 100,s for about a month.

I too am underwhelmed with the sound.

Perhaps it's me coming from Revel M16,s but I hear a distinct comb and paper effect on some female vocals. On its own, stereo is none existent. With the Era 100,s there's a weird psuedo stereo effect.

The only good thing is the bass which is good for a soundbar.

Ah well, we live and learn - not.

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