Arc Ultra - not a good start

Hi ​@Neven 

Thanks for your post!

Sorry to hear of your delayed package - it seems to be stuck in Zagreb at the moment, as I am sure you already know from the parcel tracking, though I don’t know why.

I can only recommend getting in touch with our sales department to see if you can get a re-attempt, or at least so we can contact DHL about it. You will be able to get a refund on the failed express shipping too - please be sure to mention it.

Your Arc Ultra will be able to play Atmos music regardless of the TV’s abilities, yes - the TV is bypassed for playing music and does not even need to be on.

I can’t really comment in terms of comparison, as I never got the chance to hear the original Arc, and it has been a long time since I heard a Playbar. I do have an Arc Ultra, however, with some One surrounds, and although I don’t use it for music, I have tested a few Atmos songs for a customer and I thought it sounded fantastic!

I am sure that you will enjoy it!

I hope this helps.

I can’t comment from personal listening but I’ve seen suggestions that adding a Sub or even the miniSub really helps the music experience.

Certainly worth listening to just the Ultra first, then trying the Sub options. Worst case you can return the Sub.

Thank you! Still no sight of my Arc Ultra. But, I am sure I will be overwhelmed with the performance, once it arrives.

Neven

the good think I have the Sub and surrounds already. My plan is to listen to Arc Ultra by itself and then add sub and surrrounds.one at a time.

Thanks for replying

Neven

I was luckier than you, got my Arc Ultra in 1 day, bought 2xEra300 after that and got them in 2 days :)

Well, my old system was a Playbar-Sub Gen2-2xPlay1.
A fantastic system, good 5.1 sound for movies and could play really loud for parties :)

When I tested the Arc Ultra alone, the experience was a bit boring, super clear sound and nice bass. But it lacked a little power.

When I connected my Sub it was a completely different story, here the depth and clear sound really came out.

In the end with the Era300 I got the full Atmos experience, it's worth all the money.

Playbar wins on power alone, but Ultra wins on sound dispersion, the fine detailed sound reproduction, it's just a more luxurious experience.

In the end, it's about the small details, if you just want to have parties and play loud music, I would just keep my old system.
If you are into good movie experiences and enjoy music in everyday life, then Ultra is definitely the right soundbar.

I used the same Playbar system as you (play one’s for rears). Interesting, to hear the Playbar is more powerfull than the Arc. My experience varied, if the source was low quality stereo, I had to crank it up to hear it. In that scenario my TV’s speakers were superior. But, when fed with 5.1, the sound was magnificent. I never had it above 30% volume. I am hopefull the Arc will be better in two things. Clearer dialogue, and maybe it will project the sound further towards the listener. 

Thank you

Neven

Now that you mention it, the Playbar had a problem with fluctuating volume a lot with different audio formats, I had completely forgotten and haven't experienced it with Ultra 🤞🏼

Ultra has a much better and more precise dialogue, not to mention clarity. You can also choose between 4 settings in dialogue, Off-low-medium-high, I have it on medium, although there is not much difference between the various settings, but enough that you can hear the changes. I think it's very individual what you prefer as not all ears are the same 😉

Don’t pay much attention to a Volume control indicator on any audio unit. There are no standards. If you walk through the audio section in a big box store you’ll notice that the cheap, inferior units get “loud” at low numbers. This impresses the inexperienced customers who are impressed that they only need to “crack” the Volume control. But, the unit does not get much louder after that initial “crack” and the units are very difficult to control at lower Volumes.

The more consistent volume is very good news. Asa much as I enjoy the surrounds and the sub gen 2 bass in movies, the most important thing is the dialogue. My playbar sits on a shelf above my TV and the soudn is quite goood anchored to the screen. However, the 45 degrees angled speakers shoot the soudn upwards towards the high vaulted  ceiling. The fact that Arc Ultra’s drivers are not angled up is making me happy.

Neven  

very good opservation, thanks. The Sonos system impressed me. It does sound better as you increase the volume, but at low volume it is really good. Night sound, speech enhancement help to fine tune your listening experience.

Neven

Update!

Arc Ultra is here. Setup was a breeze. First impressions. Regular TV audio which on Playbar was rather quiet, on Arc Ultra sounds better, clearer and louder. However, unlike with the Playbar, I do not have 5.1 sound on all my media. The reason is, I think, the difference in optical/HDMI connection. I use nvidia shield with Plex installed. Plex has the option for optical passthrough “AC3 encoding” which I used for my Playbar.. All of media, DTS, dolby digital and other played as dolby digital 5.1. Now I switched to HDMI passthrough on Plex and the option “AC3 encoding” is missing. Still have to figure it out on my new Arc Ultra. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Neven

Unfortunately I don't know about nvidia shield and Plex, we don't have it here in Denmark i think :)

If your streaming service supports Atmos or 5.1 then you should also get the sound, (However, you have to pay extra for the most part to get Atmos and 4K) so it's your settings that we need to look at.

As for nvidia shield and Plex, others must help.

The first thing you need to make sure of is that your HDMI cable is connected to eARC on your TV.

In the settings on the TV, you also need to make sure that the settings are correct. I have Samsung, here are the settings:

HDMI-eARC mode: AUTO

Format for digital output: Pass-Through

For settings on Arc Ultra, Peter Pee has a pretty good handle on SONOS.

Make your Sonos Arc ULTRA sound better with these best settings!

Without eARC you will never get Atmos, it is only possible to achieve 5.1.
It is a shame because this is a much better soundstage.

First you need to make sure your TV is updated with Firmware update version 4.612 which is from 18/9-2024

When connecting a "BRAVIA" Sync compatible digital sound system and Audio Return Channel (ARC) technology, the connection must be made to HDMI IN 1 with an HDMI cable.

Press the HOME button after making the connection, then select [Settings] using the / buttons.
Select [Sound] using the / buttons, then press the button.
Select [Speaker] using the / buttons, then press the button.
Select [Audio System] using the / buttons, then press the button.
The connected sound system will turn on automatically. The volume can be adjusted using the TV remote control.
Press the HOME button twice to return to the source that was last viewed.

Once this is done, the settings in Nivida/Plex you need to play with, I think you can google your way to the answer :)

Your first sentence is, to the best of my knowledge, not true. A (compressed) DD+ stream can contain Atmos. That’s the way Netflix c.s. send Atmos info. The only stream that really needs eARC is an uncompressed stream, like from a BD-player or Apple TV.

Thank you. It all works. Don't ask me how I setup the Shield and Plex player on it but i get dolby digital 5.1 on all my surround content. I will post detailed settings so I can help out someone with similar problem.

Thank you

Neven

Hi ​@Neven 

Glad to hear that you got your Arc Ultra at last!

I also have an nVidia Shield and use Plex. In addition to having HDMI Passthrough enabled on the Plex player settings (not the server’s - I think it is set to supply original audio), I have the Shield’s audio format options set to Auto and my TV’s audio format also set to Auto (some TVs benefit from the Passthrough/Bitstream setting, but I get tiny interruptions when using this).

I can play all the formats I have so far come across without issue, including TrueHD, Dolby Digital + (reported in Plex as E-AC3, but there is no Atmos denoted - not all E-AC3 is Atmos, but all lossy Atmos is E-AC3), DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby Multichannel PCM, DTS-HD/MA (Plex strips the DTS core from it and passes only that core to Arc Ultra, resulting in DTS being reported in the Sonos app and played - DTS-HD/MA is not actually played, but there is also no conversion/transcoding).

I do have Dolby Digital conversion enabled in Shield settings, so anything that Arc Ultra does not support is converted (like AAC, for example) and I also have the option to set PCM volume to Dolby levels enabled.

I hope this helps.

Hi ​@Corry P 

Since I plugged my Arc Ultra in HDMI arc (not earc) my Sony TV can output 5.1 linear PCM or Dolby Digital. On my TV the setting Digital audio out is set to Auto (not sure how this has anything to do with HDMI. For HDMI Arc I can not find any settings. On my nvidia shield Audio output is on auto, available formats also on auto (only dolby digital check is then on, I suppose because the Arc supports it.

The crucial setting is found on Plex app on Shield. For some reason i had to set passthrough to "optical"

(even the choices were also "HDMI" and "disabled". And I set optical encodings to ac3. Now my Sonos app shows dolby digital 5.1 Does that mean the shield is transcoding something? Should I turn on dolby digital conversion for some (all) the formats the Arc Ultra does not support?

Thank you for your help

Neven

Hi ​@Neven 

Bingo! Honestly, this setting had me convinced that the Shield actually had an optical port for quite some time - I only recently found out this is not the case!

If the source contains anything other than Dolby Digital 5.1, then yes.

Please also note that when looking at a movie in the Plex player, you can go to the three-dot menu, then Player Settings (if memory serves) and select an alternate sound track (assuming the content has multiple tracks in the first place, of course). If you ever get no audio, this may help (or if the movie refuses to start playing - I think this may be more common).

Yes, though it is the HDMI-ARC (as opposed to eARC) that will be the restriction, rather than what is supported by Arc Ultra (in the majority of cases). I only recommend changing settings once you come across something that does not play, however - “Auto” should take care of it.

You are most welcome!

I hope this helps.