Sonos Staff

Arc Ultra Surround Sound change!

70 replies
7958 views

Hi All

We are happy to announce to all Arc Ultra owners that the latest Sonos system update (issued today) includes a change to the behaviour of the “TV Level” surround setting slider option, in response to your feedback.

Previously, the slider had an effect on the apparent volume of the Arc Ultra itself, as the Arc Ultra is involved with the rendering of the rear channels, even when rear speakers are present.

Now, the new behaviour of the “TV Level” setting will be that it will only affect the rear drivers/speakers, rather than the rear channels. The result of this is that when adjusting “TV Level”, you will no longer hear the audio coming directly from the Arc Ultra increase or decrease with the slider. Instead, you will only hear the surround speakers raise or lower their volume with the slider.

I hope you all enjoy the change we’ve made - happy listening!

Please note that I am keeping this thread separate from the threads already extant in relation to Arc Ultra and it’s audio profile. I will link to this thread from them, but as many of the threads are now rather murky in terms of exactly what they are referring to, I wanted to avoid implying that this change will address all complaints made in any particular thread.

I hope this helps.

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DaytonJohn

Lyricist III

Not sure I am understanding this change correctly in that after I updated software the Era 100 Surround volume slider continues to raise the Arc Ultra simultaneously with the rear surrounds. Hope someone else experiments with this change. My goal is to be able to have some control over changing the balance of rear sounds on the Era 100s in the back of the room vs the Arc Ultra up front.

Corry PAuthor

Sonos Staff

Hi @DaytonJohn

I find this report of yours strange as before posting here, I personally made sure to install the update on my own Arc Ultra and tested - I could not hear any difference in volume from the Arc Ultra as I adjusted the TV Level setting with Atmos content playing, though I admit I did not try with other formats, and I have Ones rather than Era 100s.

What content are you playing please? I'd like to try and play the same content (or format) and compare results with you. If you have been testing with anything on YouTube (such as 5.1 surround sound test videos) please use actual content instead, such as a movie or TV show (not a quiz show or the News, of course, but maybe House of Dragons or Reacher, just as a couple of examples).

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

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Chagn

Lyricist III

@Corry P

Thanks for the info, but why this is not written in the release notes 84.1-63110 ?

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Peter_254

Prodigy II

This update has reset all my settings on my surround system. Arc Ultra-Sub 4-Era 300.

Also think you should run a Trueplay again 🤷🏼

Hoping for the best 🤦🏼

Corry PAuthor

Sonos Staff

Hi @Chagn

@Corry P

Thanks for the info, but why this is not written in the release notes 84.1-63110 ?

I don’t know - I was expecting to see it mentioned when I checked just now. It’s possible that someone is waiting for confirmation of the precise wording to use.

I shall flag internally.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

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Gavalar

Enthusiast II

@Corry P thank you for the update: I haven’t received the update yet, but will check later.

May I ask when the associated issue of ‘the inner era 300’ drivers are not used and the outer drivers play side and rear sound…

Also the arc ultra atmos / height drivers play at the same time as the era 300 atmos / height drivers instead of independently.

I have been holding out that these would have been corrected at the same time, but it sounds like all of this feedback has been ignored?

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Peter_254

Prodigy II

And now the settings are back about 10 min. later. I think I'll just reset everything and start over.

The update is not on the SONOS App but on the speakers.

Corry PAuthor

Sonos Staff

Hi @Gavalar

First of all, none of your feedback is ignored - ever.

This is one change. We did not say we were making any changes before now, and I have not mentioned any other changes now, and yet this change came - without warning. How you used this info (or lack thereof) to come to the conclusion that nothing else will be changed and that all else has been ignored, I don’t understand.

Some of the feedback may be yet to be addressed and some may never be addressed, but the latter does not mean feedback was ignored.

In relation to inner (customer facing) drivers on Era 300s not being utilised, we cannot address this as the fact of the matter is that they are being used. The inner speaker (tweeter + woofer) on the Era 300 surround system stays active when connected to any Sonos sound-bars that support Dolby Atmos (like Arc Ultra, Arc, and Beam Gen 2). This inner speaker mainly handles surround audio, but some of these sounds are also sent to the upward-facing tweeter with the rear height channel. The inner speaker is quieter than the upward-facing speaker because sound travels directly to the main listening area from the inner speaker, while sound from the upward speaker takes a longer, indirect route. The choice to share rear surround audio between the inner speaker and up-firing speaker was made to improve the immersive and environmental quality of the rear surround sound stage.

If the inner-facing drivers were as loud as the others, you simply would not be able to hear those other drivers, diminishing the effect of the surround sound staging.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

Corry PAuthor

Sonos Staff

Hi @Peter_254

And now the settings are back about 10 min. later. I think I'll just reset everything and start over.

This is a last resort step - I do not recommend it. You are likely just creating more work for yourself.

The update is not on the SONOS App but on the speakers.

Correct. It is a system update, as stated.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

jgatie

Something I’ll never understand is the obsession with with the idea of every driver being fired off with the same intensity at all times or else something is wrong. It’s almost as inexplicable as the old “I paid for those speakers, I want to hear them all the time” complaints when stereo sources didn’t play over surround speakers.

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