Sonos Staff

Arc Ultra Surround Sound change!

70 replies
7955 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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Gavalar

Enthusiast II

@Corry P thank you for the very detailed response.

Where is the slider menu / toggle you have mentioned please? I have updated the ‘speakers’ as @Peter_254 and you have mentioned, thank you for this. I have checked in the Arc Ultra surround audio section and cannot find it?

I have just checked the audio implementation again with test tones.

I effectively have a 5.2.2 system. The ‘inner’ drivers are so quiet when playing you effectively can’t hear them. When I play rear ‘side’ or rear ‘rear’, sounds, there is no difference in the volume from the outer to inner drivers. I.e. you would expect the side drivers (outer) to be louder when playing side sounds and the rear drivers (inner) dropped be louder when playing rear sounds.

Corry PAuthor

Sonos Staff

Hi @Gavalar

To find the setting, please open the Sonos app and tap the Settings icon » [room with Arc Ultra] » Surround Audio » TV Level.

Please don’t use “test tone” videos - they are not fit for purpose. Please use actual cinematic content.

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

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Peter_254

Prodigy II

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.

I don't mean resetting the speakers but simply setting all to 0 and doing a Truplay and then setting Sub, surround etc. to my preference.

Corry PAuthor

Sonos Staff

Hi @Peter_254

Ah gotcha - that is probably the way to go, yes.

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

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macladd

Lyricist II

Hi @Corry P

Thank you for the information. Pleased to finally see some improvements being made to the Arc Ultra. I’ve been speaking with Level 3 recently, they advised a fix to the audio pops was ready pending release, are you able to share if this was included in this update?

Ideally, I would like to see Sonos be more transparent than they currently are, I’m sure a lot of other customers would agree. Whilst I understand not sharing roadmaps etc, there continues to be very real frustrations around the end user experience of what is a very expensive, flagship, soundbar.

Sonos would do well to remember that we are invested and expect much better than we are currently forced to accept in terms of service and support for our products. Sonos appears to enjoy being shrouded in mystery, especially when it comes to customer escalations and how they wish to react to our genuine concerns and feedback.

In some ways, Sonos could well be compared to some could not care less bareucratic Govt department rather than a consumer focused audio equipment manufacturer.

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Gavalar

Enthusiast II

@Corry P thank you for your help. But actual test tones are to check the correct channels are being ‘fed’ to the correct speakers.

It sounds like I’m best off repurposing the 300’s and using 100’s as rears as it will be the same (I.e. no benefit of side and rear channels like with the old arc, before the update), less the height tweeter.

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Gavalar

Enthusiast II

@Corry P we now have a very loud centre channel, quiet left and right channels.

The rear channels are more adjustable so thank you, but the Arc Ultra side channels still play rear side and rear, rear sounds?

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DaytonJohn

Lyricist III

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).

I can’t believe your comment, no customer focused representative of a major Corporation would make such a statement to a long-time customer or even a new prospective customer. My comment is because I still have the same issue that many customers have mentioned for months. The Arc Ultra always duplicates the volume increase or decrease that the rear Era 100s produce while using the Era 100 slider to try and increase the rear speaker volume (and not the Arc Ultra volume).

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Minhlong

Enthusiast I

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).

I can’t believe your comment, no customer focused representative of a major Corporation would make such a statement to a long-time customer or even a new prospective customer. My comment is because I still have the same issue that many customers have mentioned for months. The Arc Ultra always duplicates the volume increase or decrease that the rear Era 100s produce while using the Era 100 slider to try and increase the rear speaker volume (and not the Arc Ultra volume).

Since the update, the slider works as it should. It doesn't affect the ultra anymore

D

DaytonJohn

Lyricist III

When you say “the slider” are you speaking of the slider on the Era 100 or are you speaking of one of the sliders within the Sonos app?

What I’m looking to accomplish is to have the sound of a jet or a race car for example as it moves from in front of the viewer/listener on past or now behind the viewer/listener you would hear the swish going past you and then off to the distance behind you. A typical home theater system with rear surround speakers regardless of sophistication or cost has done this forever. Unfortunately with the Arc Ultra and Era 100s as Surrounds the viewer/listener doesn’t get this effect because the soundbar duplicates the sound of the rear speakers. No matter what I try I cannot increase the Era 100s Surround configuration volume without simultaneously increasing the Arc Ultra (front of the room sound).

I will go back and try to find a slider in the App that allows me to accomplish my goal but I haven’t had any luck thus far.

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