Sonos Staff

Arc Ultra Surround Sound change!

70 replies
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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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Corry PAuthor

Sonos Staff

Hi @macladd

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?

Not as far as I am aware, no.

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

Corry PAuthor

Sonos Staff

Hi @Gavalar

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

Yes, but as there is no direct mapping of the various channels to particular drivers on Arc Ultra, they simply are not effective at testing what is happening. They are designed to be used with Home Theatre systems that are not virtualising speakers.

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

This has been discussed a fair bit in other threads, and the behaviour was not changed with this update. Are you saying, however, that before this update you did not notice that the centre channel was louder, and you only notice it now?

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

Yes. Algorithms determine which drivers on the various speakers present are used to recreate particular channels, and it’s entirely possible that each channel will be rendered by multiple drivers, located on multiple speakers.

I hope this helps.

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

Corry PAuthor

Sonos Staff

Hi @DaytonJohn

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).

I am sorry to hear that you still see this behaviour. I do not, so when you said that you do, the first thing I did was made sure that your updates went through correctly - they had, so I then thought I had best see if I can recreate what you were reporting in order to try and help you, or at least to confirm that in certain circumstances, I see the same behaviour as you. To do this, I asked what specific content and formats you were playing.

I am not sure why you took this badly, but please be assured that I was merely trying to help in the only way I can.

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

106rallye

@MarkJnf Sonos might say your points 1 and 2 are not issues, but sound design choices.

T

Train_dude

Avid Contributor I

Hello everyone,

I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t understand the point of this announcement.

1. It does not fix the issue where the side-firing speaker of the Era 300, directed at the listener, is silent when paired with the Arc Ultra. Everything is fine with the Arc Gen 1.

2. It does not fix the issue where sounds that should come from the side-firing speakers instead come from the top speaker—again, only with the Arc Ultra.

3. It does not fix the issue where, in a 5.1 setup, the Era 100 rear speakers are barely active—again, only with the Arc Ultra.

4. It does not fix the issue of extremely quiet L/R channels (or an overly loud center channel—whichever applies). Again, only with the Arc Ultra.

Did I state this correctly? If I misunderstood, could you please clarify which of these issues this update actually resolves?

Thanks!

I heard people saying it's also the same thing with the regular Arc is this not true?

G

Gavalar

Enthusiast II

@Corry P I have not run the test tones to compare the centre against the other channels in volume, only for the existing issues for side and rear channel level. I actually skipped past the centre to side channel comparison.

I did compare all channels and the centre channel after your update and the centre channel feels at least double the volume of the front side channels.

I have come from a full surround system and Beosound stage (at different times) which had no such issues. I wanted to simplify the system, hence the arc for a short while and now Arc ultra with dual subs and 300 rears. I do regret the Sonos purchase.

It is a shame to have almost no control over the system. I appreciate you want to make this simple and ‘enveloping’ for basic users, but an advanced toggle to adjust channel levels and to ‘correctly map’ channels as they should be played would be ideal. Many people have asked to be able to adjust channel levels as well.

I would imagine people spending this much money on a system would want some flexibility, especially when they don’t want a full HT setup in a lounge / family room/ TV room.

O

OzRob

Trending Lyricist I

@Corry P I have not run the test tones to compare the centre against the other channels in volume, only for the existing issues for side and rear channel level. I actually skipped past the centre to side channel comparison.

I did compare all channels and the centre channel after your update and the centre channel feels at least double the volume of the front side channels.

I have come from a full surround system and Beosound stage (at different times) which had no such issues. I wanted to simplify the system, hence the arc for a short while and now Arc ultra with dual subs and 300 rears. I do regret the Sonos purchase.

It is a shame to have almost no control over the system. I appreciate you want to make this simple and ‘enveloping’ for basic users, but an advanced toggle to adjust channel levels and to ‘correctly map’ channels as they should be played would be ideal. Many people have asked to be able to adjust channel levels as well.

I would imagine people spending this much money on a system would want some flexibility, especially when they don’t want a full HT setup in a lounge / family room/ TV room.

I do have to agree that after purchasing the Sonos system its limited with its ability to be able to tweet the sound & other settings.

AjTrek1

Hi @Corry P

Thanks for the update. It works exactly as you said. Kudos!!!

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.

W

Woglinde

Enthusiast I

I have Arc Ultra with Symfonisk frame as rear speakers.

The fact you can adjust the rear volume indepedantly, i can finally hear the rear speakers when there is rear surround.

However, (and i think it was mentioned already in this thread) the orginal issue of Rear suround coming out of the Arc Ultra still persists. Before it the Arc ultra suround (For Rear sounds) was louder than the actual physical rear surounds.

I guess its a step in the right direction, because at least the issue is “confirmed”

Apple has IOS releases where you have new features and improvements.
Sonos has releases that makes the product work more normally :)

Well….. see you all in X months when the next fix is out for their Flagship product.

Corry PAuthor

Sonos Staff

Hi @Woglinde

However, (and i think it was mentioned already in this thread) the orginal issue of Rear suround coming out of the Arc Ultra still persists.

Both the Arc Ultra and Era 300s virtualize audio for the left/right wide speakers and left/right side speakers. The blending of surround audio between the front and rear sound stages is intentional and by design. This sharing of surround channels is not unique to the Arc Ultra, as it also occurs with the Arc, too.

As a result, you should not expect this to change.

I hope this helps.

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

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