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Question

Sonos AMP - Sharp (metallic?) sound

  • March 18, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 27 views
S

I have a Sonos AMP, bought new in october 2025. Last couple of months I have noticed the sound is quite harsh and fatiguing, especially for TV sound through HDMI ARC. Both Stereo PCM and Dolby Digital coding give the same problem.

For example, some voices tend to be too sharp and slightly sibilant. Other sharp sounds also feel too harsh.

Here is what I have tried without success:

  • Adjusting treble slider to -10
  • Experimenting with Loudness on/off
  • Turning on and off Night mode and Speech Enhancement
  • Factory reset
  • Tried 2 different speaker pairs (Dali Oberon 1 and Dali Kupid)
  • Changed to higher quality speaker cables

Is anyone else experiencing this? I found some threads about similar issues but they were pretty old. Could this be a hardware issue on my device? Or could this problem have reappeared with a recent firmware update?

4 replies

Stanley_4
  • Stanley_4
  • Grand Maestro
  • March 18, 2026

Play some problem music, send a diagnostic to Sonos. Maybe do a few with different input codings. Once done call Sonos support to have it looked into.

Your different input formats and speakers tests point to an internal issue, the diagnostics give Sonos information we users can't see.

    buzz
    • buzz
    • March 18, 2026

    Is this the case regardless of Volume? Do you hear this issue when playing music?

    S
    • siwee
    • Author
    • Contributor I
    • March 18, 2026

    Is this the case regardless of Volume? Do you hear this issue when playing music?

    Turning the volume down makes it better, so I usually end up with very low volume when watching movies or series. Sometimes I even prefer to turn on subtitles and turn down the volume so low that it’s hard to hear everything they say.

    I think I notice the same issue when listening to music, but it’s definitely not as bad. But maybe that’s because the sound characteristics of music is different.

    buzz
    • buzz
    • March 18, 2026

    Is this an issue with both channels? Likely, there is a hardware failure, but do check for silly things, such as a crushed speaker wire or vibrating objects near the speakers. Has the AMP ever shut down?

    Avoid Factory Reset without further consult because Factory Reset destroys diagnostic data that could have been used by SONOS Support.

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