Renowned Enthusiast II

Answered

sonos Arc dialogue poor

10 replies
2156 views

Hi all. I’ve had my Sonos Arc for over a year and half now. I’ve never found the speech/ Centre channel that great, after many adjustments, truplay etc never noticed a difference, after the last update it seems to of got worse, we have to turn up the volume to hear the voices but when a loud scene happens it way too loud. I can never get the balance right, speech enhancement is always in, loudness on/ off doesn’t seem to make a difference.
Does anyone else have this issue?

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Corry PAnswer

Sonos Staff

Hi @Mitchellsx

Thanks for your post!

When you need to turn up the volume to hear dialogue, but this makes other parts of the audio track too loud, this is largely because movie soundtracks are mixed for a cinema - in a cinema, even the quiet parts are loud (and thus audible), and the loud parts are much louder. How much difference there actually is is referred to as the dynamic range. You can compress (lessen) the dynamic range by activating Night Sound on the Now Playing screen (the crescent moon button next to Speech Enhancement).

Please note that dialogue volumes can vary considerably from movie to movie, and from format to format. It is quite typical to have to adjust volume from channel to channel, movie to movie or show to show. We did not adjust the Arc’s audio profile with the last update.

I hope this helps.

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

Corry PAnswer

Sonos Staff

Hi @Mitchellsx

Thanks for your post!

When you need to turn up the volume to hear dialogue, but this makes other parts of the audio track too loud, this is largely because movie soundtracks are mixed for a cinema - in a cinema, even the quiet parts are loud (and thus audible), and the loud parts are much louder. How much difference there actually is is referred to as the dynamic range. You can compress (lessen) the dynamic range by activating Night Sound on the Now Playing screen (the crescent moon button next to Speech Enhancement).

Please note that dialogue volumes can vary considerably from movie to movie, and from format to format. It is quite typical to have to adjust volume from channel to channel, movie to movie or show to show. We did not adjust the Arc’s audio profile with the last update.

I hope this helps.

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

Airgetlam

It’s also not as uncommon as I’d like to have shows mixed improperly. I was listening to a stereo pair of speakers last night to “The Tonight Show”, and the stereo speakers were getting all the surround, and you couldn’t hear the host speaking at all. Poorly mixed/broadcast.

I’ve also seen issues (yea, looking at you, pre-season Cowboys Football games) where the local channel was broadcasting a Dolby Digital signal, but the actual game was only in stereo. This means the center channel and surrounds were “on”, but not receiving any information, which made the game difficult to hear.

Finally, the other issue can be that the Sonos is receiving a stereo signal, which it’s reproducing, rather than the normal 5.1 signal, which would then activate the center channel.

All things to be aware of. Some of which you have control over, much that you don’t, unfortunately.

Bruce

M

MitchellsxAuthor

Renowned Enthusiast II

Thanks. The thing is it’s not just movies it’s a lot of Netflix series and sky tv programs. The Beam gen 2 I have upstairs is a lot better with vocals, there a lot more prominent then the ARC. A lot of soundbars have the ability to adjust the Centre channel, why can’t The ARC have this feature so users can adjust to there preference.

im not sold on the idea it’s all about the content you watch, to a certain degree yes, but when you hear the same content on the beam gen 2 or my freinds Samsung QN sound bar the speech is definitely better.

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @Mitchellsx

Do you have TruePlay Tuning active? Perhaps try disabling it, or re-tuning.

I hope this helps.

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

S

Stirv

Lyricist III

I think that there are too many people with this issue!

Nothing seems to help enhance Dialogue, at least not on the Sonos Arc soundbar!
I've tried everything mentioned, and have had techs come in to see if they could see something I haven't. They could not!
Sonos has not done anything to rectify the problem, and their having received too many "reports" about it for years!
My questions are:
- is there even a dedicated midrange speaker needed for enhanced voice/speech?
- when will there be a fix, if one is even possible???

Also see my post, within the thread, under "Cheezy2 - 'Speech enhancement of movies' In my living"

jgatie

I think that there are too many people with this issue!

Nothing seems to help enhance Dialogue, at least not on the Sonos Arc soundbar!
I've tried everything mentioned, and have had techs come in to see if they could see something I haven't. They could not!
Sonos has not done anything to rectify the problem, and their having received too many "reports" about it for years!
My questions are:
- is there even a dedicated midrange speaker needed for enhanced voice/speech?
- when will there be a fix, if one is even possible???

Also see my post, within the thread, under "Cheezy2 - 'Speech enhancement of movies' In my living"

You do realize this thread is over a year old and has a grand total of 5 posts, 2 of which are from a Sonos rep? The other thread you posted in has even less. In what way is that indicative of "too many people with this problem"?