Sonos Arc extremely poor dialogue levels VS Music and Action

Have you done a Trueplay?

I don't like the dialog from my sonos arc ether.  I reconnected my play bar and the dialog is so much better.  I don't own any apple products to calibrate it.  I have a lot of sonos products and am disappointed in the arc's dialog handling.  I've tried every combination of settings. No help.  I would play the volume up and down game on the arc just to hear speech,  I don't on the play bar.   Sonos help!

If they can't fix the dialog on the arc, I may look at the Samsung Q950T soundbar instead....

This is one of the reason I just sold my ARC, Cant believe how low they tuned the dialog, you need to enable speech enhanchment al the time. 

I upgraded (or so I thought) from the Beam to the Arc and have the same issue. Tried turning loudness off, turned speech enhancement on, tried night setting, nothing helped. Now I sit with my remote control in my hand adjusting volume scene by scene. Seems to be a very common issue as there are lots of complaints both here and on other forums. Sonos never seems to reply to any of the threads discussing this issue. Love Sonos, but the Arc is massively disappointing. Not sure if I should return or hope for an update in the future. Pricey risk to take.

I went the same route from beam to ARC Ive read lots of reviews where they al praised ARC but to be honest I was very dissapointed, the only good thing Is that the second hand market is strong so I did not loose more than 1/10th of the new price.

Got the Sonos Arc and the Sub Gen 3 and am extremely disappointed with the dialogue.

Tried all combinations within the app and was of no use. I have an LG 2020 model and the TV’s dialogue clarity spins circles around the Sonos Arc. Sonos please fix this or at least put up a graphic equalizer option in the app so one can bump up the vocal frequencies.

I now use it only for music and pull out the HDMI when watching TV or movies. Defeats the purpose of getting the Arc in the first place.

The tall claims of Sonos that one can even hear soft whispers on the Arc are baseless. The speech enhancement helps a little but not as much. 

And seeing the number of people complaining about this dialogue issue, I guess Sonos should address it soon. 

(Posted on another thread about tinny sound)

I just purchased my first Sonos products. Arc and 2 One SL’s. I was very excited unboxing these lovely speakers. Such attention to detail in all regards. Very Apple! Set up was fairly straightforward. Used Trueplay. I am a HiFi nut and have a good idea about sound and relevant gear so it was a good experience so far. Watched a couple of TV shows and was a little disappointed with the tinny speech. Then I turned to some movies and series on Netflix and it all went pear shaped. The dialog was so soft I had to increase the volume ...but then the music or special effects came on and i was blasted out of my seat by the extreme volume. Movie after movie (and shows) all do the same thing.

I recalibrated the system. Moved speakers. Changed settings on my Apple TV 4K. No difference. Tinny and super quiet dialog. 

Looks like I am not alone with this. Complaints are all over the internet. So what’s with the overwhelming positive reviews by the press and review sites with not a single one picking up on the issues???

I will give it one more try but if it does not improve greatly its all going back. I am stunned that with this many complaints Sonos is not commenting or coming out with any fixes. Looks like no more Sonos for me.

I’m writing to add another vote for the ARC’s very poor handling of dialogue in both TV shows and movies.  I, too have tried all combinations of settings to no avail.  For the money they charge, I shouldn’t be wasting my time and suffering with their product.

The ARC initially had me thoroughly impressed, but time and the aggravation of going up and down with the volume controls has taken the luster off what I expected to be an amazing experience.  What is as painfully obvious as the ARC’s sound problems is the apparent lack of interest in the issue from SONOS. I know one person who visits my home who decided not to buy SONOS based solely on the problem with dialogue volume.  So, they’re losing business because of this issue, but it remains of little importance to the company?  

And, as a longtime SONOS 1 owner, I will take this opportunity to say how displeased I am with the way you treated your original supporters and customers by abandoning us along with any support or upgrades to your expensive equipment.

Can you pinpoint what audio format the Arc is receiving when you have this problem?