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Sonos Arc extremely poor dialogue levels VS Music and Action

  • 6 November 2020
  • 70 replies
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70 replies

J
Userlevel 1
Badge +1

I’ve just installed the Arc with a sub and I was just saying how much better it is than the Playbar, which I used to really struggle with in respect of hearing the dialogue.

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Subtitles aren’t a good option if you don’t constantly look at the TV. A lot of my watching time I am not looking at the screen as I’m also doing something else. You can also get some spousal grumpiness when they cover up parts of the screen they want to see. 

I passed on the Sonos Amp for the single reason that it had no dedicated center channel. 

 

 

K

Any Sonos Bar set up is a compromise for convenience over a AVR based HT wired speaker set up with a dedicated centre channel/speaker and this is one of the prices paid for the compromise.

One workable solution is to use subtitles for dialogue. It does not take long to get used to it.

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

I'm beginning to think that I am the problem. A lifetime of loud music and noise, so I usually have to crank things up to louder than others in the family. Also likely my ability to differentiate at the margins doesn't work too well. I am sure everyone else has perfect hearing.

My ears are horrible, severe hearing loss.

With or without my hearing aids I have issues with the low voice volume on my Arc center channel.

G
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

I'm beginning to think that I am the problem. A lifetime of loud music and noise, so I usually have to crank things up to louder than others in the family. Also likely my ability to differentiate at the margins doesn't work too well. I am sure everyone else has perfect hearing.

B

I'm getting the same problem, constantly changing the volume to suit quiet dialogue and very loud music/effects. I'm using a new Samsung qe55q95t TV along with arc, sub and surround play 1's. TV is fine and iplayer but amazon prime and Netflix really suffer from this quiet dialogue. Nothing constructive suggested by Sonos help as of yet. I have a playbar and sub in another room and that is fine. Someone at Sonos needs to look into this problem urgently!

M

Brought an ARC and sub. Not at all impressed with the voice clarity. Performed the trueplay tuning but nothing improved. Everyone in our household complain about the same thing. I listened to the bose 900 and voice quality is crisp and music has more details. I am planning to return this.

K

If it was an Apple TV 4K, it might have been this issue: 

 

M

Hello

My TV is the Sony 80J Series OLED 2021 (77 Inch).

I will submit a diagnostic report, considering even doing a few.

What really is strange is that I get different results in True Play process:

I have used:

  • Iphone 8 Plus
  • Iphone SE
  • Iphone 12 max

Although I would assume that Sonos has calibrated the microphones of each (microphone profiling), the results are indeed different. How can that be?

I paid close attention to how I walked the room. That’s what I referred to above as “True Play Lottery”.

Is the recommendation such that I do many True Play runs until I like the result?

Very strange.

 

Ken_Griffiths

Hi Ken

I appreciate your support. Unfortunatly I am pretty certain I tried all possible solutions already.

I own a Arc, Sub and 2 Ones SL. Driven from TV with eArc.

Did TruePlay with Iphone 12 Pro.

Mids are generally washed out. Not present. Like there is a frequency hump in the 300-600 Hz range.

 

It seams the only solution is to move from Arc to the Beam Gen 2 as others have done and reported a significant imporvement.

The current EQ options in the App cannot fix this and the speach improvment is already on.

To really fix this, there would be a mids EQ option required in the 300-600 Hz range.

It also does not help that there is a True-Play lottery with different IOS devices giving clearly audible different results. It seems that Iphone SE 2020 give the best results.

This can only be fixed with further Software control.

Regards, Michael

It’s not currently clear which TV (make/model) it is that you’re using with the Arc, so that the Sonos Staff can perhaps better understand the issue. They could then maybe go onto test the issue for themselves aswell?

It’s perhaps also worth submitting a Diagnostic Report I think, and making a note of its reference back here and maybe speak direct with the Support desk, via this LINK, to make them fully aware of your concerns and to hopefully get the matter resolved. 

M

Hi Ken

I appreciate your support. Unfortunatly I am pretty certain I tried all possible solutions already.

I own a Arc, Sub and 2 Ones SL. Driven from TV with eArc.

Did TruePlay with Iphone 12 Pro.

Mids are generally washed out. Not present. Like there is a frequency hump in the 300-600 Hz range.

 

It seams the only solution is to move from Arc to the Beam Gen 2 as others have done and reported a significant imporvement.

The current EQ options in the App cannot fix this and the speach improvment is already on.

To really fix this, there would be a mids EQ option required in the 300-600 Hz range.

It also does not help that there is a True-Play lottery with different IOS devices giving clearly audible different results. It seems that Iphone SE 2020 give the best results.

This can only be fixed with further Software control.

Regards, Michael

Ken_Griffiths

Same problem.

I am very unhappy with the dialogue performance.

I wish there was a solution.

I appreciate we may each hear some things ‘differently’, there may already be a solution to this, but that depends on what is/isn’t being heard and the troubleshooting that has actually been undertaken so far with the various options currently available in the App and the local environment🤔?

M

Same problem.

I am very unhappy with the dialogue performance.

I wish there was a solution.

Ken_Griffiths

I just purchased Sonos Arc and Sonus Sub. Look like I have make the biggest regret purchasing these. Dialogue sound is so so so poor. I have tried changing so many combinations of settings and the dialogue is still extremely poor!

My denon and polk audio combo is much much better in sound at 1/3 of the cost of Sonos.
 

Which settings/combinations have you tried?

R

I just purchased Sonos Arc and Sonus Sub. Look like I have make the biggest regret purchasing these. Dialogue sound is so so so poor. I have tried changing so many combinations of settings and the dialogue is still extremely poor!

My denon and polk audio combo is much much better in sound at 1/3 of the cost of Sonos.

 

M
Userlevel 5
Badge +7

Still have this issue with my ARC and not improved with any of the updates

Have you tried another Arc or a Beam Gen 2 instead? Switching to a Beam resolved all my issues. 

Well I have Beam gen 2 upstairs and yes its much better on this compared to the ARC, but I wouldn't want to lose the wider sound stage as my living room is quite large. 

C
Badge

Still have this issue with my ARC and not improved with any of the updates

Have you tried another Arc or a Beam Gen 2 instead? Switching to a Beam resolved all my issues. 

M
Userlevel 5
Badge +7

Still have this issue with my ARC and not improved with any of the updates

C
Badge

Hi all - for what it’s worth… I had a brand new Arc about a week ago… music and effects sounded excellent in stereo, 5.1 or Atmos. Dialogue was generally “fine” in stereo… but as soon as I tried 5.1 or Atmos it was a muddy, mumbly, tinny mess. Certainly nowhere near the sound I paid that sort of price for. 

 

I spent 90 minutes on a call to Sonos support and tried every setting and little bit of trouble shooting going - I didn’t get anywhere.

 

I returned the Arc for a Beam Gen 2 and the difference was night and day - dialogue in 5.1 and Atmos was now clear and crisp. 
 

So, for anyone not getting what they want from the Arc, I highly recommend trying a Beam! Sometimes more expensive doesn’t equal a better experience. 

M
Userlevel 5
Badge +7

@Ryan A @Ryan S 

 

Hi Guys do you know if the above issue is still being looked into on the Sonos ARC please?

thanks

I

in my case  this happens when the Arc receives Dolby Multichannel , and DD at lower bitrates my solution is lower the treble 3 or 2 points behind the bass ( 0 bass and -2highs for example) and turn on the speech enhancement, and this solves the problem in most of scenes  but is kinda annoying doing this every time 

M
Userlevel 5
Badge +7

I’ve had my Sonos Arc Since around launch.. I also had a beam which has just been upgraded to a beam gen 2. I’ve never been happy with the ARCs centre channel speech, it always just feels underwater and not direct in your face which the beam does a better job of, in truplayed and trueplayed adjusted many settings but never get the wow feeling. I’m really hoping Sonos can sort this out, maybe give centre channel customisation like the height channels.

@sonos

D

Turn OFF “Reduce Loud Sounds” on the Apple TV.  It really messes up Atmos on the ARC.  I’m so glad I tried that, it solved the dialog issue for me completely.  Before vocals would jump around in volume depending on the scene.

atechi

I’ve found a fix. Use your native tv apps and your sound will improve drastically. Apple TV for some odd reason, sounds worse and doesn’t let the Arc breath. If you have an LG, you still have access to the Apple TV app on WebOS. Try it out, you’ll be surprised

R

Hi All. I’m not sure if this is of help to anyone but thought I would post. I was having the same issue with the Arc which I just set up and had upgraded from the Playbar with my LG. I’m using Dolby Atmos. Voices sounded underwater while music and effects sounded normal. I tested several apps but only seemed to have the issue on some but not all Apple TV+ shows and movies. Very weird. I tried all the techniques in this thread to no avail. 
Eventually I paused a show and saw there was an Apple TV setting to ‘reduce loud sounds’ checked. I switched to ‘full dynamic range’ and it appears to have fixed the issue. Perhaps it’s an app by app issue? I hope to be out of the woods and not writing this prematurely. good luck!

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