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Sonos Arc extremely poor dialogue levels VS Music and Action

  • 6 November 2020
  • 58 replies
  • 14212 views
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58 replies

J

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. 

I have a beam gen 2. Sure its clear and crisp. But it is too clear and crisp. It sounds like it comes from a tiny phone speaker on max volume with no depth what so ever. Looked at lord of the rings the other day and action scenes sounds amazing but the dialogue sounds as if the cast is totaly out of place speaking to me in a phone with no bass reflecting the environment. Clear and crisp is good, but it is not all you need in good speech representation. It needs to be adjusted to match the environment. Heck the cast dont even sound like them selves. They sound like, as i have mentioned here and there like they talk on the phone or somehting bass less..

E

I’ve been plagued with the same problem for months now. It all began when I plugged my laptop into my living room TV (LG webOS NANO90UNA) for a webinar. I must’ve toggled a setting that caused the dialogue to sound as everyone has described: muffled, underwater, etc. Today I decided I was going to figure this out. Nothing on the app helped. On the TV itself I went to Settings>Sound>Additional Settings>Digital Sound Out, which was set to <Auto>. When I switched it to PCM, boom. Problem fixed! Perfect. 

I can’t speak for any other brand, obviously, but this fixed my issue. Good luck!

M

I’ve been plagued with the same problem for months now. It all began when I plugged my laptop into my living room TV (LG webOS NANO90UNA) for a webinar. I must’ve toggled a setting that caused the dialogue to sound as everyone has described: muffled, underwater, etc. Today I decided I was going to figure this out. Nothing on the app helped. On the TV itself I went to Settings>Sound>Additional Settings>Digital Sound Out, which was set to <Auto>. When I switched it to PCM, boom. Problem fixed! Perfect. 

I can’t speak for any other brand, obviously, but this fixed my issue. Good luck!

When you switch to PCM you lose the ability to listen to 5.1 audio.

To echo everyone else, I am having the exact same issues. Extremely disappointing.
On top of that I also have audio delay.

I have the Arc, Sub (Gen 3), 2xOne. On an LG CX tv.

H

I have the Sonos arc and am extremely disappointed in the dialogue lack of clarity on streaming channels .  I have adjusted settings on the iPhone app and run trueplay many times . I have also adjusted the sound settings on my roku device . All to no avail .  For a $900 soundbar to perform so poorly in this regard is frustrating . I have a Samsung 2019 Oled tv  Any suggestions on a fix would be a Christmas miracle at this point  . Let me know if there are any 

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Did you call Sonos?

H

I reached out to support and have received the generic turn on the dialogue / adjust EQ settings responses .  What does live support do ? 

P

I noticed my sound issues were most notable with streaming services. Your tv settings may be causing the issues with the center channel sound volume. On my LG C1, selecting "pass through" under digital sound output in the advanced sound settings has made a HUGE difference. I think any other settings are double processing the audio resulting in the muffled voice. Not sure for other tvs, but I'm guessing any settings other than pass through are causing the issue. Even "auto" settings seem to still negatively process the voice audio. At least with LG...

I've also done some comparative testing. For me, native apps in the tv produce better sound than the native apps in my Xfinity cable box. Disney+ plays in Atmos with the LG app and 5.1 with the Xfinity app. Atmos processing seemed to be most improved selecting pass through as well. Not sure about a Roku or Firestick as I only have old ones of those.

Also in advanced settings, make sure the HDMI iaudio format for each input is set for bitstream. You may have to do some testing to get it to work. My Switch needs to be set on PCM to get audio to work with pass through settings. Not sure about PS5 or Xbox since I don't have those.

Good luck!

 

A
Userlevel 1

With so many complaining about the crap dialogue and piss poor replies back from Sonos basically trying to say there’s nothing wrong it’s everyone’s set up problems, it’s clear to see they do not give a *.

so disappointed 

there was a stage at some point where this was not a problem and the sound was brilliant but then it all went to * and they can’t admit it😓

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

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