Contributor I

Answered

Sonos Arc extremely poor dialogue levels VS Music and Action

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Hi - other SONOS ARC owners have posted this issue previously but it did not reach a resolution so I am reposting.

I’ve just purchased a Sonos ARC and I’m having to constantly adjust the volume level up and down to compensate for the extremely low levels for dialogue vs action / music. The dialogue levels are extremely low in any movie compared to action and music.

I am using the ARC with a Samsung 55 inch 2019 model.

I have set night mode and speech enhancement on. Still getting the same issue.

There appears to be no further adjustment / modes in the SONOS app to adjust dialogue to music / action balance other than reducing SubWoofer level.

DEAR SONOS team - surely this is a software setup issue which is resolvable? Please let me know - really don’t want to send it back!!

Quite bummed! Love my Sub, Play 5 Gen 2 and Gen 1 and Play 3.

Thanks in advance for your timely solution to this issue.

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wilc50Answer

Lyricist I

I’ve had my Arc for a few days now and I had the same problem until I turned loudness OFF, turned speech enhancement ON and redid Trueplay. It made a night and day difference. I’m not sure exactly how the Loudness setting works but it only seems to make loud noises louder, which is counterproductive to speech.

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JonCannon

Contributor I

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..

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ElDoradoXIII

Lyricist I

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!

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micedk

Lyricist I

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.

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Hawk88

Lyricist I

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

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106rallye

Did you call Sonos?

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Hawk88

Lyricist I

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

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Paewraul

Lyricist I

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!

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AMG45

Contributor II

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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Matty55

Lyricist I

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.

Turn on subtitles, because our $900 soundbar isn’t capable of producing dialogue that can be heard consistently? You can’t be serious.

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Mitchellsx

Renowned Enthusiast II

Yes. still have dialogue problems, never bee fixed, just ignored by Sonos. Still the amount of times I have to turn up the volume to hear the dialogue and then turn volume down when action etc kicks in. Need some sort of centre channel control.

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