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PaulyAus
Contributor I
November 6, 2020
Answered

Sonos Arc extremely poor dialogue levels VS Music and Action

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
    December 17, 2020

    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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    jcarenas
    Lyricist I
    May 13, 2024

    I had the same problem for a while and could not understand the reason. I finally solved it. In my case the issue was due to tue tv’s HDMI ARC audio output settings. It was configured to PCM2 and not Dolby. That is why the voice and surround were not properly distributed throughout the speakers. You can check in the Sono’s App when playing a movie or a tv show how it is being received. Once I saw it said PCM2, I understood the problem and changed the tv’s configuration. I am finally very happy with the results!

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    isasa74
    Trending Lyricist I
    July 16, 2024

    They never fixed this, let's face reality they fooled all of us with the Sonos Arc.

    I never enjoyed dialogues since I moved to Arc, they are barely audible unless you bring down the all building with pumping up the volume and get hated by the entire neighborhood.

    And now after years of denial from both sides with customers like be refusing to accept having been fooled and Sonos ignoring the issue, what they do? THEY ARE REPLACING the Arc with a new generation.

     

    Thanks Sonos , after almost 20 devices bought from you I feel so much frustration that I will change my entire system rather than open my wallet to you again.

     

     

     

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    dalsik
    Contributor I
    July 28, 2024

    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!

    Oh, that worked! Thank you!

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    dalsik
    Contributor I
    July 28, 2024

    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!

    Oh, that worked! Thank you!

    Nope... PCM is just stereo sound. I lose any surround or atmos. Boo.

     

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