Sonos Arc Ultra center channel too loud

Hi,

Thanks everyone for posting all this stuff.  I was on the brink of ditching my old-school Denon amp, monstrous Mission M74s, surrounds, centre speaker and sub for the Arc Ultra, Era 300s and Sub 4 to tidy up the lounge and be submersed in the Sonos soundfield.  However, sounds like that would sonically be a backwards step.

Glad to have found this thread before buying the kit.  So often it’s not until after parting with the cash and realising that you’re disappointed with the results that you start digging into threads like this.

For all of you that have invested in this kit, I truly hope Sonos do something to sort it out.  Unfortunately, given the snails-pace at which the disastrous app was worked on, we’ll all be older and the only thing we will need to hear is that really clear centre dialogue channel!  😉

Curious if anyone can explain. Certain sports ambient crowd noise can mainly be heard when engaging night mode. Even during non-action sequences. Today’s US Open is a perfect example. When night mode is on low ambient crowd noise can be heard consistently. With night mode off, you can hear the ambient crowd noise disappear from the soundbar. I’m glad I can create a workaround with night mode but this wasn’t as much an issue with identical mixes on my previous 5.1 soundbar system (I listened to the same source on both to compare).  Yes, it’s undoubtedly partially a source issue but I do think something in the arc ultra mix is off for certain sources. Wondering if anyone knows why night mode engages this ambient sound. I’m getting 5.1 sound. TV set to pass through. Sony A95L. 

I wonder if it’s not so much just a L-R issue as it is certain surround mixes being mapped incorrectly regardless of specific channel. It’s noticeable in movies too but much more so in sports.  

I edited this. I’m watching a match in a different stadium and sound is much better. So that particular mix is bad I guess. But I’d maintain when I had my other soundbar system I heard crowd noise more in the mix. 
 

It depends on the mix being sent by the originator. They have control over what gets sent.

No argument from me. However, the mixes coming from sources sometimes have ambient sound coming through the center. Those are the sports mixes that sound better on the Arc Ultra. I changed from a competitor’s soundbar system to the Arc Ultra because the other bar didn’t work after several months. You can probably guess which one but my goal isn’t to advertise. 
 

I watched last year’s National Championship football game on both systems. The competitor’s filled my room with sound. On the Arc Ultra immersive tonight’s Appalachian State football game sounds almost as good as the CFP championship game. The Arc Ultra otherwise blows the competitor  away. But something is wrong. I’ve heard the same source material on both systems. Certain audio that was mapped to the competitor is not as ambient on the Arc Ultra. Whether that has to do with the L-R channel volume, I don’t know. But a fix would really be appreciated. I hate having buyer’s remorse over a $3,000 expenditure. Especially on something so close to being great. 

Heh. Reminds me of pre-season games on my local channels when I lived in Austin. The local station carried it in Dolby Digital, but the feed they were getting was in stereo from the broadcast affiliate (probably some station in Dallas, it was the Cowboys). Made the game almost unlistenable on my surround system, which at the time was a PLAYBAR, a pair of Sonos PLAY:1s, and a Gen 2 sub. But the muddiness between the center channel, combined with the front right / left, and the surround info was terrible, although as I recall, it was Tony Romo, not my favorite announcer anyway….

It took me weeks of phone calls to finally connect with an engineer at the TV station who actually understood what I was talking about, as near as I can tell, I was the only person calling in. Didn’t run in to the issue the next year, I think there was some learning that occurred. But the simple fact is that the Sonos was playing what it was sent by the source, much to my chagrin. Sonos offers some ability to modify data, but nowhere near enough to change/fix everything. 

I don’t think I made my point clearly. On the Arc Ultra, the center array is several decibels louder than the L-R arrays. So if the source is 2.0, in my opinion if it is output into either 2.0 or 5.1 on the Arc Ultra system , the sound from the source is accurately depicted. My reasoning is in that scenario, both dialogue and L-R effects are played in the L-C-R arrays. In a true 5.1 mix I believe the dialogue only plays through the center array. Since the center array is several decibels louder than the L-R arrays, dialogue in a 5.1 mix is played disproportionately higher on the Arc Ultra. Thus the Arc Ultra is not outputting a true 5.1 mix authentically from the source….in my opinion. Based on listening to identical source material on a similarly high end system, I’m confident I’m correct. Whatever the case certain material contains dialogue in all 3 arrays. That content tends to sound excellent. Content where the dialogue is isolated to the center array is at least at times lacking the proper L-R channel sound.  I’m assuming this content is true 5.1, when it happens. 
 

I hope this makes sense. I’m hoping that a fix for 5.1 content in which audio designed for the L-R channels is better mixed into the center array so as to reproduce the actual mix from the source. In my opinion this isn’t happening in 5.1 sources consistently. It could be more complicated than this, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s only certain 5.1 sources. Maybe I’m just neurotic, lol. 

But in my opinion there’s no question that louder center array is causing certain mixes to not be presented in the manner that they are originally presented from the source. 

I’m no expert and totally open to input from Sonos technical people in the know. Or would love to know if a fix is being worked on. Even if it takes awhile. Or maybe the last update did something that I’m missing. I just want to know. 
 

It shouldn’t be just Corry who provides feedback. It’s not fair to us. Or him.

If you want official feedback calling supportis really the only good option. You need to get past the initial call responders and may need to schedule a call-back.

Hi ​@Corry P, sorry to keep asking. Has there been any development on this please?

i find it so difficult to watch something with the arc ultra. The centre channel being 7/8db louder than the left and right is really too much.

The arc ultra has been out for almost a year and still no progress on this, despite many people being frustrated by it?

I was hopeful with Tom being at the top now, that customers would be listened to more?

Thank you again.

Point taken. I’ll just leave it for now with this comment. A 2 channel mix…even one up mixed to 5.1…appears to engage more of the speakers from L-R. In a true 5.1 mix when dialogue is exclusively coming from the center, it appears to me that more of rhe L-R speakers closest to the center are noticeably quiet. I’d wonder if that is an unintended correctable error. Or if those are purely for L-R channels. L-R channel audio seems noticeably more prevalent in a two-channel mix. 
 

To your point, I’ll try support when I get a chance but I can only wonder if I’m trying to make points about technical questions how far I’ll have to go to get there. 
 

I know I’ve been somewhat repetitive and I hope that hasn’t annoyed anyone. I’m putting what I think are technical points with limited knowledge hoping they’ll provide helpful insight. 
 

I’m going to leave it here as I think I’ve said all I can say. And just either hope for a fix or take it to customer service and see how far I get. Thanks for listening everyone. 

Hi ​@Gavalar 

I have not heard anything as of yet (neither anything I can share nor that I can't), but I do keep pushing all this feedback - you are being heard.