Sonos Arc Ultra center channel too loud

Turns out that even though all my units updated during setup, they didn’t get the latest. There was an unapplied software update waiting, even with automatic updates on.

After running the updates, I now have 3 levels of Dialog enhancement available (low, med, high) where I only had 1 before (which I had turned on)

Now, with dialog enhancement off, the CA: Civil War fight scene is better. The surround ambience is subtle in this scene but its there now.

Currently, I have the ERA300s to sides (25’ apart with seating in the middle of room) and slightly behind the seating area. Wondering if I should pull those forward even with the listening position?

It’s comforting to at least see some acknowledgement from the manufacturer when there is an issue many are reporting, even if there is no current resolve. 

Hopefully when this is fixed the centre channel will also be a little less harsh and bright on my ears.

Left/Right channels playing at lower volume even with latest firmware.

Ok, still wasn’t satisfied so on prompting in another forum, fired up the decibel meter on my iPhone, found some Dolby Test files and reran Trueplay advanced.

While channels are playing to correct speaker, it was immediately obvious that Left/Right Channel was lower volume than center channel and all surround channels. Using peak capture on the meter, I estimate 6-8db lower. I can’t find white noise test files to stream, that was using repeating audio samples. But Center and Surround tests all were more or less same volume. L/R were noticeably lower volume, even without the meter.

Exactly.

terrible balance

Same thing it is too overpowering. I had to reset the Ultra to factory settings with NO Trueplay…it got better. Ultra standalone user.

Interesting, I will try turning Trueplay off. Thanks.

You are welcome! Let me know how it goes

Well it’s interesting…resetting was not straightforward at all but figured it out and reset everything. It improved 2 channel music listening, some songs that were unlistenable now sound pretty good. It forced me to update the Sonos app for some reason, even though I’d checked this AM. Perhaps got a better Trueplay session, can’t be sure.

However, no change to movies, still have an imbalance with FRFL being lower than all the others, which seems like an easily correctable bug

Sounds good that at least something improved! Definitely the “too loud center channel” issue is something I have faith Sonos engineers will fix down the road. Since we are the first users to use the Arc Utra since its launch. We are the ones who deal with all of the bugs and glitches that will be corrected down the road. For me No Trueplay gives me a warmer and bigger soundstage, the Ultra sounds a bit less trebly if that makes sense and the height effects improved. I am yet to try to run Trueplay again with the new updates!

Sonos should really just consider giving us manual settings UI for those that want it. I used House Curve to capture frequency response with/without Trueplay, except for a dip in the middle, the without curve was better below 200hz…both sound good.

some really good hardware here for that neutral of a natural plot in a giant cavern of my room. Just give us test signals and Parametric EQ for each channel :)

with

without Trueplay