Sonos Arc Ultra center channel too loud

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

 

100% agree with you! The good news is the new management team is taking over after the CEO was fired, so I hope we get these bugs fixed and improvements along the way!

​@Corry P 

A couple of things to note and another bug to report

First, here’s example for Product team documenting the center loud problem:

• Example test tones video
• I took this video of my system playing this test file: https://download.dolby.com/us/en/test-tones/dolby-test-tones_7_1_4.mp4
• As you can see, center channel is roughly 6db louder that Front Right and Left Channel

Second:

• My surround channels were louder than front left/right as well but I was able to use the control slider to lower volume -3db which helped.
• However Front height was lower (even less than front R/L) while rear height was higher, like centers and surrounds.
• Unfortunately, I discovered that the slider to adjust Height Volume isn’t doing anything, there’s no change to the sound for either front or back height channels.

Will you update Product Team to also look into the height channel volume adjustment not working.?

I am really hopeful Sonos will address these problems in software, these seem like pretty straightforward bugs, not something that would get explained to the community as “working as designed” in a white paper.

Sup

Any updates? 

Same issue here. 
 

I have Arc Ultra+sub4+era300. The left and right discrete channels of the arc has a much lower level than both the centre and surrounds. 
 

Did any of you get any updates from Sonos? When I talked with them, they seemed “unaware” of the issue :-/

Maybe we should send mail to CEO directly? And to the press? Social networks? The most important product of recent years works as a bluetooth speaker for $50

That annoyng. How to explain to sonos that it's important and it's a problem!

And this is not a theory. This is an empirically proven fact.

While we’re waiting, I found lowering my surround volume to match my L/R helped quite a bit.

My thoughts:

I conferenced with L3 on this on Jan 3rd. He was professional, acknowledged the L/R difference and we ran through tests and captured logs. He said he would leave the case open and that it was being investigated. No ETA.

One thing I pointed out to L3 was that the difference seems to vary with overall system loudness, greater at lower volumes, less at higher volumes, which makes me think it was designed that way. Rtings also looked into it in their updated review and indicated as much and that other manufacturers do the same. It does keep dialog front and center, even at lower volumes, which I do like.

Even with this complaint, everything else about my system is great, overall frequency response, low end bass and surround/height effects are really good, so I’m hopeful.

I think ultimate solution is add feature to enable dedicated front L/R speakers (like 5s or Era300) then let Arc serve as dedicated center/height speaker...frankly, I’d prefer that before a fix to this...though they need both.

I’m rooting for Sonos, they’ve gotten so much right.

After Sonos latest update I can hear my Arc Ultra standalone sounbar more cinematic, more balanced, surrounds sounds much better and not to say the Height effects are much clearer and cool.

Great to hear. I’m waiting on furniture so haven’t used the room much since latest update which came after I met with L3. 

You will hear the difference. Let me know your thoughts when you can. Thanks

I recently swapped out the Arc for an Arc Ultra and the too loud center channel is very noticeable. As described in this thread it started too loud and remains so after Trueplay. My speakers are ‘up-to-date’ with software/firmware. Is everyone just living with this?

I find it hard to believe that this is a ‘bug’ four months after launch. And if the intention is to have the center channel artificially amplified over the other channels then this needs to be returned - that is no way to set up a HT audio system.