Sonos Arc value or lack of

  • 30 January 2023
  • 65 replies
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P
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I just hooked up and finally got the Arc working. 
in my opinion, unless I am missing something the Arc is in NO way worth $900!

My Arc only displays 5.1 in the S2 app NOT ATMOS!

One of the multiple seemingly all foreign( I mention foreign due to our language differences and therefore difficulties of communication) Sonos employees I tried to get the Arc working with , said ATMOS is just marketing and no different or better than Dolby Digital 5.1.

 I am seriously thinking of returning the Arc and buying some self powered Yamaha HS8 studio speakers for $800. 
In my opinion the the dynamics, sound quality, and overall enjoyment will be far superior with 2 quality self driven studio monitors. For less $.
Prove me wrong?

What do you think is a better way to go for the $900 usd.

 I’m just trying to be honest and factual. 

All productive comments are welcome!

No BS or propanda please. 
Thank you and best wishes to all. 

65 replies

J

Hi. The Arc will play In Atmos if you send Atmos to it.  Either your television isn’t capable of doing so or you have something wrong in the settings of your TV or source devices.  If you tell us what equipment you have, how it is connected, what audio out settings you have and what sources you are playing, there is some chance we might be able to help.

If you consider my reply BS or propaganda, then you are certainly going about resolving your issues in a strange way.

PS for the avoidance of doubt, I am just a fellow Sonos user, not a Sonos employee.

melvimbe

As John stated, in order to get atmos audio, the Arc needs to receive an atmos audio signal from your TV.  It’s definitely different than 5.1 audio, but whether you think it’s significantly better is a matter of opinion and what sort of content you typically watch.  Also depends on your room layout, ceiling height and such.

I have never heard the yamaha’s you mention, so can’t compare them.    Generally speaking, any pair of speakers will sound better than a soundbar for music, assuming they are quality speakers properly spaced and stereo source. 

This is the 3rd topic you started and you haven’t bothered to follow up on any of them after people took the time to respond to you.    I’m wondering if you’re not really interested in answers.

Danny
J

A few things you won’t get from a pair of speakers:

  1. Atmos
  2. 5.1 sound
  3. Multiroom capability

If you think you might be happy without those features, then possibly the Sonos Arc isn’t the best fit to your needs.

P
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I probably spent 7-8 hours trying everything I could think of: multiple cables, probably 10 or more hard an soft reboots, updated tv, Apple and Arc firmware, all the settings that could be changed on the tv and Soundbar, S2 app, etc.

I left the Soundbar unplugged during the night, to try and let everything drain and start fresh.

1)Tv is Vizio p65-e1 seems like I bought it just about 3 years ago. I may be wrong on age of tv and it's age of tech.

2)apple tv 4K not the latest 2022 model. I tried with and without the Apple tv

finally the last guy at Sonos did something on his end and it started working. No ATMOS still.

My thoughts are with the seemingly not great Vizio and not the latest tech of said tv, it disallows Atmos, and the Vizio TV is the failure point for Atmos.

would Atmos really be a noticeable improvement and enjoyment in sound?

Or would a quality pair of clean studio monitors always be far better?

would adding the mini sub greatly improve the Soundbar performance? Due to information/sound being offloaded to the Soundbar making it cleaner and more dynamic?

I know a sub will add bass/lows to the total room sound but does it noticeably increase the soundbar speaker clarity, dynamics, etc. 

plus the mini sub is another $430 usd. I hate too much bass.

I listen to all music pre auto tune and gridding of stuff called music these days.

I enjoy most rock, bluegrass, country western, bag pipes, pipe organ, melodic jazz, a cappella, punk, new age, piano, guitar… not 99% of rap or screechy violins/guitars for long, etc.

Thinking adding 2 X Sonos five speakers or ones would not help the soundbar but would increase room fill.

Can a pair of speakers be added to the front? Would it make sense?

Or is the Sonos software and hardware the big limiting factor vs a pair of say Yamaha HS8?

Thank you.

P
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As John stated, in order to get atmos audio, the Arc needs to receive an atmos audio signal from your TV.  It’s definitely different than 5.1 audio, but whether you think it’s significantly better is a matter of opinion and what sort of content you typically watch.  Also depends on your room layout, ceiling height and such.

I have never heard the yamaha’s you mention, so can’t compare them.    Generally speaking, any pair of speakers will sound better than a soundbar for music, assuming they are quality speakers properly spaced and stereo source. 

This is the 3rd topic you started and you haven’t bothered to follow up on any of them after people took the time to respond to you.    I’m wondering if you’re not really interested in answers.

I followed up on anything I got notice of, and that needed a reply. Did I miss replies and someone asking me something?

I have spent A LOT of time on fixing the Sonos Arc and living my life, not staring at the Sonos forum. So I may have missed something. Care to enlighten me?

Ken_Griffiths

As stated, the Vizio TV model mentioned does not support Atmos - so an audio extractor would be required to get Atmos across to the Arc. See the (usual) links below for examples of the type of product needed:

HDFury Arcana

https://www.hdfury.uk/product/hdfury-arcana/

Feintech VAX04101A

https://feintech.eu/en/collections/hdmi-topseller/products/feintech-vax04101-hdmi-earc-pass-switch-4x1-for-soundbar

OREI HDA-931 or OREI HDA-935 (link is for 931)

https://www.orei.com/products/dual-hdmi-earc-audio-extractor-converter-4k-60hz-18g-hdmi-2-0-arc-support-hda-931

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J

I think you are very likely to be correct that the Vizio TV is the likely failure point.  I have had a bit of a Google but cannot find anything definitive.  Mostly it talks only of Dolby Vision in the context of TVs, and that only for the “Quantum” series.

The cheapest option to get around this is to send the audio direct to the Arc rather than via the TV.  I’ll try to find a thread with the possible devices listed.  

Surround speakers would, I beiieve, enhance the movie sound.  Ones are perfect for this.

J

Edit - Ken beat me to it!

Ken_Griffiths

Oh and I agree with @John B that adding two ‘Ones/One-SL’s’ as surrounds would enhance the setup greatly for both TV and music audio.

F
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TV doesn't need to be Atmos compatible for you to play Atmos from streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, etc. as long as it can passthrough Dolby Digital Plus. Your TV is not too old as it even has an ARC HDMI port.

Connect the HDMI cable to the HDMI 1 (ARC) port of your TV.

 

Press the MENU button on your TV remote and go to AUDIO. Turn the built-in speakers OFF and set Digital Audio Out to BITSTREAM.

Back to MENU, go to SYSTEM and confirm CEC is enabled for HDMI ARC. Then, your TV remote should control the volume of your ARC and be able to mute/unmute.

Let us know if it worked.

Ken_Griffiths

@furacaopr, 

Dolby Digital Plus? I don’t see that codec mentioned in its spec. See my earlier post and attachment showing the codec pass-through from rtings.com. I still suspect an audio extractor will be required to get Atmos audio to the Arc, but more than happy to be proven wrong in this instance.

F
Userlevel 3
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Oh and I agree with @John B that adding two ‘Ones/One-SL’s’ as surrounds would enhance the setup greatly for both TV and music audio.

Totally agree with that as well. Another option to the Ones would be a pair of IKEA's Symfonisk.

J

I have spent A LOT of time on fixing the Sonos Arc 

Then you have spent a lot of time on misdirected effort.  Your problem is that you are not getting Atmos to the Arc.  Nothing you can do to the Arc will resolve this.  Get Atmos to the Arc and it will play it.

F
Userlevel 3
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@furacaopr, 

Dolby Digital Plus? I don’t see that codec mentioned in its spec. See my earlier post and attachment showing the codec pass-through from rtings.com. 

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/dolby-digital-plus-dd-atmos-over-hdmi-arc.2378442/post-42675274

 

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

Just to add my two cents….

  1. The TV must have an eARC labeled input as opposed to just an ARC labeled input. If not you must use an audio extractor between the TV and the Arc Soundbar such as the HDFury mentioned by @Ken_Griffiths.
  2. Not disagreeing with anyone regarding adding surrounds and/or sub to enhance the overall audio experience for theater sound. However, @ProUSAConstitution please know that doing so is not going to give you Dolby Amos sound. You’ll still have to follow @Ken_Griffiths advice to add an audio extractor.
Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
J

@furacaopr .  You may well be correct that this offers a solution to the OP, and it is definitely worth checking out before buying any form of audio extractor.  But DD+ over Arc is a necessary condition for getting Atmos, but not sufficient. My 2016 LG TV will output DD+ but cannot process Atmos, and doesn’t have a pass-through option

J

Just to add my two cents….

  1. The TV must have an eARC labeled input as opposed to just an ARC labeled input. If not you must use an audio extractor between the TV and the Arc Soundbar such as the HDFury mentioned by @Ken_Griffiths

Not correct I am afraid.  eArc is only required for lossless TrueHD.  HDMI-ARC can carry Atmos over DD+

F
Userlevel 3
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Just to add my two cents….

  1. The TV must have an eARC labeled input as opposed to just an ARC labeled input. If not you must use an audio extractor between the TV and the Arc Soundbar such as the HDFury mentioned by @Ken_Griffiths.

Not really for streaming, as it's compressed Atmos encapsulated in DD+. You do need eARC to play uncompressed Atmos, e.g., from a Blu-ray player, though.

P
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TV doesn't need to be Atmos compatible for you to play Atmos from streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, etc. as long as it can passthrough Dolby Digital Plus. Your TV is not too old as it even has an ARC HDMI port.

Connect the HDMI cable to the HDMI 1 (ARC) port of your TV.

 

Press the MENU button on your TV remote and go to AUDIO. Turn the built-in speakers OFF and set Digital Audio Out to BITSTREAM.

Back to MENU, go to SYSTEM and confirm CEC is enabled for HDMI ARC. Then, your TV remote should control the volume of your ARC and be able to mute/unmute.

Let us know if it worked.

I did all of this yesterday. None of it got me atmos.

I do thank you for your attempt to help me and the community!

Ken_Griffiths

@furacaopr, 

Dolby Digital Plus? I don’t see that codec mentioned in its spec. See my earlier post and attachment showing the codec pass-through from rtings.com. 

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/dolby-digital-plus-dd-atmos-over-hdmi-arc.2378442/post-42675274

Odd that it’s not mentioned at the rtings site, but maybe there has been a firmware update since that review or the review just thought it was not that relevant back in 2017. I hope it is the case and it works for the OP. At least they now know what they need to do one way, or the other. 👍

F
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

@furacaopr .  You may well be correct that this offers a solution to the OP, and it is definitely worth checking out before buying any form of audio extractor.  But DD+ over Arc is a necessary condition for getting Atmos, but not sufficient. My 2016 LG TV will output DD+ but cannot process Atmos, and doesn’t have a pass-through option

Yes, you need DD+ passthrough. That's what this TV's bitstream setting does.

Ken_Griffiths

I did all of this yesterday. None of it got me atmos.

I do thank you for your attempt to help me and the community!

Maybe just double-check there are no further firmware updates for your TV on the Vizio site too, just in case. 

F
Userlevel 3
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I did all of this yesterday. None of it got me atmos.

I do thank you for your attempt to help me and the community!

How is your Apple TV connected to the TV? What streaming service are you using? How do you check if you are getting Atmos or not?

J

I did all of this yesterday. None of it got me atmos.

I do thank you for your attempt to help me and the community!

Maybe just double-check there are no further firmware updates for your TV on the Vizio site too, just in case. 

And if you cannot get this to work, then just to reiterate, you will need one of the HDMI-ARC audio extractors mentioned.   (I use the Arcana.  It is pricey, but a fraction of what it would have cost to replace a top-of-the-range LG OLED.  It also cured the lip sync issues for which the LG TV was responsible.

Edit - but you need to be sure you have followed @furacaopr’s suggestions precisely before you give up on that.

Ken_Griffiths

@ProUSAConstitution,

Also note the Apps built into the TV are not the ones to use for your testing - nor the Apple TV (when set to its default LPCM multichannel codec) as that codec requires HDMI-eARC - you need to set the audio format to ‘off’ and select (DD+) Atmos audio.

Maybe try an episode of Jack Ryan (series 3) on Amazon Prime as a test and see what displays on the ’Now Playing Screen’ for the Arc in the Sonos App.

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