Contributor I

EQ required. Harsh mids, ear fatigue.

17 replies
1189 views

Hi Sonos,

I have 2 Fives, a move, and an ARC with Sub.

For now I'm just referring to the Fives and the Move.

I understand you don't think an EQ is necessary (otherwise you'd include one).

But the mids in the Five and Move are harsh, muddy and have an overall "fakeness" to their sound, this makes listening to these speakers uncomfortable. My ears become quickly fatigued.

Now you may think you have done some kind of software magic to get the best/perfect sound, but you've ended up with artificial and muddy sound.

My cheap Sony amp paired with warfdales has better depth an clarity, and sound far more natural.

Actually even my cheap Logitech pc speakers with mini sub are out performing your speakers when it comes to clarity.

My hope is that the issue is speaker configuration ( the speakers you choose to use in the units) or DSP and not an issue with digital amps, and that an eq that allows for fine tuning of the mids can save us here…

The alternative is that I give up on your brand.

At this stage I'm quite disappointed, I thought from all the buzz I was buying premium speakers, especially at these prices.

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S

ShalakoAuthor

Contributor I

This is a great suggestion, I did do a small test where I tired to not move around the room, but unfortunately sonos was smarter than me as they built in a "move around more" function…

But I might try a few experiments and see what happens.

buzz

Grand Maestro

You’ll have to move around. Make sure that the phone/pad is well positioned during the first step as Trueplay determines your listening position.

S

ShalakoAuthor

Contributor I

I did a quick experiment with a spectral analyzer (app) and covering the speaker to get some visual feedback.

I'll try retuning using this approach.

Seems ridiculous to jump through hoops like this, but also fun to do experiments 🤣

S

ShalakoAuthor

Contributor I

Started looking at other options.

Yamaha

And Bluesound.

I called the local audio specialist and told him that I had Sonos, and he told me that they use to sell Sonos but they stopped (and implied it was based on customers not being happy with the sound quality).

So I'm going down to the store to listen to a few things.

While I was reading around the web, I noticed a consensus that Sonos doesn't offer adequate tuning options considering its unbalanced sound, and that TruePlay does not offer reliable results.

I realized that TruePlay probably suffers from Lab Conditions, and that real world application are possibly beyond it's capability.

The funny thing is, that if Sonos had offered an EQ to start with, there was a more than good chance I would have made the most of it.

As it stands, my plan is to replace it all with the competition even though I only just got most of it.

I was so excited to get Sonos and I was looking forward to brand loyalty based on its amazing integrated ecosystem of speakers, but sorry Sonos, by forcing me into what you think I want, you've ended up alienating me. (I talked to support, was happy with the rep, but ultimately I just got the scripted, we don't support that.)

The line "we don't support that because of the unreliable listening conditions" was kind of irony that I love. I'm telling you that your current conditions are unreliable... that's why I'm talking to you.

jgatie

*YAWN*

Y

Yiannis74

Started looking at other options.

Yamaha

And Bluesound.

I called the local audio specialist and told him that I had Sonos, and he told me that they use to sell Sonos but they stopped (and implied it was based on customers not being happy with the sound quality).

So I'm going down to the store to listen to a few things.

While I was reading around the web, I noticed a consensus that Sonos doesn't offer adequate tuning options considering its unbalanced sound, and that TruePlay does not offer reliable results.

I realized that TruePlay probably suffers from Lab Conditions, and that real world application are possibly beyond it's capability.

The funny thing is, that if Sonos had offered an EQ to start with, there was a more than good chance I would have made the most of it.

As it stands, my plan is to replace it all with the competition even though I only just got most of it.

I was so excited to get Sonos and I was looking forward to brand loyalty based on its amazing integrated ecosystem of speakers, but sorry Sonos, by forcing me into what you think I want, you've ended up alienating me. (I talked to support, was happy with the rep, but ultimately I just got the scripted, we don't support that.)

The line "we don't support that because of the unreliable listening conditions" was kind of irony that I love. I'm telling you that your current conditions are unreliable... that's why I'm talking to you.

Sorry to hear about your difficulty with the sonos sound flavour. In many ways I empathise with you. I actually own both sonos and bluesound speakers (the competition) and like you I find the sonos sound to be quite fatiguing when volume is raised to medium - high level. I have actually been a sonos customer since 2009 and have witnessed the gradual change of sonos sound profile to what we have today. I love the sonos speakers for how discrete and easy to use they are, as well as the reliability in multiroom use cases. I do agree with you that a parametric EQ would help a lot. I have used foobar dlna casting and managed to improve the sound of a sonos one / five by applying -3dB in the 1-3kHz area. It can be done but sonos does not and probably will never offer a parametric Eq (sadly). As for looking at the competition… unfortunately this may not solve the problem. Bluesound speakers have a very different sound flavour which you may or may not like but they also only offer basic Bass / Treble eq and nothing more. They are also less reliable in multiroom use cases and definitely more expensive. Not sure about yamaha. Lastly, I find that Trueplay makes the sound of Sonos One speakers worse than without.

In my opinion and from what I can read, the majority of sonos customers like the sound profile. While there are some (few) who occasionally report harsh / bright sound, the majority seem to like the sonos sound. I still like them for music around the house as I have not found a better solution overall. I am not surprised the wharfedales sound much better.

K

Kumar

Bluesound speakers have a very different sound flavour which you may or may not like

In my opinion and from what I can read, the majority of sonos customers like the sound profile. While there are some (few) who occasionally report harsh / bright sound, the majority seem to like the sonos sound.

I have never used Bluesound, but I have used many good speakers from various makes over the last couple of decades, and today have a range of speakers running at home - KEF/Dali/Quad as the HiFi type, Sonos Play 1 units, and PreSonus powered units - the latter being the latest addition that has added this category for the first time to the home. I find that all are not very far apart from each other where their sound profile is concerned, which isn't a big find seeing that all are running in the same home in rooms offering a similar acoustic response. On the other hand, I would expect all to sound a lot less pleasing to the ear in a more hostile acoustic surrounding like one that is bare of any furnishing, or has a lot of reflective glass areas, as examples. For Sonos, I would therefore conclude that they toe the line of good sound quality as defined by their equivalents in supposedly different market segments. Again, this is not a big revelation.

I would also be very surprised if Bluesound went for a very different sound signature because by going against the norm, they would be limiting their addressable market to those that like it - they would be better served by offering more aggressive EQ options instead so as to leave things on this aspect in user hands, but I note that they have not done this either.

I found that Trueplay either leaves the sound untouched, or changes it in a subtle way. Except for where the Sub is involved, where the changes are very marked. But if one does not like these, toggling it off is easily done even via Android phones. In my case, I have had no reason to toggle it off.

Caveat: I have never heard any Sonos Bar styled TV speakers, so none of the above opinions apply to that part of their portfolio. I have seen many claims for some of these to be overly bright, and in a case I recall it took a Sonos version change to address the issue. But this is all hearsay.

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