Question

Arc in large rectangle room

  • 12 October 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 2476 views
M
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Hello,

 

I recently moved into a new home and the room where my main television is a large rectangle (roughly  32' x 16'). My TV is mounted on the wall halfway on one of the longer walls. With the audio coming from the television the sound gets lost in the room and is extremely difficult to understand dialogue, requiring my wife and I to use subtitles. 

 

We are thinking about getting the arc, but have two concerns. With the side walls being so far away, will I really get full use of the sound bar and  the ATMOS experience or will I just be overpaying for the same benefits of the beam? Also, will the arc be enough to help fill the room with audio ( and clear up dialogue) or will I need a pair of ones as well?

 

Thanks for any advice.

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4 replies

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

Hi @Mfa14 

The Arc will most certainly improve your TV audio experience; and more so than a Beam. That said please continue reading….

That is a very large room. My room (modest in size compared to your space) which is dedicated for serious movie watching is 16’ x 13’  performs quite well with the Arc that is situated along the 13’ wall. The room is also a perfect rectangle with only one entry point at the far end of the 16’ length.  I only share this information to provide a sense of an optimum area for Dolby Atmos movie sound.

Larger rooms will lend themselves to a greater challenge to reap the full benefits of a Dolby Atmos speaker. IMO the Arc will best perform in your space when augmented with a Sonos Sub and surrounds either Sonos One SL’s, Sonos In-Ceiling Architectural Speakers by Sonance or bookshelf 3rd party speakers  (the latter two options require a Sonos Amp as the power source not to mention installation if using in-ceiling).

Using an iPhone or iPad will enable you to use TruePlay to tune the Arc as a standalone speaker to your space for optimum audio. By the same token you can use TruePlay to tune the Arc, Sub and Sonos branded surrounds as a unit to your space. The Arc also has speech enhancement (as does the Beam) to improve dialogue.

Bottom-line I believe you’ll be pleased with the Arc even in your space. Sonos offers a 45 day return policy and most retailers (brick’n mortar and on-line) have some type of day limit return policy.

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
buzz

Mfa14,

How “live” is this room. If the room is sparsely decorated with no rugs or drapes, you will not likely have success with any hardware except headphones. The problem is “reverberation time”. Hard, reflective surfaces will not absorb much sound and will simply reflect most of it back into the room -- colliding with the next bit of audio that slips out of the audio system. It might take a large fraction of a second or two for the first sound to be fully absorbed by the room. Meanwhile this sound is bouncing around, hitting you multiple times while newer sounds enter the fray. The result is utter confusion for the human. You can also think of these bounces as “echos”. Sound is pokey, traveling about one foot per millisecond.  This means that a sonic trip down the long axis, reflected and returned will take 64ms before it is reflected again.

If you have heavy drapes, closing the drapes can help this sort of situation. Shear drapes will not be much help. Make sure that carpets include a pad. If you have any tapestries, include a pad behind the tapestry. If you have large bookshelves in the room, make sure that they are populated. If the bookshelves are only partially populated at this point, spread out the books.

M
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Thanks for the responses!

 

@AjTrek1 , I think I'll be going with the arc with One SLs then. If it helps give me that more premium immersive sound, while filling up the room and clearing up the audio with TruePlay, I think it will be worth the investment. The Ones will be placed near the corners on the opposite wall of the rectangle?

 

@buzz , right now the room isn't very filled. The two couches are getting traded out for a oversized sectional this week. And we will be purchasing an area rug as well. There is a bar area on one side of the room and shelving that has indoor plants on the opposite wall. We will also need to look into trading out the blinds on the windows to something a little thicker. 

 

I'm hoping the Arc and the SLs will do the trick. I recently went to Best Buy and the $4000 speakers they suggested for me seemed a little overkill for my needs. Again thanks again for the advice.

buzz

And, $4000 speakers will not solve the reverberation issue.

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