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theprince4u2
Trending Lyricist I
June 22, 2020
Question

Sonos Arc - music?

Hi,

 

Trying to figure out if the Arc creates an immersive 3D-like experience during music playback ?(streaming or mp3)

How many drivers will be used during music streaming? Just 2? The entire 11?

Thanks

 

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17 replies

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Ken_Griffiths
Ken_Griffiths
June 23, 2020

It seems you already have the Sonos Arc in-hand, so maybe you can help me understand:

Non-atmos / normal music (e.g. mp3) will use only 2 of Arc's drivers (i.e. left and right stereo channles) ?

 

Arc's music doesn't sound good enough with non-atmos music?

I will do a test this evening and report back. I have the sub and rears also. I do remember hearing some sound though from the rears even when the app shows 2.0. Music playback is set to Ambient not full but I think this only refers to streamed music and not via HDMI

Yes the ambient/full setting is for general streaming music audio and not applicable to any audio coming from/via the TV over HDMI etc.

 

When Dolby Atmos is playing through the TV from the Tidal App to the Arc, if you navigate to ‘Settings/System/About my System’ and look at the Arc in the device list, it’s Audio-In will show Dolby Atmos (DD+) as per attached screenshot. It will also show the words ‘Dolby Atmos’ next/near to the play/pause button on the now playing screen in both the Tidal App and the Sonos App.

 

Hope that assists.

Immersive
Avid Contributor III
June 23, 2020

It seems you already have the Sonos Arc in-hand, so maybe you can help me understand:

Non-atmos / normal music (e.g. mp3) will use only 2 of Arc's drivers (i.e. left and right stereo channles) ?

 

Arc's music doesn't sound good enough with non-atmos music?

I will do a test this evening and report back. I have the sub and rears also. I do remember hearing some sound though from the rears even when the app shows 2.0. Music playback is set to Ambient not full but I think this only refers to streamed music and not via HDMI

Yes the ambient/full setting is for general streaming music audio and not applicable to any audio coming from/via the TV over HDMI etc.

 

When Dolby Atmos is playing through the TV from the Tidal App to the Arc, if you navigate to ‘Settings/System/About my System’ and look at the Arc in the device list, it’s Audio-In will show Dolby Atmos (DD+) as per attached screenshot. It will also show the words ‘Dolby Atmos’ next/near to the play/pause button on the now playing screen in both the Tidal App and the Sonos App.

 

Hope that assists.

Thanks for the settings/about type on seeing what audio it is outputting.  I didn’t know that..

    theprince4u2Author
    Trending Lyricist I
    June 23, 2020

    IswIs there a happy Arc owner who can help me understand:

    While playing a normal music (e.g. mp3) you hear just 2 of the Arc's speakers or the entire 11 speakers?

     

    Arc's music doesn't sound good enough with non-atmos music?

    chillaban
    Trending Lyricist I
    June 23, 2020

    Even when you play stereo content, be it music or regular TV, Sonos speaker bars use all of their drivers. Seems like a software algorithm that tries to simulate a surround like effect. So don’t worry it’s not going to seriously underutilize the Soundbar to play normal stereo music. With that said, true surround sound music formats like Atmos will achieve better separation of channels and have less of a muddy effect. 

    theprince4u2Author
    Trending Lyricist I
    June 23, 2020

    Thanks chillaban!

    I'm mainly interested in listening to Music (radio and mp3) and considering whether the Arc will outperform or maybe it's not a top performer for music?

      chillaban
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 23, 2020

      Right now, in its form today, it tries to play music like it’s a Transformers movie. 
       

      I don’t know if this is a hardware or software decision that leads to this feel to the music so I can’t say if a future update could make the music sound as warm as the other Sonos soundbars but this is how I assess the musical quality today. 

      Kryt3n
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 24, 2020

      Thanks Ken, I had read that also before I posted so i’m surprised its not just working as I have a 2019 shield TV Pro and both the OS and App are latest version. I am searching on Tidal for Dolby Atmos tracks and find a number of Atmos play lists with tracks with the Dolby logo. Some tracks show as Mastered and some HiFi. I am on a 3 month HiFi trial not sure if thats impacting anything but always get 2.0 on the Arc

      I’m on the 3 month trial too and it’s working okay here. Maybe try logging out the App and back in again sad see if that fixes it for you. 

      Thanks Ken, logging out and back in on the Tidal App fixed the problem.

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