Hi!
I got the new Play 5 a week ago. It feels like a quality product, but I am struggling a bit with the EQ-settings. First I ran Trueplay and there was a clear improvement. (Less hall/cathedral sound). Without Loudness it sounds pale. It's like the mids (voices) are a bit muted and the whole sound stage is not impressive at all. I usually disable Loudness on speaker systems, so this was a surprise. Everything comes more alive with Loudness set to on. The problem with Loudness brings sibilance to the trebles. I'm quite sensitive to sharp treble sounds, so I manually adjusted the trebles 3 steps lower. If I lower it even more, the total sound image gets destroyed.
The trebles alone were ok without Loudness, but the mids were not at all + bad sound stage.
Am I missing something here. Do you agree that it sounds "dead" /boring without Loudness? And that the Loudness brings sibilance to the trebles? Do you manually adjust the EQ?
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Just to make clear: I don't feel that I managed to eliminate the sibilance of the trebles, even with lowering it 3 steps, but this was a compromise without ruining the whole sound picture.
My first question would be to room acoustics - have other set ups yielded satisfactory sound in the past?
True play and EQ can mitigate but not eliminate all room acoustic effects. When you clap you hands in the room, do you get even a hint of an immediate echo? If so, the room is too bright and will cause the treble issues you describe. Soft furnishings, carpets, book filled bookshelves are the answer.
True play and EQ can mitigate but not eliminate all room acoustic effects. When you clap you hands in the room, do you get even a hint of an immediate echo? If so, the room is too bright and will cause the treble issues you describe. Soft furnishings, carpets, book filled bookshelves are the answer.
What you describe, makes perfectly sense. I live in a modern, minimalistic apartment, so there is a small amount of echo. On my last speaker setup I still managed to eliminate sibilance in the trebles. So I'm a bit disappointed that the Play 5's EQ-settings are not more effective in this matter. I have a nice, wooden floor in my living room and I really don't want to fill the room with more carpets and furnishings. I would have believed that a top modern Sonos speaker was designed to function well even with the acoustics of a minimalistic living room. Any tips on making the best of the situation without putting carpets and new sofas in the room?
The trebles alone were ok without Loudness, but the mids were not at all + bad sound stage.
Use this as a starting point because the sibilance problem has gone in this setting.
Don't expect sound stage with a single unit, it needs the separation that only 2 units in stereo mode can provide and the one unit can go only a little towards that effect, in comparison. That said, placing the 5 unit horizontally is best for sound stage.
Mid issues are directly related to too much bass. Leave loudness off, but back off the bass EQ a little at a time to the point when mids are satisfactory. Hopefully, you can do that without losing too much bass, but if you prefer mids to be clearest - I do too - reduced bass is the compromise to be made. Getting both usually needs a Sub.
Finally, no speaker can fully cope with minimalistic decor, that is the price to pay for those looks. How about curtains and bookshelves that have books on them?
And place the speaker such that it is at the height of your ears in your usual listening position. And have it facing that position.
If I set Loudness to OFF, I really feel that the general sound quality drops a lot. It feels like the voices are staying inside the speaker. Setting the Loudness to ON gives you the impression that the voices are outside the speaker. The sound really opens up and comes more alive. So I feel that it has a very positive effect on the mids and overall sound! I also know that Loudness boosts Lows and highs. And while I like what it does to the bass, I really feel the Trebles are to bright and sharp (sibilance). The EQ-settings are very basic. If I lower "treble" enough to eliminate sibilance, the whole sound Image becomes dull. I really think there should be better opportunities to tune just the brightest tones. Like a 5, 7 or 10 band EQ. This could at least be hidden in some advance settings. This shouldn't be too difficult to implement, and would make it possible to eliminate the sibilance.
What Loudness does is elevate bass at lower volumes because that reinforcement helps retain music presence at low volumes. It usually doesn't do anything else, but if it works for you, use it.
I would think that the combination of Trueplay and the existing EQ would meet the very large majority of situations, and your room seems to be an outlying exception that for now may need a speaker of higher capability, perhaps an active speaker with the kind of room response DSP that pro speakers have.
Remember though that it isn't easy to overcome room acoustic problems indirectly without noticeably compromising sound quality in some area. Direct solutions are the most effective. Treble issues are best dealt with by reducing room brightness, while bass issues need addressing speaker placement and reducing bass energy levels to what the room can handle.
It may also be worth doing the Trueplay tuning again, with the waving of the iDevice done exactly as shown in the video - aimed at all reflecting surfaces in the room from close to them, because in your room the problem clearly emanates there.
I would think that the combination of Trueplay and the existing EQ would meet the very large majority of situations, and your room seems to be an outlying exception that for now may need a speaker of higher capability, perhaps an active speaker with the kind of room response DSP that pro speakers have.
Remember though that it isn't easy to overcome room acoustic problems indirectly without noticeably compromising sound quality in some area. Direct solutions are the most effective. Treble issues are best dealt with by reducing room brightness, while bass issues need addressing speaker placement and reducing bass energy levels to what the room can handle.
It may also be worth doing the Trueplay tuning again, with the waving of the iDevice done exactly as shown in the video - aimed at all reflecting surfaces in the room from close to them, because in your room the problem clearly emanates there.
Userlevel 1
All this discussion and no audio equaliser for user control? It doesn't make any sense.
I don't want to hand over my choice to Trueplay, I can my own decisions and I paid through the nose for it.
I don't want to hand over my choice to Trueplay, I can my own decisions and I paid through the nose for it.
Storform the sibilance exist in the treble to not perfect mastering recordings i can confirm . The strange is that despite all those hundreds of reviews only 2 mention this . I mostly play spotify and ii is very noticeable .Too bad. They could make the tuning in a way to avoid so much detail and eliminate the sibilance.
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