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Sonos 9.1.4 Theater Mini-Review

I got an Arc Ultra For Christmas. It’s in the bedroom, where we do our TV watching.

It’s not a great music speaker but it’s a good TV speaker. Very satisfying, particularly for the dialog track. Helps me a lot, and allows playing at lower volume.

I haven’t run across any ATMOS streams. Most of the movies that would have it are not what we would watch. Some animated movies seem to have been made for 3D, but don’t seem to stream with ATMOS.
 
highwayinthesky said:
DD 5.1 - VOB
DD 5.1 - mp4
PCM 5.1 - m2ts
FLAC 5.1
AAC 5.1

Not sure what players you have available, so I dug up a bunch of different formats.
Click to expand...
For life of me can't find a USB Stick in the house, its been that many years...and GoogleTV doesn't come with a browser for some idiotic reason.

In meantime, I went on Youtube and played about a dozen different 5.1 Test videos. Basic 5.1 is working fine as is 7.1.

However, this did uncover something I'm going to reach out to Sonos about, it seems that after running true play, the L/R channels are playing about 6db softer than other channels.

Does anyone know good test video I can purchase in the Apple or Amazon eco system so I can stream it?

Our DVD players are packed away, won't be getting that setup for another month or so. What a rabbit hole it is finding simple white noise test files on Youtube, Apple or Amazon...I may have to go buy

I will post back here what Sonos says about the channel volume imbalance, they're in on Monday.
 
Last edited:
D700 said:
For life of me can't find a USB Stick in the house, its been that many years...and GoogleTV doesn't come with a browser for some idiotic reason.

In meantime, I went on Youtube and played about a dozen different 5.1 Test videos. Basic 5.1 is working fine as is 7.1.

However, this did uncover something I'm going to reach out to Sonos about, it seems that after running true play, the L/R channels are playing about 6db softer than other channels.

Does anyone know good test video I can purchase in the Apple or Amazon eco system so I can stream it?

Our DVD players are packed away, won't be getting that setup for another month or so. What a rabbit hole it is finding simple white noise test files on Youtube, Apple or Amazon...I may have to go buy

I will post back here what Sonos says about the channel volume imbalance, they're in on Monday.
Click to expand...
oh fascinating, thanks. Did the Sonos app show 5.1 PCM while playing those videos?

Unfortunately no, I’m not aware of any test material available for streaming.
 
I wish Sonos had the option to use their soundbars as a center channel with using their Fives or other stand allow speakers for Left/Right. In addition they could even allow the Sonos Amp to power ceiling speakers for a more realistic atmos experience… all with no receiver/processor. It appears they have no interest in doing so, however, if they did, I would expect it to sound quite good.
 
Dj7675 said:
I wish Sonos had the option to use their soundbars as a center channel with using their Fives or other stand allow speakers for Left/Right. In addition they could even allow the Sonos Amp to power ceiling speakers for a more realistic atmos experience… all with no receiver/processor. It appears they have no interest in doing so, however, if they did, I would expect it to sound quite good.
Click to expand...
100%.
 
highwayinthesky said:
oh fascinating, thanks. Did the Sonos app show 5.1 PCM while playing those videos?

Unfortunately no, I’m not aware of any test material available for streaming.
Click to expand...
Yes, showed "Dolby Multichannel PCM 5.1".

Also, for anyone keeping score, Dialog enhancement is off.

I recorded a video of the test, if anyone knows how to strip meta data and post anonymously from a Mac, I'm happy to upload it. One can hear the difference in volume between L/R and other channels, though I wish I had pure test tones.
 
D700 said:
Yes, showed "Dolby Multichannel PCM 5.1".

Also, for anyone keeping score, Dialog enhancement is off.

I recorded a video of the test, if anyone knows how to strip meta data and post anonymously from a Mac, I'm happy to upload it. One can hear the difference in volume between L/R and other channels, though I wish I had pure test tones.
Click to expand...
Perfect, thanks.

With regard to the metadata, I did a little digging and surprisingly came up empty. I did see suggestions that sending it to yourself over Signal will strip the metadata, though. Beyond that I’d probably just upload to YouTube or Vimeo, since they generally process uploaded videos themselves and don’t make them available for download that would presumably prevent anyone from seeing the metadata.
 
Sonos has been responsive, one of the chat agents has confirmed on his system. Front Left/Front Right volume is @8db lower than the other channels. He also provided great link for anyone looking for test files:

Dolby Digital Plus

ott.dolby.com ott.dolby.com
 
D700 said:
Sonos has been responsive, one of the chat agents has confirmed on his system. Front Left/Front Right volume is @8db lower than the other channels. He also provided great link for anyone looking for test files:

Dolby Digital Plus

ott.dolby.com ott.dolby.com
Click to expand...
Wow. That’s remarkable support. Hopefully they’ll fix it!

Incidentally, I just ordered the whole set from them.
 
highwayinthesky said:
Wow. That’s remarkable support. Hopefully they’ll fix it!

Incidentally, I just ordered the whole set from them.
Click to expand...
well it was a Sonos Staffer monitoring the Community forums, here:
en.community.sonos.com

Stereo / Left and Right Channel Bug? | Sonos Community

Hello :) I currently own the Sonos Arc Ultra. This is my first Sonos product. I have already asked google about my problem and searched here in the forum but have not found anything suitable.My left and right speakers are extremely quiet. I first noticed this when I was watching normal TV. There...
en.community.sonos.com en.community.sonos.com

I subsequently have opened a ticket with actual support and its a much more formal process...but got right through, answering lots of questions.
 
Update: A forum member suggested I do a full reset of all devices after updating to latest firmware as well as updated the iOS App. Imaging is much better with music, doesn't require cutting back surrounds and vocal is centered now. Definitely something junked up with that initial firmware/Trueplay run but seems fixed now.

There does remain a difference in channel volume with FR & FL playing quieter than other channels with 5.1 and above signals...but I'd expect they can update that easily.

Hardware is clearly really good, satisfied with the results and I'd expect the software to evolve given the leadership changes and stated direction.
 
I have an original Arc 2 pairs of Fives, 2 Move (second generation) and two Sub 3s. Makes for a decent system.

I made sure to have seperate volume controls for one of the pair of Fives and for my Moves. The third volume slider I have controls the Arc the two subs and the other pair of Fives.

Depending on how loud I am listening and too what music, I may have to move the volume sliders around to get the mix I want but for my goal to have an immersive listening experience, it is pretty nice.

I became tired of big amps, seperate DAC, big speakers and massive subs all with wires running about. I loved that approach for decades, now I'm quite happy to have a compromised system by way of comparison, and I still enjoy great quality audio reproduction.
 
@
A Surfer said:
I have an original Arc 2 pairs of Fives, 2 Move (second generation) and two Sub 3s. Makes for a decent system.

I made sure to have seperate volume controls for one of the pair of Fives and for my Moves. The third volume slider I have controls the Arc the two subs and the other pair of Fives.

Depending on how loud I am listening and too what music, I may have to move the volume sliders around to get the mix I want but for my goal to have an immersive listening experience, it is pretty nice.

I became tired of big amps, seperate DAC, big speakers and massive subs all with wires running about. I loved that approach for decades, now I'm quite happy to have a compromised system by way of comparison, and I still enjoy great quality audio reproduction.
Click to expand...
yeah, you summed up my situation.

Came across this review yesterday, he nails it, exactly my opinion across the board. Wasn’t familiar with this guy

“Unless you have the space and willing to spend $5k on separates, hard to beat Sonos Arc Ultra, ERA300, Sub 4 set”
 
D700 said:
@

yeah, you summed up my situation.

Came across this review yesterday, he nails it, exactly my opinion across the board. Wasn’t familiar with this guy

“Unless you have the space and willing to spend $5k on separates, hard to beat Sonos Arc Ultra, ERA300, Sub 4 set”
Click to expand...
For sure. I had also started not listening as often, for as long or as loud so having all the space and money a traditional system tied up was getting hard to justify.

Not that my Sonos rig doesn't take space, or was inexpensive, but it was still a considerable reduction in terms of space used and money allocated. It meets my needs and sounds quite satisfying to me.
 
A Surfer said:
For sure. I had also started not listening as often, for as long or as loud so having all the space and money a traditional system tied up was getting hard to justify.

Not that my Sonos rig doesn't take space, or was inexpensive, but it was still a considerable reduction in terms of space used and money allocated. It meets my needs and sounds quite satisfying to me.
Click to expand...
Yep. I do most of my music listening in my office, I plan to upgrade that next year then I’ll be set
 
D700 said:
Update: A forum member suggested I do a full reset of all devices after updating to latest firmware as well as updated the iOS App. Imaging is much better with music, doesn't require cutting back surrounds and vocal is centered now. Definitely something junked up with that initial firmware/Trueplay run but seems fixed now.

There does remain a difference in channel volume with FR & FL playing quieter than other channels with 5.1 and above signals...but I'd expect they can update that easily.

Hardware is clearly really good, satisfied with the results and I'd expect the software to evolve given the leadership changes and stated direction.
Click to expand...
If this is “working as designed” they’d better have a *really* good explanation
 
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