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5 mistakes everyone makes with Sonos' Dolby Atmos soundbars

(Image credit: Futurity)

Sonos' Dolby Atmos soundbars are synonymous with high-quality dwelling cinema operation, with the Beam Gen 2 and the Sonos Arc both garnering What Howdy-Fi? Awards in recognition of their class-leading sound and well-rounded characteristic sets. These smart soundbars bring immersive format support, vocalization command and multi-room interoperability to some of the most compelling home cinema speakers out there.

But even the most user-friendly soundbars can fall foul of oversights when it comes to mastering the settings menu. To aid you avoid a sonic blunder, we've compiled some of the most common mistakes users make and then that you tin avoid them and instead get the very best sound from your Dolby Atmos Sonos soundbar.

Although Sonos' latest soundbar, the Ray, doesn't take Dolby Atmos support or HDMI, it maintains many of the same menu options as the make's more than premium speakers, so information technology's still worth taking a look through the list below for tips on how to meliorate performance.

Error 1: ignoring Trueplay room calibration

(Image credit: Futurity)

The cheapest, quickest and well-nigh effective way to instantly upgrade the sound of any Sonos soundbar is to take advantage of the Trueplay room calibration. Despite the S2 app providing abiding reminders, many users don't bother going through the procedure, instead ending their system set-up as shortly every bit they've successfully got some sound out of the speaker. But taking 5 minutes to walk around your room and wave your phone around really is worth information technology, fifty-fifty if you feel a scrap daft doing so.

Trueplay uses the microphone on your telephone to fine-melody your Sonos speakers to your infinite and should be redone every fourth dimension you alter your room layout. Speaker placement, room size and the absorbency of your effects all considerably impact the functioning of whatsoever speaker, and Trueplay is a dandy way to offset the peculiarities of your living room.

Once yous've got your new settings, yous can toggle them on and off to decide if you lot similar the modifications, and you can still tweak the EQ on top of Trueplay's changes. Unfortunately, Trueplay requires an Apple tree device running at least iOS 7, every bit Sonos says that before long at that place'southward too much variation in the mics on Android phones, though the visitor is working on changing that. In the meantime, information technology really is worth persuading an iPhone-toting friend to come over and requite you a mitt with the Trueplay setup.

• Read our review of the Sonos Axle Gen 2

Error 2: leaving the TV's sound output in PCM

(Epitome credit: Future)

Feeling underwhelmed past the spacial performance of your Dolby Atmos Sonos soundbar when watching Atmos content? Whether you're gunning for virtual Atmos from the Sonos Beam Gen 2 or the full-fat version via the Sonos Arc, the starting time port of call should be checking whether you're actually receiving Atmos via your HDMI eARC connection in the first place. The Sonos app gives you confirmation of the type of sound format that y'all're currently listening to on the Now Playing page, so if what you're playing should be Dolby Atmos simply the app says otherwise (probable 'PCM', '5.one' or '2.0'), then information technology's fourth dimension to delve into the settings of your Telly and Blu-ray player.

Any source device you have needs to be set to output bitstream sound. Y'all can find this option in the sound settings of TVs, Blu-ray players and streaming sticks. In PCM you'll merely hear the audio in stereo but sending bitstream means your Sonos soundbar will be able to receive those lovely Dolby formats, including Atmos.

• Read our review of the Sonos Arc

Mistake 3: not trying the oral communication enhancement feature

(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)

In that location's nothing more frustrating than non being able to clearly hear dialogue when watching a Telly evidence or movie. The sparkling centre channel transparency of a Sonos soundbar can immensely assist with this simply, inevitably, varying levels of speech clarity combined with how decorated the soundscape is and the overall style of the mix can mean that fifty-fifty a top-quality, room-tuned soundbar is foiled by mumbly vocals.

Just before you resort to subtitles, delve into the Sonos app and find the 'speech enhancement' feature. While y'all won't desire to go out this on all of the time, it's very adept at lifting voice communication without colouring the overall tonality too much and veering into harshness. It's a neat get-to for costume dramas where hushed tones and microphone-swamping fabrics thwart even the well-nigh diligent of sound mixers. But, thanks to its sophisticated implementation, you could quite happily leave this setting on for anything from whisperingly nighttime superhero films to gonzo manner documentaries.

• Read our review of the Sonos Ray

Mistake 4: not playing with the 'Loudness' feature

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Once set up, about people look their soundbar to perform equally well regardless of whether they're watching a pic, listening to music or gaming, but nosotros'd urge y'all non to shy away from tweaking your settings afterwards the initial set-up to get the all-time from your content.

Unlike other manufacturers, Sonos doesn't offer content-specific modes, and information technology'due south easy to sympathize why – they're rarely successful and the processing involved ofttimes results in a synthetic sound with chaotic timing. That said, on the EQ page of the Sonos app is a toggleable 'Loudness' option that, broadly speaking, delivers genuine tonal enhancement.

Essentially, at low volumes Loudness boosts the loftier and low frequencies to which nosotros're less sensitive in order to give a flatter perceived response. The added bass heave can give an authoritative, weightier more engaging sound to music and games that is specially welcome if you lot don't accept a carve up sub.

Mistake 5: missing the new meridian aligning feature

(Image credit: Dolby)

Thanks to a recent update, you can now accommodate the loudness of both the physical height drivers of the Sonos Arc and the virtual equivalents of the Beam Gen 2. In the case of the former, this can be specially useful every bit the upward-firing speakers in the Arc projection overhead effects by bouncing sound off your ceiling. If yous accept high or uneven ceilings turning up the volume of these drivers tin massively improve the immersive performance of your Sonos Arc.

The Axle Gen 2 reproduces overhead and environs sounds from ii front-facing speaker arrays with psychoacoustic HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology to requite the impression of height. As such, the effect of increasing the volume of these channels is more variable than with the Arc but is nevertheless extremely beneficial for certain types of content, including action films and games.

It's tin can be worth giving the height channels a boost for more nuanced fare, besides, equally the atmospheric and reverb furnishings oft deployed in height channels often incorporate a lot of high frequency information, which is the portion of our hearing that typically starts to turn down equally we historic period. Upping the ante of these channels will produce a more forthright delivery that allows detailed soundscapes to really shine.

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Mary is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi? and has over a decade of experience working as a sound engineer mixing alive events, music and theatre. Her mixing credits include productions at The National Theatre and in the West Terminate, as well as original musicals composed past Marker Knopfler, Tori Amos, Guy Chambers, Howard Goodall and Dan Gillespie Sells.

Source: https://www.whathifi.com/advice/five-mistakes-everyone-makes-with-sonos-soundbars

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