Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

1406 replies
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Beyond thrilled to receive the new Sonos Arc. True played my room and I have loudness on as well connected to LG B8 using Tidal and Spotify. Most of the sound range is phenomenal, aside from the bass. At even half volume the woofers are extremely muddy and sound terrible. Not sure if this is because I have under two hours of use but I wasn’t expecting to have to break-in the speaker. I own set of speakers next to it in the same room (KEF LS50W) and the difference is night and day. There have also been posts on Reddit regarding this issue. It is interesting given no reviewers have mentioned this issue but more than a few recipients have. Has anyone else experienced similar issues? Turning loudness off helps but it is disappointing for such a highly anticipated product.

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Scott - SonosAnswer

Sonos Product Management

Hello everyone. I’m a product manager at Sonos. Thank you for sharing your experiences with Arc. The development team is monitoring this community and listening to your feedback.

As we do with all Sonos products, we’ll continue to improve the experience for Arc through numerous software updates into the future. Last week we issued our first update (12.0.1) to fix a bug some customers were experiencing with low-frequency distortion at higher volumes.

If you have specific music tracks or timestamps for TV shows and movies that you want to bring to our attention, please use this form. It is helpful if you can submit a diagnostic when you’re listening to the content. Instructions for doing so can be found here.

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

Sonos support office. Nobody is going to answer :(

I realize this is probably a joke. But if it isnt. It makes sense. People are working from home. Do you expect them to be in the office next to each other talking all day…. depending on where it is located, it might not be safe to do so. I myself am working from home and wouldnt sit next to others all day in a closed off office unless I absolutely have to.

BTW I called sonos a few times. It alwazys took from 25 to 45 mins for them to pick up. It sucks! I know it but every time except for one I was able to get a hold of them AND they helped me track, place an order and made an exception for me

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britishwonderings

Enthusiast I

So I got my replacement Arc. The bass is still off. Sounds the same as the old one. With the Sub and Surrounds I am perfectly happy with the way it sounds but on it’s own it still underwhelms. So, no improvement on it’s own.

Beam. 2x Play:1 - 2x Play One (gen 2) - Sub - 2x Play 5 - Move

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Highfalutintodd

Prominent Collaborator I

So I got my replacement Arc. The bass is still off. Sounds the same as the old one. With the Sub and Surrounds I am perfectly happy with the way it sounds but on it’s own it still underwhelms. So, no improvement on it’s own.

I’m kind of thinking that’s just the Arc at this point. Underwhelming is not a terrible way to describe how I felt about the Arc itself. On it’s own, it doesn’t sound bad to me. It sounds… fine. Not awesome, not terrible. Just… fine. A perfectly serviceable soundbar.

Adding in the Sub and some One SLs, however, and the Arc SYSTEM becomes something, in my opinion, truly special. The Arc is unleashed and you’ve got a great sounding combination of speakers that I’m thrilled to have in my home and thoroughly enjoy listening to.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again - I’m of the opinion that the Arc absolutely needs the Sub and that it may be a mistake for Sonos to sell the Arc individually. My 2¢.

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!

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cowmilkcandy

Lyricist III

I just received my 2nd Arc. First one was purchased through Bestbuy. I was having the same problems everyone was having in this thread. Decided to return it and re-purchase it through Sonos. Waited a month and finally received it today. All the problems i was having previously is gone, the new one sounds good, i purposely set the bass to 10 to test it out and it doesn’t bottom out anymore. So it’s definitely the arc itself and not software. For everyone that’s having problems with theirs, just return it and re-purchase it again.

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britishwonderings

Enthusiast I

@cowmilkcandy I did. My replacements sounds no better. Something is just off with the bass on it’s own. I would not even say its lacking - it just wrong. With the Sub/Surrounds it sounds great. My ones and move sound smoother. I’ll have more of play this weekend with trueplay etc.

Beam. 2x Play:1 - 2x Play One (gen 2) - Sub - 2x Play 5 - Move

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Danio1137

@cowmilkcandy I did. My replacements sounds no better. Something is just off with the bass on it’s own. I would not even say its lacking - it just wrong. With the Sub/Surrounds it sounds great. My ones and move sound smoother. I’ll have more of play this weekend with trueplay etc.

It seems to be a very sporadic result of those who got back units. Really weird!

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kenwk123

Lyricist III

I just received my 2nd Arc. First one was purchased through Bestbuy. I was having the same problems everyone was having in this thread. Decided to return it and re-purchase it through Sonos. Waited a month and finally received it today. All the problems i was having previously is gone, the new one sounds good, i purposely set the bass to 10 to test it out and it doesn’t bottom out anymore. So it’s definitely the arc itself and not software. For everyone that’s having problems with theirs, just return it and re-purchase it again.

So this is like lottery with the returns, some with the same problem some r completely fixed

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

I just received my 2nd Arc. First one was purchased through Bestbuy. I was having the same problems everyone was having in this thread. Decided to return it and re-purchase it through Sonos. Waited a month and finally received it today. All the problems i was having previously is gone, the new one sounds good, i purposely set the bass to 10 to test it out and it doesn’t bottom out anymore. So it’s definitely the arc itself and not software. For everyone that’s having problems with theirs, just return it and re-purchase it again.

So this is like lottery with the returns, some with the same problem some r completely fixed

I wonder if this user updated to the “fix” firmware before returning. I have not seen anyone else the bass improved after a return. And I am thinking he might have updated the app but not the firmware.

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

@cowmilkcandy I did. My replacements sounds no better. Something is just off with the bass on it’s own. I would not even say its lacking - it just wrong. With the Sub/Surrounds it sounds great. My ones and move sound smoother. I’ll have more of play this weekend with trueplay etc.

Expand on “wrong” remember the woofers in the One and Move are larger physically so they might be able to produce deeper or different bass compared to the Arc. The arc even though it is long it doesnt have a lot surface area for the woofers. This is just physics. They prioritized bigger soundstage etc to bass.

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cowmilkcandy

Lyricist III

I just received my 2nd Arc. First one was purchased through Bestbuy. I was having the same problems everyone was having in this thread. Decided to return it and re-purchase it through Sonos. Waited a month and finally received it today. All the problems i was having previously is gone, the new one sounds good, i purposely set the bass to 10 to test it out and it doesn’t bottom out anymore. So it’s definitely the arc itself and not software. For everyone that’s having problems with theirs, just return it and re-purchase it again.

So this is like lottery with the returns, some with the same problem some r completely fixed

I wonder if this user updated to the “fix” firmware before returning. I have not seen anyone else the bass improved after a return. And I am thinking he might have updated the app but not the firmware.

I did. I used it for 2 weeks before returning it. I literally waited til the last day before returning it to Bestbuy cause i was trying everything people suggested. Such as using different phones to trueplay it. Just because you don't hear it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. There are so many people happy with their Arc on reddit. But of course you’re only gonna hear about the bad ones. People that are happy with it are not gonna go around complaining about it obviously.

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