Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

1406 replies
193224 views

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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martijnj

Lyricist III

Updated the App to 12.0.6, and redid Trueplay on my Arc + 2 One’s. No difference whatsoever… I always check bollywood movie Drive on Netflix at 35 min, wobbling bass all over te place… You hear it already clearly at 30% volume or so.

@Sonos , I created some diagnostics, number is 2024072718

This needs to be dealt with, once and for all, I am not expecting the moon here, just expect the bass not to sound like a 20€ speaker...

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akawoj

Lyricist III

I sent my back today. Waiting for replacement. Will let you guys if it helped.

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vtince

Trending Lyricist I

Got my replacement (2008 build date) in and tested with the drive movie on Netflix and still same wobbly bass sound at 35min in… however, this 12.0.6 update did seem to improve the bass sound which to me seems like there is a small subwoofer. Tested on the original arc and the new replacement arc.

Overally the new arc sounds the same as the original arc. But 12.0.6 sound better than the previous sw (yes, I truetuned)

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Niko79

Trending Lyricist I

Got my replacement (2008 build date) in and tested with the drive movie on Netflix and still same wobbly bass sound at 35min in… however, this 12.0.6 update did seem to improve the bass sound which to me seems like there is a small subwoofer. Tested on the original arc and the new replacement arc.

Overally the new arc sounds the same as the original arc. But 12.0.6 sound better than the previous sw (yes, I truetuned)

I was unable to compare it side by side but YES, it does sound better. I never said the issue has been resolved fully or it sounds amazing. I just said it sounds better! Before, it (previous versions and firmware updated) had all been failed attempts IMO.

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akawoj

Lyricist III

I sent my back today. Waiting for replacement. Will let you guys if it helped.

Here are my observations after configuring replacement ARC:

There are some minor differences in hardware, but these are not the main source of the bass issues. The second ARC speaker is performing better, the issue is almost not present before truetone configuration (default “out of the box” configuration).
There is huge difference after truetone calibration in terms of quality, bass deepness and overall feeling. It sounds nice. The spell is broken near 50% of volume, in some songs near 30%, in some near 60%. But definitely after truetone calibration you have better sound on low volumes, but “cheap speaker” is present while louder listenings. If you turn truetone off the problem mostly disappears but the sound is “meh”…

I can’t imagine that Sonos accepts the solution, in which louder listenings demands setting truetone to "off"…

I hope that this is strictly software issue, and the team is working on it. It would be great if we could at least have the confirmation that the problem is processed in SONOS team.

I sent diagnostic date while problem was present, the id is: 1775975870.

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Tylertron21

I brought this new update and how some people here noticed improvement, along with myself to with Peter’s attention last week. He has tested it with the newest firmware and software. I suggest watching his video.

https://youtu.be/ppe5S6X1too

magony

Contributor I

I still find there to be a lack of bass, comparing to my stereo pair of Symfonisk lamps, it really does sound like there is more bass in the symfonisk’s than the Arc. Anyways, picked up a sub which will come to me on monday so I won’t be affected much longer.

I did also view Peter Pee’s video and he does amazing Sonos related videos, however, I still find there to be no difference in audio quality. Testing with some bass heavy songs I still find there to be a lack of bass, especially at the 30-40 hz mark. I will retune a few more times and see if I can manage to get a different result.

From watching Peter Pee’s video, he has Arc Hardware version: 1.27.1.8-2.2
Mine is 1.27.1.8-2.1

What exactly does the hardware version go on? Is it the color of the Arc? Could a white Arc have a different hardware version than the black one?

What outcome can this have on the result? @Scott - Sonos

For some reason, symfonisk products aren't listed on the forum as a Sonos product that you own.

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maurice.pothoven

Trending Lyricist II

Let’s hope it is fixed for all, I don’t experience problems atm

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PowdeRiver

Lyricist III

This thread has got to be one of the longest in Sonos history but for good reason. I’m just glad the Arc keeps getting better that’s all I asked since day one though I’ve been upset and didn’t have faith at times it seems like the muddy issue has been resolved though I need to do my own testing. Lack of bass should be in a different thread.

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ewolkoff

Enthusiast II

I still find there to be a lack of bass, comparing to my stereo pair of Symfonisk lamps, it really does sound like there is more bass in the symfonisk’s than the Arc. Anyways, picked up a sub which will come to me on monday so I won’t be affected much longer.

I did also view Peter Pee’s video and he does amazing Sonos related videos, however, I still find there to be no difference in audio quality. Testing with some bass heavy songs I still find there to be a lack of bass, especially at the 30-40 hz mark. I will retune a few more times and see if I can manage to get a different result.

From watching Peter Pee’s video, he has Arc Hardware version: 1.27.1.8-2.2
Mine is 1.27.1.8-2.1

What exactly does the hardware version go on? Is it the color of the Arc? Could a white Arc have a different hardware version than the black one?

What outcome can this have on the result? @Scott - Sonos

Color. Do you have the white one?

The update fixed the issue 100% on both of my Arcs. Like a totally new speaker. Great work!!

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