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ggmogollon
Enthusiast II
June 10, 2020
Answered

Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

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
    July 2, 2020

    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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    akawoj
    Lyricist III
    September 19, 2020

    In my opinion 12.0.5 firmware and 12.0.6 app fixes almost all problems with bass. What it doesn’t cover is specific heavy bass songs/movies near 50% and above volume. But it is tremendous progress :)

      ekwok
      Prominent Collaborator I
      September 19, 2020

       

       

      Sorry, but whats an Arcane?

      https://www.hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/

        britishwonderings
        Enthusiast I
        September 20, 2020

        I’ve not written up on this in a while. I too had some serious concerns and had my arc swapped out. Sounded thin, muddy and just a let down from the beam. I already had a sub so after a while I just left well enough alone and let the sub do it’s thing. After seeing it updated I just turned off the sub to see how it sounds. 
         

        Night and day - bass is so much better. It’s a much warmer and more inviting sound.


        What odd is even with the sub the last week had me reaching for the app and putting it on night mode to lessen the thump. Before I never touched it. Completely subjective as I don’t believe the update impacts the sub. But it sounds better recently. 

        Beam. 2x Play:1 - 2x Play One (gen 2) - Sub - 2x Play 5 - Move
          ewolkoff
          Enthusiast II
          September 21, 2020

          I didn't get any firmware update.  I'm part of a beta so my firmware is different since last week.

           

          I unplugged my arcana and it sounded bad and plugged it in and it sounds good.  Not going to argue online but just stating my experience.  Good luck to everyone though.  Things are good for me now so no need to follow the thread anymore.

          I’m in the same situation as you (same software same Arcana), but I don’t really see how the Arcana could possibly impact wireless streaming… So if you are hearing improvement in all situations, it can’t be because of the Arcana.

          sebas1509
          Enthusiast II
          September 21, 2020

          I didn't get any firmware update.  I'm part of a beta so my firmware is different since last week.

           

          I unplugged my arcana and it sounded bad and plugged it in and it sounds good.  Not going to argue online but just stating my experience.  Good luck to everyone though.  Things are good for me now so no need to follow the thread anymore.

          I’m in the same situation as you (same software same Arcana), but I don’t really see how the Arcana could possibly impact wireless streaming… So if you are hearing improvement in all situations, it can’t be because of the Arcana.

          Edit for clarification.

          I recently got Arcana, but that wasnt the fix for me. I did the comparison without arcana before and after the new firmware and app. The firmware alone didnt do it when i updated, BUT once I redid truplay it sounds much better now. I tested before and after using spotify airplay and there is a big improvement.

          sebas1509
          Enthusiast II
          September 21, 2020

          I’ve not written up on this in a while. I too had some serious concerns and had my arc swapped out. Sounded thin, muddy and just a let down from the beam. I already had a sub so after a while I just left well enough alone and let the sub do it’s thing. After seeing it updated I just turned off the sub to see how it sounds. 
           

          Night and day - bass is so much better. It’s a much warmer and more inviting sound.


          What odd is even with the sub the last week had me reaching for the app and putting it on night mode to lessen the thump. Before I never touched it. Completely subjective as I don’t believe the update impacts the sub. But it sounds better recently. 

          Here is my recommendation, if you havent done it in a while re-do truplay. Make sure to stay in your couch to TV area dont go around the room dont go into the kitchen dont go into corners too much. Just move around where you actually listen to movies. Then if you think the sound isnt warm enough you can turn down the sub a bit and turn up the bass slider on the EQ this should increase “mid” bass coming from the ARC and surrounds. If the surrounds are too overpowering now, dial them down on the surround settings.

          Also, make sure to toggle int he surround settings between full and ambient to check which one you prefer. 

            Tylertron21
            September 21, 2020

            What odd is even with the sub the last week had me reaching for the app and putting it on night mode to lessen the thump. Before I never touched it. Completely subjective as I don’t believe the update impacts the sub. But it sounds better recently. 

            I feel like two things are going on here. Because I have also almost turned down the sub recently.

            1: the sub is "breaking in" so it's out put is being raised at any given volume  also it's "q" is being lowered. So it should hit the deeper notes with ease.

            2: the truplay is further fixed letting all the speakers play well with each other. Maybe truplay isn't pulling back the bass like it may have in the past.

            It's hard to know since Sonos hasn't announced anything and also haven't put anything detailed in their update release notes. 

            But I'm happy with the 5.1.2 system now. At first I was furious that it all sounded so bad.

            sebas1509
            Enthusiast II
            September 21, 2020

            What odd is even with the sub the last week had me reaching for the app and putting it on night mode to lessen the thump. Before I never touched it. Completely subjective as I don’t believe the update impacts the sub. But it sounds better recently. 

            I feel like two things are going on here. Because I have also almost turned down the sub recently.

            1: the sub is "breaking in" so it's out put is being raised at any given volume  also it's "q" is being lowered. So it should hit the deeper notes with ease.

            2: the truplay is further fixed letting all the speakers play well with each other. Maybe truplay isn't pulling back the bass like it may have in the past.

            It's hard to know since Sonos hasn't announced anything and also haven't put anything detailed in their update release notes. 

            But I'm happy with the 5.1.2 system now. At first I was furious that it all sounded so bad.

            I never thought “man this sounds awful” but I think it has been improved considerably/ And now really love the setup for music too. Before movies were great and music a bit lacking now I turned my sonos ones surrounds down for music as well and let the bar and sub do most of the work  ( my space isnt big)

            lbenwell66
            Lyricist III
            October 2, 2020

            My bass is still TERRIBLE when watching ANY film or music when the volume is set above 50%...even with all of the ‘updates’ thus far. Sonos, please help. This product has to be considered not fit for purpose. This performance complaint is when using the Arc on its own. For £800, it should be a lot more capable that it is. I CANNOT listen to any music on the volume I should be able to with this ‘premium’ product. Please advise.

            pawel20k-ce
            Trending Lyricist I
            October 3, 2020

            My bass is still TERRIBLE when watching ANY film or music when the volume is set above 50%...even with all of the ‘updates’ thus far. Sonos, please help. This product has to be considered not fit for purpose. This performance complaint is when using the Arc on its own. For £800, it should be a lot more capable that it is. I CANNOT listen to any music on the volume I should be able to with this ‘premium’ product. Please advise.

            My advise is set volume under  50%. Above is to loud. If you wont listen loud you must buy standalone speakers and big avreciver...

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