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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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    bbalz
    Renowned Enthusiast I
    June 11, 2020

    Thanks for all the great details everyone! We really appreciate what you’ve shared so far. The engineering team is looking into this right now and they’ve been able to reproduce it using your feedback. They’re working on a software fix for it now.

    I’ll let you know when there’s more to share. I don’t have a timeline right now as they’re just getting started, but hopefully it won’t be long.

    As of now, we don’t need more details on this one, but I’ll let you know if the team determines they need some more data.

    Thanks again!

     


    Thank you for the quick work on this.

    My only concern now, is why are only some users affected by this? Do we have physically different soundbars that sound worse than those who do not expeirence the issue? Is my soundbar being reduced in function with this fix compared to others, or are they all the same and some people are missing something in their software?

    A breakdown of what was fixed after this would help put these fears to rest, if possible?

     

    My guess might be different ears or different expectations.  Those not having the issue, have they had Sonos products in the past?  Do they have a Beam or Playbar?  Lots of variables. 

    My wife for example said, ‘isn’t that how it’s supposed to sound?  isn’t that the loud bass like the media room with the beam + subwoofer?’

    At least that’s what I’m hoping.  Once the software update is out, if it does indeed fix it for those who were reporting the issue I would chalk it up to people having different expectations/listening ears, etc. 

    I really doubt it. Having a single Sonos One sound better than an $800 sound bar (as another reported) really isn’t acceptable. A lot of these reports were coming from people that have other Sonos products. 40-50% volume on bass heavy music shouldn’t make speakers sound like muddled garbage. You could clearly hear it even over cell phone recordings.

     

    Yeah I agree, I’m just sharing my experience.  I’m one of the first ones to report it over on reddit and I’ve been testing off and on all day to see if it’s something related to a TV setting, Shield setting, Sub/No sub, etc.   I immediately knew it was an issue the first movie clip I played (Top Gun).  My wife thought it sounded fine though.  

    Either way I’m eager to see how the software update fixes it.  I was pretty bummed yesterday after hooking it up but relieved lots of others experienced it so I wasn’t alone… as odd as that sounds.  I’m glad it appears to be a software fix.

      Redraider3403
      Enthusiast I
      June 11, 2020

      For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA? 

      Cherr1020
      Lyricist III
      June 11, 2020

      For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA? 

      CA for me

      ftm
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 11, 2020

      For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA? 

      I'm in UK and its come from Holland.  If the software fix doesn't work mines going back it's basically useless listening to music with any bass on it 

        KGT94
        Lyricist III
        June 11, 2020

        For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA? 

        I'm in UK and its come from Holland.  If the software fix doesn't work mines going back it's basically useless listening to music with any bass on it 


        Mine is also UK.

          bbalz
          Renowned Enthusiast I
          June 11, 2020

          For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA? 

          Shipped from PA. 

          gregmelnyk
          gregmelnyk
          Lyricist III
          June 11, 2020

          For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA? 

          Mine shipped from PA.

          RickInHouston1
          Trending Lyricist I
          June 11, 2020

          Sonos firmware will roll off the bass sooner than it is currently set.

          And, about break-in.  Bass is usually tight and not very loud.  Break in opens it up.  So if your bass is bad, break-in will cause it to worsen.

          I think I was the first person to buy a Sonos. At least I feel like it.
          ggmogollonAuthor
          Enthusiast II
          June 11, 2020

          Sonos firmware will roll off the bass sooner than it is currently set.

          And, about break-in.  Bass is usually tight and not very loud.  Break in opens it up.  So if your bass is bad, break-in will cause it to worsen.

          Source?

            jordharg
            Lyricist I
            June 11, 2020

            Clarification please.  Does this problem go away if a sub is included because the problematic frequencies are directed to the sub?

            Yes there is no issue when paired with the sub

            Although there may not be the same issue when paired with the sub, I am noticing that the sub does not hit anywhere close to where it was when paired with the Beam.  I do have TruePlay tuned, and it is soft when I turn this off as well.  

            Interestingly enough, I just commented to my wife the other day how nice the bass sounded when we were listening to music.  Now that it is paired with the Arc, it is disappointing that it is not as strong.

            @Ryan S Can you please confirm if this is being looked into even with the Sub added? Coming from a 5.1 setup (Playbar, Sub Gen 2, and 2 Play:1’s), replacing the Playbar with the new Arc has resulted in much lower bass (requiring me to add +5 to the Sub) and a flatter sound all around with both the music and movies mentioned in this thread. When listening to songs like “Collapse” by Tennyson via Spotify, the Arc sounds much softer with mids and highs and the bass is nowhere near as prevalent compared to when the Playbar was part of the setup.

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