Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

I’d been using two Sonos One speakers as a stereo pair for my living room sound and was quite happy with them (even though my older Sonos Play 1 seemed to have better bass). However, because I also wanted to add my TV’s audio to them, I bought the Arc.

At first I only connected the Arc and found its sound underwhelming. For movies it was somewhat OK. But Spotify / Apple Music audio sounded very centered, thin and low on bass. I then added the two One speakers to the Arc as a surround pair. This did enhance the audio, but I still found the bass lacking. I then went out and bought the Sub and added that to the system and now I’m pretty happy with the sound.

However, I’m still a bit unsure whether the Arc itself is worth the price. I feel a lot of shortcomings were solved by adding the Ones and Sub. So what’s the value of the Arc? I’ve played several Atmos movies, but didn’t find the Arc’s positional audio very convincing. I’m going to research my setup some more in the coming days as I can still return the Arc and Sub within 20 days. Maybe I’ll buy a Beam and check whether that will be a better fit than the Arc. But I think having only the Arc is definitely not worth its price, especially if you like playing normal stereo music through it.

Ok I purchased the Arc the second time around as the other bar I tired has software bugs like in/out sound etc.  So to make my family happy I am giving Arc a second try. Not sure if it was a software fix by Sonos or the bar i got previous was defective, I don’t have the bottom out bass or the metallic highs issues that I have experienced before.  

I currently have a 5.1 setup with playbar + sub + 2 Ones. I have been wanting to upgrade to the Arc but waited and waited because of the many issues that were reported early on. 
 

I still can’t tell if these have been resolved or not?

I use my setup for music often, as well as gaming and TV/movies. 
 

Any advice would be appreciated if someone thinks this upgrade would be worth it for me? Thanks!

I personally don’t have any issues, because I’ve got the Sub and surround Ones. As you have those too, I figure it’s gonna sound good. Whether the Arc has advantages over the Playbar, I’m not so sure. In theory there Dolby Atmos, but I have never really notified any significant positional audio coming from the Arc. There’s also Airplay. But your Ones also support that, so i guess that works for you now too.

Still experiencing this issue with the newer Arc SL and firmware 12.2.2. Most noticably on movies Pacific Rim & Mad Max Fury Road on VUDU (Dolby Atmos).

During the loud scenes (monster fights & explosions), I will notice bass muddiness and clipping. I have to lower the bass below -6 to get it to stop and I only have the volume at 35%.

Submitted diagnostic with form provided by Scott. Anyone else noticing this on certain streaming sites?

The same issue here.

Bass clipping with volume higher than 20%.

Definitely disappointing to run into this from such a premium product. I've had the Playbar for years and never had this issue.

I'm going to try tuning again via Trueplay, then try again. I'll even test these same scenes toggling Trueplay off/on to see if that makes a difference. I currently have the bass set at -5.

So after recalibrating Trueplay and lowering the bass to -5 I still notice the issue (especially during the Pacific Rim scene at about 1:14-large monster is pushing Gypsy back while firing). 

However, when I toggled Trueplay off this seemed to have resolved it. So it seems to be something within the calibration that produces too much low end.

I've only noticed this problem with movies streamed on VUDU and Dolby Atmos.

Hi Sonos Arc Community,

I just wanted to give everyone an update to see if this could help someone in the future and perhaps you could share your feedback if you noticed something similar.

After troubleshooting my issue with a Sonos rep we’ve narrowed it down to this issue:

• Trueplay enabled while watching Dolby Atmos content via native TV apps (Disney+, VUDU & Dolby app)
• Trueplay is over compensating the bass (just for reference, my room is about 14 x 22 and is the front room of my house with entry-ways to another playroom (double doors) and open entry to the kitchen area)

I’ve even recalibrated using two different iPhone series and still the same issue. The exact sound emitted during playback makes the center driver sound like it’s too much to handle with a “wobbly” sound. When I turn off Trueplay, the sound is gone making watching content far more enjoyable and I can even push the volume beyond 50% without hearing the same nasty sound.

It could also be related to my TV (TCL R613), but without testing it on another TV I wouldn’t be able to be 100% sure about this. In any event, I’m hoping this helps others and just a bummer I can’t use Trueplay when watching Dolby Atmos content on this system.

For those who have this issue can you turn trueplay OFF for the Arc and post if this fixes the issue of wobbly bass?

I ask because it looks like I have a similar issue with trueplay ON for the Sonos ones, turning it off resolves this issue but I prefer the overall sound with trueplay on.

Apologies if my question is too simplistic or this issue is independent of trueplay for most.