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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martincox

Lyricist I

I’ve got 2 IKEA Symfonisk lamps, which are apparently based on the Sonos One. These relatively low-end speakers (in terms of price point) sound significantly better when playing music vs the Arc and Sub. With the Arc and Sub, when there’s a low amount of bass in a track, the audio sounds incredibly thin and lacking. It’s like you have the fullness of bass from the sub which fills the room perfectly, but then the Arc seems very “directional”, like a laptop speaker at the front of the room that is easily picked out.

I’m no audiophile and I’m not sure exactly what is missing, it just doesn’t sound right, especially given how fantastic the Symfonisk lamps and sub sound together.

I’ve added the Symfonisk lamps to the the Arc and Sub which has transformed the sound completely. Before this I tolerated the sound whilst watching TV or listening to music, now I’m listening to music just to enjoy the sound from the system. It’s quite a contrast.

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Mah18

Lyricist I

Same problem - did everyone here upgrade from the beam? No reviews had this issue

magony

Contributor I

Same problem - did everyone here upgrade from the beam? No reviews had this issue

Sonos did in fact sort out the muddy bass, at least I am not experiencing anything since months back. Peter Pee has an excellent video on the best settings to use https://youtu.be/icKD2LRfzK4

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

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Layback

Lyricist III

I just got my ARC out of the box this afternoon and have been trying to set it up for about 2 hours.

It still sounds thinner than the actual internal speakers in my Bravia TV, and they sound really dreadful.

I'm going to try it for the weekend and if no good send it back. I am so incredibly disappointed at the way the arc sounds in the balance of low mids to hf.

One scene, on a show I mixed for Netflix myself (so I know exactly how it's supposed to sound) the dialogue was so thin that there was virtually no difference cutting between an actor on the phone and present in the scene.

In fact the low bass is fine, about right I would say, even without the sub. But the overall sound quality in the octaves above that is terrible.

How can this possibly still be so bad in a speaker that has been in production for over a year?

How did it ever get to market?

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

I just got my ARC out of the box this afternoon and have been trying to set it up for about 2 hours.

It still sounds thinner than the actual internal speakers in my Bravia TV, and they sound really dreadful.

I'm going to try it for the weekend and if no good send it back. I am so incredibly disappointed at the way the arc sounds in the balance of low mids to hf.

One scene, on a show I mixed for Netflix myself (so I know exactly how it's supposed to sound) the dialogue was so thin that there was virtually no difference cutting between an actor on the phone and present in the scene.

In fact the low bass is fine, about right I would say, even without the sub. But the overall sound quality in the octaves above that is terrible.

How can this possibly still be so bad in a speaker that has been in production for over a year?

How did it ever get to market?

Have you performed Trueplay tuning and adjusted the EQ settings in the Sonos app? Have you turned off Night Sound and Speech Enhancement? Are you getting Dolby Digital Plus audio from Netflix or just stereo PCM?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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Layback

Lyricist III

Hi and thanks.

Yes I have run Trueplay several times on multiple IOS devices. I have tried with the doors open / closed / halfway.

I'm getting Dolby Digital Plus via ARC and a good 5.1 signal. I have tried night mode and that dialogue boost setting both on and off.

Are you saying the your system has a nice warm, natural sound? Because if yours does then I wonder if my system is actually faulty.

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GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

Hi and thanks.

Yes I have run Trueplay several times on multiple IOS devices. I have tried with the doors open / closed / halfway.

I'm getting Dolby Digital Plus via ARC and a good 5.1 signal. I have tried night mode and that dialogue boost setting both on and off.

Are you saying the your system has a nice warm, natural sound? Because if yours does then I wonder if my system is actually faulty.

I am very pleased with the way my Arc setup sounds. When I watch Blu-ray discs with a Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Atmos soundtrack, it always blows me away.

It may just be that you don’t personally like the sound profile of the Arc.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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Layback

Lyricist III

Well here's a strange thing. I hooked up some rear surrounds and then did Trueplay again, with an iPad Air this time. And I got a completely different, and much better result.

I'm having to dial in quite a lot of bass and wind down some treble to get the mid band to sound like normal speech. And of course this means that the actual low bass is a bit over emphasised. It's a shame there aren't a few more bands in the EQ section. Just a 7 band EQ would make a huge difference.

But overall its sounding much better now.

Are you running the sub in your set-up?

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GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

@Layback Glad you were able to improve the sound with the iPad.

Yes, I am using the Sub and two Play:1s as surrounds. The Sub makes a pretty big difference. I believe it allows the Arc to focus more on the mid range and higher frequencies while allowing the Sub to take care of the bass.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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wilwong829

Enthusiast II

Well here's a strange thing. I hooked up some rear surrounds and then did Trueplay again, with an iPad Air this time. And I got a completely different, and much better result.

I'm having to dial in quite a lot of bass and wind down some treble to get the mid band to sound like normal speech. And of course this means that the actual low bass is a bit over emphasised. It's a shame there aren't a few more bands in the EQ section. Just a 7 band EQ would make a huge difference.

But overall its sounding much better now.

Are you running the sub in your set-up?

You'll love your system a lot if you add the SUB, or even dual subs.😊

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