Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

I'm going to delete my original post, if I can.

One of my surrounds had a momentary 'seizure' and had to be reset to factory, so I lost my Truplay settings.

Now I've done them again the difference is extraordinary 👌

I don't know if the drivers in the bar maybe needed a bit of a run-in to loosen up, or perhaps the microphones provide some sort of ongoing feedback to the system to allow the DSP to continue to adjust the profile over time.

Either way the subjective sound quality now is a huge improvement over my initial experience.

I guess the life-lesson is, don't launch into print immediately.

I just bought my Arc a few days ago thinking that the bass issue has been resolved but I’m surprised to hear a similar issue. The bass is just bad and I’ve dialed down the bass level to just 2. True Play on or off doesn’t make a difference. The sound from my One SL is so much better than the Arc now. What else can i do?

Alvin Kyen

Don't give up. Keep at it.  Keep on doing Trueplay in the way shown in the YouTube demo.

I had different results each time  but incrementally better.  If you've got a One SL you can use then maybe try attaching it as a surround. I get the impression that Trueplay works better if the are more point sources in the room.  You could remove it again afterwards.

I'm on day 4 now and the differences from my first attempt is quite dramatic.

That sounds like lots of work for something so expensive 😅 I only have 1 unit of the One SL so i cant use it as a surround. How come i have this feeling that the Arc isn’t meant to be a standalone device?  

All I can say is, scroll up and look at how disappointed I was on day 1. I was going to send the Arc back to the store.  In fact I was really angry.

But it really is worth persevering with the Truplay thing.  I wasn't suggesting that it you use your other speaker as a permanent surround speaker.  Just hook it up to see if you get a better result when calibrating your room.  After that disconnect it if you need it elsewhere.

I got a pair of those Ikea Sonos speakers £100 each, and they work very nicely.

But I completely agree with you that a sound bar at this price point should sound better straight out of the box.

I unfortunately share all your guys experiences. The bass on the Sonos arc is blatantly terrible and it is quite outrageous for a company like Sonos to release such a flawed product at this price. 
 

What I mean by blatantly terrible is that all bass notes on the Sonos Arc sound the same. It is always the same muddy thump without any texture no matter what Song is played. Our Play 5 gen 2 has actual texture and definition in the bass, not so the arc. 
 

The bass is so bad that it always grabs you attention and ruins the whole listening experience.

I expect Sonos to come up with a fast and effective solution for this misstep!

On a good note: this did bother me to a slightly lesser extent when watching movies. 

FACTS! You’ve read my mind. That’s exactly my experience and opinion. 

Hi, I’d also like to report the terrible bass on my new arc. It’s so bad. I have a 5, two one sl’s and an arc with two one sl’s as surrounds. The bass is UNLISTENABLE on netflix. It’s so muddy and distorted. I had it first on my dresser under my tv and then wall mounted it. I cannot believe that an 800 dollar speaker can have bass this bad. Watching ragnarok on netflix, is so distracting with the bad bass. Not even at high levels! I’ve tried trueplay on or off but why am I having to turn trueplay off in the first place. This thing is straight up going back if the issue isn’t fixed and I’ll have nothing good to say about the arc to anyone interested. It has some good qualities, but to be honest for 8 bills this thing is a massive disappointment. Sonos feel free to contact me at my registered email. I hope you do. 
 

Patrick

Hi @MooseheadPG, thanks for reaching out to the Sonos Community!

I’d recommend reaching out to our Support Team via live chat or phone call regarding this, as they’ll be able to take a closer look at what’s going on with the Arc.

Hope this helps :)

Regarding bass and overall sound quality- for $800, color me extremely disappointed. It’s going right back to Costco. Even at half that price, I’d probably still return it to be honest. My single Gen2 Play:5 in the corner of the room handily blows the Arc out of the water. I’m so unimpressed, I’m not even willing to grab the Beam as a cheaper or comparable replacement. Definitely not hanging around for them to figure a better DSP for the Arc if that’s the current development plan for this product. A cheapo 2.1 soundbar from Vizio is better than this.

I’d be an instant buyer if we can get basically two “bookshelf” 5’s specifically for TV. HDMI and/or optical would be great. IMO, that wouldn’t even require a sub. Though, adding the sub would make it a killer 2.1 setup. Could do double duty as music streaming and TV. Seriously, take.my.money.