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Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

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A
Userlevel 6
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Other than the muddy bass, I noticed that the Sonos Arc sounds a little too metallic and sharp to my ear. The sound is just not engaging, at times it's uncomfortable to listen. Is anyone else facing this issue?

 

I saw a reddit post with someone having the same concern as me:

https://amp.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/ha7w7y/sonos_arc_sounds_extremely_tinny_metallic_and/

Agree with you 100%

I agree as well. I couldn’t find the right word for it. But metallic sounds abiut right. And yes everyniw and then uncomfortable. Like piercing to the ear. 

This seems more like a room setup/ environment problem than a sound problem. Does your room lack dampening like curtains and a carpet?

Nope. Adequate sound absorption materials- living room is entirely carpet, huge couch etc.

A
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

Could be just me but there’s also a significant lack of mid-range even with the Sub 3.0.  I hear the “bass” issue when I turn off my sub leaving the Arc to play by itself.  The fullness of sound returns when the sub is on but the Arc ends up sounding like just a bunch of tweeters coupled to a bass bin … not something I’m used to even with my Five and several Play 1s.

Ended up calling Sonos service yesterday before jumping on here and they’re very reluctant to return or exchange.  Hope this is fixed by next week.

… For other’s with 5.1 Arc + Sub set ups … just me??

Completely agree. As of right now, this thing just doesn’t sound all that good. I’m willing to wait for the fix, but the reviews that claimed the arc didn’t need a sub are WAY wrong. If you can’t afford the sub there are MUCH better options out there. 

Feel like a little kid that just opened an NES system on Christmas day then immediately told I can’t play it until I finish my vegetables :(.

Still very curious if anyone has a working Arc and happy with the sound??

Maybe you should create a different troubleshooting topic for this. This post refers to the muddy bass issue. And that is being addressed by Sonos. IF there is a different issue (not saying there is) but IF then you create a different topic and everyone with that issue will show up there/

 

I am a bit confused by this because I had the playbar and I think the Arc sounds better. The bass is definitely stronger on the Arc as well ( when I dont push it to loud volumes I dont have any muddy issues). Are you mostly listening to music? For movies and TV the voices are very clear and loud. After trueplay of course. The details are there too. I think it sounds pretty good. Waiting for my sub to arrive today which I heard improves things further

There are like 9 people on both sides of your post with a consensus that the sound is thin and lacking midrange. Either you have a unicorn arc with magic sound or you have a different ear than the general population. I’d imagine you will be exposed to just how much the arc is lacking once you add the sub to your setup. 

Other option is the 9 of you have different ear than the general population? I’d imagine SONOS has sold waaaaay more than 9 arcs. Regardless please make a thread for the issue you are talking about because it crowds the bass muddy software issue thread, and doesnt really get visibility if its a separate issue make it stand out create a page etc.

https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/sonos-arc-metallic-sound-6843110

G
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Other than the muddy bass, I noticed that the Sonos Arc sounds a little too metallic and sharp to my ear. The sound is just not engaging, at times it's uncomfortable to listen. Is anyone else facing this issue?

 

I saw a reddit post with someone having the same concern as me:

https://amp.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/ha7w7y/sonos_arc_sounds_extremely_tinny_metallic_and/

Agree with you 100%

I agree as well. I couldn’t find the right word for it. But metallic sounds abiut right. And yes everyniw and then uncomfortable. Like piercing to the ear. 

This seems more like a room setup/ environment problem than a sound problem. Does your room lack dampening like curtains and a carpet?

Nope. Adequate sound absorption materials- living room is entirely carpet, huge couch etc.

Funky. Im stumped then 

Smilja

We have identified a bug that has potential to cause distortion when playing bass-heavy content at higher volume levels on Arc. Our team is working on the fix now. We expect the software release to be implemented as early as next week. I'll share any additional updates here.

Thanks. Will the fix be applied for the Sonos One too?

I don’t believe this particular bug affects the Sonos One, but I’ll raise it with the team just in case.

I tested this yesterday. 2 of my 4 are affected definitely

 

No they are not, the distortion is normal. Are you expecting the small ONE to be as potent as floor standing speakers at higher volumes?

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)
S
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

We have identified a bug that has potential to cause distortion when playing bass-heavy content at higher volume levels on Arc. Our team is working on the fix now. We expect the software release to be implemented as early as next week. I'll share any additional updates here.

Thanks. Will the fix be applied for the Sonos One too?

I don’t believe this particular bug affects the Sonos One, but I’ll raise it with the team just in case.

I tested this yesterday. 2 of my 4 are affected definitely

 

No they are not, the distortion is normal. Are you expecting the small ONE to be as potent as floor standing speakers at higher volumes?

According to your logic the Arc isn’t affected either.

This definitely is not how a speaker is supposed to sound when feeded with 40 Hz:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvy3npst5lmwuto/One40hzlouder.m4a?dl=0

You’d expect it to either stay entirely silent because it can’t reproduce the tone, or to limit the amplitude when it gets too high so it could break the speaker , but not to have it bounce up and down as it does on the One and the Arc.

S
Badge

We have identified a bug that has potential to cause distortion when playing bass-heavy content at higher volume levels on Arc. Our team is working on the fix now. We expect the software release to be implemented as early as next week. I'll share any additional updates here.

Thanks. Will the fix be applied for the Sonos One too?

I don’t believe this particular bug affects the Sonos One, but I’ll raise it with the team just in case.

I tested this yesterday. 2 of my 4 are affected definitely

 

No they are not, the distortion is normal. Are you expecting the small ONE to be as potent as floor standing speakers at higher volumes?

They should not sound distorted. The Beam doesn’t get any louder from about 50%, but all the way to 100% does not sounds distorted like the Arc or Ones.

Smilja

Sound depends heavily on room acoustics. Move the two ONEs to another location for testing purposes and/or run Trueplay once again. Separating and re-creating if it’s a stereo pair might also help.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)
S
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

Sound depends heavily on room acoustics. Move the two ONEs to another location for testing purposes and/or run Trueplay once again. Separating and re-creating if it’s a stereo pair might also help.

Did more tests, the other two Ones were limited to 35%, thus they didn’t show the issue. At 50% they do too. Am I the only one with 4 Sonos Ones which have this issue? They are in two rooms at totally different locations.

L
Userlevel 3
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https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/sonos-arc-metallic-sound-6843110

 

For those who are facing harsh/metallic sound coming from the Arc, please share at the above thread instead. Thanks arpatil1 for raising this concern :)

N
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Sound depends heavily on room acoustics. Move the two ONEs to another location for testing purposes and/or run Trueplay once again. Separating and re-creating if it’s a stereo pair might also help.

Did more tests, the other two Ones were limited to 35%, thus they didn’t show the issue. At 50% they do too. Am I the only one with 4 Sonos Ones which have this issue? They are in two rooms at totally different locations.

My four Play:1s do the same. Only with the 40Hz test tone though, never heard it whilst playing music.

R
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Other than the muddy bass, I noticed that the Sonos Arc sounds a little too metallic and sharp to my ear. The sound is just not engaging, at times it's uncomfortable to listen. Is anyone else facing this issue?

 

I saw a reddit post with someone having the same concern as me:

https://amp.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/ha7w7y/sonos_arc_sounds_extremely_tinny_metallic_and/

Agree with you 100%

I agree as well. I couldn’t find the right word for it. But metallic sounds abiut right. And yes everyniw and then uncomfortable. Like piercing to the ear. 

This seems more like a room setup/ environment problem than a sound problem. Does your room lack dampening like curtains and a carpet?

I have a rug… it’s hardwood. My Benchmark for reference is that the Arc replaces a playbar. The playbar and arc were both sitting in the same location. Same TV same surround Sonos ones. I had 0 issues with the playbar. I was very very impressed with the sound. 

J
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Agree. In movies you hardly hear voices but the ambient sound is very loud. Also with sub only low frequencies seem to be present but there is a lack of midrange.

I really thought this was just me. All the reviews say the voices are clear and pop, especially with the voice enhance feature on. I found the playbar far clearer, especially at lower volumes. I find myself having to push the volume up higher than I needed to on the playbar to hear voices. At the other end we have the bass volume issue. I’m really not sure. 

R
Userlevel 2
Badge

Sound depends heavily on room acoustics. Move the two ONEs to another location for testing purposes and/or run Trueplay once again. Separating and re-creating if it’s a stereo pair might also help.

Did more tests, the other two Ones were limited to 35%, thus they didn’t show the issue. At 50% they do too. Am I the only one with 4 Sonos Ones which have this issue? They are in two rooms at totally different locations.

I have also conducted some tests and notice the issue with my Ones, as well as my Move. I don’t seem to hear it with my Play 5, but I wonder if that is because the Play 5 can naturally play the frequencies.

 

It is a real shame that this issue seems to have negatively impacted nearly my entire Sonos system. I hope, @Ryan S , that the team spends some time exploring how the bug affects other products, not just the Arc.

A
Userlevel 2
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My first impression was damn! I have wasted money and Playbar was awesome. I thought it was just me. hope it’s just the software that can fix the issue.

Ha I had the exact same reaction. Playbar really was awesome. This Arc feels like an incomplete project. Hopefully the fix works and improves the overall sound balance. 
If not… this puppy goes back and I get myself a playbar again

Happy that the bass distortion will get fixed, but still concerned about overall sound balance. Highs, mids, and lows have no harmony. Everything feels overly crisp. Tried EQ, doesn’t help very much. I should probably start another thread for this?

Exactly I feel the same, its overly crips and its bit weird even excluding the bass distortion. 

A
Userlevel 2
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Could be just me but there’s also a significant lack of mid-range even with the Sub 3.0.  I hear the “bass” issue when I turn off my sub leaving the Arc to play by itself.  The fullness of sound returns when the sub is on but the Arc ends up sounding like just a bunch of tweeters coupled to a bass bin … not something I’m used to even with my Five and several Play 1s.

Ended up calling Sonos service yesterday before jumping on here and they’re very reluctant to return or exchange.  Hope this is fixed by next week.

… For other’s with 5.1 Arc + Sub set ups … just me??

I agree with you. My issue is not simply the bass at higher volume. The overall sound even at lower volume is not great. The balance is off. Something just isn’t right. 

I second that, I have the same feeling and I am surprised why people have not spoken about it yet. I am going to talk to someone from Sonos and if they don’t see to be helpful. I am just gonna return or sell it local

R
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Could be just me but there’s also a significant lack of mid-range even with the Sub 3.0.  I hear the “bass” issue when I turn off my sub leaving the Arc to play by itself.  The fullness of sound returns when the sub is on but the Arc ends up sounding like just a bunch of tweeters coupled to a bass bin … not something I’m used to even with my Five and several Play 1s.

Ended up calling Sonos service yesterday before jumping on here and they’re very reluctant to return or exchange.  Hope this is fixed by next week.

… For other’s with 5.1 Arc + Sub set ups … just me??

I agree with you. My issue is not simply the bass at higher volume. The overall sound even at lower volume is not great. The balance is off. Something just isn’t right. 

I second that, I have the same feeling and I am surprised why people have not spoken about it yet. I am going to talk to someone from Sonos and if they don’t see to be helpful. I am just gonna return or sell it local

Should be able to return. I guess we have 45 day return window, until they try to finish this product. I’ve been trying to reach support but it’s pretty tough these days. I will say that Sonos support is great!! Better than pretty much any tech company I’ve dealt with. 

E
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I think all of us are facing the same kind of problems, wether it is the failing mid range, farting bass or hollow thin metallic sound. But after all, I am most surprised by all the excellent reviews I read over the last few days. I can hardly believe it was the same product the Hifi magazines tested. 

Still though I do believe Sonos is going to solve the issue soon.

S

Just to add my voice to the ever growing crowd - awful distorted bass, very thin mids and a largely tipped up hard treble that makes everything sound artificial and hollow.

 

My Playbase destroys my Arc - this is an awful PR disaster for Sonos. Let’s hope the fix is a good one, or its return time!

O
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Same problem here. Lack in midrange, not engaging, low voices. Not impressed so far, though im running it with subwoofer.

S
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Yall…. make a freaking post about your lack in midrange issue. THIS POST IS ABOUT THE MUDDLED BASS…  if you want your issue to be noticed make a post and everyone that has those issues comment there.

 

BTW initially after SONOS released the playbar years ago they did an update that retuned things a bit improving sound for many. So SONOS might do the same a bit down the road. Get vocal but create your own trouble shooting post about your issue.

Muddled bass has nothing to do with lack in midrange some of you are getting

A
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

Same problem here. Lack in midrange, not engaging, low voices. Not impressed so far, though im running it with subwoofer.

https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/sonos-arc-metallic-sound-6843110?postid=16442311#post16442311

A
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

Yall…. make a freaking post about your lack in midrange issue. THIS POST IS ABOUT THE MUDDLED BASS…  if you want your issue to be noticed make a post and everyone that has those issues comment there.

 

BTW initially after SONOS released the playbar years ago they did an update that retuned things a bit improving sound for many. So SONOS might do the same a bit down the road. Get vocal but create your own trouble shooting post about your issue.

Muddled bass has nothing to do with lack in midrange some of you are getting

I already  have !

J

Hello All,

I was going to place an order for Arc (my first Sonos device) but I am impressed by the negative with all this problem related to AUDIO in a device of this price.
My Samsung TV does not have HDMI eARC so I will not be able to enjoy the Dolby Atmos function by now.
For the price difference (€ 899 vs € 699) I would like to know your opinion\advice if I will be better served  by buying the Playbar + 2 OneSL instead of Arc (buying the Sub on a later stage).

Or probably wait until all this issues to be resolved, properly tested and then move to the Arc?

For all the discussion I have read here it seems to me that Arc does not seem to be mature enough as announced by Sonos (“featuring eleven high-performance drivers for crisp highs, dynamic midranges, and surprising bass”)  and it wouldn't be nice to have a device that looks “incomplete” and patch-dependent

 

S
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Hello All,

I was going to place an order for Arc (my first Sonos device) but I am impressed by the negative with all this problem related to AUDIO in a device of this price.
My Samsung TV does not have HDMI eARC so I will not be able to enjoy the Dolby Atmos function by now.
For the price difference (€ 899 vs € 699) I would like to know your opinion\advice if I will be better served  by buying the Playbar + 2 OneSL instead of Arc (buying the Sub on a later stage).

Or probably wait until all this issues to be resolved, properly tested and then move to the Arc?

For all the discussion I have read here it seems to me that Arc does not seem to be mature enough as announced by Sonos (“featuring eleven high-performance drivers for crisp highs, dynamic midranges, and surprising bass”)  and it wouldn't be nice to have a device that looks “incomplete” and patch-dependent

 

Remember people with negative feedback are ALWAYS more vocal than those satisfied and happy with their products. There’s MANY that got their Arcs played their music and movies and didnt push the volume or bass level too high and never noticed any issues. The Arc sounds great it does have a brighter sound signature than the Playbar but for movies and tv it sounds better IMO. The bass issue is going to be rectified.

 

I think it all depends on what you value if you want to future proof your system (* you will get an eARC TV in a few years probably) and you want alexa, airplay 2.0 and better looks (more modern). Or you dont care about atmos or any of that and just want a good soundbar

A
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Don’t think you need eArc for Atmos. Currently most services offering Atmos will work with normal HDMI Arc. I think eArc might be needed for some Blu-ray movies though, and in the future it might become more widely used. But by then you’ll have a new TV anyway! 

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