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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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    Highfalutintodd
    Prominent Collaborator I
    June 13, 2020

    Experiencing the same issue. No Sub or surrounds (yet). Haven’t found it horrible, but guessing I’m just not listening to a lot of material with bass in those frequencies. 

    Diagnostic submitted: 738063512

    Hoping for a fix before Amazon 30 days is up, otherwise I’ll probably be returning. 

    Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!
    sonosstec
    Contributor I
    June 13, 2020

    I’ve seen some people say with the current issue if you are playing with any loudness, even with the sub, you can damage the arc speakers, is there any truth to this? Is there a need to hold off on using until the update? Thank you.

      Just_Westy
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 13, 2020

      Hope this gets sorted and proves to be a winner and surpasses my Beam + Sub combo which works very well indeed.

       

      Immersive
      Avid Contributor III
      June 13, 2020

      I am still awaiting arc, gen 3 sub, and two OneSLs.  They are sending out the arc and OneSLs on monday while my sub isn’t scheduled until late June.   First time Sonos owner, so pretty stoked.  


      I have an LG OLED B8 series TV which only has ARC, but seeing people say they are getting Dolby Atmos with it, seems kind of strange, but I will not complain if it works.
       

      I have been reading through all of this about the bottomed out bass and it being software issue. Are we talking firmware in each speaker, the Mobile app software, or combination of both?

       

      thanks… looking forward to receiving the sonos .

      maurice.pothoven
      Trending Lyricist II
      June 13, 2020

      What is the difference between the hardware numbers? Colour?

      i have 1.27.1.8-2.1 (white Arc) and a friend of mine has 1.27.1.8-2.2 (black Arc).

       

      he claims not to have problems but he has a sub

      PowdeRiver
      Lyricist III
      June 14, 2020

      I think it’s 1.27.1.8-1.2 and 1.1 just the color.

      ant0
      ant0
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 14, 2020

      Hi everyone, I just came across this and I thought it would be interesting to share 

       

      You can clearly hear that The Playbar has better low end which does not match what other reviewers are saying

      @Ryan S is this related to this bass issue we are all having here?

       

      Cherr1020
      Lyricist III
      June 14, 2020

      Any news, Sonos? Would be great to get a feel for the software update timeframe. 

        RaisinApricot
        Lyricist I
        June 14, 2020

        What is the difference between the hardware numbers? Colour?

        i have 1.27.1.8-2.1 (white Arc) and a friend of mine has 1.27.1.8-2.2 (black Arc).

         

        he claims not to have problems but he has a sub

        Mine has no problem and it is a Black Arc 1.27.1.8-1.2

        arpatil1
        Enthusiast II
        June 14, 2020

        Hi everyone, I just came across this and I thought it would be interesting to share 

         

        You can clearly hear that The Playbar has better low end which does not match what other reviewers are saying

        @Ryan S is this related to this bass issue we are all having here?

         

        Playbar did sound much warmer and balanced. Arc’s bass is poor with too much treble. I was expecting much better sound from Arc given how much time they had in between it and the playbar. Currently, i feel like my pair of ones as surrounds are pulling all the weight. Don’t know how much the software update will improve things.

        $799 is ridiculous for the sound it produces. Good at 30% off ($559) which I paid or even less.

        @Ryan S Please let the team know they have a lot of work to do on the Arc. At this moment, it feels half-baked. 

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