Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

1406 replies
193271 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.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

S

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.

Show previous replies

I

Immersive

Avid Contributor III

Since I do not have arc arc, sub, and OneSLs yet, to make sure I am all of this correctly, the muddy bass issue is with the arc itself, and not the sub?

Thanks…

B

bbalz

Renowned Enthusiast I

Since I do not have arc arc, sub, and OneSLs yet, to make sure I am all of this correctly, the muddy bass issue is with the arc itself, and not the sub?

Thanks…

The sub helps mask the issue for the most part but the issue is still there. At least in my opinion.

I

Immersive

Avid Contributor III

Since I do not have arc arc, sub, and OneSLs yet, to make sure I am all of this correctly, the muddy bass issue is with the arc itself, and not the sub?

Thanks…

The sub helps mask the issue for the most part but the issue is still there. At least in my opinion.

Thanks. I figured the sub would be a bandaid….. pretty crazy issue. Hard to belive it would be released like that. If they do not want a lot of returns, they better fix it in a hurry. I figure they have up to 30 days for a fix depending on where purchased. Trying to stay positive, but i guess thats easy when I dont have it yet :)

Thanks again..

F

ftm

Trending Lyricist I

I hope they get this sorted soon or mine is definitely going back. Only 10 minutes into Inception and have turned Arc off and listening through tv speakers.

Any rumbling in any film sounds identical like wind blowing into the speakers.

R

Reefy

Enthusiast I

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.

I 100% agree. The playbar seemed to sound better. As you said it’s more balanced. Spot oj with the base vs treble comment. So balance whatsoever. Very underwhelming. And dissapointing. Hopefully the software issue will fix it but a bad first impression. I’m willing to give Sonos a little bit of time to get this right.

W

wilwong829

Enthusiast II

I think all of us are upset but most of us are willing to give SONOS some time to get it right… but Ryan please kindly say something and give an update, let us know what’s been going on asap?

Thanks!!

M

MerlinNL

Lyricist III

I think all of us are upset but most of us are willing to give SONOS some time to get it right… but Ryan please kindly say something and give an update, let us know what’s been going on asap?

Thanks!!

Yeah an update on the status and some sort of timeline for pushing a software update would be appreciated.

M

maurice.pothoven

Trending Lyricist II

Twitter reaction:

Hey Maurice, thanks for reaching out. We don't have a timescale to share just yet. The team are working fast on a software update. The best place to stay upto date would be our Community Forum -

A

arpatil1

Enthusiast II

I think all of us are upset but most of us are willing to give SONOS some time to get it right… but Ryan please kindly say something and give an update, let us know what’s been going on asap?

Thanks!!

Yeah an update on the status and some sort of timeline for pushing a software update would be appreciated.

Tagging @Ryan S

B

bkart

Lyricist I

Bought an arc and put it exactly where my beam was in front of my TV. Bass is worse on the arc regardless of content. Hoping a fix comes within my return window.

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community