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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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    Redraider3403
    Enthusiast I
    June 10, 2020

    To me it’s almost like this thing is stuck in “I’m paired with a sub mode.” The mid level bassline before it really drops low in 6 foot 7 foot by Lil Wayne makes it want to cry. When I add my sub back it it’s great. 
     

    and yes I have gone through true play. 

    ggmogollonAuthor
    Enthusiast II
    June 10, 2020

    Anyone else get the firmware update out of the box? Could be the issue as well, I’d imagine reviewers would be running a different version which would help explain the discrepancy in reviews vs what we’re hearing 

    gregmelnyk
    gregmelnyk
    Lyricist III
    June 10, 2020

    One thing I forgot to mention. The overall volume is low as well. With my Beam setup, most movies were acceptably loud within a 42-50% volume range. The Arc is currently at 62% and I’d still consider upping it another 5-10% if I were to sit and watch a full film to get my previous results. 

      ripcordaff
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 10, 2020

      Same issue here. Bass sounds incredibly distorted and makes music totally unlistenable. 

        gregmelnyk
        gregmelnyk
        Lyricist III
        June 10, 2020

        Same issue here. Bass sounds incredibly distorted and makes music totally unlistenable. 

        It cannot be overstated just how unlistenable music is with an Arc and two Ones. 

          arpatil1
          Enthusiast II
          June 10, 2020

          Same issue here. Bass sounds incredibly distorted and makes music totally unlistenable. 

          It cannot be overstated just how unlistenable music is with an Arc and two Ones. 

          Dang! I am going to have the same setup. It sounds worse than just 2 sonos ones in stereo?

          gregmelnyk
          gregmelnyk
          Lyricist III
          June 11, 2020

          Same issue here. Bass sounds incredibly distorted and makes music totally unlistenable. 

          It cannot be overstated just how unlistenable music is with an Arc and two Ones. 

          Dang! I am going to have the same setup. It sounds worse than just 2 sonos ones in stereo?

          Unfortunately, yes. 

          arpatil1
          Enthusiast II
          June 11, 2020

          Same issue here. Bass sounds incredibly distorted and makes music totally unlistenable. 

          It cannot be overstated just how unlistenable music is with an Arc and two Ones. 

          Dang! I am going to have the same setup. It sounds worse than just 2 sonos ones in stereo?

          Unfortunately, yes. 

          I am already frustrated with how Sonos is handling the pre-orders. This isn’t helping. Hopefully, they fix the issue with a software update within 30 days. 

          arpatil1
          Enthusiast II
          June 11, 2020

          Hi Ryan, 

          Thank you for the prompt review and response! Here are my details and findings: 

          There is what sounds like woofer over excursion and bass muddiness with all sources. I noticed it first on Tidal and Spotify and then heard it as well on my LG native apps as well including Netflix and on my Apple TV 4k. This includes dolby atmos content coming through the ARC port on my TV. I have my Sonos Arc connected with HDMI to the ARC port on my LG and it permits atmos over HDMI 2.0. Turning loudness on or off makes a small difference at the volume level where the effect is noticeable but regardless it starts around half volume. I have my Arc on a table that my TV is on as well, no wall mounting. My room is fairly good for speakers as it is 15x15 with 8ft high ceilings and the Sonos Arc is roughly 5ft from the ceiling. I have true played the device 3x to ensure it wasn’t an issue with my setup and the problem persisted with all three attempts. I have my KEFs flanking the Sonos Arc just behind it (not obstructed) and they have no issues with bass. Furthermore, the Arc is placed roughly 1.5ft from the backwall in an attempt to minimize reverberations from the backwall. Happy to share additional details about my room and setup if needed. Thanks again!

          Edit: Very low frequencies are not problematic its more the 50-80hz range where bass drivers experience the most excursion in the frequency response range. If a song test is needed, I recommend Penetrator by Pleasurekraft, it showcases the problem.

           

          Can you try running a frequency sweep to see if it reveals anything unusual?

          Ryan S
          Ryan S
          Retired Sonos Staff
          June 11, 2020

          Thanks for all the great details everyone. The engineering team is looking into this right now. We really appreciate what you’ve shared so far.

          If anyone else is experiencing this issue, the more you can share the better as it really helps pin what’s happening down, and also helps the team recreate the issue in their own homes.

          The following questions are the sort of details that would help the most:  

          • What are you watching or playing that you’re hearing this on? Be as specific as possible please and let us know if it’s only with music. For music, it helps us build a list of tracks and sources that we can recreate the issue with. 

          • What volume do you experience this at? Does it only show up after a certain percentage or do you notice it most of the time?

          • Is your Arc wall-mounted?

          • If wall-mounted, does removing the speaker from the wall bracket and setting it on a credenza or table improve the issue?

          • Are you using Trueplay, and does it go away if you turn Trueplay off?

          • Do you have the Bass EQ setting flat or adjusted in some way?

          • If it’s possible, can you share an image of the setup?

          • Please submit a diagnostic from the system with it happening and let us know the number.

          I’m going to mark this response as the “best answer” for this thread so that everyone sees it, but we’ll mark a new best answer when there’s more to share. Just because it says “Solved” doesn’t mean the team has stopped looking at it.

          Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
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