Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

1406 replies
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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

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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antm22

Enthusiast I

I hate to say it but Sonos isn’t exuding confidence here. “Looks to be software”. “Team is still investigating”. Doesn’t sound like they really know what’s happening and we’re not close to a fix. I’m not thrilled using a brand new, much anticipated, $800 product that needs a software update to sound good. I’m going to be contacting support for an RMA number and will send mine back. I can’t shake the -what did I pay all this money for- feeling.

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arpatil1

Enthusiast II

You’re mentioning the audio team. So that means that there is actually a hardware dependent variance in our speakers which needs to be adressed with a slightly different sound tuning? We are not talking about a failed update or a wrong firmware being used?

Do you mean the team that’s investigating? That would be the audio software team. At the most basic level, make the software that tells the speakers what sounds to produce, and they do a whole lot more. Though there are other teams involved too to various degrees. I know in threads like this on these sorts of topics the conversation can get out of control with speculation, so let’s try to taper that down where we can. The right teams are investigating this already and we’ll let you know as soon as there’s a resolution or more details to share.

@Ryan S Can you confirm this is a software issue? You originally said it was but now your response only says your team is working on a software fix.

I think most of us are willing to wait for this fix if we have confidence this isn’t hardware related but with the big price tag and limited time to return, we need to know ASAP. Thanks

While it’s under investigation, I’m hesitant to say it’s anything specific. This looks to be software related, but let’s give the team some time to work on this and if I can share more with you later, I will.

How much time are we talking? This week, next, or a month from now? I understand they’re working on it but this is insane given the price of the ARC.
Purchased from Best Buy, and quickly closing in on the return period.

Believe me, we are not gonna get much. Only thing we can do is WAIT. I feel bad for those with shorter return window.

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antm22

Enthusiast I

You’re mentioning the audio team. So that means that there is actually a hardware dependent variance in our speakers which needs to be adressed with a slightly different sound tuning? We are not talking about a failed update or a wrong firmware being used?

Do you mean the team that’s investigating? That would be the audio software team. At the most basic level, make the software that tells the speakers what sounds to produce, and they do a whole lot more. Though there are other teams involved too to various degrees. I know in threads like this on these sorts of topics the conversation can get out of control with speculation, so let’s try to taper that down where we can. The right teams are investigating this already and we’ll let you know as soon as there’s a resolution or more details to share.

@Ryan S Can you confirm this is a software issue? You originally said it was but now your response only says your team is working on a software fix.

I think most of us are willing to wait for this fix if we have confidence this isn’t hardware related but with the big price tag and limited time to return, we need to know ASAP. Thanks

While it’s under investigation, I’m hesitant to say it’s anything specific. This looks to be software related, but let’s give the team some time to work on this and if I can share more with you later, I will.

How much time are we talking? This week, next, or a month from now? I understand they’re working on it but this is insane given the price of the ARC.
Purchased from Best Buy, and quickly closing in on the return period.

Believe me, we are not gonna get much. Only thing we can do is WAIT. I feel bad for those with shorter return window.

We don’t just have to wait. We can flood them with returns!

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Sash A

Lyricist III

Can I get some clarity on this issue, sorry didn’t read the entire thread. Is the issue occurring with tv’s that have ARC port or eARC or both? Have people tried using a different HDMI cable to eliminate the possibility of a faulty one in the box? If this issue is so wide spread how was something like this missed during engineering/software testing before being put into production? Are the units not tested across all volume ranges with multiple tv’s or avr’s to test for issues and compatibility? I don’t mean to be an ass but I am a dev and if I release something to production without testing that it doesn’t break other things I would be getting chewed out. My unit hasn’t arrived yet but this issue would be a deal breaker. I am somewhat an audiophile and this would drive me nuts so confidence for now is pretty low.

Thanks!

Could someone please answer? Also IF this is a hardware issue and the drivers cannot handle higher volumes and lower frequencies then no amount of software patching will help. It’ll be just masking the issue. So if you’re getting close to your return window it may be a good idea to do it but to each their own.

Thanks!

A

arpatil1

Enthusiast II

You’re mentioning the audio team. So that means that there is actually a hardware dependent variance in our speakers which needs to be adressed with a slightly different sound tuning? We are not talking about a failed update or a wrong firmware being used?

Do you mean the team that’s investigating? That would be the audio software team. At the most basic level, make the software that tells the speakers what sounds to produce, and they do a whole lot more. Though there are other teams involved too to various degrees. I know in threads like this on these sorts of topics the conversation can get out of control with speculation, so let’s try to taper that down where we can. The right teams are investigating this already and we’ll let you know as soon as there’s a resolution or more details to share.

@Ryan S Can you confirm this is a software issue? You originally said it was but now your response only says your team is working on a software fix.

I think most of us are willing to wait for this fix if we have confidence this isn’t hardware related but with the big price tag and limited time to return, we need to know ASAP. Thanks

While it’s under investigation, I’m hesitant to say it’s anything specific. This looks to be software caused, but let’s give the team some time to work on this and if I can share more with you later, I will.

How much time are we talking? This week, next, or a month from now? I understand they’re working on it but this is insane given the price of the ARC.
Purchased from Best Buy, and quickly closing in on the return period.

Believe me, we are not gonna get much. Only thing we can do is WAIT. I feel bad for those with shorter return window.

We don’t just have to wait. We can flood them with returns!

Ryan said they were working on a software fix. Now he said- “Last I heard on Friday it was still under investigation. Until there’s a clear identification on what the cause is, any on a resolution timeline would be a guess, and probably unreliable.”

If the team is still doing root cause analysis, how did they start working on a fix last week? What am i missing here?

I don’t even know what to say. This whole thing is a debacle.

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bbalz

Renowned Enthusiast I

I understand the frustration from everyone, trust me, I’m there too.

It’s a new product with raving reviews. Clearly something changed since the reviews were done to the public release and that change likely isn’t hardware, but a software change.

Before we start spreading word of panic, let’s just give Sonos a few more days and allow them to work on the issue and provide us updates. Let’s not try to pick apart words in an update we’re being provided.

Everyone can choose to handle their Arc individually but my decision is to wait for Sonos to release the update and see if it truly resolves the problem. If it does, great! If it doesn’t, then the other option is clear.

I have faith that Sonos will fix this and fix it quickly. It’s hard to ask for patience when you spend this much on a product but unfortunately we all have to be patient for the update.

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arpatil1

Enthusiast II

Can I get some clarity on this issue, sorry didn’t read the entire thread. Is the issue occurring with tv’s that have ARC port or eARC or both? Have people tried using a different HDMI cable to eliminate the possibility of a faulty one in the box? If this issue is so wide spread how was something like this missed during engineering/software testing before being put into production? Are the units not tested across all volume ranges with multiple tv’s or avr’s to test for issues and compatibility? I don’t mean to be an ass but I am a dev and if I release something to production without testing that it doesn’t break other things I would be getting chewed out. My unit hasn’t arrived yet but this issue would be a deal breaker. I am somewhat an audiophile and this would drive me nuts so confidence for now is pretty low.

Thanks!

Could someone please answer? Also IF this is a hardware issue and the drivers cannot handle higher volumes and lower frequencies then no amount of software patching will help. It’ll be just masking the issue. So if you’re getting close to your return window it may be a good idea to do it but to each their own.

Thanks!

We all have the same questions and haven’t got any answers. You are right. I am Engineer too, and I still can not believe this kind of issue just slipped through all the testing. This does not speak well about the company’s design cycle. Especially when they advertise so much about working with filmmakers and music directors.