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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wilwong829

Enthusiast II

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.

Me too!! I do have faith in the company and the brand!

I’m in Asia and therefore my Arc is still yet to deliver… probably mid. July, and therefore I don’t have to think about any returning matters. The worst scenario maybe is to cancel the order and get my money back… So for me I’m not only worry about the Arc, but more than that is the reputation of the brand and company after this incident… How it’s going to be? Drop in business? And the Sonos products we already have for years?

Hope I just think and worried too much…

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Lkzhao

Lyricist I

I experienced the same. Setup my arc today and the first song I played made me feel that the arc is worse than the beam. Almost going to put it back in the box before I came online. Really need this to be fixed quickly otherwise I have to return it.

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wilwong829

Enthusiast II

I think the people who have been using SONOS products for years may have more patience and willing to give them some time to get it right, while especially those who bought Arc as their first SONOS product may not… It make lot of sense!

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Sash A

Lyricist III

I think the people who have been using SONOS products for years may have more patience and willing to give them some time to get it right, while especially those who bought Arc as their first SONOS product may not… It make lot of sense!

Nah that’t not it. I have been with Sonos for 2 years and my Beam had 0 issues since day one. People expect the same from a product that costs as much as 2 Beams. That’s not much to ask of a premium brand like Sonos. Consistency

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wilwong829

Enthusiast II

I think the people who have been using SONOS products for years may have more patience and willing to give them some time to get it right, while especially those who bought Arc as their first SONOS product may not… It make lot of sense!

Nah that’t not it. I have been with Sonos for 2 years and my Beam had 0 issues since day one. People expect the same from a product that costs as much as 2 Beams. That’s not much to ask of a premium brand like Sonos. Consistency

Yes, that’s true!

M

MSterling

Prodigy I

I think the people who have been using SONOS products for years may have more patience and willing to give them some time to get it right, while especially those who bought Arc as their first SONOS product may not… It make lot of sense!

Nah that’t not it. I have been with Sonos for 2 years and my Beam had 0 issues since day one. People expect the same from a product that costs as much as 2 Beams. That’s not much to ask of a premium brand like Sonos. Consistency

Yes, that’s true!

I’m going to be patiently waiting to replace my Beam until I see further update on this. I thinking that by December this kind of quirk should be fully resolved.

This reviewer has been pretty reliable in his objective approach. It may be worth following him.

Michael

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The Mandalorian

Lyricist I

Hello all,

I just want to clarify...is this issue only present in standalone ARC set ups?….so if the ARC is paired with the SUB this issue isn’t present?….I’m asking because I plan on purchasing the ARC and SUB but if this happens when paired together I may wait until this is all ironed out.

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antm22

Enthusiast I

Hello all,

I just want to clarify...is this issue only present in standalone ARC set ups?….so if the ARC is paired with the SUB this issue isn’t present?….I’m asking because I plan on purchasing the ARC and SUB but if this happens when paired together I may wait until this is all ironed out.

Honestly I’d wait anyway. At this point this is a known issue with the product with no clear cause or resolution. The only updates we’ve had from Sonos is that it “seems like software” and the “team is investigating” with no estimated time for resolution.

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wilwong829

Enthusiast II

Hello all,

I just want to clarify...is this issue only present in standalone ARC set ups?….so if the ARC is paired with the SUB this issue isn’t present?….I’m asking because I plan on purchasing the ARC and SUB but if this happens when paired together I may wait until this is all ironed out.

I think even adding a SUB can mask the problem, it’s not acceptable because we cannot expect every single person who buy the Arc will also buy the SUB… Arc itself should be a product to deliver good quality.

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Seeky

Prominent Collaborator II

I think the people who have been using SONOS products for years may have more patience and willing to give them some time to get it right, while especially those who bought Arc as their first SONOS product may not… It make lot of sense!

Nah that’t not it. I have been with Sonos for 2 years and my Beam had 0 issues since day one. People expect the same from a product that costs as much as 2 Beams. That’s not much to ask of a premium brand like Sonos. Consistency

Yes, that’s true!

I’m going to be patiently waiting to replace my Beam until I see further update on this. I thinking that by December this kind of quirk should be fully resolved.

This reviewer has been pretty reliable in his objective approach. It may be worth following him.

THIS is what surprises me the most. Wouldn’t the standard test for a speaker involve going through a test program with all the possible frequencies, recording the response and checking if everything is alright?

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