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Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

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P
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Advertised

N
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Sonos or other people shouldn’t be surprised to see negative comments about soundbar if the response is the speakers always need adjustments up to a year later to make them sound as advertised

While I understand your point, DSP algorithms are always improving, what is possible after a year might not have been possible on initial release

1 x ARC | 2 x PLAY:5 | 4 x PLAY:1 | 2 x ONE | PLAYBAR | SUB | CONNECT
P
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I just want my speaker fixed

C
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OK, here is a theory. Do speakers need to breaking in/ running in? Or is this urban myth?

Could the reviewers that have given good reviews have been testing pre-production units that have previously well tested and the speakers had been ‘run in’ for 10’s or 100’s of hours?

Are the new units sounding different because of this?

Some people are saying their previous soundbar/Beam/Playbar sounds better/different, if they have had those, they would have already been ‘run in’, where as the Arc speakers are not?

Also, even if the speakers don’t require a ‘run-in’ maybe our ears need a ‘run-in’ to adjust to a different sound, or even a combination of both?

Also, if one of the the first things you do with any new speaker is play the equivalent of ‘mains electricity hum’ at full volume it may leave a bad ‘taste’ in your ‘ears’?

J
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Sonos have and always will continuously improve the products already out in the world and I have no doubt will end up fixing this issue. The problem that companies like Sonos have is that they give so much in the way of constant improvement and longevity that people take it for granted and completely forget the limitations of the real world. You could argue the Arc was released a little early or the testing during production wasn’t as thorough as it could have been, but they aren’t immune to the challenges facing the world today. 

 

 

Let’s not make excuses for Sonos.  They didn’t HAVE to release the Arc if it wasn’t ready - COVID-19 challenges or not.  They should have waited until the bugs were better ironed out if they didn’t want a bunch of returns or unhappy customers claiming that their old Sonos Playbar or $400 Beam sounded better.

I have no sympathy for Sonos if they receive 1,000/5,000/10,000 returns for a product that was released half-baked and before it was ready.  Router manufacturers have historically done this same thing - often releasing super buggy products that weren’t ready for launch.  I’ve had brand new iPhones that were buggy as hell on launch day.  It took Apple & Verizon 1-2 months to completely fix issues with Verizon randomly dropping to “no service” in good service areas back when the iPhone 7 was released in 2016.  There was no excuse for that - it should have been tested better before launch.  Sonos Arc is no different.

A lot of people can’t afford to sit around and hope their $800+ investment improves with time, hoping that Sonos fixes and/or improves the product.  For some people, $800 is pocket change.  For others, $800 is an expensive investment that they have been saving up for and won’t be able to afford to replace for 5+ years.  If the Arc doesn’t sound good to them, they should send it back - not sit around and hope that Sonos improves/fixes it.  Maybe Sonos will, maybe they won’t.  Yes, I hope they do.  I hope the Arc unquestionably becomes the best $800 soundbar on the market.  But there are no guarantees in life.  People who are afraid of being stuck with a product that is not performing to their expectations should vote with their wallet and return the product.

S
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Sonos or other people shouldn’t be surprised to see negative comments about soundbar if the response is the speakers always need adjustments up to a year later to make them sound as advertised

Yes continual improvement and updates should be the mark of failure. 
 

?what¿

Yes, releasing untested product is a sign of success. Shouldn’t have rushed to release and iron everything out prior to release. Is that too much to ask?

T

OK, here is a theory. Do speakers need to breaking in/ running in? Or is this urban myth?

Could the reviewers that have given good reviews have been testing pre-production units that have previously well tested and the speakers had been ‘run in’ for 10’s or 100’s of hours?

Are the new units sounding different because of this?

Some people are saying their previous soundbar/Beam/Playbar sounds better/different, if they have had those, they would have already been ‘run in’, where as the Arc speakers are not?

Also, even if the speakers don’t require a ‘run-in’ maybe our ears need a ‘run-in’ to adjust to a different sound, or even a combination of both?

Also, if one of the the first things you do with any new speaker is play the equivalent of ‘mains electricity hum’ at full volume it may leave a bad ‘taste’ in your ‘ears’?

 

 In short, yes drivers will break in over time. I have worked with Pete (Hexibase in the video I linked) in designing car audio enclosures for my personal vehicles.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDL4_TIRTu4

If I were to guess I should have roughly 60-70 hours of medium to medium high volume playback for music and movies on my Arc, Sub and One Sl’s. I frequently leave the Arc running while I am away from home playing my own vetted and trusted playlist of music or movie trailers to safely “break in” the drivers. 

To your second point it is a bit unfair to the people who have spotted this issue using normal content at normal volumes. There have been numerous song and movie clips shared showing the Arcs issues. Not playing 0db test tones through a streaming service. Sure, maybe a few did this but the laundry list of “songs to try” is available.Here are some pieces to try from other users and myself.

 

Spiderman Into the spider-verse . The entire opening chapter.

John Wick 3. Intro with the heartbeat.

Toy Story 3 2:53

Bats in the attic - King creosote 1:43

Loose yourself to dance - Daft Punk

Put your hands where I can see them - Busta Ryhmes

Intro - Julian Convex 1:16

Put it on me - Matt Maeson

Soft Spoke - Naia izumi

To be alone - Hozier 1:10 

 

The list could go on, but removing the sub and surrounds from the group amplify the issue still present with the Arc on its newest firmware as of June-26-2020.

N
Userlevel 1
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I have no sympathy for Sonos if they receive 1,000/5,000/10,000 returns for a product that was released half-baked and before it was ready.  Router manufacturers have historically done this same thing - often releasing super buggy products that weren’t ready for launch.  I’ve had brand new iPhones that were buggy as hell on launch day.  It took Apple & Verizon 1-2 months to completely fix issues with Verizon randomly dropping to “no service” in good service areas back when the iPhone 7 was released in 2016.  There was no excuse for that - it should have been tested better before launch.  Sonos Arc is no different.

A lot of people can’t afford to sit around and hope their $800+ investment improves with time, hoping that Sonos fixes and/or improves the product.  For some people, $800 is pocket change.  For others, $800 is an expensive investment that they have been saving up for and won’t be able to afford to replace for 5+ years.  If the Arc doesn’t sound good to them, they should send it back.  Not sit around and hope that Sonos improves/fixes it.  Maybe Sonos will, maybe they won’t.  Yes, I hope they do.  I hope the Arc unquestionably becomes the best $800 sounder on the market.  But there are no guarantees in life.  People who are afraid of being stuck with a product that is not performing to their expectations should vote with their wallet and return the product.

 

I agree whole heartedly! I also have no sympathy for them if they get a considerable amount of returns. The famous saying of voting with your wallet applies here, if you don’t like the product don’t buy it (or in this case go ahead and return it).

I understand I may come from a position of privilege and as a serial early adopter I may be desensitised to this kind of behaviour.

Sonos is a business, this will have been a calculated risk that upsetting the few to strengthen cash flow during covid was worth taking; bear in mind the Arc is and has been on backorder for a while at all major distributors. They may believe they will be able to deliver a fix quick enough before the masses find out about the issues. I know that’s not a particularly valid excuse and it kinda sucks, but it’s so incredibly common place it happens everywhere all the time, just a lot of the time it doesn’t get noticed as much as this has.

I sort of repeat myself here but if it’s a practice you’re not happy with, return it, buy something else or even wait till it has had a moment to soak in production and buy it again. We have control over our money, not Sonos.

 

Personally given my experience with Sonos in the past, I’m happy to give them some time. I fully understand others not feeling the same.

1 x ARC | 2 x PLAY:5 | 4 x PLAY:1 | 2 x ONE | PLAYBAR | SUB | CONNECT
S
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

 

I have no sympathy for Sonos if they receive 1,000/5,000/10,000 returns for a product that was released half-baked and before it was ready.  Router manufacturers have historically done this same thing - often releasing super buggy products that weren’t ready for launch.  I’ve had brand new iPhones that were buggy as hell on launch day.  It took Apple & Verizon 1-2 months to completely fix issues with Verizon randomly dropping to “no service” in good service areas back when the iPhone 7 was released in 2016.  There was no excuse for that - it should have been tested better before launch.  Sonos Arc is no different.

A lot of people can’t afford to sit around and hope their $800+ investment improves with time, hoping that Sonos fixes and/or improves the product.  For some people, $800 is pocket change.  For others, $800 is an expensive investment that they have been saving up for and won’t be able to afford to replace for 5+ years.  If the Arc doesn’t sound good to them, they should send it back.  Not sit around and hope that Sonos improves/fixes it.  Maybe Sonos will, maybe they won’t.  Yes, I hope they do.  I hope the Arc unquestionably becomes the best $800 sounder on the market.  But there are no guarantees in life.  People who are afraid of being stuck with a product that is not performing to their expectations should vote with their wallet and return the product.

 

I agree whole heartedly! I also have no sympathy for them if they get a considerable amount of returns. The famous saying of voting with your wallet applies here, if you don’t like the product don’t buy it (or in this case go ahead and return it).

I understand I may come from a position of privilege and as a serial early adopter I may be desensitised to this kind of behaviour.

Sonos is a business, this will have been a calculated risk that upsetting the few to strengthen cash flow during covid was worth taking; bear in mind the Arc is and has been on backorder for a while at all major distributors. They may believe they will be able to deliver a fix quick enough before the masses find out about the issues. I know that’s not a particularly valid excuse and it kinda sucks, but it’s so incredibly common place it happens everywhere all the time, just a lot of the time it doesn’t get noticed as much as this has.

I sort of repeat myself here but if it’s a practice you’re not happy with, return it, buy something else or even wait till it has had a moment to soak in production and buy it again. We have control over our money, not Sonos.

 

Personally given my experience with Sonos in the past, I’m happy to give them some time. I fully understand others not feeling the same.

I mean I agree if it’s disrupting your Enjoyment of the product and you think it’s not good or worth the money return. Now if you’re going around playing test tones to find issues and speculating you’re returning because you have a defective unit to just buy again in a week. That makes 0 sense to me . But do whatever make you happy! 

N
Userlevel 1
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But do whatever make you happy! 

This! This is quite possibly the most important thing here and quite frankly should drive every decision made about a luxury purchase.

 

I also agree with your point about actually trying to enjoy the product, rather than immediately plugging it in and looking for issues other people seem to have with it, especially when playing something that you would never have played yourself - never noticing the issue in your everyday usage. I use it with a sub and to me the performance is significantly better mostly in soundstage than the Playbar, especially with Atmos content!

 

It is fairly standard to do a frequency sweep as part of determining an audio products performance, hell even Sonos do it themselves during Trueplay to determine the rooms response! But, what may not be being considered here is how Sonos perform their DSP; because we don’t and will never know how their DSP works / how it will react to specific inputs, running a pure sine wave through could potentially be completely pointless. You could easily forgive someone though for thinking that any distortion of the low end clearly audible running these tests is just being masked the majority of time during every day content, only revealing itself (frustratingly and in some examples dramatically) at specific points during listening.

 

It’s got to be a significant enough issue for people to have been looking for a reason why the bass response isn’t what they expect while the Arc is standalone. Especially given the immense amount of praise the pre-release reviews gave it. Yes, they have issued a ‘fix’, but there is a significant amount of people claiming to still have the issue. Then you have some sources (absolutely no idea whether they are credible) stating that Sonos know there’s still an issue and they don’t really know the root cause.

 

It would be nice to know if this is normal behaviour or there is actually an issue, silence doesn’t sit well in situations like this. Sonos however don’t traditionally go in to detail about things like this.

1 x ARC | 2 x PLAY:5 | 4 x PLAY:1 | 2 x ONE | PLAYBAR | SUB | CONNECT
S
Userlevel 4
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I agree with you. The only comment I’d make is that the issue was mitigated maybe not to 100 percent in all cases but most people agree it’s dramatically improved. I for one noticed it during normal content before and don’t anymore 

S
Userlevel 4
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I RMA’d my ARC...the new one sounds exactly the same as the first. I think this things design is simply a failure. If no fix is added I’ll send it back before the 100 day return window ends.

R
Userlevel 2
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My ARC sounds great now - coming from a playbar set up. Bass is fine but I do not go over 40%. I did order a sub and have Play:1s as surrounds. 
 

wondering if this thread will ever die. As suggested someplace else.

J
Userlevel 2
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I RMA’d my ARC...the new one sounds exactly the same as the first. I think this things design is simply a failure. If no fix is added I’ll send it back before the 100 day return window ends.


or maybe its just really more software tweaks needed.  If the replacement is the same then it might not be a bad batch or hardware problem at all. Good that at least you have 100 days to enjoy it while waiting for the software fix. 

JJ
N
Userlevel 2
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I RMA’d my ARC...the new one sounds exactly the same as the first. I think this things design is simply a failure. If no fix is added I’ll send it back before the 100 day return window ends.


or maybe its just really more software tweaks needed.  If the replacement is the same then it might not be a bad batch or hardware problem at all. Good that at least you have 100 days to enjoy it while waiting for the software fix. 

I just listened to "Halsey - Eastside" on Tidal and felt my Ones are going to throw up the speakers. Ugh. Which, makes me get a slight reassurance that's this is, at the end, a software issue. I can't recall anyone complaining about One's doing so as they have been on the market for quite a while vs. ARC. I'm obviously on S2 with latest and not the greatest. 😂 

Also, the above doesn't really explain the lack of communication between client (users) and Sonos. Unacceptable! 

P
Userlevel 4
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Found a new problematic film please can someone who claims the issue has gone try it? Go on Netflix and find their film ‘DRIVE’ I think it’s Bollywood anyway 35:00 listen around 30% the right bass sounds good how you’d expect it - now up to 60% it sounds worse than the original toy story sound? Can someone try this except me? Cheers

N
Userlevel 1
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I just listened to "Halsey - Eastside" on Tidal and felt my Ones are going to throw up the speakers. Ugh. Which, makes me get a slight reassurance that's this is, at the end, a software issue. I can't recall anyone complaining about One's doing so as they have been on the market for quite a while vs. ARC. I'm obviously on S2 with latest and not the greatest. 😂 

Also, the above doesn't really explain the lack of communication between client (users) and Sonos. Unacceptable! 

 

Definitely, I thought I was going crazy thinking the Ones and Play:1s I have sounded different, playing Eastside - Benny Blanco really highlights the issue, at even only ~15-20% volume it sounds very very odd. Something I never remember them sounding like. As you say that does add some reassurance it’s a software issue through and through.

1 x ARC | 2 x PLAY:5 | 4 x PLAY:1 | 2 x ONE | PLAYBAR | SUB | CONNECT
B
Badge +3

Just talked to couple guys at Best Buy and they mentioned they have spoken to SONOS about this (they are well aware of the complaints on this board) and everything they heard was basically the lot of you got a “bad production”. Take it for what its worth

J
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

I RMA’d my ARC...the new one sounds exactly the same as the first. I think this things design is simply a failure. If no fix is added I’ll send it back before the 100 day return window ends.


or maybe its just really more software tweaks needed.  If the replacement is the same then it might not be a bad batch or hardware problem at all. Good that at least you have 100 days to enjoy it while waiting for the software fix. 

I just listened to "Halsey - Eastside" on Tidal and felt my Ones are going to throw up the speakers. Ugh. Which, makes me get a slight reassurance that's this is, at the end, a software issue. I can't recall anyone complaining about One's doing so as they have been on the market for quite a while vs. ARC. I'm obviously on S2 with latest and not the greatest. 😂 

Also, the above doesn't really explain the lack of communication between client (users) and Sonos. Unacceptable! 

Found a new problematic film please can someone who claims the issue has gone try it? Go on Netflix and find their film ‘DRIVE’ I think it’s Bollywood anyway 35:00 listen around 30% the right bass sounds good how you’d expect it - now up to 60% it sounds worse than the original toy story sound? Can someone try this except me? Cheers

I just listened to "Halsey - Eastside" on Tidal and felt my Ones are going to throw up the speakers. Ugh. Which, makes me get a slight reassurance that's this is, at the end, a software issue. I can't recall anyone complaining about One's doing so as they have been on the market for quite a while vs. ARC. I'm obviously on S2 with latest and not the greatest. 😂 

Also, the above doesn't really explain the lack of communication between client (users) and Sonos. Unacceptable! 

 

Definitely, I thought I was going crazy thinking the Ones and Play:1s I have sounded different, playing Eastside - Benny Blanco really highlights the issue, at even only ~15-20% volume it sounds very very odd. Something I never remember them sounding like. As you say that does add some reassurance it’s a software issue through and through.

 

Hopefully you guys are reporting these specific issues directly to Sonos as well as they clearly aren’t chiming in here anymore!

P
Userlevel 4
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Are all you getting this - I mobile phone mic can even pick out the distortion - would any of you be happy with this?!?

N
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

I RMA’d my ARC...the new one sounds exactly the same as the first. I think this things design is simply a failure. If no fix is added I’ll send it back before the 100 day return window ends.


or maybe its just really more software tweaks needed.  If the replacement is the same then it might not be a bad batch or hardware problem at all. Good that at least you have 100 days to enjoy it while waiting for the software fix. 

I just listened to "Halsey - Eastside" on Tidal and felt my Ones are going to throw up the speakers. Ugh. Which, makes me get a slight reassurance that's this is, at the end, a software issue. I can't recall anyone complaining about One's doing so as they have been on the market for quite a while vs. ARC. I'm obviously on S2 with latest and not the greatest. 😂 

Also, the above doesn't really explain the lack of communication between client (users) and Sonos. Unacceptable! 

Found a new problematic film please can someone who claims the issue has gone try it? Go on Netflix and find their film ‘DRIVE’ I think it’s Bollywood anyway 35:00 listen around 30% the right bass sounds good how you’d expect it - now up to 60% it sounds worse than the original toy story sound? Can someone try this except me? Cheers

I just listened to "Halsey - Eastside" on Tidal and felt my Ones are going to throw up the speakers. Ugh. Which, makes me get a slight reassurance that's this is, at the end, a software issue. I can't recall anyone complaining about One's doing so as they have been on the market for quite a while vs. ARC. I'm obviously on S2 with latest and not the greatest. 😂 

Also, the above doesn't really explain the lack of communication between client (users) and Sonos. Unacceptable! 

 

Definitely, I thought I was going crazy thinking the Ones and Play:1s I have sounded different, playing Eastside - Benny Blanco really highlights the issue, at even only ~15-20% volume it sounds very very odd. Something I never remember them sounding like. As you say that does add some reassurance it’s a software issue through and through.

 

Hopefully you guys are reporting these specific issues directly to Sonos as well as they clearly aren’t chiming in here anymore!

Reporting? How? The current wait time to get engineer on the phone is at least 1 hour and support@sonos.com is no more. It's here or... here. 😉

P
Userlevel 4
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Support@sonos.com replied to me within 24hrs tbf

N
Userlevel 2
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Nevermind the fact they are closed today all day. Lol

Friday 6/26/2020
Closed

N
Userlevel 2
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Interesting. My email to support@sonos.com got this response just now. 

 

Hello,

Thanks for taking the time to reach out to us, we're here to help. This email address is no longer monitored, instead you can reach us by submitting your question via the web at http://support.sonos.com. You’ll also find answers to common questions and alternative ways to contact us.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sonos Support
 

P
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Nevermind the fact they are closed today all day. Lol

Friday 6/26/2020
Closed

While they are told Apple is buying them 😂

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