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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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.

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AndrewLC

Enthusiast I

I would like to think that if any of this is related to the quality of components that Sonos will replace all of the early units no questions asked. It has certainly made me consider waiting a while before taking the plunge - I was hovering over preordering and then again on placing an order for late July, now I have no idea! Beam + Sub sounds pretty good anyway!

J

jinjin19

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

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?

This pretty much highlights the problem with the ARC. I did the same test with my other Sonos products and pretty much it only manifested with the Arc being the bass driver specifically at more than 53% volume. Anything lower than that volume seems to be fine for the ARC.

@40hz test

Trueplay On, EQ both at zero, loudness on and off, sub audio set to 0 and +5

ARC alone - problem showed at 53% volume

ARC with gen 2 sub - no issues even up to 100% volume

ARC with just Ones as surrounds - problem showed at 53% volume

ARC with gen 2 sub and Ones as surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Beam alone - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with gen 2 sub - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with just surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with gen 2 sub and surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Sonos ones alone - no issues even up to 100%

Sonos ones as stereo - no issues even up to 100%
Sonos ones with sub - no issues even up to 100%

I hope Sonos does the fix soon based on all that has been given in this forum.

JJ

A

arpatil1

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!

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?

This pretty much highlights the problem with the ARC. I did the same test with my other Sonos products and pretty much it only manifested with the Arc being the bass driver specifically at more than 53% volume. Anything lower than that volume seems to be fine for the ARC.

@40hz test

Trueplay On, EQ both at zero, loudness on and off, sub audio set to 0 and +5

ARC alone - problem showed at 53% volume

ARC with gen 2 sub - no issues even up to 100% volume

ARC with just Ones as surrounds - problem showed at 53% volume

ARC with gen 2 sub and Ones as surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Beam alone - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with gen 2 sub - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with just surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with gen 2 sub and surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Sonos ones alone - no issues even up to 100%

Sonos ones as stereo - no issues even up to 100%
Sonos ones with sub - no issues even up to 100%

I hope Sonos does the fix soon based on all that has been given in this forum.

Right. 40 Hz after 50 % volume falls apart. Though the volume tolerance seems to be going up as you increase the frequency until the issue completely goes away.

S

Sash A

Lyricist III

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?

This assumes that the firmware used on the production line is the same as used at home. Units always update at installation time. If the home firmware introduces the issue, the production line test will be fine.

I am not sure I follow. Why would there be a discrepancy between production line firmware and firmware approved by Sonos to go to production. There should be 0 discrepancies going into production. They don’t work on two separate fimwares. If Sonos approves software/firmware for production which means it was supposedly tested to work that build goes into the units. Nothing should be pushed to production without testing.

buzz

Grand Maestro

I’m referring to software installed on the production line for the purpose of verifying that all the hardware elements are operating properly. This specialized software would directly interact with test equipment on the production line.

P

Pawl

Lyricist III

I haven’t been able to play my ARC lately, but it does seem to be a major problem from others. We need an update quick!

https://youtu.be/6K415DALi5E

J

jinjin19

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

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?

This pretty much highlights the problem with the ARC. I did the same test with my other Sonos products and pretty much it only manifested with the Arc being the bass driver specifically at more than 53% volume. Anything lower than that volume seems to be fine for the ARC.

@40hz test

Trueplay On, EQ both at zero, loudness on and off, sub audio set to 0 and +5

ARC alone - problem showed at 53% volume

ARC with gen 2 sub - no issues even up to 100% volume

ARC with just Ones as surrounds - problem showed at 53% volume

ARC with gen 2 sub and Ones as surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Beam alone - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with gen 2 sub - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with just surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with gen 2 sub and surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Sonos ones alone - no issues even up to 100%

Sonos ones as stereo - no issues even up to 100%
Sonos ones with sub - no issues even up to 100%

I hope Sonos does the fix soon based on all that has been given in this forum.

Right. 40 Hz after 50 % volume falls apart. Though the volume tolerance seems to be going up as you increase the frequency until the issue completely goes away.

Yes that’s my observation as well. Problem really just impacts lower frequencies most specifically the ones that gets transferred to the Sub when attached. All my observations though are with Trueplay on, I have not tested with Trueplay off. Not sure if that makes a difference.

JJ

A

arpatil1

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!

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?

This pretty much highlights the problem with the ARC. I did the same test with my other Sonos products and pretty much it only manifested with the Arc being the bass driver specifically at more than 53% volume. Anything lower than that volume seems to be fine for the ARC.

@40hz test

Trueplay On, EQ both at zero, loudness on and off, sub audio set to 0 and +5

ARC alone - problem showed at 53% volume

ARC with gen 2 sub - no issues even up to 100% volume

ARC with just Ones as surrounds - problem showed at 53% volume

ARC with gen 2 sub and Ones as surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Beam alone - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with gen 2 sub - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with just surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Beam with gen 2 sub and surrounds - no issues even up to 100%

Sonos ones alone - no issues even up to 100%

Sonos ones as stereo - no issues even up to 100%
Sonos ones with sub - no issues even up to 100%

I hope Sonos does the fix soon based on all that has been given in this forum.

Right. 40 Hz after 50 % volume falls apart. Though the volume tolerance seems to be going up as you increase the frequency until the issue completely goes away.

Yes that’s my observation as well. Problem really just impacts lower frequencies most specifically the ones that gets transferred to the Sub when attached. All my observations though are with Trueplay on, I have not tested with Trueplay off. Not sure if that makes a difference.

Truplay and Loudness turned off do not fix the problem. I already tested that.

P

Pawl

Lyricist III

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

Yes, as soon as I hooked up my Sonos ARC to my app, it flagged me to update the ARC right away. I don’t know what update it was, but I haven’t been able to check the bass as of yet. I do have the sub hooked up.

O

Ollespappa

Enthusiast II

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

Yes, as soon as I hooked up my Sonos ARC to my app, it flagged me to update the ARC right away. I don’t know what update it was, but I haven’t been able to check the bass as of yet. I do have the sub hooked up.

Just switch of the sub and play testtone 40hz fr Spotify. Mine showed the same problem as the video earlier in the thread.

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