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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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    ggmogollonAuthor
    Enthusiast II
    June 11, 2020

    Just ran the sweep. The most problematic portion of the frequency range for the speaker is between 45 and 55hz. The aforementioned muddy bass occurs at half volume. Moving up the range to 65hz, it occurs around 70% volume and is not very discernable above 75hz. It tapers off and requires higher volume to hear as you increase hz from the 55hz baseline.

    Ryan, as for above I also wanted to mention my bass eq setting is flat and I sent my diagnostic number in with a new open case for the issue. Thanks again for the support, hopefully we can resolve this. Attached is a picture of my setup. 

     

      arpatil1
      Enthusiast II
      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.

      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.

      Will report back with detailed answer soon. Thanks.

        Ryan S
        Ryan S
        Retired Sonos Staff
        June 11, 2020

        Thanks so much guys! We really appreciate your help tracking this down

        Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
          gregmelnyk
          gregmelnyk
          Lyricist III
          June 11, 2020

          • 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.
            I selected action-y sequences of several movies once I set things up and Trueplayed. Tbh, nothing really wowed me. Mad Max Fury Road, Into the Spiderverse, Jurassic World, John Wick 3, Bohemian Rhapsody. The intro to Top Gun sounded the worst. The part with opening credits while jets take off and Danger Zone plays in the background. Ready Player One car race scene sounded best. 

          • For music, it helps us build a list of tracks and sources that we can recreate the issue with. People of the Sun by Rage Against the Machine has always been a goto when testing various frequencies on new audio equipment. The only way I can describe the sound is thin and small. The opposite of full sound.

          • 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? Things sound better above 60%, but below 72% only because the highs and mids are so good. Lows still sound muddy, poppy, or underwhelming  

          • Is your Arc wall-mounted? No.

          • Are you using Trueplay, and does it go away if you turn Trueplay off? I am using Trueplay, and turning it off seems marginally better. Turning off Loudness helps more.

          • Do you have the Bass EQ setting flat or adjusted in some way? I’ve tried adjusting bass and treble to no avail. Increasing the bass makes it sound like I’m ruining the woofers so I’m leaving these setting flat until I learn more.

          • If it’s possible, can you share an image of the setup? I’ll send a photo later.

          • Please submit a diagnostic from the system with it happening and let us know the number. Top Gun diag: 1482497118 Music diag: 2050429632

          Nylon
          Enthusiast I
          June 11, 2020

          Some more feedback for you on this issue @Ryan S 

           

          I got my Arc today. I moved from a Playbar + Sub + Two One’s as rear channels to an Arc with the rest of the speakers the same. I use a BDI 8167 media cabinet which has a dedicated soundbar shelf. The following examples are with volume at around 50%.

           

          On the music side, with Music playing via Airplay 2 (Apple Music) there’s definitely something strange going on with the bass. I used 2Pac ‘Changes’ (good repetitive bass beat) as a demo track. With Trueplay on there is a lack of depth (the type that rattles the heart) to the bass but a lot of clarity in the mid and higher ends and vocals are crystal clear. With Trueplay off the bass is much better at the cost of everything sounding more muffled; mids, highs, lows and vocals. There is a significant difference with Trueplay on and off.

           

          On the TV side I’m using a Sony A1E OLED which supports DD+ without Atmos. Regular TV audio is very crisp and clear especially vocals. It was the first thing I noticed out of the box. But again missing depth. I also tested the native Netflix App on the TV which outputs DD+. The film I tested was ‘6 Underground’. Immediately I noticed the bass was off. The opening Netflix Logo Thunk sounded incomplete on the bottom end whereas on the Playbar you would get the complete dynamic range. Intro of the movie was great on mids, highs and vocals but the low end lacks depth, yet again.

           

          Hopefully this is just a software issue that can be ironed out. I hope this helps.

           

          P.S. Loudness setting makes little to no difference when on or off for me.

           

          Diagnostic Sent: 1014096985

           

          arpatil1
          Enthusiast II
          June 11, 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. 

          I also think the same. “Paired with sub” mode alwon. 

          Ravica3
          Chromatic Producer I
          June 11, 2020

          Same issue here. The beam it replaced sounded better. I have a white arc and two symfonisk lamps for surround. Hope this can be fixed with firmware.

          Not cool. My Arc purchase is in processing as we speak and was getting ready to move my Beam to the bedroom. This is sad sad news. 

          Nle17
          Lyricist I
          June 11, 2020
          • 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.   
            -While watching music videos using Apple Music app on my 2019 Samsung Q70r connected with HDMI (ARC).  

            PLAYLIST
            • Slide (ft YG) by H.E.R. 
            • Heartless by The weekend  
            • Hair down ( feat. Kendrick Lamar) by SiR
          • 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 —Experiencing it above 50% Volume 

          • Is your Arc wall-mounted?
            -No

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

          • Are you using Trueplay, and does it go away if you turn Trueplay off?  
            -Yes, using trueplay, Does not change when on/off. 
          • Do you have the Bass EQ setting flat or adjusted in some way? 
            • Flat

          • 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. -697212610

          update - just started watching black panther via Disney+ figured that’s what Sonos promoted with this soundbar, 1 minute into the movie I started hearing the mudded bass as well.
           

          diagnostic - 1301785653

           

           

          IMayBeSmall
          Lyricist I
          June 11, 2020

          Hello,

          I am also reporting the same issue. Only when using Atmos otherwise other content sounds okay. Reported using Tidal and Netflix on Apple TV 4K. Switching between songs that do and don’t have Atmos you can hear a significant drop in volume and muddied sound when it is Atmos content.

          Seeky
          Prominent Collaborator II
          June 11, 2020

          I’ve noticed a very deep grumbling sound in some movie trailers. They probably overuse the bass. I’ve tried several and I am sure now that the sound must be created by the ARC, since not all the movie trailers would include the same sound. The grumbling keeps sounding after the actual expected bass sound is already over, it sounds almost like the motor of a sports car.

           

          • 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. 
            Native Disney Plus App on LG C9, Trailers for:
            Captain Marvel
            Star Wars Story: Solo
            others too

          • 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?
            It’s there on lower volume too when you know what to listen to, noticing it eay when it gets loud, 50%+

          • Is your Arc wall-mounted?
            No

          • If wall-mounted, does removing the speaker from the wall bracket and setting it on a credenza or table improve the issue?
            It is seated on three IKEA Lack Tables, in front of the C9 LG TV. Worth the mention that the room is in the attic, so Trueplay might have a hard time with the room acoustics.

          • Are you using Trueplay, and does it go away if you turn Trueplay off?
            I only noticed it with Trueplay ON, but I’ve noticed that the bass is increased very much with Trueplay on, so it might only be noticeable due to tha.

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

          • If it’s possible, can you share an image of the setup?
            Currently not

          • Please submit a diagnostic from the system with it happening and let us know the number.
            Can’t, it times out.
             

          @Ryan SI think this is either a general issue or a software thing. But if you can’t reproduce it, my Arc is coming back to you guys anyway, because of that plastic scratch issue.

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