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.
Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass
Best answer by Scott - Sonos
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.
This review may have already been posted here but one more but honest. I'm surprised by the early reviews that did not notice anything, probably paid by sonos and I will always be critical in the future. Check out this video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZxAC4BdTE&feature=youtu.be
This review may have already been posted here but one more but honest. I'm surprised by the early reviews that did not notice anything, probably paid by sonos and I will always be critical in the future. Check out this video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZxAC4BdTE&feature=youtu.be
Sounds more and more like its not for me 
Maybe i will just go with the Beam.
But i will wait a month or so, and see what sonos comes up with.
Replying to
The Q90 has up-firing drivers in the soundbar and surround speakers which gives you a 7.1.4 configuration. I’ve never tested the Q90, but the up-firing drivers in the surrounds should you give a better height effect.
if Sonos offered up-firing drivers in the surrounds, you’d then have a 5.x.4 configuration. Another nice enhancement would be for Sonos to enable you to designate an Amp and some number of speakers as up-firing height speakers OR an Amp and some number of ceiling speakers as down-firing height speakers.
Gotcha thanks. Very interesting. I hopped onto Samsung’s website to see this and saw that the reviews on Samsung.com are very mediocre (~3 stars). When you dive into them, there are a ton of 1 star reviews when the soundbar came out because it had all kinds of connectivity, reliability, and sound issues. The newer reviews are really good because Samsung worked on firmware for almost a year to perfect it. Early adopters always bear the brunt of these issues, but I am sure Sonos will continue to work to improve the Arc. Just something to keep in mind.
There were also complaints with the playbar initially. It was sort of a new thing and the sound was tuned for a while after. Now after 7 years people forget that.
Source? I owned a playbar back then and it always sounded amazing except for one update which messed up the sound well after release. But maybe I am remembering this wrong...
Asked for an update and got this response from Tech Support:
The Arc is not defective, but the engineers have not released the fix for this known issue that has affected some of the Arc devices. They are still looking into it and you will receive an email when the fix has been found/ released.
To make sure we have not missed anything, have you unmounted the Arc and tested audio while it is sitting on a table instead of being mounted?
Asked for an update and got this response from Tech Support:
The Arc is not defective, but the engineers have not released the fix for this known issue that has affected some of the Arc devices. They are still looking into it and you will receive an email when the fix has been found/ released.
To make sure we have not missed anything, have you unmounted the Arc and tested audio while it is sitting on a table instead of being mounted?
It feels good they look at the problem now but at the same time everyone who contacts the support gets a little different answers and explanations of what is happening. What one would like now is an official explanation on the website.
Sonos should be RMA’ing these Arc units and comparing the returned units to “known good units” to determine if there is a hardware problem/bad batch or if they are performing as designed/intended. Any other response is unacceptable IMO.
“Just wait...we may or may not release a software update that fixes your problem. Meanwhile your return window will have passed by that point” is not an acceptable solution.
Demand more people!
Asked for an update and got this response from Tech Support:
The Arc is not defective, but the engineers have not released the fix for this known issue that has affected some of the Arc devices. They are still looking into it and you will receive an email when the fix has been found/ released.
To make sure we have not missed anything, have you unmounted the Arc and tested audio while it is sitting on a table instead of being mounted?
Arc is not defective, but the known issue is only affecting “some” Arcs. Makes sense, Sonos Support. We totally believe that you know what you are doing based on these messages.
If you did not get 30% off deal, I see no reason to keep the Arc. Easy to just rebuy when Sonos sorts this out.
another interesting video, not solution to the problem maybe but maybe a bit on the way! https://youtu.be/jmKsMLzv4m8
Quick Update as I have not written in a while. After engaging support they finally agreed to replace my Arc. I got a discount so I don’t want to lose it.
They will be shipping me the new one before I return the old one, if the new one sounds better I will do a comparison and report back.
Quick Update as I have not written in a while. After engaging support they finally agreed to replace my Arc. I got a discount so I don’t want to lose it.
They will be shipping me the new one before I return the old one, if the new one sounds better I will do a comparison and report back.
I have started the work of returning mine within the 100 day limit. the idea is to buy a new one again ... or what do all think?
I sent mine back last week, keep checking to see if there are updates, but sadly, nothing. I ended up picking up a used Playbar for the time being.
This really sucks as i was hoping the arc was all sorted by now, been itching for a bigger bar but gor now my sub +sub combo works beautifully. The ARC would need some real wow factor for me to keep my testicles ;)
Lots of mixed messages are coming via email, people are starting to return the product for a replacement but receiving the same issue.
I am on the final week of RMA and having a hard time justifying spending $800 on a product, especially with how quiet it’s been on this issue.
Any status update on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time.
Lots of mixed messages are coming via email, people are starting to return the product for a replacement but receiving the same issue.
I am on the final week of RMA and having a hard time justifying spending $800 on a product, especially with how quiet it’s been on this issue.
Any status update on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time.
Hope Scott responds quickly. But as a general thing the people on support emails probably have no idea this is being worked on in the development department so theyre just doing RMAs which is basically the general solution for audio issues, and that just doesnt solve this issue. This was stated by Ryan S before he departed SONOS. *Not defending anything or justifying* just repeating what a sonos rep said here before. But I hope Scott has an update very soon……...
Got my replacement with a may 2020 build date my old one was March - just as bad maybe even worse
They probably sent you one somebody else sent back. Just kidding, don’t want a bunch of beta tester to flock down but that does suck for you.
Got my replacement with a may 2020 build date my old one was March - just as bad maybe even worse
good to know, then maybe it is not worth sending back but hoping for a fix.
Got my replacement with a may 2020 build date my old one was March - just as bad maybe even worse
Then it MUST be software?
This really sucks as i was hoping the arc was all sorted by now, been itching for a bigger bar but gor now my sub +sub combo works beautifully. The ARC would need some real wow factor for me to keep my testicles ;)
The arc is awesome with the sub for both movies and music.
Hi,
I would like to ask if the announced update has already taken place, and the problem has been solved. Today I replaced the current SONOS BEAM with a new SONOS ARC, and I felt a significant shift down in sound quality As for the sound, I didn't expect that. Because the opposite should have happened. I updated to the current firmware version.
The soundtrack lacks space. The bass is unspecified, not very dynamic. In general, sound performance is not played together. And I compare it only with SONOS BEAM, I will omit the rest of the B&W audio set, Madrigal Lab. etc .. ARC was only to be a backdrop to TV
SONOS ONE SL surround speakers are connected to SONOS ARC.
Thanks,
Jan
This is such a joke people are bored of posting now on here and Sonos will probably just accept everyone is putting up with it… we need updates!
Are there any figures on how many have problems, sent back or received new ones? How big is the problem and how many may have been sold? if anyone knows :-)
I have an Arc and underwhelming is the word for it. Sitting beside my Move and testing both with music, it blows the Arc away. The bass is sooooo much better on the Move, kind of ridiculous really. The music I'm listening to is EDM or dance music etc.. but anything else is the same. It just seriously lacks separation and clairity, lame and souless. It's been probably the most disappointing purchase I've ever made because I was so looking forward to it. I bought an LG C9 last year which also cost a bit but that has not disappointed, in fact it continues to impress me. I'd expect the same for a 900EUR flagship speaker. And don't anyone tell me that it's only engineered for TV and movies, nonsense all I keep hearing is how the Beam blows it apart for everything! They will need to fix this soon or it will definitely go back. The cynic in me says they have built this soundbar with the purpose of forcing people to buy the sub. So basically spend 1600EUR on something flawed. What really gets my gripe is all these positive reviews, this is what led me to buy it in the first place, got my expectations so high. Then I come here and see all the very same complaints.
Hey Scott, be a good PM now and let us know when this will be fixed and if this is a hardware issue, be honest and let us know. Be prepared for influx of RMA's otherwise.
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