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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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    leelaw
    Trending Lyricist I
    June 17, 2020

    We have identified a bug that has potential to cause distortion when playing bass-heavy content at higher volume levels on Arc. Our team is working on the fix now. We expect the software release to be implemented as early as next week. I'll share any additional updates here.

    Thanks for keeping us up to date Ryan. Much appreciated. Quick response...A first world problem after all…  Any ideas how it got through testing? 

    sonosnewbee
    Lyricist III
    June 17, 2020

    My first impression was damn! I have wasted money and Playbar was awesome. I thought it was just me. hope it’s just the software that can fix the issue.

    Reefy
    Enthusiast I
    June 17, 2020

    My first impression was damn! I have wasted money and Playbar was awesome. I thought it was just me. hope it’s just the software that can fix the issue.

    Ha I had the exact same reaction. Playbar really was awesome. This Arc feels like an incomplete project. Hopefully the fix works and improves the overall sound balance. 
    If not… this puppy goes back and I get myself a playbar again

    AndrewLC
    Enthusiast I
    June 17, 2020

    Give them a chance! The Sonos guy posting on here has made it fairly clear that they have identified an issue and are working on the solution as we speak. Not sure what else they could be doing at this point. Presumably if they think the issue might be affecting other components in the range then they will do the same for them, or release a software update that is applicable to all devices. 

      arpatil1
      Enthusiast II
      June 17, 2020

      My first impression was damn! I have wasted money and Playbar was awesome. I thought it was just me. hope it’s just the software that can fix the issue.

      Ha I had the exact same reaction. Playbar really was awesome. This Arc feels like an incomplete project. Hopefully the fix works and improves the overall sound balance. 
      If not… this puppy goes back and I get myself a playbar again

      Happy that the bass distortion will get fixed, but still concerned about overall sound balance. Highs, mids, and lows have no harmony. Everything feels overly crisp. Tried EQ, doesn’t help very much. I should probably start another thread for this?

        arpatil1
        Enthusiast II
        June 17, 2020

        We have identified a bug that has potential to cause distortion when playing bass-heavy content at higher volume levels on Arc. Our team is working on the fix now. We expect the software release to be implemented as early as next week. I'll share any additional updates here.

        @Ryan S Thank you!

          Reefy
          Enthusiast I
          June 17, 2020

          Give them a chance! The Sonos guy posting on here has made it fairly clear that they have identified an issue and are working on the solution as we speak. Not sure what else they could be doing at this point. Presumably if they think the issue might be affecting other components in the range then they will do the same for them, or release a software update that is applicable to all devices. 

          I am giving them a chance. That’s why I haven’t returned it yet :)

            antm22
            Enthusiast I
            June 17, 2020

            Definitely waking up to positive news. Thanks and Please keep any updates coming Ryan. 

            SmoothMcGee
            Contributor I
            June 17, 2020

            Could be just me but there’s also a significant lack of mid-range even with the Sub 3.0.  I hear the “bass” issue when I turn off my sub leaving the Arc to play by itself.  The fullness of sound returns when the sub is on but the Arc ends up sounding like just a bunch of tweeters coupled to a bass bin … not something I’m used to even with my Five and several Play 1s.

            Ended up calling Sonos service yesterday before jumping on here and they’re very reluctant to return or exchange.  Hope this is fixed by next week.

            … For other’s with 5.1 Arc + Sub set ups … just me??

              Reefy
              Enthusiast I
              June 17, 2020

              Could be just me but there’s also a significant lack of mid-range even with the Sub 3.0.  I hear the “bass” issue when I turn off my sub leaving the Arc to play by itself.  The fullness of sound returns when the sub is on but the Arc ends up sounding like just a bunch of tweeters coupled to a bass bin … not something I’m used to even with my Five and several Play 1s.

              Ended up calling Sonos service yesterday before jumping on here and they’re very reluctant to return or exchange.  Hope this is fixed by next week.

              … For other’s with 5.1 Arc + Sub set ups … just me??

              I agree with you. My issue is not simply the bass at higher volume. The overall sound even at lower volume is not great. The balance is off. Something just isn’t right. 

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