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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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    Spoetnic
    Lyricist 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.

    Thanks. Will the fix be applied for the Sonos One too?

    I don’t believe this particular bug affects the Sonos One, but I’ll raise it with the team just in case.

    I tested this yesterday. 2 of my 4 are affected definitely

     

    No they are not, the distortion is normal. Are you expecting the small ONE to be as potent as floor standing speakers at higher volumes?

    They should not sound distorted. The Beam doesn’t get any louder from about 50%, but all the way to 100% does not sounds distorted like the Arc or Ones.

    Smilja
    Smilja
    June 17, 2020

    Sound depends heavily on room acoustics. Move the two ONEs to another location for testing purposes and/or run Trueplay once again. Separating and re-creating if it’s a stereo pair might also help.

    »And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)
    Seeky
    Prominent Collaborator II
    June 17, 2020

    Sound depends heavily on room acoustics. Move the two ONEs to another location for testing purposes and/or run Trueplay once again. Separating and re-creating if it’s a stereo pair might also help.

    Did more tests, the other two Ones were limited to 35%, thus they didn’t show the issue. At 50% they do too. Am I the only one with 4 Sonos Ones which have this issue? They are in two rooms at totally different locations.

    lzy1987
    Enthusiast I
    June 17, 2020

    https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/sonos-arc-metallic-sound-6843110

     

    For those who are facing harsh/metallic sound coming from the Arc, please share at the above thread instead. Thanks arpatil1 for raising this concern :)

      Neilupnorth
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 17, 2020

      Sound depends heavily on room acoustics. Move the two ONEs to another location for testing purposes and/or run Trueplay once again. Separating and re-creating if it’s a stereo pair might also help.

      Did more tests, the other two Ones were limited to 35%, thus they didn’t show the issue. At 50% they do too. Am I the only one with 4 Sonos Ones which have this issue? They are in two rooms at totally different locations.

      My four Play:1s do the same. Only with the 40Hz test tone though, never heard it whilst playing music.

      Reefy
      Enthusiast I
      June 17, 2020

      Other than the muddy bass, I noticed that the Sonos Arc sounds a little too metallic and sharp to my ear. The sound is just not engaging, at times it's uncomfortable to listen. Is anyone else facing this issue?

       

      I saw a reddit post with someone having the same concern as me:

      https://amp.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/ha7w7y/sonos_arc_sounds_extremely_tinny_metallic_and/

      Agree with you 100%

      I agree as well. I couldn’t find the right word for it. But metallic sounds abiut right. And yes everyniw and then uncomfortable. Like piercing to the ear. 

      This seems more like a room setup/ environment problem than a sound problem. Does your room lack dampening like curtains and a carpet?

      I have a rug… it’s hardwood. My Benchmark for reference is that the Arc replaces a playbar. The playbar and arc were both sitting in the same location. Same TV same surround Sonos ones. I had 0 issues with the playbar. I was very very impressed with the sound. 

      Jacobjacobi
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 17, 2020

      Agree. In movies you hardly hear voices but the ambient sound is very loud. Also with sub only low frequencies seem to be present but there is a lack of midrange.

      I really thought this was just me. All the reviews say the voices are clear and pop, especially with the voice enhance feature on. I found the playbar far clearer, especially at lower volumes. I find myself having to push the volume up higher than I needed to on the playbar to hear voices. At the other end we have the bass volume issue. I’m really not sure. 

      ripcordaff
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 17, 2020

      Sound depends heavily on room acoustics. Move the two ONEs to another location for testing purposes and/or run Trueplay once again. Separating and re-creating if it’s a stereo pair might also help.

      Did more tests, the other two Ones were limited to 35%, thus they didn’t show the issue. At 50% they do too. Am I the only one with 4 Sonos Ones which have this issue? They are in two rooms at totally different locations.

      I have also conducted some tests and notice the issue with my Ones, as well as my Move. I don’t seem to hear it with my Play 5, but I wonder if that is because the Play 5 can naturally play the frequencies.

       

      It is a real shame that this issue seems to have negatively impacted nearly my entire Sonos system. I hope, @Ryan S , that the team spends some time exploring how the bug affects other products, not just the Arc.

      antx
      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.

      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?

      Exactly I feel the same, its overly crips and its bit weird even excluding the bass distortion. 

      antx
      Lyricist III
      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. 

      I second that, I have the same feeling and I am surprised why people have not spoken about it yet. I am going to talk to someone from Sonos and if they don’t see to be helpful. I am just gonna return or sell it local

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