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Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

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1406 replies

B
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA? 

Shipped from PA. 

gregmelnyk
Userlevel 2
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For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA? 

Mine shipped from PA.

R
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

Sonos firmware will roll off the bass sooner than it is currently set.

And, about break-in.  Bass is usually tight and not very loud.  Break in opens it up.  So if your bass is bad, break-in will cause it to worsen.

I think I was the first person to buy a Sonos. At least I feel like it.
G
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Sonos firmware will roll off the bass sooner than it is currently set.

And, about break-in.  Bass is usually tight and not very loud.  Break in opens it up.  So if your bass is bad, break-in will cause it to worsen.

Source?

J

Clarification please.  Does this problem go away if a sub is included because the problematic frequencies are directed to the sub?

Yes there is no issue when paired with the sub

Although there may not be the same issue when paired with the sub, I am noticing that the sub does not hit anywhere close to where it was when paired with the Beam.  I do have TruePlay tuned, and it is soft when I turn this off as well.  

Interestingly enough, I just commented to my wife the other day how nice the bass sounded when we were listening to music.  Now that it is paired with the Arc, it is disappointing that it is not as strong.

@Ryan S Can you please confirm if this is being looked into even with the Sub added? Coming from a 5.1 setup (Playbar, Sub Gen 2, and 2 Play:1’s), replacing the Playbar with the new Arc has resulted in much lower bass (requiring me to add +5 to the Sub) and a flatter sound all around with both the music and movies mentioned in this thread. When listening to songs like “Collapse” by Tennyson via Spotify, the Arc sounds much softer with mids and highs and the bass is nowhere near as prevalent compared to when the Playbar was part of the setup.

Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26

Clarification please.  Does this problem go away if a sub is included because the problematic frequencies are directed to the sub?

Yes there is no issue when paired with the sub

Although there may not be the same issue when paired with the sub, I am noticing that the sub does not hit anywhere close to where it was when paired with the Beam.  I do have TruePlay tuned, and it is soft when I turn this off as well.  

Interestingly enough, I just commented to my wife the other day how nice the bass sounded when we were listening to music.  Now that it is paired with the Arc, it is disappointing that it is not as strong.

@Ryan S Can you please confirm if this is being looked into even with the Sub added? Coming from a 5.1 setup (Playbar, Sub Gen 2, and 2 Play:1’s), replacing the Playbar with the new Arc has resulted in much lower bass (requiring me to add +5 to the Sub) and a flatter sound all around with both the music and movies mentioned in this thread. When listening to songs like “Collapse” by Tennyson via Spotify, the Arc sounds much softer with mids and highs and the bass is nowhere near as prevalent compared to when the Playbar was part of the setup.

I’ll let the team know what you’re seeing. If you can submit a diagnostic and let me know the confirmation number, I’ll get it to them.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
A
Userlevel 2

Same deal here. Coming from Playbar 5.1 to Arc 5.1. Highs mids sound amazing, but I am hearing much much less bass in both movies with Dolby Atmos and with music. I also had the volume pumped up to 65%, whereas with my playbar I never felt the need to go above 35-45%. In general the rears don’t seem to be pushing much sound either.

 

@Ryan S diagnostic number is 1703600904

J

Clarification please.  Does this problem go away if a sub is included because the problematic frequencies are directed to the sub?

Yes there is no issue when paired with the sub

Although there may not be the same issue when paired with the sub, I am noticing that the sub does not hit anywhere close to where it was when paired with the Beam.  I do have TruePlay tuned, and it is soft when I turn this off as well.  

Interestingly enough, I just commented to my wife the other day how nice the bass sounded when we were listening to music.  Now that it is paired with the Arc, it is disappointing that it is not as strong.

@Ryan S Can you please confirm if this is being looked into even with the Sub added? Coming from a 5.1 setup (Playbar, Sub Gen 2, and 2 Play:1’s), replacing the Playbar with the new Arc has resulted in much lower bass (requiring me to add +5 to the Sub) and a flatter sound all around with both the music and movies mentioned in this thread. When listening to songs like “Collapse” by Tennyson via Spotify, the Arc sounds much softer with mids and highs and the bass is nowhere near as prevalent compared to when the Playbar was part of the setup.

I’ll let the team know what you’re seeing. If you can submit a diagnostic and let me know the confirmation number, I’ll get it to them.

@Ryan S Diagnostic: 1822024529

Additionally, on the track “Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied” by The 1975 - the sub/bass was consistently prominent with the Playbar setup and only gets close to the same level about halfway through the song when other instruments go quiet momentarily. The song still sounds flat all around with the Arc now.

Thanks for looking into this!

 

K
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

There's some terrible sounding recordings on here, hope you all get a solution sorted out quickly.

Anyone that's upgraded from a Playbar, does the ARC seem as well built/ substantial?.

Airgetlam

Yes, it’s definitely an upgrade. 

Bruce
E
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

Yes, it’s definitely an upgrade. 

Agreed. I have the sub ( and am not suffering through this issue) and the Arc is a big upgrade from the Playbar, which was already great.

D
Userlevel 1

Hi all,

 

im unfortunately having the same issue.

 

at first I thought is sounded great but I noticed in some movies and with bass heavy music the speakers feel blow out and get muddy on the low frequencies…

 

i wanted a single bar component to replace my Samsung MS-750 which does not have Atmos or height speaker but can go loud without ANY distortion with any track played…


I hope a fix comes soon and it is not a hardware issue. After paying EUR 900 for a device you would expect it to workout out of the box and gone through proper testing.

The reviewers must have played with it for 10 minutes on low before turning on the Sub and really testing it.

 

no way is this an isolated issue.

 

i trueplayed my device and using it as is.

hope there is a fix otherwise I’m returning it and keeping my 2017 Samsung that blows this thing out of the water in terms of volume and bass.

disappointing after reading the raving reviews and reading up about the Sonos brand !

 

 

 

R
Userlevel 2
Badge

Wait a minute - I was just listening to some music on my One in my kitchen and the woofer sounded like it was bottoming out at very reasonable volume levels. I haven’t done any critical listening, but has anyone else checked their other speakers? Did the update that installed affect all the EQ of all Sonos speakers? Or just the Arc? My Play:5 sounded OK earlier, but I wasn’t listening for anything out of the ordinary. 

A
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

Wait a minute - I was just listening to some music on my One in my kitchen and the woofer sounded like it was bottoming out at very reasonable volume levels. I haven’t done any critical listening, but has anyone else checked their other speakers? Did the update that installed affect all the EQ of all Sonos speakers? Or just the Arc? My Play:5 sounded OK earlier, but I wasn’t listening for anything out of the ordinary. 

My stereo ones sounds as good as before. No issue there.

Habbas
Badge

Same issue here. The bass response is terrible. My beam at about 50% volume has a smoother And cleaner response. This is terribly disappointing and so glad I read this thread. I thought it was me. 
 

The Highs and mids are incredibly detailed and crisp though. It is a LOT louder when compared to the beam. 
 

The bass for me was poor while listening to music (Spotify and Apple Music), watching inception on Netflix was great until the bass kicked in and same muddled response. Plugged in the PS4 Pro to play some call of duty and yet again same experience. My sub has yet to be delivered, but thinking of cancelling both and sticking with the beam (much better value for money). 
 

I have the arc placed on my wooden tv unit with the tv behind it. This is the same location I had the beam with no issues at all. All running through HDMI Arc. Not using optical. 
 

Hope a software update fixes the issue otherwise, bye bye Sonos Arc. 
 

 

B

Wait a minute - I was just listening to some music on my One in my kitchen and the woofer sounded like it was bottoming out at very reasonable volume levels. I haven’t done any critical listening, but has anyone else checked their other speakers? Did the update that installed affect all the EQ of all Sonos speakers? Or just the Arc? My Play:5 sounded OK earlier, but I wasn’t listening for anything out of the ordinary. 

I have the same issue with my Play:1. Arc sounds fine to me but my Play:1 has bottoming out bass it never had before. Might be something with the S2 update overall? 

W
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Has anyone tried any of these songs or clips on the beam for comparison?

B
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

Has anyone tried any of these songs or clips on the beam for comparison?

Yes I have.  It's night and day difference.  Beam seems overall just better right now.  If you adjust loudness and bass lower on the Arc it's ok but lacking.  Once it's fixed the Arc is really going to shine like reviews said...at least that is my hope.  I'm crossing my fingers.

buzz

It seems that only some users experience this issue. It would help the effort if everyone would include a diagnostic with their post. There could be different production batches and this information will be included in the diagnostic.

For the record, I am not experiencing this issue.

Diagnostic: 1568306753

Years ago I had an experience with a manufacturer where a solid product started having issues and the replacement also had issues immediately out of the box. It took a few weeks, but the manufacturer finally traced the issue to a single person on the assembly line who was not following explicit instructions. Everything that he assembled during a certain group of days broke during shipment.

R
Userlevel 2
Badge

Experiencing the issue to a very large extent. Diagnostic #1804929637

W
Userlevel 5
Badge +9

I'm from Hong Kong, currently with BEAM setup... ordered the Arc and will be delivered by mid. of July... Hope everything will be fine then because I don't want to cancel the order at all.

 

No matter what, everyone knows and believe that SONOS is a responsive company and brand, so even if it's a hardware issue or can be solved by  software/firmware updates, the company will do the best for the customers. 

 

As a supporter of the brand, I hope this will not cost them too much in terms of money and goodwill/brand image... Support here from HK!!👍👍

M

I thought mine was not affected but then I realized I only had my source audio as Stereo. When I switched to Dolby Digital and watched the toy story 3 scene the bass almost cuts out and sounds fairly bad. 
 

also noticed fairly bad at the title screen for the conjuring. 
 

diagnostic 126317094

Z

I am having the same muddy bass issue with the ARC. Anything above 50% speakers sound like they’re about to blowout. This is my first foray into this community and was wondering how people were getting diagnostic numbers to address this issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

G
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

I am having the same muddy bass issue with the ARC. Anything above 50% speakers sound like they’re about to blowout. This is my first foray into this community and was wondering how people were getting diagnostic numbers to address this issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

Settings → help and tips → submit diagnostics 

E
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

Same issue here. The bass response is terrible. My beam at about 50% volume has a smoother And cleaner response. This is terribly disappointing and so glad I read this thread. I thought it was me. 
 

The Highs and mids are incredibly detailed and crisp though. It is a LOT louder when compared to the beam. 
 

The bass for me was poor while listening to music (Spotify and Apple Music), watching inception on Netflix was great until the bass kicked in and same muddled response. Plugged in the PS4 Pro to play some call of duty and yet again same experience. My sub has yet to be delivered, but thinking of cancelling both and sticking with the beam (much better value for money). 
 

I have the arc placed on my wooden tv unit with the tv behind it. This is the same location I had the beam with no issues at all. All running through HDMI Arc. Not using optical. 
 

Hope a software update fixes the issue otherwise, bye bye Sonos Arc. 
 

 

Once you have the sub, you will not have any issues...

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