Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

1406 replies
193224 views

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

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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KGT94

Lyricist III

Yes, also disappointed to find that while it's not quite as severe, it's still present and just slightly more muted now. Why does the Beam still sound better?

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SOCalistic

Renowned Enthusiast I

Anyone else with a sub and or rears noticing anything besides me?

A

antm22

Enthusiast I

Yes, also disappointed to find that while it's not quite as severe, it's still present and just slightly more muted now. Why does the Beam still sound better?

Yep. It does sound good/better but the more I listen the more it’s still not great/fantastic. Something is up with the Arc.

M

MikeBurrows92

Trending Lyricist I

Update has worked. Tried 40hz test tone by Bass Junkie through Spotify and even at 100% volume there is no distortion

A

ashwin

Lyricist III

Hi everyone,

We released a software update today to address a bug that resulted in audio distortion for some customers listening to bass-heavy content at higher volumes on Arc.

Make sure you’re updated to 12.0.1 to get the latest release.

Thanks @Ryan S . But I can tell for sure the issue is not 100% gone. Bass is definitely better than before but issue is still there. I still hear crackling sounds playing lose yourself to dance on YouTube at volume 34+. Something is wrong with Arc.

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AndyWUK

Lyricist III

Hi everyone,

We released a software update today to address a bug that resulted in audio distortion for some customers listening to bass-heavy content at higher volumes on Arc.

Make sure you’re updated to 12.0.1 to get the latest release.

Thanks @Ryan S . But I can tell for sure the issue is not 100% gone. Bass is definitely better than before but issue is still there. I still hear crackling sounds playing lose yourself to dance on YouTube at volume 34+. Something is wrong with Arc.

Agree entirely. Applied update. Bass to zero. Issue is slightly less but still there

M

MikeBurrows92

Trending Lyricist I

What do you guys mean it's still there? If you run a 40hz test tone at max volume and get no distortion how can the issue still be present exactly?

B

bbalz

Renowned Enthusiast I

What do you guys mean it's still there? If you run a 40hz test tone at max volume and get no distortion how can the issue still be present exactly?

Just because it’s not there for the 40hz test, doesn’t mean it’s gone.

My first test was the beginning scene of The Greatest Showman or really any action movie and turn the loudness on and have the bass at 0 or 1-2 like many would do… it bottoms out still. It’s not as bad as it was previously but the issue still exists.

If you download any Dolby Digital trailers for movies and watch them, whenever a loud scene happens with action/cars/planes, etc you will hear it.

The only way it doesn’t sound muddy/bottom out is if I turn the loudness off and the EQ for bass down.

At least that’s just been my experience.

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AndyWUK

Lyricist III

What do you guys mean it's still there? If you run a 40hz test tone at max volume and get no distortion how can the issue still be present exactly?

Just tried that Mike. Getting distortion, cracking and popping.
Don’t know what’s going on.

M

MikeBurrows92

Trending Lyricist I

What do you guys mean it's still there? If you run a 40hz test tone at max volume and get no distortion how can the issue still be present exactly?

Just because it’s not there for the 40hz test, doesn’t mean it’s gone.

My first test was the beginning scene of The Greatest Showman or really any action movie and turn the loudness up and have the bass at 0 or 1-2 like many would do… it bottoms out still. It’s not as bad as it was previously but the issue still exists.

If you download any Dolby Digital trailers for movies and watch them, whenever a loud scene happens with action/cars/planes, etc you will hear it.

The only way it doesn’t sound muddy/bottom out is if I turn the loudness off and the EQ for bass down.

At least that’s just been my experience.

Do you really think Sonos engineers haven't tested every single frequency though? I've only listened to music so far but personally it's tons better already.

I'll have to see how it sounds when I watch a Dolby Atmos movie as they have some very loud thumping scenes

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