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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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    MikeBurrows92
    Trending Lyricist I
    June 23, 2020

    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. 

    That's strange isn't it? Before this update over 60% volume I got massive distortion now after the update I can run it at max volume with a steady noise

    Reefy
    Enthusiast I
    June 23, 2020

    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 itsit 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

    Do you really think Sonos engineers would release a software that failed from day one? Well they did. It could be more than one issue. Perhaps there is a hardware issue present on some models that require a software fix… who knows. That would make more sense than Sonos not properly testing but again… only conjecture. 

      ashwin
      Lyricist III
      June 23, 2020

      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?

      Forget 40hz test tone. I don't know what that is. Just try it out with real content like the song I referenced. I want my arc to sound good distortion free at respectable volume like 40-50 with movies and songs not with 40hz test tones.

        AndyWUK
        Lyricist III
        June 23, 2020

        If mine is still the same at the end of the week it’s going back. 
        I was so looking forward to this. 

          arpatil1
          Enthusiast II
          June 23, 2020

          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.  

          Some crackling still exists. I have been saying this from the start- Bass issue exists below 50% too. I played the Ozark scene where the woofers basically farted at 35% before. Now it’s   mitigated to a great extent, but not fixed entirely. 
           

          I think the update is a good step in right direction, but it’s not the final solution by any means.

            ashwin
            Lyricist III
            June 23, 2020

            Also I just tested penetrator by pleasurekraft on YouTube. The bass crackling is still very pronounced at volume 32. If the issue persists through this Friday my Arc is definitely going back.😞

            MikeBurrows92
            Trending Lyricist I
            June 23, 2020

            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?

            Forget 40hz test tone. I don't know what that is. Just try it out with real content like the song I referenced. I want my arc to sound good distortion free at respectable volume like 40-50 with movies and songs not with 40hz test tones.

            Forget it 😂 it's literally a bass test tone to test a speaker, mine sounded absolutely awful before the update and had major bass wobbles now it has a steady tone and sounds great

            arpatil1
            Enthusiast II
            June 23, 2020

            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?

            Forget 40hz test tone. I don't know what that is. Just try it out with real content like the song I referenced. I want my arc to sound good distortion free at respectable volume like 40-50 with movies and songs not with 40hz test tones.

            Forget it 😂 it's literally a bass test tone to test a speaker, mine sounded absolutely awful before the update and had major bass wobbles now it has a steady tone and sounds great

            Do you listen to single frequency tones in your free time or songs? I am curious.

              sebas1509
              Enthusiast II
              June 23, 2020

              Unsure why some report it still has issues. Had noticed the issue before with the test tones, and in some certain scenes. Toystory 3 2:58 showed the issue. I have a playbar to compare to and definitely crackled/farted a bit during this scene. After the update issue is gone. Turn up to 100 percent with 40Hz tone, played bassy music (hiphop) and played the toystory scene all sound good.

               

              Remember guys this is a soundbar. the bass wont compete with a subwoofer or bigger system. Maybe you are expecting different bass from what the arc is supposed to produce. Right now Arc sounds great. I turned off my surrounds and sub for these tests.

              I dont think a thing as “step in the right direction” is even a thing. This wasn’t tuning was likely a bug with the DSP that was fixed to avoid this issue from happening.

               

              However, just as a comment I’ve seen people on here and reddit claiming their SONOS one sound bad and distort horribly. Even shared clips. I cant hear much on the clips from my phone, or headphones. I wonder if these people are new to sonos and expecting home theater experience with the arc and sonos ones?

              ashwin
              Lyricist III
              June 23, 2020

              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?

              Forget 40hz test tone. I don't know what that is. Just try it out with real content like the song I referenced. I want my arc to sound good distortion free at respectable volume like 40-50 with movies and songs not with 40hz test tones.

              Forget it 😂 it's literally a bass test tone to test a speaker, mine sounded absolutely awful before the update and had major bass wobbles now it has a steady tone and sounds great

              Enjoy listening to bass test tones with 800$ product😂 Jokes apart, I was only stating my experiences.

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