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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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    AndrewLC
    Enthusiast I
    June 23, 2020

    Accidental mention of Jews was a combination of mistype and bizarre autocorrect...

    bbalz
    Renowned Enthusiast I
    June 23, 2020

     

    Arc definitely has plenty of bass. For my living room, I am not even remotely thinking about getting a sub. I just need Sonos to work a bit more on the bass to make it sound clean. Considering this is a new product, they will get it right somewhere down the line.

     

    This is where I’m at too.  I think the playbar’s bass did sound better, but I think it just felt a little tighter (if that makes sense) sounding versus the Arc’s bass right now.  I don’t know if that makes sense but it’s the best way I can describe it. 

    It feels like the Arc has a bigger availability to provide different bass tones compared to the playbar and once they get that figured out so it’s all crisp/good sounding then we should all be happier.

    I think as you noted, once they clean that up… the Arc is going to be something I’m happy I purchased.  

      AndrewLC
      Enthusiast I
      June 23, 2020

      I don’t have one yet so no personal experience. I’m just stuck trying to decide whether or not to buy one. Already have a Sub and rear surrounds run by a Gen 2 connect but very much wavering on whether it’s going to be a good enough upgrade over the Beam. 

      brttlt
      Avid Contributor I
      June 23, 2020

      Is this issue you guys are having with just the ARC bass or while also using the new subwoofer? I’m getting nervous...just order both at $1500 and don’t wnat to be bummed out.

      ashwin
      Lyricist III
      June 23, 2020

      @sebas1509 Hey, you are right. The fix 12.0.1 definitely fixed the issue. I only updated the app but missed on actually updating the speaker. Followed below steps as posted by some gentleman in prior comments:

      It is possible to update the app without having updated your speaker.  To make sure do the following:

      -Open Sonos app

      -go to settings

      -select system

      -select system updates

      -select check for updates

      After I have the speaker updated and did a trueplay retuning, voila! all the bass distortion issues gone. I replayed all the content that I have had issues with and ranted about, all sounding clean with zero distortions now. 

      Now I feel you man. Peace :)

      @Ryan S Great job.

      People who are still hearing distortions, just make sure you have your speaker also updated apart from app alone by following the steps I have pasted above.

        mattadamsone
        Enthusiast I
        June 23, 2020

        Will check the update in a bit, slightly confused as the app updated then checking for updates to Sonos said no update was required and ‘about my system’ also reports it’s on 12.0.1, so not sure what happened but it definitely didn’t update or run the process to the speakers.

         

        I believe it relates more with the Arc hardware build, if you go into the System-->About My System, what does your Arc build report back with?

        Mine is updated from the weekend and we had to make sure we were on build 58178180.  I believe 12.0.1 is the iOS or Android app update but the build/firmware update for the Arc is probably more critical to verify that you are indeed on the updated build/firmware.

        Oh you are right. Yeah the build will relate to the firmware on the Arc. I checked and after the update I am on the same firmware as you. @mattadamsone , @pyro225 , @MerlinNL  confirm your Arc was updated to this new build . Look under the Arc in about my system there will be a build number. My build for the sonos one and a the top of the app is different (58178190) vs the 58178180 i see under Arc

        Confirmed I am on build 8180 for the Arc

          Pawl
          Lyricist III
          June 23, 2020

          @sebas1509 Hey, you are right. The fix 12.0.1 definitely fixed the issue. I only updated the app but missed on actually updating the speaker. Followed below steps as posted by some gentleman in prior comments:

          It is possible to update the app without having updated your speaker.  To make sure do the following:

          -Open Sonos app

          -go to settings

          -select system

          -select system updates

          -select check for updates

          After I have the speaker updated and did a trueplay retuning, voila! all the bass distortion issues gone. I replayed all the content that I have had issues with and ranted about, all sounding clean with zero distortions now. 

          Now I feel you man. Peace :)

          @Ryan S Great job.

          People who are still hearing distortions, just make sure you have your speaker also updated apart from app alone by following the steps I have pasted above.

          While updating in my app, I noticed the light 💡 on my Sonos ARC changing colors. So, I knew the speaker was updating, and it sure worked.

            ashwin
            Lyricist III
            June 23, 2020

            @sebas1509 Hey, you are right. The fix 12.0.1 definitely fixed the issue. I only updated the app but missed on actually updating the speaker. Followed below steps as posted by some gentleman in prior comments:

            It is possible to update the app without having updated your speaker.  To make sure do the following:

            -Open Sonos app

            -go to settings

            -select system

            -select system updates

            -select check for updates

            After I have the speaker updated and did a trueplay retuning, voila! all the bass distortion issues gone. I replayed all the content that I have had issues with and ranted about, all sounding clean with zero distortions now. 

            Now I feel you man. Peace :)

            @Ryan S Great job.

            People who are still hearing distortions, just make sure you have your speaker also updated apart from app alone by following the steps I have pasted above.

            While updating in my app, I noticed the light 💡 on my Sonos ARC changing colors. So, I knew the speaker was updating, and it sure worked.

            I too noticed that.

              Pawl
              Lyricist III
              June 23, 2020

              Is this issue you guys are having with just the ARC bass or while also using the new subwoofer? I’m getting nervous...just order both at $1500 and don’t wnat to be bummed out.

              I’ve had no issues with my Sonos Sub, and the new update fixed my ARC. The Sonos Sub with the ARC really enhances your home theater experience. You will love every minute of it! 

                MerlinNL
                Lyricist III
                June 23, 2020

                Will check the update in a bit, slightly confused as the app updated then checking for updates to Sonos said no update was required and ‘about my system’ also reports it’s on 12.0.1, so not sure what happened but it definitely didn’t update or run the process to the speakers.

                 

                I believe it relates more with the Arc hardware build, if you go into the System-->About My System, what does your Arc build report back with?

                Mine is updated from the weekend and we had to make sure we were on build 58178180.  I believe 12.0.1 is the iOS or Android app update but the build/firmware update for the Arc is probably more critical to verify that you are indeed on the updated build/firmware.

                Oh you are right. Yeah the build will relate to the firmware on the Arc. I checked and after the update I am on the same firmware as you. @mattadamsone , @pyro225 , @MerlinNL  confirm your Arc was updated to this new build . Look under the Arc in about my system there will be a build number. My build for the sonos one and a the top of the app is different (58178190) vs the 58178180 i see under Arc


                 

                 

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