Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

1406 replies
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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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mattadamsone

Enthusiast I

The above might be the case perhaps, but there are plenty of reviews out there suggesting that the Arc has such good bass that there’s no need for a Sub. All of the recent user reports make a mockery of this. I agree that a Play 5 might have slightly better bass but a £800 Soundbar should be better then this. One of the most impressive things about even the smallest Sonos speakers is how much decent bass they put out for their size.

I have read that too Andrew. Definitely not the experience with the Arc so far. My Beam has better low end. Seems like they are working on it. Hopefully we see a fix to the fix soon.

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pyro225

Enthusiast II

Interesting I have 12 Sonos products connects, amps, connect amps, play 1s, everything is now on the 190 build except the arc? What’s that about? Is 180 an interim build while the finishing touches are in 190? Ryan?

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cowmilkcandy

Lyricist III

Will Sonos keep improving/updating the Arc or is this it?

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pyro225

Enthusiast II

That’s the question I have - it is definitely an improvement but not right still. A pair of play 5s in stereo would have just as many drivers I believe and cost around the same but would sound far better as it currently sits (and still have a wide sound stage)

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brttlt

Avid Contributor I

Weird that since the update, some of you say it’s awesome and fixed and others say there is still an issue

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raforbes

Enthusiast I

SONOS always improves - when there are issues or reports of issues they research and change - updates come out to software only, firmware only and both. I have not been let down yet.

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vtince

Trending Lyricist I

Hmm I just updated, and no more muddy bass, 40hz tone can be heard without bottom on it out /clipping. Also to me, it seems that they also did some other tweaks, music seems more “fuller” which is nice.

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Sir Fluffy

Contributor I

so i’m definitely amongst the group that has had a good number of issues with the arc (paired with a gen 2 sub and 2 ones) since arrival (tinny, tearing, etc.); i updated to 12.0.1 and music playback sounded better, but not as good as any of my other sonos products (playbar, beam, move, five, etc.); i then re-tuned for trueplay again (used an 11 pro max) and goodness it went from sounding passable back to completely horrific. turning trueplay off brought depth back to the voices but still sounds horrible. i’m charging up my old 6s to retune it again (some have suggested the mic array on newer apple products may be a problem) - will report back will hopefully better results

so i’ve now retuned it twice using a 6s and the level of bass is better, but goodness me, the vocals are now utterly terrible; i’ve tried multiple genres of music as well as TV and everything sounds completely off; i’ve turned off true play and it alters the sound profile, but i can’t necessarily say it’s any better. update 12.0.1 definitely has not fixed the issues with the set up - i don’t believe it has to do with the arc speaker itself, but rather how the system is tuning itself; i say this because even the play:ones sound off

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

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 really recommend you not to be nervous or freak out many people are very happy with the arc. Try your new system and judge for yourself you might end up very happy like most of us are!
the bass issue was real it has been fixed but the software fix

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

That’s the question I have - it is definitely an improvement but not right still. A pair of play 5s in stereo would have just as many drivers I believe and cost around the same but would sound far better as it currently sits (and still have a wide sound stage)

Dude there’s no way the arc is going to compete with the bass of 2 play 5s. It’s simple physics. Legit look at the size of the woofers. Look at the volume of the speakers. Also if you separate physically the speakers you have wider soundstage it’s just obvious.

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