Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

1406 replies
193222 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.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

S

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.

Show previous replies

D

dP89

Lyricist III

Anyone with RTINGS early access can see some prelim graphs on THD, Frequency Response etc.

https://www.rtings.com/soundbar/reviews/sonos/arc

Will be updated in a few days.

I wish they discovered some of those issues we all have with the Sonos Arc and additionally mentioning the missing LPCM functionality etc.

This will put more pressure on Sonos to give us a proper solution in a timely manner, because RTINGS will have a stronger voice.

What we should not forget is, that we are talking about a 900 Euro product and it feels like being a beta tester.

I’m ok to have some features at a later stage, this is common, but the basic functionality of a audio system like the bass should be there on point from the beginning especially from a “premium” brand/product. This is not acceptable from my perspective.

It’s like buying a mobile phone and being only able to make phones calls to the same brand or the same carrier, maybe my example is a bit off, but I hope you get the point.

P

Pawl

Lyricist III

Please have a look at this video:

Seems like the initial problem has been fixed BUT there are new issues with the bass at different frequencies.

@Ryan S please look at this. I confirmed the rattling sound at close to 100% on my arc. The previous issue was fixed but at 100% 40Hz still has this new rattling. Also, on my sonos one I definitely hear some wobbling (less bad than on Arc) at 40Hz at a range of volumes. So seems like there’s still work to be done. Definitely an improvement but bring this up with your team please

What concerns me the most now is bass behavior between 70 Hz and 90 Hz. Going back to 40 Hz after that was awful. DSP is definitely going crazy here LOL. I tested these tones on my HomePod and they are perfect as they should be.

Yeah definitely they need to work on this. I now think this is a S2 issue because I noticed weirdness on my sonos one.

Can confirm. It is prevalent on higher quality sources such as Dolby Atmos.

I just watched the video, and it does seem the problem wasn’t remedied fully. C’mon Sonos, their was no bass issues with the Sonos bar and beam. Why all these problems with the ARC? You don’t get these problems from other soundbars.

R

RedVespaBlur

Lyricist III

My ARC has shipped so I am happy that the problem has been likely resolved - particularly in my use case.

I am substituting an ARC for my Playbar and have Sub and Play 1’s as well.

I generally do not go above about 20% volume on my system - and by generally I mean never (other than Muddy Waters - Folk Singer experiment that went well with whole system of 6 Play 1’s. 2 Play 3 a Sub and a Play bar belting it out at 100%).

People are entitled to be satisfied with what they buy or return it - but in my experience most audio equipment performs sub-optimally at the outer envelope of its capacity. Thankfully the low volume envelope of my Sonos system is terrific as I live in a small house in an urban neighborhood where it would be uncivil to operate in the upper envelope.

Perhaps, people wanting a soundbar to operate optimally at high volumes bought the wrong device?

C

craigski

Local Superstar

Anyone with RTINGS early access can see some prelim graphs on THD, Frequency Response etc.

https://www.rtings.com/soundbar/reviews/sonos/arc

Will be updated in a few days.

Very interested in this!

Do you have this RTINGS preview? I am interesteed but now hope they wait a bit for these issues to be fixed

If you are an insider (ie support the rtings site and keep it Ad free) you can view it.

https://www.rtings.com/insider

P

pyro225

Enthusiast II

Hopefully Ryan does come back… that video really highlights the issues..

On a side note I had left one of my Sonos 1s off during the update I turned it on just now played a song it sounded dreadful and muddy hadn't noticed before the S2 upgrade…

I then just updated the firmware as it was off and it has cleaned right up like the majority of the initial arc bass issue. night and day difference

M

mattadamsone

Enthusiast I

My ARC has shipped so I am happy that the problem has been likely resolved - particularly in my use case.

I am substituting an ARC for my Playbar and have Sub and Play 1’s as well.

I generally do not go above about 20% volume on my system - and by generally I mean never (other than Muddy Waters - Folk Singer experiment that went well with whole system of 6 Play 1’s. 2 Play 3 a Sub and a Play bar belting it out at 100%).

People are entitled to be satisfied with what they buy or return it - but in my experience most audio equipment performs sub-optimally at the outer envelope of its capacity. Thankfully the low volume envelope of my Sonos system is terrific as I live in a small house in an urban neighborhood where it would be uncivil to operate in the upper envelope.

Perhaps, people wanting a soundbar to operate optimally at high volumes bought the wrong device?

Glad you’re happy, but maybe keep your judgements to yourself, they are quite presumptuous. Some of us are still having issues and not all of us are experiencing them only at high volumes.

D

Dysfunctional

Enthusiast II

My ARC sounds good after the update - Happy thus far.

MY concern is seeing Sonos lay off all of their support staff …..during a new software AND product release….

I just jumped on the Sonos bus and now no one is driving….

G

ggmogollonAuthor

Enthusiast II

Anyone with RTINGS early access can see some prelim graphs on THD, Frequency Response etc.

https://www.rtings.com/soundbar/reviews/sonos/arc

Will be updated in a few days.

I wish they discovered some of those issues we all have with the Sonos Arc and additionally mentioning the missing LPCM functionality etc.

This will put more pressure on Sonos to give us a proper solution in a timely manner, because RTINGS will have a stronger voice.

What we should not forget is, that we are talking about a 900 Euro product and it feels like being a beta tester.

I’m ok to have some features at a later stage, this is common, but the basic functionality of a audio system like the bass should be there on point from the beginning especially from a “premium” brand/product. This is not acceptable from my perspective.

It’s like buying a mobile phone and being only able to make phones calls to the same brand or the same carrier, maybe my example is a bit off, but I hope you get the point.

Yeah the stereo frequency response was ranked 40/45 per their testing. Worse than the TCL Alto which is $50 sound bar that scored 6.7 vs 6.1 for the arc. Also holds the second worst score for stereo dynamics. Describes what we’re experiencing. They describe it as { What it is: How loud the soundbar gets and whether its sound quality degrades at loud volumes. When it matters: If you tend to listen at loud volumes or if your environment is large, crowded, or noisy, it's important to have a soundbar that can get loud. } Disappointing to see, we’ll see what they say when the full review is released.

R

Roy Hobbs

Lyricist III

My ARC sounds good after the update - Happy thus far.

MY concern is seeing Sonos lay off all of their support staff …..during a new software AND product release….

I just jumped on the Sonos bus and now no one is driving….

All the articles I’ve read simply say they laid off 12% of their work force. Where are you seeing they laid off their entire support staff? That can’t be true.

D

Dysfunctional

Enthusiast II

My ARC sounds good after the update - Happy thus far.

MY concern is seeing Sonos lay off all of their support staff …..during a new software AND product release….

I just jumped on the Sonos bus and now no one is driving….

All the articles I’ve read simply say they laid off 12% of their work force. Where are you seeing they laid off their entire support staff? That can’t be true.

Maybe not ALL of their support staff - but I’ve seen reports on here, and reddit, and avforums of people trying to reach sonos and having no luck at all. One guy received the wrong color ARC and has been trying for days to get in touch with some1 to swap it out. Who knows, but it doesn’t bode well….

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community