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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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    Profoundsoup
    Lyricist III
    June 24, 2020

    The biggest problem with the ARC is the fact that at its core, its a broken product. Listen to well made any speaker or subwoofer. Bass doesn't distort the drivers on well-made products. The bass tones will roll-off past certain frequencies. The ARC straight up breaks when it has to handle lower frequencies. This is either a huge issue with the DPS or the drivers are just horribly designed. I don't think most people here understand how large of an issue this is as far as a straight-up design flaw and it is absolutely shocking to me a company like Sonos let this get through testing. Its a joke at this point. 

      Seeky
      Prominent Collaborator II
      June 25, 2020

      If Ryan is gone I think the people who stil got issues can simply return their Arc immediately.

        mattadamsone
        Enthusiast I
        June 25, 2020

        If Ryan is gone I think the people who stil got issues can simply return their Arc immediately.

        If you can even get thru to support over the phone to arrange. 

        bubbaba
        Lyricist I
        June 25, 2020

        We have 45 days from shipping don’t we?  So a little time left for return?

        cowmilkcandy
        Lyricist III
        June 25, 2020

        luckily i got mine from bestbuy. Just packed it up, it’s going back tomorrow.

        ftm
        Trending Lyricist I
        June 25, 2020

        If Ryan is gone I think the people who stil got issues can simply return their Arc immediately.

        If you can even get thru to support over the phone to arrange. 

        Just do it over the web.  I returned the wall mount this way no problem

        AndrewLC
        Enthusiast I
        June 25, 2020

        I find it very hard to believe that after their years of experience Sonos don’t know how to design drivers that can handle their load, AND managed to get it past multiple reviewers with flying colours, unless the production models are significantly different (and lower quality). 

        pyro225
        Enthusiast II
        June 25, 2020

        And… still nothing from Sonos - are they checking any threads? maybe we should start another one if we don't hear by tomorrow?

        arpatil1
        Enthusiast II
        June 25, 2020

        If Ryan is gone I think the people who stil got issues can simply return their Arc immediately.

        If you can even get thru to support over the phone to arrange. 

        Just do it over the web.  I returned the wall mount this way no problem

        How do you do that? @ftm 

        martijnj
        Lyricist III
        June 25, 2020

        I ordered directly from Sonos here in the Netherlands, and having 100 day return option enables me to wait and see for some time. For now, I do recognize many of the complaints mentioned here. In my Arc + 2x One 5.1 setup I have the feeling the surround One's are generating most of the bass in the setup. I already sold my Playbar unfortunately, so I can no longer compare, but in general I have the feeling it had a much bigger ‘oomph’ compared to the Arc, where reviews prior to the release or just after were all cheering about the better bass… The overall soundstage of the Arc is better though…

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