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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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    maurice.pothoven
    Trending Lyricist II
    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…

    Because of the great bass reviews I had sold my Sub. It wasn’t picked up yet so I cancelled that deal (thank god)

    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

    How do you do that? @ftm 

    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 

    Sign into sonos website scroll down to returns.  If usa it says 45 days if uk it says 100 click on link it then says return or replace. 

    I'm UK.  You fill in details and they email you back with instructions to print off label and

    mattadamsone
    Enthusiast I
    June 25, 2020

    Curious, how many people that are now happy with the low end of the Arc have One’s connected for a 5.1 setup? 

    brttlt
    Avid Contributor I
    June 25, 2020

    The fact that I order both the ARC and Sub Gen 3….I’m assuming I’m ok with the sound? Most of the complaints I’m seeing are from just the soundbar, but when you add the bass...it seems to be good!

    arpatil1
    Enthusiast II
    June 25, 2020

    The fact that I order both the ARC and Sub Gen 3….I’m assuming I’m ok with the sound? Most of the complaints I’m seeing are from just the soundbar, but when you add the bass...it seems to be good!

    There are also complaints about lacking midrange which the sub is not able to fix at the moment. The way Arc sounds right now, it should be priced at $500 TBH.

    Roy Hobbs
    Lyricist III
    June 25, 2020

    Curious, how many people that are now happy with the low end of the Arc have One’s connected for a 5.1 setup? 

    The Arc and a pair of One’s is NOT 5.1 

     

    antm22
    Enthusiast I
    June 25, 2020

    I was finally able to get a hold of someone at Sonos yesterday afternoon to help with a return (website wasn’t working for me). I sent mine back. Gonna stick with a Beam for now and might re-buy in the future. Paying for a “premium product” and feeling like a beta tester is not good. And now that it seems this thread has lost the attention of the support staff, who knows when the next update will come and what it will address. 

    I’m also going to take some time and research other home audio products. This whole experience honestly put a bad taste in my mouth. Aside from the sub-par sound quality we’re experiencing, having to call and sit on hold various times for a week to get to a rep also isn’t acceptable. Things are definitely stretched thin with COVID, and I honestly don’t mind long hold times but their phone system abruptly disconnected me while I was in hold more than three times. It’s just not a great way to handle customers. 

      Masterpopper
      Lyricist III
      June 25, 2020

      I was finally able to get a hold of someone at Sonos yesterday afternoon to help with a return (website wasn’t working for me). I sent mine back. Gonna stick with a Beam for now and might re-buy in the future. Paying for a “premium product” and feeling like a beta tester is not good. And now that it seems this thread has lost the attention of the support staff, who knows when the next update will come and what it will address. 

      I’m also going to take some time and research other home audio products. This whole experience honestly put a bad taste in my mouth. Aside from the sub-par sound quality we’re experiencing, having to call and sit on hold various times for a week to get to a rep also isn’t acceptable. Things are definitely stretched thin with COVID, and I honestly don’t mind long hold times but their phone system abruptly disconnected me while I was in hold more than three times. It’s just not a great way to handle customers. 

       

      I’m with you, I will be returning mine tomorrow. Keep us posted on your research, I was looking at the lg SL9YG or SN8YG, but the ideal solution would be for them to just fix the Arc..

       

      ARE YOU HEARING US SONOS?! 

      Mitchellsx
      Renowned Enthusiast II
      June 25, 2020

      Curious, how many people that are now happy with the low end of the Arc have One’s connected for a 5.1 setup? 

      The Arc and a pair of One’s is NOT 5.1 

       

      adding a sub makes it 5.1 doesn’t it?

      Sash A
      Lyricist III
      June 25, 2020

      Could someone actually post a video of the issue? I got mine yesterday and doesn’t seem to be having this issue but I am not too sure. Also what is the hardware version for those with the issue, you can find that in the app under System/About My System? Thank you in advance.

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