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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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    FrankNL
    Lyricist III
    June 25, 2020

    You mean “You’re holding it wrong” Apple? I mean I really like Apple but even they screw up sometimes. Like any other company. 

    You mean “You’re holding it wrong” Apple? I mean I really like Apple but even they screw up sometimes. Like any other company. 

    No clue what you mean by “You’re holding it wrong” Apple, I am assuming something they did, but there has been talks of them acquiring Sonos and would be the right move for both companies.

    Shortly after the iPhone 4 was launched, some consumers reported that signal strength of the phone was reduced when touching the lower left edge of the phone, bridging one of the two locations which separates the two antennas, resulting in dropped calls in some areas with lower signal reception. In response, Apple issued a statement advising that customers should "avoid gripping [the phone] in the lower left corner" when making or receiving a call. Internally, senior antenna expert Ruben Caballero raised concerns to CEO Steve Jobs that the antenna design could lead to dropped calls.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_4#Antenna

     

     

    Sash A
    Lyricist III
    June 25, 2020

    You mean “You’re holding it wrong” Apple? I mean I really like Apple but even they screw up sometimes. Like any other company. 

    You mean “You’re holding it wrong” Apple? I mean I really like Apple but even they screw up sometimes. Like any other company. 

    No clue what you mean by “You’re holding it wrong” Apple, I am assuming something they did, but there has been talks of them acquiring Sonos and would be the right move for both companies.

    Shortly after the iPhone 4 was launched, some consumers reported that signal strength of the phone was reduced when touching the lower left edge of the phone, bridging one of the two locations which separates the two antennas, resulting in dropped calls in some areas with lower signal reception. In response, Apple issued a statement advising that customers should "avoid gripping [the phone] in the lower left corner" when making or receiving a call. Internally, senior antenna expert Ruben Caballero raised concerns to CEO Steve Jobs that the antenna design could lead to dropped calls.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_4#Antenna

     

     

    I remember this actually lol, but that’s 10 years ago. Apple didn’t have audio products then. No airpods, no beats and no homepod. Acquiring Sonos will get them into home theater and give capital to a struggling brand.

    kill21pro
    Lyricist III
    June 25, 2020

    I’m starting to theorize it is an actual hardware issue that they try to cover up with a software patch as best as they can because returning all defect ARCs would deal too much damage to the brand, and cost too much for Sonos to repair.

    Maybe they will find a way to remove the issue by masking it. In this case, we can expect an Arc (Gen 2) in a few years.

     

    But let's stay positive and hope it really is a software-only issue. OR, that if it is hardware related that they offer a 90-100% trade-up for a new (gen 2) one before it is too late.

     

    Orrr… Apple comes into play and strikes a deal now that Sonos is ‘hurt’.

     

    Which ever direction it goes, I own too much Sonos products to call for a leave so I’m preparing for a bumpy ride.

    Game programmer and music enthusiast
    bjl
    Trending Lyricist I
    June 25, 2020

    For those of you planning to return your Arc and/or research other options, the Sennheiser Ambeo seems to be the front-runner if price is no object. And with regard to price, if you can get as good sound from the Ambeo as you can get from an Arc, Sub, and 2 x 1SL combo, you’re approaching the price of the Ambeo.  Full disclosure:  I know nothing about the Ambeo other than what I’ve read.

    If any of you do decide to try out the Ambeo, I’d be grateful for your review and comparison to your Arc setup.

    ripcordaff
    Trending Lyricist I
    June 25, 2020

    This whole debacle is just exhausting. And now that Sonos fired the only person who was seemingly working to fix it and communicate status to those of us that purchased the Arc based on Sonos’ prior reputation, I don’t have much hope of it getting resolved. My arc is going back. 

      bjl
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 25, 2020

      To date, I have not been able to reproduce the muddy base issue.  I’ve run some, but not all of the test content that’s been posted here. It’s possible that I haven’t turned up the volume enough or that my hearing is not good enough to discern this issue.  So I don’t have as much of a problem with the Arc as some of you. No judgement: if I were hearing what you’ve described, I’d be pretty concerned as well.

      One question: I see a lot of you mention that you turned the volume up to some %.  Where do you view the percentage volume level?

      I pre-ordered my Arc and it arrived on the June 10th (or was it the 11th?).  So I still have about a month of evaluation time before I decide whether to send it back.  I had been toying with the idea of getting a sub anyway, so I think I’m going to order one to see what difference it makes.  Unfortunately, the subs are back-ordered until July 10, but that would still give me a couple of weeks to evaluate the system.

      I’ve been a pretty big fan of Sonos and so I’m going to wait a while to see how this issue progresses. 

       

      ggmogollonAuthor
      Enthusiast II
      June 25, 2020

      This whole debacle is just exhausting. And now that Sonos fired the only person who was seemingly working to fix it and communicate status to those of us that purchased the Arc based on Sonos’ prior reputation, I don’t have much hope of it getting resolved. My arc is going back. 

      Absolutely exhausting, certainly not worth the for an issue that has been mostly resolved. Still on the fence 

        brttlt
        Avid Contributor I
        June 25, 2020

        I really am baffled here. So many awesome reviews everywhere on the internet and yet there are a handful of you guys wanting to return. It’s gotta be just a “bad batch”. How can you have 100’s of other 5* reviews from several sites and yet there are 5-10 of you on this site that are extremely bummed. Bad batch...hopefully because Ive got my Arc and Sub on order.

        cowmilkcandy
        Lyricist III
        June 25, 2020

        I just returned mine, although i will give Sonos the benefit of the doubt, i will re-purchase it in a few weeks to see if i will still run into the same problem. At this point, i believe it’s more of a bad batch than a software issue. If it were a software issue to begin with, EVERYONE would be running into the same problem. not just the people that posted in here. The 12.0.1 version did not fix my bass problem. it helped but it was still there.

        melvimbe
        melvimbe
        June 25, 2020

         

        Noe of the rumors are originating from Sonos or Apple, so not a lot of reason to put much stock in it.  And not the first time such rumors have floated.

        Sure these are rumors but still would be the right move for both. https://www.whathifi.com/us/news/sonos-to-layoff-12-of-workforce-amid-apple-buyout-rumour

         The article you linked actually implies otherwise.

         

        Shares in Sonos shot up 22% in the wake of Left's report but Apple has so far remained tight-lipped and it seems a little far-fetched to us.

        Danny
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