Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

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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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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

Everyone know that sonos will continue to improve Arc and tweak the sound for a long time. This is just the start I understand the frustration and that some people are not willing to risk it. But they just finished development on their new soundbar. Now it is all about improving and bringing new features to us. Thats what most of the team focuses on. This email makes sense to me. This is a weird time at sonos and in the whole world for sure

To be fair, we do NOT “know” that Sonos is going to tweak and/or improve the sound of the Arc for a long time. At best, we can say “everyone HOPES” Sonos will continue to tweak and improve the Arc. But there are no guarantees in life. Laying off a large chunk of their support staff after prematurely releasing a half-baked “flagship” product is not a great way to inspire confidence in the consumer.

I mean they have an excellent track record with supporting their products. For years and years.

also laying off staff? Have you read the news? So many companies going through this.

yeah it’s clear they were pressured to release the arc before it was truly ready. But my comment is more about their track record and how they will continue to work on it. As I said there’s a risk this doesn’t happen and it won’t be enough for some.

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jkozlow3

Enthusiast II

Everyone know that sonos will continue to improve Arc and tweak the sound for a long time. This is just the start I understand the frustration and that some people are not willing to risk it. But they just finished development on their new soundbar. Now it is all about improving and bringing new features to us. Thats what most of the team focuses on. This email makes sense to me. This is a weird time at sonos and in the whole world for sure

To be fair, we do NOT “know” that Sonos is going to tweak and/or improve the sound of the Arc for a long time. At best, we can say “everyone HOPES” Sonos will continue to tweak and improve the Arc. But there are no guarantees in life. Laying off a large chunk of their support staff after prematurely releasing a half-baked “flagship” product is not a great way to inspire confidence in the consumer.

I mean they have an excellent track record with supporting their products. For years and years.

also laying off staff? Have you read the news? So many companies going through this.

yeah it’s clear they were pressured to release the arc before it was truly ready. But my comment is more about their track record and how they will continue to work on it. As I said there’s a risk this doesn’t happen and it won’t be enough for some.

Yes, we are all hoping that’s the case. But if I bought a new car, realized it was plagued with issues after I drove it home and then found out that the manufacturer closed most of their service centers, I wouldn’t exactly have a warm fuzzy feeling either. That’s all I’m saying. Hopefully Sonos steps up and makes the Arc sound like a flagship product - and soon. In the mean time, they deserve every return and bad review for rushing the product to market before it was ready.

Bumper

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Yes, we are all hoping that’s the case. But if I bought a new car, realized it was plagued with issues after I drove it home and then found out that the manufacturer closed most of their service centers, I wouldn’t exactly have a warm fuzzy feeling either. That’s all I’m saying. Hopefully Sonos steps up and makes the Arc sound like a flagship product - and soon. In the mean time, they deserve every return and bad review for rushing the product to market before it was ready.

+1 Sonos has a track record for adding features, new streaming services, tweaks to the app etc. But they are in uncharted territory with the ARC boondoggle. Don't accept a flawed, keeping it and hoping for the best seems like a terrible decision imo.

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sebas1509

Enthusiast II

@Jean C. Ive seen you’re active in the other thread for the tinny sound. Can you or someone else circle back with the community regarding this issue. Many users are still experiencing issues and return deadlines are approaching. Many are also dissapointed with Sonos radio silence . I think some response here would calm some anxieties people are getting about Sonos having moved on from this issue

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pyro225

Enthusiast II

Just looked don’t know why I didn’t earlier at the build date of my arc- March 2020 - I can’t imagine the reviewers had earlier builds than 3 months prior? It hadn’t even been announced at that point

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Reefy

Enthusiast I

Just looked don’t know why I didn’t earlier at the build date of my arc- March 2020 - I can’t imagine the reviewers had earlier builds than 3 months prior? It hadn’t even been announced at that point

Mine was March 16th

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Reefy

Enthusiast I

Just looked don’t know why I didn’t earlier at the build date of my arc- March 2020 - I can’t imagine the reviewers had earlier builds than 3 months prior? It hadn’t even been announced at that point

Mine was March 16th

Maybe the reviewers had later builds?

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Mitchellsx

Renowned Enthusiast II

Where abouts is the build number written? I can’t see it anywhere on the bar just the serial number but no production date?

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Reefy

Enthusiast I

Where abouts is the build number written? I can’t see it anywhere on the bar just the serial number but no production date?

It was the Sonos support that told me. I was asking about the last date for which I can return my Arc. She told me that my Arc shipped only March 16. Which obviously makes no sense since it was only available for preorder in May.
she later corrected herself and told me that March 16th was the manufacturing date.

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mattadamsone

Enthusiast I

Chatted with support again and they are still insistent that a fix is coming and that it is software, not hardware. Even though I’ve already confirmed that I’ve run all the updates, we reset everything again. Still having the same issues with the low end most noticeably. I reinforced that communication has really been lacking - especially here on this forum. I also suggested that if they are really that confident that they can make Arc sound better for everyone that they offer an extended return window for anyone who has submitted a ticket. This would give us the reassurance that we’ll be happy with the product and for me, would make me more inclined to keep this while they figure this out. Not sure they’ll do that, but she said she’d pass that idea along.

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