Enthusiast II

Answered

Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

1406 replies
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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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Mitchellsx

Renowned Enthusiast II

Do you guys really think Sonos is going to add a bunch of additional EQ settings and/or separate volume controls for the different drivers in the Arc? I don’t see this as a likely scenario, but maybe I’m wrong. Sonos tends to take the Apple style approach of “it just works” with less available configuration vs. the highly configurable and complicated approach.

I think it’s much more likely that Sonos tweaks the sound themselves with software updates vs. exposing a whole bunch of EQ controls which 99% of their customers don’t want to mess with.

Yeah I get where your coming from. I do also think that is the way Sonos will go, but I would still like a bit more control over the soundbar. Was watching a film last night with the mother-in-law and although me and my partner found the dialogue ok, she was struggling to hear some speech, so having the option to up it would be great.

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bjl

Trending Lyricist I

Do you guys really think Sonos is going to add a bunch of additional EQ settings and/or separate volume controls for the different drivers in the Arc? I don’t see this as a likely scenario, but maybe I’m wrong. Sonos tends to take the Apple style approach of “it just works” with less available configuration vs. the highly configurable and complicated approach.

I think it’s much more likely that Sonos tweaks the sound themselves with software updates vs. exposing a whole bunch of EQ controls which 99% of their customers don’t want to mess with.

I think it’s worth requesting finer-grained EQ. They can put it in an “Advanced” section for folks who are interested.

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jkozlow3

Enthusiast II

Do you guys really think Sonos is going to add a bunch of additional EQ settings and/or separate volume controls for the different drivers in the Arc? I don’t see this as a likely scenario, but maybe I’m wrong. Sonos tends to take the Apple style approach of “it just works” with less available configuration vs. the highly configurable and complicated approach.

I think it’s much more likely that Sonos tweaks the sound themselves with software updates vs. exposing a whole bunch of EQ controls which 99% of their customers don’t want to mess with.

I think it’s worth requesting finer-grained EQ. They can put it in an “Advanced” section for folks who are interested.

Yeah, I’m not disagreeing with you. But I’m not holding my breath either.

M

mattadamsone

Enthusiast I

Do you guys really think Sonos is going to add a bunch of additional EQ settings and/or separate volume controls for the different drivers in the Arc? I don’t see this as a likely scenario, but maybe I’m wrong. Sonos tends to take the Apple style approach of “it just works” with less available configuration vs. the highly configurable and complicated approach.

I think it’s much more likely that Sonos tweaks the sound themselves with software updates vs. exposing a whole bunch of EQ controls which 99% of their customers don’t want to mess with.

I think it’s worth requesting finer-grained EQ. They can put it in an “Advanced” section for folks who are interested.

While interesting and I would enjoy a better EQ, I do think this helps the issue I am having with the Arc. In the current state, it is incapable of reproducing lower frequencies that the Beam can. Since rooms have now come into the situation - I have put the Beam and Arc next to each other in the same room and in every single case, I have no issues with the Beam and the Arc bottoms out.

I guess where a lot of us are at right now is wondering that maybe Arc just doesn’t sound that good. Perhaps it was built in a way that only works well when paired with a sub. If that is the case, then no amount of EQ or updates to the internal software are going to fix the physics of the speakers and the design. I really hope that isn’t the case, but at this point would rather just know. I love my Beam for music and movies, was hoping for more with the Arc.

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Dysfunctional

Enthusiast II

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.

Really bad during the intro to Top Gun... During Danger Zone. (both streaming or from the new 4k bd release).

Well under 50% vol.

Used the linked form to submit info / diagnostics 1285309378

FYI.. I've noticed this during both music and movies. Multiple sources.

Scott E.

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brolin

Trending Lyricist I

Do you guys really think Sonos is going to add a bunch of additional EQ settings and/or separate volume controls for the different drivers in the Arc? I don’t see this as a likely scenario, but maybe I’m wrong. Sonos tends to take the Apple style approach of “it just works” with less available configuration vs. the highly configurable and complicated approach.

I think it’s much more likely that Sonos tweaks the sound themselves with software updates vs. exposing a whole bunch of EQ controls which 99% of their customers don’t want to mess with.

Yeah I get where your coming from. I do also think that is the way Sonos will go, but I would still like a bit more control over the soundbar. Was watching a film last night with the mother-in-law and although me and my partner found the dialogue ok, she was struggling to hear some speech, so having the option to up it would be great.

Did you try the speech enhancement button?

E

ewolkoff

Enthusiast II

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.

Really bad during the intro to Top Gun... During Danger Zone. (both streaming or from the new 4k bd release).

Well under 50% vol.

Used the linked form to submit info / diagnostics 1285309378

FYI.. I've noticed this during both music and movies. Multiple sources.

Scott E.

That’s the exact Atmos test I used and my Arc has no issues (even above 50%). That’s why I think there is a hardware aspect to this.

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mattadamsone

Enthusiast I

I spent some time doing more listening to music and watched a movie over the weekend. Every single song I listen to has a garbled low end. It’s like the speaker is incapable of reproducing the frequencies. It’s in every single kick drum on anything modern. I can listen to all the same content without issue on my Beam, Bose Soundlink without issue. Only the arc. That is also with those units in the same physical space. Even noticed it on the opening scene of “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood”. When the stand up bass kicks in on the theme intro, it bottoms out.

I just can’t understand how anyone could listen to this speaker and not hear the issue. It did seem a little less pronounced with loudness off, but still there

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SOCalistic

Renowned Enthusiast I

Do you guys really think Sonos is going to add a bunch of additional EQ settings and/or separate volume controls for the different drivers in the Arc? I don’t see this as a likely scenario, but maybe I’m wrong. Sonos tends to take the Apple style approach of “it just works” with less available configuration vs. the highly configurable and complicated approach.

I think it’s much more likely that Sonos tweaks the sound themselves with software updates vs. exposing a whole bunch of EQ controls which 99% of their customers don’t want to mess with.

Sonos isn’t going to do that nor should they. Imagine the chaos of customers fiddling with something like that. If you want eq like that you should not be buying a soundbar.

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pyro225

Enthusiast II

Are anyone else's posts being ‘vetted’ before posting never had this before on here????

Getting this when discussing certain things ‘Your post has been submitted. It will be published after a review by our moderators.’

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