Sonos Arc Muddy/Bottoming out Bass

Butcher wrote:

Sonos support office. Nobody is going to answer :(

 

I realize this is probably a joke. But if it isnt. It makes sense. People are working from home. Do you expect them to be in the office next to each other talking all day…. depending on where it is located, it might not be safe to do so. I myself am working from home and wouldnt sit next to others all day in a closed off office unless I absolutely have to. 

BTW I called sonos a few times. It alwazys took from 25 to 45 mins for them to pick up. It sucks! I know it but every time except for one I was able to get a hold of them AND they helped me track, place an order and made an exception for me

So I got my replacement Arc. The bass is still off. Sounds the same as the old one. With the Sub and Surrounds I am perfectly happy with the way it sounds but on it’s own it still underwhelms. So, no improvement on it’s own. 

I’m kind of thinking that’s just the Arc at this point. Underwhelming is not a terrible way to describe how I felt about the Arc itself. On it’s own, it doesn’t sound bad to me. It sounds… fine. Not awesome, not terrible. Just… fine. A perfectly serviceable soundbar. 

Adding in the Sub and some One SLs, however, and the Arc SYSTEM becomes something, in my opinion, truly special. The Arc is unleashed and you’ve got a great sounding combination of speakers that I’m thrilled to have in my home and thoroughly enjoy listening to. 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again - I’m of the opinion that the Arc absolutely needs the Sub and that it may be a mistake for Sonos to sell the Arc individually. My 2¢. 

I just received my 2nd Arc. First one was purchased through Bestbuy. I was having the same problems everyone was having in this thread. Decided to return it and re-purchase it through Sonos. Waited a month and finally received it today. All the problems i was having previously is gone, the new one sounds good, i purposely set the bass to 10 to test it out and it doesn’t bottom out anymore. So it’s definitely the arc itself and not software. For everyone that’s having problems with theirs, just return it and re-purchase it again.

@cowmilkcandy I did. My replacements sounds no better. Something is just off with the bass on it’s own. I would not even say its lacking - it just wrong. With the Sub/Surrounds it sounds great. My ones and move sound smoother. I’ll have more of play this weekend with trueplay etc. 

It seems to be a very sporadic result of those who got back units.  Really weird!

So this is like lottery with the returns, some with the same problem some r completely fixed 

I wonder if this user updated to the “fix” firmware before returning. I have not seen anyone else the bass improved after a return. And I am thinking he might have updated the app but not the firmware.

Expand on “wrong” remember the woofers in the One and Move are larger physically so they might be able to produce deeper or different bass compared to the Arc. The arc even though it is long it doesnt have a lot surface area for the woofers. This is just physics. They prioritized bigger soundstage etc to bass.

I did. I used it for 2 weeks before returning it. I literally waited til the last day before returning it to Bestbuy cause i was trying everything people suggested. Such as using different phones to trueplay it. Just because you don't hear it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. There are so many people happy with their Arc on reddit. But of course you’re only gonna hear about the bad ones. People that are happy with it are not gonna go around complaining about it obviously.

When was your new one made, manufacturing date?

If anyone here reads who sent back Arc and bought another brand, which one did you buy?

Own the Arc for one week now. Sounds good apart from the bass; that is too thin. Can anyone tell if adding just surrounds and no sub will improve the bass?

I decided to give up on sound bars and bought a Marantz NR1710 Atmos amp and QAcoustic speakers.

Wise decision. Which ones specifically?

RensAFX I think it makes more sense to get the sub I know that covers up the bass issue, it would be nice if the mids were more pronounced and I think that where the 2 ones help out. I’m pretty sure the return policy will let you try them out and if you don’t like just return them.

To start, I’m getting their 3020i stereo speakers and the 3090ci centre speaker.  I’ll add the surrounds/sub/Atmos speakers later.

Then I have ordered a base, I really hope the noises disappear with the base taking over that assignment.  if the problem remains, I send back the base, arc and I throw a play1 on the garbage.  
 

The professional way from Sonos should now be to give a little feedback in all forums, otherwise they can shut this down, it is pointless to keep whining here if they do not even pay attention to it.

This is weird - I was just sampling the bass bottoming out and sure enough it still does it but randomly I stood up and it disappeared almost I walked closer to the arc and it was completely gone? Anyone else able to try this as it’s very odd!!!

There is an update for the app and firmware but no changelog published yet

Just noticed this as well.  My hardware is updating now… I’m hopeful there are some additional fixes for the bass issues with this.  

I want to comment here as well. right after the update to my ears the arc sounded worse than before. However, I re-truplayed and I NOTICE IMPROVEMENT in the arc alone. I think the highs arent as bad anymore I can feel bass improvements as well. Now, I only tried a couple of songs. But I think they are addressing these issues people are having. Let us know what you think.

After I played a couple of songs with the bar solo I readded my subs and surround and I am very happy with how it sounds with music and movies :) . 

Note: I do not push my volume past 60% because I am in an apartment so maaaaaybe there still are issues with very high volumes.

Another comment: 

For those comparing to homepods and the Move. Please reframe your way of thinking. There is no way a soundbar with this dimensions will have bass as deep as a circular speaker with a much bigger woofer. It is just the way physics work. You cant play EDM on this and say OMG my move sounds better… come on. This soundbar even though is capable for music it is not and EDM or basshead setup (without sub) and is tuned for cinema and movies first. That is after all the main use of a soundbar. I know i know it is $800 bla bla bla that doesnt change physics. Theres only so much processing can do. 

To further comment on this I just got a homepod (will gift it to someone soon) and tried some songs and I do not prefer the homepod alone to the Arc. The main reason is maybe the arc spoiled me but I feel like the voices in the homepod are underwater and muddled. Bass is stronger and felt throughout with the homepod that is true. But for something other than hip hop or EDM i prefer the arc or even a sonos one to the homepod.

To @RensAFX : Hey adding the surrounds can improve things in the music department especially if you turn up the surround music level higher and set it to full. The ones have adequate punchy bass so it will increase the volume level of your music and add some bass to it. Of course we are not talking about cinematic rumble bass that the sub would provide but still can be felt in movies just think of it as a speaker bass and not a sub bass. If that makes sense

Updated the app to 12.0.3 and confirmed the hardware build changed to 58179200 from 58178180. 

Tested a few of the problematic clips noted in this thread and what I previously noticed the issue with and did not notice any changed to the muddy bass sound.  Not sure what changed in this update but for me at least, the issue still continues. 

I’ll re-true play tune again and see if I notice anything better.  I did turn true play off and on after the update and had the same experience that it sounded better without true play.   I rarely go above 30% volume on my Arc.  If I go higher than that, I just find that it’s too loud for normal listening myself.

did you retune? I noticed a big change after retuning. Also are you talking about movies or songs when you mean muddy bass? I honestly think that was greatly improved in the previous update