Hey @windycitycy, welcome to the Sonos Community!
Sorry to hear the bass in your home theater set-up is not performing as desired and thank you for the thorough testing!
While sound is subjective, I would expect to hear an improvement or at least a difference when you went through the different tunings and set-ups. I would recommend to contact our support to make sure there is nothing astray that should not be. They have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports.
Hope that helps!
Bass with Arc Ultra, ERA300, and any combination of Sub3 and Sub 4 is very poor. Originally, I hooked up the Ultra and ERA300s in the exact locations of my previous Beam2 and Ones with only the Sub3 (exact location as well). I ran True Play with an iPhone and ran some tests. The bass wasn’t good. I then ran the basic True Play with a Samsung Android phone and the bass was still not good. So I ordered the Sub4 and now have both Sub3 and Sub4 in the system. The bass does NOT seem any better with 2 subs. In fact I could probably remove 1 or both and get similar results.
Looking for suggestions on what to do. Turning True Play off doesn’t really seem to help all that much either. Not sure if something maybe got cached from the prior True Play attempts.
There is a new app update that was released today, 80.12.02, that states “Ongoing improvements for Trueplay and Quicktune”.
Update to the latest version and try tuning your system again.
I updated the app on my iphone. It wasn’t available on my Samsung phone yet from the playstore. I left everything as is (Arc Ultra, 2 ERA300s, Sub3, Sub4) and ran Trueplay from the iphone (walking around the room). Bass seems to be somewhat improved watching Dolby Atmos Test Clips (I did have to set Bass EQ to +6 with Loudness on & Sub Audio to +7) to achieve Bass levels that are close to my previous setup of Beam2 with a single Sub3 (Bass EQ +2, Sub Audio +5). So, I’m still having to set Bass EQ higher than previous and now I have dual subs instead of 1.
Before this upgrade the Bass was basically non-existent, so it is improved, but maybe not all the way. Turning Trueplay off does result in more bass. Listening to 2 channel music was not as satisfying though, I would expect more slam than I’m getting now. Maybe 2 channel bass is handled differently than multi-channel?
It seems strange that some have this challenge and some experience missing/weak sound from their Surround speakers. When I read various posts, ERA 100-300 is almost always involved. Whether that has anything to do with it is anyone's guess..
Yesterday I installed my Ultra. Super expansion over my earlier Playbar :)
It doesn't give that much bass, and it's clear that a Sub is missing. Connected my Gen2 Sub. (Was reset) Huge difference. Clearly the Sub is working at high pressure. After that I connected 2 x Play 1 as surround (were reset). A few quick Trueplays were run during the installations and I must say it sounds fantastic.
When I watched Deadpool and Wolverine I had to turn off the loudness because there was too much bass (I think my neighbors are a little tired of me watching movies) The only setting I have done is to adjust the height sound +4
I think something went wrong somewhere during the addition of Sub/Era300 to Ultra. I would try removing Era300 and Gen3+4Sub. Then you only have your Ultra, do a reset on Gen3Sub and connect it. Already there you should have plenty of bass otherwise something is wrong.
OK. I disconnected everything and rebooted them.
- Then connected first the ERA300s and did some listening tests with Dolby Atoms Clips. All I can say is wow. The Ultra and ERA300s are quite amazing without a subwoofer. A lot of people would be very satisfied and impressed with this setup.
- Then I connected the Sub4 and did the same listening tests. Definitely more bass and what I was hoping for originally.
- Then I connected the Sub3 and did the same listening tests with dual subs. The bass isn’t necessarily that much more, but it feels like its more omni-present than with 1 sub.
For all tests above. I left all EQ, Surround, and Sub Settings at Zero (I reset them all). I turned the Voice enhancement completely off. I did leave Loudness on. I did NOT run either Trueplay. Right now, my setup sounds better than it ever has so I’m afraid to mess things up. Maybe I’ll run Trueplay once more reports of it working better start coming in.
So, I would highly recommend the Ultra and 300s as a starter and maybe consider a single sub if you don’t feel that is enough bass. It was a great exercise to add things one at a time, to see the affect each addition had on the results.
