Update 14.12 has ruined my sub bass and overall sound

@Ken_Griffiths 

Cheers mate I have enjoyed the system up till this year's 2 bad updates another thing I noticed that some frequency that is coming from the system is causing a slight problem with my ears not an earache but like a pressure and is making listening tiring not sure I am describing it correctly but we are all different with our listening tastes but it is odd that I am experiencing this 

As well as not enjoying the new sound profile that is, hopefully it will be resolved soon

If other speakers would be affected by this, would they not also have lost Trueplay?

No they didn't but I redid truplay but it didn't help

That’s a good point @106rallye  - I’m not seeing any issues with any of our other Sonos products - the first (initial) thing I did notice, is the slight volume-reduction in the Arc. I think a number of folk have noticed that …and things nearly always tend to sound ‘not as good’ when their output is quieter.

I do think that the center channel dialogue audio has been improved and all I’ve gone onto do, is increase the Arcs volume to compensate for the changes. 

I’ve left Trueplay disabled, but I’ve had the Arc like that before the update anyway, as it just suits my own preference. I usually increase the treble slightly on my devices aswell (that’s undoubtedly an age thing - I prefer a notch, or two, more treble with my own hearing). 

For TV audio, I could probably choose to actually take the bass down a few notches, but I have left it ‘flat’ as I prefer it that way for music and I can’t be bothered to keep regularly adjusting it, so it’s a bit of a compromise for the different audio sources in my case, plus there’s alway the option to use SVC to enable ‘Night Mode’ if the Movie gets too boomy during some surround-sound loud action sequences.

So I’m not suffering with bass/sub issues, like some, but as @skullc mentions I guess that we each hear things differently, aswell as having different setups and environments, which is why I think a way to resolve the issue, perhaps for the majority, might be some additional (but simple to use) controls for channel customisation. 

Anyhow, I’m sure that the Sonos engineers will be looking at this matter further and taking onboard the suggestions and various options available to them and we will have to see what they decide.

From my own perspective I’m not overly concerned by the recent software/firmware update, as the change to my system has not caused me the problems that @skullc seems to be having with his setup.

So.."I’m alright Jack!”.. ha ha 😀

(Sorry @skullc🙏 - I do actually sincerely hope you do get things resolved for your Sonos setup).

Thanks @skullc for the advice on other systems. I will be checking them out.

@Ken_Griffiths i have a large room and am lucky to have a detached house so i liked to play it loud. I have a second set of SL ones in the same room. Its a shame that sonos won’t let me pair them into the same room, it could have fixed the volume im missing. Again limited by the app and software. This has been a topic pushed since the beginning of sonos that they refuse to address, so i don’t fully believe they listen to their users. When i play music to all of the speakers the extra SL ones have an audio delay that i can’t fix so basically they are redundant. A solution could be to buy a set of fives to replace my rear sl ones, but i won’t invest more money into sonos now that i have first hand experience of how they can mess up my listening experience without giving me a choice.

Yes companies can mess up but they have a huge beta testing community and surely this kind of feedback must have been known. I believe that the arc is at its limits of power and they have taken more from outer speakers to power the central to resolve the dialogue/speech problem. They have also changed the signature on the sub so as to allow the dialogue/speech to be heard. The sub really does sound under powered. I could hear the plasterboard walls in my room vibrate at anything above 60 % with sub at 0. Now i can set it to 15 and at 60% and there is nothing. The bass is nothing like it felt or sounded like before.

They can give options to allow people to choose the sound signature they want but as with pairing extra speakers to the same room they refuse to allow it. Why is this?
perhaps going back to wired audio where updates can’t hurt the experience may be an option, but im definitely exploring them. Id rather sell my system while its worth something and invest in something else, honestly. Im that annoyed and angry about this. Its a hell of a lot of money I've invested in sonos material including a move.
 

@Ken_Griffiths 

Hallelujah!

I have found a setting to stop the pain/pressure effect on my hearing 

Volume 40 bass 0 treble -8 sub 0 truplay on

Still sounds poor but it doesn't hurt 👍

Or it could be the Stella unfiltered numbing me🍺

You might have network issues here - when playing music audio to all speakers ‘grouped’ you should not be experiencing any audio delays🤔?. You may want to just double-check that is happening. 

TV audio will be delayed on the ‘grouped room’ of course, but you could try correcting that, particularly for TV music audio, using the "TV Dialog Sync” feature in the HT room settings - it works fine for stereo audio to help put all ‘grouped rooms’ in sync.

Hope that assists.

That’s a different experience to my own setup here and I have three Sonos Subs around the Home, One with an Arc, one with a Beam gen2 and another that I use to float between rooms and is currently just attached to a stereo pair of Ones. I’m not personally noticing the issues mentioned, but I don’t usually have them rattling/vibrating things here - as mentioned I could actually be happy with a sub set to a minus volume setting when connected to a TV and ‘flat’ when playing music - music bass audio varies so much (a lot) anyway between the different tracks I usually listen to… I would likely end up with the App open and changing settings between tracks - so I’m happy with the ‘flat’ mid-point. I haven’t personally noticed a change in this area, but maybe that’s down to my own hearing ability.

I’m not here to side with anyone, I’m just speaking ‘as I find’ - I can’t/wouldn’t stop you changing your setup, that’s entirely up-to-you …and it would undoubtedly benefit the person purchasing it, but just seems a drastic outlook at this rather early stage.. although maybe without some system customisation options Sonos may find it difficult to perhaps ‘please all the people, all the time’… I don’t really think anything can be said to change your mind, if things do turn out to not suit how you like to hear/listen to your audio sources. As with any audio system, it will always be about trying to please the ‘majority’.

in my double sub setup there is a very audible difference after this update. When trying to correct with the sub volume you get a boost in midbass, but not in the sub region. 

It sounds like a cheap cardboard passive sub when you do that. 

@Ken_Griffiths @skullc @rsint @106rallye 

I just got an email reply from Sonos after contacting them, hope this helps……

Hello Ian,

Thank you for contacting Sonos Customer Experience. My name is Shising, and I am happy to assist you regarding your issue. I am sorry you have had to deal with this issue. I know how frustrating it is when the system does not work as it should, and I will do my best to help you.

After the release of R3 2022, an issue was discovered that impacts audio quality negatively with Trueplay enabled on certain Home Theater Configurations.

The issue will result in slightly less output from the Sub. The issue for Arc will also affect certain other frequencies and currently, it can only be fully mitigated by Turning off Trueplay tuning | Sonos.

Please note that R3 also introduced additional changes to the Arc's audio output. These changes are expected and can result in a slightly lower perceived volume output but can simply be changed by raising the volume slightly in the Sonos app. The user doesn't lose out on overall volume, as it's just the volume scale that has been adjusted slightly. These changes are intended and are working as designed.

We are aware of the issue that Trueplay affects the sound quality negatively and are working on a fix but do not have any more information or a timeline to share.

Once again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you, and we thank you for your understanding on this matter. If you have other concerns, feel free to let us know.

All the best,

Same issue. It sounds terrible.