14.12 Update

I'm with many others on these forums, 14.12 has ruined my once great system, Arc, sub gen 3, one sl's, the once open soundstage has been replaced by an overbearing centre vocus mess that is really harsh to listen to, even with turning trueplay off the difference in the arcs sound signature is horrible, the arc sound completely detached from the rest of the system where once it sounded well balanced, I honestly feel it's equivalent of me buying a car and the dealer has come to my home in the dead of the night and changed out the engine without permission, when you go to a shop and listen to an audio product you buy into the sound you hear, I'm scratching my head as to why Sonos things it's their right to change what I've paid for after sale, if some people bought the product blind and complained after then surely that's on them ? And if Sonos really wanted to tinker around to appease these people surely they should of placed these changes in the already existing voice enhancement button or create a second on alongside that one, I really hope they completely roll this back to 14.10 and give us thesystem we paid for. 

I couldn’t agree more with everything that’s said 

Re they Arc and 14.12, I have dual Gen 3 subs and Fives as surrounds. It’s not just the sub(s). It’s the surrounds too.  They are now barely audible and the Arc is overly forward vocally.  The whole sound profile is night and day and not in a good way.  The fact that a release like this gets past QA from a company that differentiates itself on its software platform is beyond me.  Turning off Trueplay only makes it more annoying. Unlistenable and unwatchable for a $3k + system. 
 

14,14 is almost as bad as 14,12,  I bought my ARC + Generation 3 Sub + SL One surrounds directly from SONOS.  They owe me over $2,000.  The sound that I am listening to after the two updates is not the same sound that I bargain for, i.e., the sound that I got when I bought the system with 14.10.  So many of you are in the same mess.  I am an attorney.  Class action lawsuit, anyone?  We need to do something to stop SONOS, which I consider to be the Robin Hood of the audio equipment world. My letter to the President and CEO of SONOS has not produced a reply.  My calls to SONOS support has only resulted in them telling me what I already know,..my system is no longer in the 45 day return period.  I am ready, willing and able to create a YouTube video that shows me burning the SONOS equipment.  Such a video witl be SONOS’ Tiananmen Square!  Comments, please.

14.14 was not meant to fix the issues of 14.12.. they are still working on it. 

They should be embarrassed by how long it is taking.

Probably the only employee with any integrity at Sonos and she's seen how these updates have played out and promptly left!.

This is the start of the end of my favourite sound company ☹️ From now on I will start buying speakers from another company. I was just about to pull the trigger on 2 Sonos Fives for my turntable , but now I have second thoughts. I have been looking around and there are many new interesting speakers on the market. I will try to find a brand that doesn’t  change the sound profile after a year or two 🙈

I feel like the tone of this thread is too forgiving, If you bought a Ferrari then overnight they decide to turn it in to a Skoda without warning, and, intentionally too. Seriously what the **** Sonos

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

Irreversible sound profile changes should be left for the next new product launch. People that have bought the existing model, it should be assumed for a thing like a speaker, bought it for the way it sounded when they bought it.

I would like to know if this problem is impacting all generations of Sonos Subs.  I have an Arc and a Gen 2 Sub.  Is the problem the same for Gen 1, 2 and 3 Subs or does it only impact combinations of Arc and certain Generations of Subs?

Have a listen!

Since the update, the sub sounds "one note". Sounds greater or less than the one note are lost, and setting the sub level is difficult, because it depends on the source material. There are response curves around that back this up 

The centre sounds like it's coming from a cardboard box. Or a plastic box. Like a TV speaker.

The surrounds to me sound like they are not diverting bass to the sub, and their volume level is non linear. So low level surround effects are lost and high level are too loud. It's as if they made a mistake with levels when they changed the overall volume response curve (which they did), leaving the surrounds and sub on the old curve. So the placement of sounds is lost.

My Beam with no sub and no surrounds is an easier listen.

My Daughter uses a Play:1 and was mulling over a voice activated Sonos for her, we mainly use them with Spotify and Alexa.

The Amazon Alexa Studio Speaker looks interesting, same price give or take as a One.

We use whole house occasionally with Sonos but not enough to justify buying an ARC and all the problems that come with it. Downside to that is I have a redundant Sub and Surrounds.

Such a shame the route Sonos has taken with their flagship soundbar, 6 months ago it would have been a no brainer upgrade for our Playbar.

 I am a big fan of Echo tech as a front end and all my 5 Sonos zones are now driven by Echo Dot or Show units, leaving Sonos as dumb speakers of the legacy type for the most part. Even a play 1 pair+ Sub set up is on those lines, with a Connect in between for just its line in jacks.

But I would not recommend Studio without a good audition. Once used to the natural sound of the Play 1, the Studio can take some getting used to.

I do not like the new sound profile either.  I find movies in 5.1 are not affected as badly… but  TV shows and 2.0 feeds, these programs sound flat, lifeless and remind me of an old school sound, like my old 13 inch black and white TV with a mono speaker.   The vocals are reasonably clearer, but at the cost of the overall sound impact, this in not a good compromise.

Sonos, please allow for a “toggle” to allow the profile to be restored to previous settings, or revert back.

Dear Sonos crew,

We do appreciate your statement regarding the 14.12 firmware and the acknowledged problems with it. However we would like to kindly ask you to inform us again when a new firmware with possible fix will rollout. Will it take days, months or never happen.

I think a lot of your customers will be satisfied and wait quietly, if we have information, instead of writing negative comments in this forum or refreshing for updates several times per day. Show us some respect and prove that you care! As I mentioned in my other post, you biggest competitor never fixed their firmware problems and that transformed into closing their forums with many angry customers left behind (also ruined reputation).
Make a statement, it will cost you nothing, only respect and customer care!

Thank you in advance!
 

Thank you msf! Hope sonos support will provide an official update now. 

Amen

Absolute garbage customer support. 

And still nothing..

Like I said months ago, talking to Sonos support is just like talking to a wall.

Sonos support told me today that they are aware of the problem and are working on it, and plan to release a new update soon.

I hope you are right

This was the case a month ago, too. 

Are Sonos even aware that it’s not just a sub issue, but also the terrible new sound signature of the ARC?

I’m asking because from their response it looks like they think everything is fine except for the sub. 

Оne thing is for sure, you won't get an official answer. I say this from personal experience :)