Changes to volume mapping and impact on Sub output
Thank you for your feedback regarding the recent 14.12 software update with Enhanced Clarity for Arc.
In this update, we made a change to Arc’s audio profile to improve dialogue clarity and the overall sound experience. This change is based on feedback from our listeners in the field and brings Arc in line with our other Home Theater products, resulting in a more accurate representation of the sound as intended by the content creator.
The updated tuning adjusts the spectral balance of Arc+Sub to achieve a more accurate representation of the sound and an improved sound experience. While the Arc+Sub output capability remains the same, the mapping of volume across the 0-100% range has been adjusted with this release which means low and mid volume levels are relatively lower compared to the previous tuning so you may need to adjust the volume slider to achieve your pre-update volume level. The maximum volume and bass output are unchanged. We acknowledge that this change was not made more clear in the release notes and in the future we’ll be sure to make sure we communicate these rare changes more effectively.
Please note, we have identified an issue for some users of Arc, Beam and Ray whose configuration includes a Sub (with or without surrounds), who may find their Sub output is lower than desired after performing a new Trueplay tuning.
Users with Beam or Ray bonded with Sub can increase the Sub level for a more powerful low-end response, however this won’t have the same impact for Arc users. Customers using Arc bonded with a Sub (and/or surrounds) who find their Sub output is lower than desired following performing a new Trueplay tuning, should temporarily disable Trueplay on Arc until this is addressed by an upcoming software update.
Trueplay tunings for Home Theater configurations without a bonded Sub are unaffected, including standalone soundbars and those bonded with surrounds only.
If you would like any assistance adjusting the sound of your Home Theater setup, the community is here to help. You can also contact Sonos support.
Moderation edit:
With the 14.18 software update, the above mentioned issues have been addressed, and the Enhanced Clarity for Arc adjustments are retained. There was a clear preference within our community for the previous volume settings, and these have been restored. This will be apparent immediately after updating to 14.18. The Trueplay issue has been fixed. Customers who experienced a lower Sub level after performing Trueplay after updating to 14.12 will need to update their systems and then perform a new Trueplay tuning in order to address these improvements in their system. Customers will hear a more powerful low end response, meaning any Sub level adjustments made after 14.12 should no longer be required.
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“618 replies and 60583 views”
This is the current number as i am writing my reply, do Sonos really understand how many customers they have disappointed till now and how many other possible leads might have avoided to buy their top-range products due to the ongoing issue!
With their every 3rd Tuesday (a month) release cycle, they are expecting their consumers to wait for 3 months (possibly 18th October) for a high priority and severe issue. No wonder their stocks are steeping down.
Killing their flagships just to sell the new Sub Minis. If they really think, this could save them to sky-rocket their stocks, they are fooler than us. A happy customer base and trust gives you the rewards and not some flashy tricks.
I have already started warning my friends to stay away from Sonos for their home theatre choices. I wish i could say all of this on the face to Patrick Spence (CEO). Wouldn’t have expected the fix still, but would have atleast seen the shame in his eyes.
Just updated to 14.16 as my system is broken anyway
Good news is it's no worse
Bad news is it's still the same
Guessing this is tweaks to the new sub mini which I will never buy
I really hope someone takes this to court soon. Unfortunately, we have limited rights here in Sweden as you have to complain to the store you bought the equipment from within a year. We don't have much opportunity to take Sonos to court. I dont accept paying 5000 euro and have the sound destroyed even for one day! And what we are looking at right now is rather three months! Totally unacceptable! Sonos have to roll back to 14.10!
I just tried switching truplay on with the new 14.16 update and while the arc becomes slightly less tinny it still makes the sub invisible sigh...
I was calm about the issue when it first arose, thinking that Sonos’s Dev/Solutions team would be on this swiftly. Especially given that TruePlay is a huge selling point for your system. However now nearly 2 months has passed and not a single thing has changed to improve the situation. This is unacceptable.
I do like Sonos throughout my house, but as far as Home Theater is concerned - I have now been pondering and researching some very nice discrete setups. Sure it would cost me more than your 5.1.2 setup I currently use, but the best part is there is no way; the discrete setup I’m looking at, for it to break my EQ curve on some poorly deployed software update.
Any chance you are willing to share these findings with us, perhaps through personal mail as Sonos will certainly interfere instead of, you know, spending time on fixing their products. I’m pretty sure most of us are looking to dump our Sonos set-ups in favor of something developed by a competent company or one that is willing to accept mistakes and prioritise solutions, or at the very least try o avoid owning a system by a company that doesn’t fall under these categories and retains the ability to tank their products with one single update while playing stupid pertaining to its’ solution, which is **literally** just an older version of the firmware they’re refusing to roll out again or give their customers the choice to use at the very least.
I’m willing to invest a lot of money (that I’d rather burn than drop on another Sonos product in my life) to prevent myself from ever being in this position or in any kind of way dependent of a company like Sonos, or its’ firmware, for my ability to hear decent audio. Seriously, even if they gifted all of us a free mini sub (which I think could make a nice little bin for my toilet come to think of it), I’d still not recommend Sonos to anyone ever again or walk away from the decision I have made to get rid of all of their products from my household and urge everyone to avoid that dumpster fire.
My own morals are the only thing preventing me from screwing someone else over with it atm more than any presumed affinity for the set-up, or further belief in Sonos to fix this fiasco or desire to continue using it. The only reason it’s not in an actual dumpster is because I could get more money for it if they do manage the fix, which I can then use to invest in any of their competitors. For me, Sonos is banned from my house. If anything, I think Sonos deserves absolute bankruptcy, a major part of their employees permanent joblessness in the audio industry due to sheer incompetence and by the looks of their stock, LMAO, that’s not too far off anyway.
What is taking so long? Let us at least rull back to 14.10 while you are working on a fix.
Are we who own the Arc and sub the ones who are effected for Sonos working on software for the mini sub?
I really hope someone takes this to court soon. Unfortunately, we have limited rights here in Sweden as you have to complain to the store you bought the equipment from within a year. We don't have much opportunity to take Sonos to court. I dont accept paying 5000 euro and have the sound destroyed even for one day! And what we are looking at right now is rather three months! Totally unacceptable! Sonos have to roll back to 14.10!
You’re absolutely right. We’re way too patient. It’s been since the beginning of this year that we have an unfunctional system (including the drop-out rears and sub that took maybe 3 months to get fixed too).
The disrespectful replies from Sonos are beyond unacceptable.
Their response in other words is basically: “We already got your money, so we can do whatever we want and when we want. If we want your system to sound like complete garbage, that’s the way it’s gonna be.”
I know the situation isn't good but some of you are being very dramatic
I’m amazed this isn’t getting more media attention. I don’t really feel those at the company are in any rush. Clearly its 5-10min exercise to roll back a software update . Sorry guys but super lame. Don’t think you need 3 months LOL
(putting ones head above the parapet)…
I’m really not surprised by the lack of media interest in this topic …simply because for a good many users, it seems the workaround of switching off Trueplay on the HT room has worked for them and of course many Android users do not have the Trueplay feature available/enabled on their system anyway.
So I can’t personally see many media outlets being all that interested, as the evidence supplied by other independents, like Peter Pee on YouTube, for example, support the workaround option that the Sonos Staff offered from the very beginning of this thread.
That’s also despite Peter Pee’s own early criticism of the HT changes. He does go onto provide frequency charts from his own tests to show the positive (compelling) effect of disabling Trueplay to return the frequency response to what was in the 14.10 build, or as near as dammit - So for me, it’s now just perhaps a case of waiting patiently, as Sonos say, they are still working on the issue.
Of course a few will continue to complain here, that’s inevitable, but there are probably far more important things for the media to report on at the moment.
I would just say however, if the suggestions mentioned by Staff in this thread do not work for you personally, then maybe resort to submitting the usual system diagnostic report and see if contacting Sonos Support can assist, as you may just ‘coincidentally’ have another separate underlying issue with your product(s) and it’s always worth getting these things checked and looking into.
At least I see that as better than complaining, or waiting for a fix that may not resolve your issue, if it does turn out to be another separate matter entirely in your own case.
( …and duck!)
Folks i told you, it’s clear now. They did it on purpose because of their new product and they ain't gonna to fix it by rolling back or updating soon. It’s cheaper for them to produce this mini sh.. and probably the profit will be better. If they sound almost identical with this firmware and the mini is cheaper, which one are the regular customers going to buy? Everybody knows the answer. They are not the company they used to be. I’m 100% sure that every system is affected, but because of sub placement or peoples understanding of sound, some say they are not. They knew how it’s going to sound before 14.12. Thats the ugly truth!!!
Sorry, that is not the truth, ugly or otherwise.
@Ken_Griffiths unfotunately staying quiet rarely causes anything to change
And as these forums are for both helping users and praising sonos products the reverse can also be said
This is the only way our opinions can be heard I have rang support and found it very basic and not much help in fact I have had more luck with fixes here
I understand you have had nothing but good experiences with your system but a lot of us haven't
You can stop ducking I have been as polite as you have been
Sorry, that is not the truth, ugly or otherwise.
That’s a statement as a forum user, or as camouflaged sonos employee?
Furious I ever spent a dime on this company with the way they’ve completely run us all over. It’s clear the issue arose because of their new sub mini, and because they care more about selling those to new customers than taking care of their existing customers, they won’t change.
Sell what you have and get far, far away from this mess.
Folks i told you, it’s clear now. They did it on purpose because of their new product and they ain't gonna to fix it by rolling back or updating soon. It’s cheaper for them to produce this mini sh.. and probably the profit will be better. If they sound almost identical with this firmware and the mini is cheaper, which one are the regular customers going to buy?
You believe that despite the significantly lower sales price and the need to recoup development costs for the Sonos mini, the profit margin is higher for the mini than it is for the full size sub? They intentionally sabotaged the sound quality of the full sub to push people into buying the mini instead?
If this were true, then why would Sonos allow only one mini per HT room, while they allow 2 full subs? And why wouldn’t they just stop selling the full sub, or raise the price, if profit margin was an issue with the full sub?
I think I would lose my current employment, if I was also working for Sonos. That would be bad.
Not to mention that Sonos employees are required to have a Sonos descriptor on their accounts…
Sorry, that is not the truth, ugly or otherwise.
That’s a statement as a forum user, or as camouflaged sonos employee?
Sonos employees are clearly marked.
Are you an actual customer, or are you really a Bose spy attempting to sabotage a competitor?
Folks i told you, it’s clear now. They did it on purpose because of their new product and they ain't gonna to fix it by rolling back or updating soon. It’s cheaper for them to produce this mini sh.. and probably the profit will be better. If they sound almost identical with this firmware and the mini is cheaper, which one are the regular customers going to buy?
You believe that despite the significantly lower sales price and the need to recoup development costs for the Sonos mini, the profit margin is higher for the mini than it is for the full size sub? They intentionally sabotaged the sound quality of the full sub to push people into buying the mini instead?
If this were true, then why would Sonos allow only one mini per HT room, while they allow 2 full subs? And why wouldn’t they just stop selling the full sub, or raise the price, if profit margin was an issue with the full sub?
2 subs option was not available either in the past for the regular ones. Can’t see the future to answer you regarding the mini, but thats not the point of this treat.
Hi all,
Later today there will be a software release and whilst we have been working to deliver the fix you have been waiting for, it’s not ready yet.
We understand that it’s disappointing that this has not yet been resolved.
We can assure you that we’re working on making sure the Sub performs as it’s expected, and we’ll let you know as soon as there is any news.
This is extremely disappointing. I bought the Arc+Sub Gen3+2 One SL for the first time from Sonos for a premium without knowing the implications of the new firmware that had just been released, I ended up updating it to the 14.12 as soon as it was unboxed and setup for the first time. I was so ignorant to the extent I was proudly telling my family that Sonos is taking care of the updates automatically unlike other systems in the market. If only I had known, i could have stayed with the 14.10 update that all of you are referring to. I didn’t even get an opportunity to see a demo in the place where i live. I had to do so much selling to my family only with the reviews I had gone through to decide on this huge investment. But to my utter dissatisfaction and to my family’s great disappointment, the system is sounding like a third rated sound system. I was still convincing my people that Sonos would be releasing a patch soon and this problem would get sorted out. But to my disappointment, this issue is not fixed even by today’s release and the worst part is is none of you from Sonos are not really bothered or cared to even issue an official communication with a clear timeline on when this issue would get fixed. This lethargic attitude can only happen if the company does not care about their customers or they have decided to shut down the business shortly. I regret my choice to invest on the Sonos product.
Furious I ever spent a dime on this company with the way they’ve completely run us all over. It’s clear the issue arose because of their new sub mini, and because they care more about selling those to new customers than taking care of their existing customers, they won’t change.
Sell what you have and get far, far away from this mess.
The sub mini has been requested for years by existing customers. I’m sure there are also some folks who don’t own Sonos gear yet, and the Sonos mini got them off the fence, too.
Sorry, that is not the truth, ugly or otherwise.
That’s a statement as a forum user, or as camouflaged sonos employee?
Sonos employees are clearly marked.
Are you an actual customer, or are you really a Bose spy attempting to sabotage a competitor?
You can check my invoice for 3000EUR. Straight to the full setup and now super disappointed!
Folks i told you, it’s clear now. They did it on purpose because of their new product and they ain't gonna to fix it by rolling back or updating soon. It’s cheaper for them to produce this mini sh.. and probably the profit will be better. If they sound almost identical with this firmware and the mini is cheaper, which one are the regular customers going to buy?
You believe that despite the significantly lower sales price and the need to recoup development costs for the Sonos mini, the profit margin is higher for the mini than it is for the full size sub? They intentionally sabotaged the sound quality of the full sub to push people into buying the mini instead?
If this were true, then why would Sonos allow only one mini per HT room, while they allow 2 full subs? And why wouldn’t they just stop selling the full sub, or raise the price, if profit margin was an issue with the full sub?
2 subs option was not available either in the past for the regular ones. Can’t see the future to answer you regarding the mini, but thats not the point of this treat.
The tech/method for doing it exists now. Why not take the supposed extra profit now? Or at least let customers know that it’s coming in the future, the way they let customers know Google Assistant support was coming to drive sales now. Sonos stated to the media that the reason you can’t have two minis is because it would not have the volume output of a single full sub, and customers are better off just getting the sub.
For the 2 guys above with exactly the same style of signatures and thousands and thousands of posts who don’t work for sonos.
14.16 firmware and hardware update out now. Where is the continued whinging?
For the 2 guys above with exactly the same style of signatures and thousands and thousands of posts who don’t work for sonos.
You’ve already been told they don’t work for Sonos. Continuing to allude to them as such is considered flaming, and will get your posts deleted.