Trueplay Bass Distortion on Play:1

Dear friends

I have been testing this issue with Sonos over the phone for over a month and this is whats happening:

The Play: 1 and Sonos One are limited to the amount of bass they can produce due to their compact size. Sonos has added a limiter inside these speakers to prevent them from breaking. This popping/distortion is actually the limiter doing its job when it detects a bass tone to high for the speaker to produce. It's always been there. The reason we are all noticing it more now is that with Trueplay enabled the levels become different causing the limiter to usually trigger between 25% - 50% volume levels on these certain bass tones, anything over 50% the limiter is changing the bass tones altogether so you don't hear it just trying to stop a single bass tone.

So what now? I have just turned off Trueplay and I'm enjoying the way they sound without it. as for a fix, I have been told that a feature request for the way the limiter responses to bass tones have been written up, there was only one downside... I was told that it probably wouldn't happen right away unless a lot more customers were experiencing this issue. So If you experience this call it in and let them know you don't like the way the limiter is causing a popping/distortion sound in the Play: 1 and Sonos One.

I just got myself a new Play: 3 and it does not have this issue. This seems to be strictly a Play: 1 and Sonos One issue due to its size.

If anyone has any questions for me feel free to ask.

P.S. I still love these speakers by the way. Hopefully, Sonos will hear us and figure something out

I have had this problem for some time, two Play 1's but only one experiencing poor bass response or 'clipping' even at relatively low volumes. This happens whether using TruePlay tuning or not and with identical EQ settings on both units. Not sure if this is the case for anyone else but the solution was very simple for me. The unit affected was on the worktop in the kitchen, within close proximity to the power socket. As such I coiled the power cord and cable tied it in a nice neat bundle out of sight behind the unit. It occurred to me that the only difference between the kitchen unit and the unaffected living room unit was this cable arrangement. I've uncoiled the cord and done another TruePlay retune and hey presto, nice deep bass (deep for a Play 1 anyway) with no clipping/popping even at much higher volumes. The units now seem very much aligned in terms of sound quality. I assumed units like these would be shielded from electrical interference but clearly not where a cable is coiled and so close to the rear of the unit. Hope this is of some help to others.

I have exactly this too. It's since updating the software to Trueplay. The low drum notes distort, sound bloated and overpowered and then get pulled back a little. It's also like a low popping noise.

It's not dissimilar from poor quality streams or low digital sources, but my sources are lossless and any case sounded fine before. Turning off trueplay just makes the sound overall bad, so I really want this sorted!
Hello Detailme, this is very odd. The update will not change in any way the sound unless you use TruePlay. Also, when TruePlay is turned off the Sonos speaker should be returned back to the way it was.
I would like more information about your Sonos device and the device in question. Mind submitting a diagnostic and replying with the confirmation number? Here's an article explaining how: How to Submit Diagnostic

Hello Max p, thank you for your reply. Ok I have two Play 1's, one is worse that the other. This is the diagnostic number for the worst one:5273094

Couple of things to note, I have tried to retune trueplay several times but it is still the same.
As I mentioned above, with trueplay off, the sound is very flat. The sound was great on the last software (pre trueplay). Many thanks

Chris

Thanks for the info, from the diagnostics I can see that the Bass on one of the players has been increased and on the other player it is set to 0 (normal setting), could you try and play around with the equalizer settings on the players to see if you get any Bass changes.

I am experiencing something similar with both of my Play 1s. The bass sounds fine, but speaker regularly "pops" on kick drum beats as if the woofer were hitting maximum excursion. This even happens at relatively low level making me wonder if there is some sub-sonic thing going on that is maxing out the woofer, or some other issue. I'm going to try turning off the true play and experimenting with the EQ to see what effect that has, but there is definitely something going on that is not just a room resonance etc.

Thanks for the details ctx. It sounds like you'd be best off giving us a call on our support line so a technician can investigate further. They'll be happy to assist further.

Yes, I too have noticed the occasional 'popping' on the Play-1 speaker. It's like the base has gone beyond its limit and almost sounds like the speaker is damaged. It seems to be intermittent.

I have 5 x Play 1’s. (Two as a stereo pair in the dining room, one in the kitchen, one in the bedroom and another in the downstairs hallway).

I fist noticed it in the kitchen, so I have just swapped that speaker with my hallway one, to see if it reoccurs.

I admit though I like to turn the bass and treble up full on all my Sonos speakers ... So it maybe my own fault... I rarely however go beyond 3/4 volume and have never pushed them to their volume-limit.

I now need to recall what music track I was playing and also I need to test things again with the bass and treble reset to their default.

Does anyone know how to find out if a speaker is actually damaged in anyway... Just wondering if there is any diagnostic results/information somewhere on the
http://(IP address):1400/status pages?

Does anyone know how to find out if a speaker is actually damaged in anyway... Just wondering if there is any diagnostic results/information somewhere on the
http://(IP address):1400/status pages?
I doubt that would identify any kind of physical damage, but IMO this isn't a case of the drive unit hitting the limits of its suspension. The popping can occur at all volume levels.

And in my experience the several PLAY:1s I've noticed this on play fine once Trueplay is disabled.

When it comes to sound I'm not very technical in regards to the hardware, but my thoughts were that the resistance level across the speaker or coil temperature might somehow show something if it was monitored/logged... or perhaps if Sonos monitor the level of 'current' or 'temperature' in the coil. It was just a thought really. There must be some way of telling if the sound is not quite correct and the cone is not moving correctly on occasions.

It is true, that I have only just recently noticed this issue when sat listening to music quietly in my kitchen and it is correct to say that I certainly have trueplay enabled on all my speakers. If I switch trueplay off I appear to notice a lack of 'clarity' in the sound and so I have left it on for now.

I don't know if 'clarity' is the best choice of word again, but the sound becomes slightly 'fuzzy' or 'muffled' with it off ... I only really notice the difference as I toggle the on/off button in the settings.

I'm not claiming to understand the technical side of things here, but i certainly have heard this 'popping' of the base speaker occasionally. Now I have swapped my speakers over, in the kitchen, I am hoping to eventually replicate the sound I hear again on my speaker and once I can pin it down, I will try it both with trueplay on and off. I will also toggle the 'loudness' button in the EQ settings to see if I can narrow it down.

I do have a pair of PLAY-5’s (older Gen 1) in my living room (set as a stereo pair) and I have never noticed the issue at all with those. They too have trueplay enabled and the bass slider set to its highest level. So it just appears to be on my Play 1 speaker at the moment.

I just hope it's not any kind of internal damage to my play 1 speaker (now in the hallway) as I suspect it is just out of warranty. Having said that, it is very intermittent that I notice this occasional drop/slap/pop... I wish I could describe it better!!!

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I'd still like to recommend that if you're seeing this behavior it'd be great to give us a call on our support line so a technician can investigate further. We've done a lot of testing on Trueplay and are always looking for more feedback. If there is something here we'd be happy to take a closer look. Any suspected software or hardware issue would be best worked through over the phones so we can get the feedback to the right teams.

Ryan,

If I had a perfect listening ear and could find a way to easily replicate this issue, I would happily call Sonos Customer Support (who I have a very high regard for) and try to address the issue, but in fact it is, (as far as I can tell at this moment in time) an intermittent problem... and personally, I have tried to address the problem myself by swapping my Play-1 speakers over, between rooms/zones and by reducing the bass slider bar, which admittedly, I usually have set to its highest level.

I would presently feel a little uneasy to call Sonos Support and not be able to replicate the problem... I even struggle to adequately describe the sound I heard.

However... I will continue to research this problem and if I can replicate the problem I will certainly call the helpline.

My Play-1 Speaker, at the time that I first noticed this, just the other day, was in the kitchen zone, with trueplay enabled and the bass/treble slider bars both set to their max, with loudness also set to 'on' by default.

Today, I have gone to what I believe was the playlist that I was listening to at the time that I first noticed this issue, which was Apple Music's "Top Songs" Playlist, using ALL GENRES, here in the UK. The playlist begins with Work (featuring Drake) by Rihanna and ends with Again by Fetty Wap ... A total of 100 songs in all, but to the best of my recollection, the 'distortion' sound occurred within the first 20 tracks.

My wife and I had guests/visitors at the time at our home, so I'm not sure which track(s) we were listening to. I believe I had also grouped some speakers together across two zones at least, but it was the single Play-1 kitchen speaker where I noticed the issue ... It sounded like the cone was broken/a sort of 'burst' speaker slapping base noise. (I've tried to describe it as best as I can). I thought my speaker was damaged/broken in some way and I went onto immediately reduce the bass slider bar for that zone, hoping no-one would notice.

I have randomly and manually selected a few of the songs from the Apple playlist today, in my efforts to reproduce the noise, but so far I have not had any success. (Typical) and that's why I have described it as an 'intermittent problem'.

I plan to do some more research/playing of the playlist songs in the next few days to see if I can find the song that replicates the sound I heard.

If I can go on to reproduce this easily, then I will happily call Sonos support. I hope that helps. At the moment I would feel like I am wasting the time of the technicians, particularly, as I don't currently have enough detail to reproduce the problem with ease.

Ken Griffiths

Thanks for the update Ken. Let us know how it goes.

Don't waste your time with the Network Matrix. I've noted this issue on a wired PLAY:1. The problem has nothing to do with the network; something isn't quite right in the PLAY:1's audio pipeline when Trueplay is engaged. PLAY:1 already relies quite heavily on DSP to account for its audio performance. Trueplay, under some conditions, on some content, appears to push it over the edge and trigger what sounds rather like bass clipping.

Could it be a compression issue?
Not directly, but lossy encode/decode could exacerbate the problem since peak levels can increase as a result.

explain how thousands of other Play 1 owners aren't getting the same issue.
Read back through the thread. Certain combinations of content and Trueplay compensation profile appear to be the trigger. Since everyone's room is different it could well be that it only affects a small proportion of installation situations.

The Play:1 delivers far better sound quality than any BT speaker. You have a defective unit, or are not accustomed to accurate speakers.

http://stereos.about.com/od/Wireless/ss/Sonos-Play1-Measurements.htm


I've just been listening to a Trueplay'd stereo pair of Play:1s attached to Flexon floor stands, positioned up close to a wall in a fairly large room, playing "The Flow" by Melanie De Biasio [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niORGSImsbI ] streaming from Google Play Music. A long time ago I used to listen to a bunch of audiophile stuff, and I can only marvel at how the above Sonos setup can sound so ridiculously good for the very little it cost me.

I realise this is of no help whatsoever for those experiencing problems, so sorry for that, but there you go - some deserved positive feedback from me for a change!