Beyond thrilled to receive the new Sonos Arc. True played my room and I have loudness on as well connected to LG B8 using Tidal and Spotify. Most of the sound range is phenomenal, aside from the bass. At even half volume the woofers are extremely muddy and sound terrible. Not sure if this is because I have under two hours of use but I wasn’t expecting to have to break-in the speaker. I own set of speakers next to it in the same room (KEF LS50W) and the difference is night and day. There have also been posts on Reddit regarding this issue. It is interesting given no reviewers have mentioned this issue but more than a few recipients have. Has anyone else experienced similar issues? Turning loudness off helps but it is disappointing for such a highly anticipated product.
I’ll just throw this out there for consideration. If this problem does turn out to be hardware and not fixable view software, returning the Arc is certainly one option. However, I might be willing to accept buying a Sub to address the issue as long as a very steep discount is provided. I realize that this will not be acceptable to folks who don’t want a Sub for various reasons.
Very steep would be 50% for me. I will take it.
I’d like to chime in that after trying out many songs people mentioned in this thread at ~50% volume, I don’t experience any issues with the bass. Not here to gloat or anything, but I just wanted to voice that not all Arc soundbars have this issue. And if you are on the fence about purchasing one because you are reading about this problem, you can still choose to roll the dice, see if you are affected and need to return. In fact my brand new CX TV’s built-in speaker has the exact issue with the bass which was what prompted me to buy the Arc in the first place. I am glad that my Arc doesn’t do this.
I thought this to but then I did the toy story 3 test at 60-70% volume At 2:58 and it’s there clear as day can you try that ?
cheers!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yVm7Pc7fqjpm8sGegQKgPvQPyzByZxVH/view?usp=sharing
Penetrator at 50% volume. True play on and bass at zero. Recorded from 1m away
Thats terrible. My airpods are far better.
Dang those sound terrible. Like the tweeters are trying to push the bass instead of the woofers.
The rtings review should be interesting, I notice it has now been purchased:
https://www.rtings.com/soundbar/suggestions
I’ll just throw this out there for consideration. If this problem does turn out to be hardware and not fixable view software, returning the Arc is certainly one option. However, I might be willing to accept buying a Sub to address the issue as long as a very steep discount is provided. I realize that this will not be acceptable to folks who don’t want a Sub for various reasons.
Very steep would be 50% for me. I will take it.
50% at least… ;-)
Is there any way that anyone can share a recording of what this sounds like, somehow?
Here, have a listen, its the same song on Arc and Play5
Bass Drops by Bass Boosted Beats on Amazon Music
This is exactly what is happening for me.
This song plays much better on my Stereo Sonos Ones. Arc really sounds garbage.
I took apart my 5.1 setup in our media room and just played the Arc on that TV (the tv is actually older so no atmos) but I noticed less bass bottoming out.
I added the sub and of course it sounded much better so I'm wondering if there's something on the TV that needs to be adjusted that is passing through some settings to the soundbar it shouldn't... like 'optimized' sound or 'amplify' (samsung has these) but those options are disabled when I connect the Arc to my normal nice Samsung TV in our living room. Maybe it's a bug where those sound effects are still carrying through... I dont know for certain.
There were still some times where it sounded like it bottomed out though, specifically when I watch or test things like movie trailers that have heavy bass or sound during the clips. (These clips are pulled from Dolby Digital trailer sites so they are reporting DD+ Atmos or TrueHD (which I know I wont get TrueHD to work but it still does DD+5.1)
I feel like I have to test more and more with different setups to see, which in all honesty kind of stinks because the Playbar sound was just so great out of the box without any additional tinkering.
My previous recording has a bit low volume, so it’s not too easy to hear. I’ve remembered the perfect song to find out if your unit is affected:
Fort Minor - Remember the Name (feat. Styles of Beyond)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/de1v8v8heunhxqi/RememberTheName-PLAY5.m4a?dl=0
Arc 50% Volume.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/il1m9kt134k9rsq/RememberTheName-ARC.m4a?dl=0
Wow brutal. Hopefully they are able to push a software fix ASAP.
Thanks for all the great details everyone! We really appreciate what you’ve shared so far. The engineering team is looking into this right now and they’ve been able to reproduce it using your feedback. They’re working on a software fix for it now.
I’ll let you know when there’s more to share. I don’t have a timeline right now as they’re just getting started, but hopefully it won’t be long.
As of now, we don’t need more details on this one, but I’ll let you know if the team determines they need some more data.
Thanks again!
I just got my second one for my bedroom, this one came from PA the first one came from CA. The new one has the same issue. I do not have any subs or rears setup with the new one. At first I thought it didn’t have the issue but after trying a few more movies I started to notice it. Then after tuning it it got worse.
I just tried playing Spotify, 2pac - Changes after moving it to another room on another TV and I had it up to 80% and the soundbar sounded fantastic.
I’m going to move it back to the newer Samsung (2017) that it was on before and it was having the low bass issues. Not sure if these posts are helping or not but just trying to track any adjustments I’m doing and noticing the differences.
Through my testing with the sub and minus the sub… adding it makes all the difference. It removes the need for the Arc to punch as hard and any clips/movie scenes that were noted in this thread or on Reddit I’ve tested and without the sub I have similar experiences but when I add the sub it doesn’t pop/bottom out at all.
With that, I would hope that means a software update could fix this if the bass is being pushed too hard for the Arc at certain frequencies. It’s very obvious if I have the sub + Arc that things sound exactly as I would expect and when I disable teh sub and play the same clips again that the bass bottoms back out.
Thanks for all the great details everyone! We really appreciate what you’ve shared so far. The engineering team is looking into this right now and they’ve been able to reproduce it using your feedback. They’re working on a software fix for it now.
I’ll let you know when there’s more to share. I don’t have a timeline right now as they’re just getting started, but hopefully it won’t be long.
As of now, we don’t need more details on this one, but I’ll let you know if the team determines they need some more data.
Thanks again!
You guys rock!
Thanks, Ryan. Very impressed at your team’s responsiveness to the issue. Looking forward to getting that update!
Is there any way that anyone can share a recording of what this sounds like, somehow?
Here, have a listen, its the same song on Arc and Play5
Bass Drops by Bass Boosted Beats on Amazon Music
This is exactly what is happening for me.
This song plays much better on my Stereo Sonos Ones. Arc really sounds garbage.
I unpaired my sub and am not hearing what you did on Bass Drops. It doesn’t bottom out. Do you need to play it at a really high volume to reproduce this?
EDIT: Glad a software fix is coming.
Thanks for all the great details everyone! We really appreciate what you’ve shared so far. The engineering team is looking into this right now and they’ve been able to reproduce it using your feedback. They’re working on a software fix for it now.
I’ll let you know when there’s more to share. I don’t have a timeline right now as they’re just getting started, but hopefully it won’t be long.
As of now, we don’t need more details on this one, but I’ll let you know if the team determines they need some more data.
Thanks again!
Thanks for the fast response, Ryan. Got to say, I’m impressed with Sonos jumping in and QUICKLY admitting there’s a potential issue. Mine will be arriving and I'll be anxiously waiting to see if 1) there's a problem with mine and 2) if Sonos is able to come up with a fix.
Thanks for all the great details everyone! We really appreciate what you’ve shared so far. The engineering team is looking into this right now and they’ve been able to reproduce it using your feedback. They’re working on a software fix for it now.
I’ll let you know when there’s more to share. I don’t have a timeline right now as they’re just getting started, but hopefully it won’t be long.
As of now, we don’t need more details on this one, but I’ll let you know if the team determines they need some more data.
Thanks again!
Thank you for the quick work on this.
My only concern now, is why are only some users affected by this? Do we have physically different soundbars that sound worse than those who do not expeirence the issue? Is my soundbar being reduced in function with this fix compared to others, or are they all the same and some people are missing something in their software?
A breakdown of what was fixed after this would help put these fears to rest, if possible?
Thanks for all the great details everyone! We really appreciate what you’ve shared so far. The engineering team is looking into this right now and they’ve been able to reproduce it using your feedback. They’re working on a software fix for it now.
I’ll let you know when there’s more to share. I don’t have a timeline right now as they’re just getting started, but hopefully it won’t be long.
As of now, we don’t need more details on this one, but I’ll let you know if the team determines they need some more data.
Thanks again!
Thank you for the quick work on this.
My only concern now, is why are only some users affected by this? Do we have physically different soundbars that sound worse than those who do not expeirence the issue? Is my soundbar being reduced in function with this fix compared to others, or are they all the same and some people are missing something in their software?
A breakdown of what was fixed after this would help put these fears to rest, if possible?
My guess might be different ears or different expectations. Those not having the issue, have they had Sonos products in the past? Do they have a Beam or Playbar? Lots of variables.
My wife for example said, ‘isn’t that how it’s supposed to sound? isn’t that the loud bass like the media room with the beam + subwoofer?’
At least that’s what I’m hoping. Once the software update is out, if it does indeed fix it for those who were reporting the issue I would chalk it up to people having different expectations/listening ears, etc.
Thanks for all the great details everyone! We really appreciate what you’ve shared so far. The engineering team is looking into this right now and they’ve been able to reproduce it using your feedback. They’re working on a software fix for it now.
I’ll let you know when there’s more to share. I don’t have a timeline right now as they’re just getting started, but hopefully it won’t be long.
As of now, we don’t need more details on this one, but I’ll let you know if the team determines they need some more data.
Thanks again!
Thank you for the quick work on this.
My only concern now, is why are only some users affected by this? Do we have physically different soundbars that sound worse than those who do not expeirence the issue? Is my soundbar being reduced in function with this fix compared to others, or are they all the same and some people are missing something in their software?
A breakdown of what was fixed after this would help put these fears to rest, if possible?
My guess might be different ears or different expectations. Those not having the issue, have they had Sonos products in the past? Do they have a Beam or Playbar? Lots of variables.
My wife for example said, ‘isn’t that how it’s supposed to sound? isn’t that the loud bass like the media room with the beam + subwoofer?’
At least that’s what I’m hoping. Once the software update is out, if it does indeed fix it for those who were reporting the issue I would chalk it up to people having different expectations/listening ears, etc.
I really doubt it. Having a single Sonos One sound better than an $800 sound bar (as another reported) really isn’t acceptable. A lot of these reports were coming from people that have other Sonos products. 40-50% volume on bass heavy music shouldn’t make speakers sound like muddled garbage. You could clearly hear it even over cell phone recordings.
Thanks for all the great details everyone! We really appreciate what you’ve shared so far. The engineering team is looking into this right now and they’ve been able to reproduce it using your feedback. They’re working on a software fix for it now.
I’ll let you know when there’s more to share. I don’t have a timeline right now as they’re just getting started, but hopefully it won’t be long.
As of now, we don’t need more details on this one, but I’ll let you know if the team determines they need some more data.
Thanks again!
Don’t suppose you can help me out referencing my post on here. Not got anywhere with technical su
Thanks for all the great details everyone! We really appreciate what you’ve shared so far. The engineering team is looking into this right now and they’ve been able to reproduce it using your feedback. They’re working on a software fix for it now.
I’ll let you know when there’s more to share. I don’t have a timeline right now as they’re just getting started, but hopefully it won’t be long.
As of now, we don’t need more details on this one, but I’ll let you know if the team determines they need some more data.
Thanks again!
Thank you for the quick work on this.
My only concern now, is why are only some users affected by this? Do we have physically different soundbars that sound worse than those who do not expeirence the issue? Is my soundbar being reduced in function with this fix compared to others, or are they all the same and some people are missing something in their software?
A breakdown of what was fixed after this would help put these fears to rest, if possible?
My guess might be different ears or different expectations. Those not having the issue, have they had Sonos products in the past? Do they have a Beam or Playbar? Lots of variables.
My wife for example said, ‘isn’t that how it’s supposed to sound? isn’t that the loud bass like the media room with the beam + subwoofer?’
At least that’s what I’m hoping. Once the software update is out, if it does indeed fix it for those who were reporting the issue I would chalk it up to people having different expectations/listening ears, etc.
I really doubt it. Having a single Sonos One sound better than an $800 sound bar (as another reported) really isn’t acceptable. A lot of these reports were coming from people that have other Sonos products. 40-50% volume on bass heavy music shouldn’t make speakers sound like muddled garbage. You could clearly hear it even over cell phone recordings.
Yeah I agree, I’m just sharing my experience. I’m one of the first ones to report it over on reddit and I’ve been testing off and on all day to see if it’s something related to a TV setting, Shield setting, Sub/No sub, etc. I immediately knew it was an issue the first movie clip I played (Top Gun). My wife thought it sounded fine though.
Either way I’m eager to see how the software update fixes it. I was pretty bummed yesterday after hooking it up but relieved lots of others experienced it so I wasn’t alone… as odd as that sounds. I’m glad it appears to be a software fix.
For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA?
For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA?
CA for me
For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA?
I'm in UK and its come from Holland. If the software fix doesn't work mines going back it's basically useless listening to music with any bass on it
For those having issues, can you confirm if your arc shipped from CA or PA?
I'm in UK and its come from Holland. If the software fix doesn't work mines going back it's basically useless listening to music with any bass on it
Mine is also UK.
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