Question

Thunderous rumble sound from Play 5gen

  • 8 January 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 454 views

Twice now I have woken up in the middle of the night to a thunderous sound. It sounds literally like thunder and a storm outside until I look out the window and see all is calm. Then I walk downstairs to the other side of the house where the kitchen is and as I approach there is a loud, thumping, thunderous sound - like hell itself - coming from the stereo pair of Play 5 speakers (gen 2).

As far as I can tell, the volume is on full and the sound is so intense that both times I did not have the chance to check the app and see what the source was. I could not use the buttons on the top of the Play 5 to stop, I had to unplug both from the wall socket individually. So far it has not appeared to break the speaker but I fear the next time it might happen.

Here are some other facts that maybe useful in the analysis of the problem:
1. Both speakers are more than 1year old
2. They have only recently (2 weeks ago) been coupled into a stereo pair (previously they were used in separate rooms)
3. One speaker is attached via optical cable to a brand new Samsung 32 inch series 5 led TV
4. To make that connection, we use an optical to headphone jack DAC converter
5. They are connected to internet via the SONOS Boost whereas the TV in the kitchen is connected to the internet via LAN
6. I think on the occasion the problem occurs (in any case this last time) we were watching YouTube on TV so the speakers were set to TV Kitchen line in
7. None of our other SONOS speakers (we have many Play 1s, 3s, a sub and a playbar scattered around the house) are affected
8. We are using Alexa control and have 2 echo dots in the house as well as - in the kitchen no less - an Echo Show and use all 3 to control our SONOS speakers (SONOS skill enabled)

I am very eager to get to the bottom of the this before we either seriously damage 2 expensive Play 5s and / or start to get angry neighbors.

Your help is much appreciated!

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3 replies

I've got a couple of suggestions. One is, of course, to check to see if you have an alarm set on your Sonos. I'm doubting that you do, but it's worth double checking that someone didn't accidentally set one up.

But I've also just answered a similar question on a separate thread, wherein I indicated that there are some TVs that turn themselves "on" in order to check to see if there are any software updates for the TV....that is, they turn on everything except the screen. You may want to turn off "autoplay" on the Line-in, that might resolve it, although you'll have to switch it manually. You may also want to check with the manufacturer of the TV and see what they have to say.
Thank you Airgetlam for the suggestion. Good to point out the alarms, but yes I had already checked them and the sound my my problem is producing is far worse than anything caused by say an off the air radio station.

Your point about the auto updates makes a lot of sense and I have disabled auto play as you have suggested. It will be interested to follow the coming the days and weeks if the problem re-occurs. As a matter of fact, my wife phoned me at work today since the speakers made the same noise again at lunch time. So I do hope this has solved it and I can live with auto play turned off. I might also look to see if I can turn off auto updates on the TV...
Well, keep us updated on what you find out, please. You never know when one person's experience will help others.