I would perhaps try to capture the sound in a mobile video recording and also submit a diagnostic report when you next encounter the issue. Note the diagnostic reference and then call/chat to Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what they may recommend/suggest.

I’ve got the Beam (gen2) here in our Dining Room, but can’t say I’ve ever come across the issue. Maybe try it either with another TV, if you are in a position to do that easily, or perhaps just try a different HDMI cable to try to see if that may eliminate the issue.

Anyhow, I hope you can get the matter resolved.

I’m getting the same issue. Connection wise I’m going from beam>HDMI>Opitcal adapter>tv. Not sure if that’s the root of the problem. Going to try HDMI arc with a different tv tomorrow (the one I’m using now doesn’t have arc input)

I'm experiencing this too. Beam Gen 2, via EARC on HD Arcana. I was using it last night with no issue and noticed the metallic distortion in the background. It while watching BBC1 News this evening.

It seemed to disappear after switching the TV (Panasonic) off and on, along with the V6 box. 

Perhaps see the first paragraph in my earlier post, just in case you do encounter the issue again.

I have done some more analysis.

For me it seems to be best (only?) reproducible using

• Night Sound mode “ON”
• a TV channel that sends PCM 2.0 format (never reproduced it with e.g. 5.1 or Athmos)
• preferrably a TV program with an audio track that has no background music (which is covering the phenomenon)

I have an audio recording i1] of the phenomenon. Sadly it is not as clearly noticable on the recording as it is IRL. I suspec the mobile phone noise cancellation is getting in my way. Nevertheless. The first 20s of the audio you can head a metallic sound in the background, sound a bit like metallic rain, then after second 20 I disabled night sound (leaving the TV on the same channel) and the effect did go away.

On that channel I was able to reliable reproduce it. I did:

change TV channel back and forth → Issue always reappeared on this specific TV channel

Power cycling sonos → still there

Disable Night Sound → issue not noticable / not there

Re-enable Night Sound → Issue there again.

Issue exists with Panasonic and LG TV, so I assume its not the TVs fault.

p1]

https://file.io/uETDsjjaaXwP

The link says ‘file has been deleted’ FYI.

Re-uploaded here:

http://sndup.net/bd4b

I have again reproduced the issue today on a TV channel with Dobly Digital Plus 2.0.

Audio coming via HDMI. TV again the LG OLED. All firmware updated to the latest available (14.14, S2, Build 69132100). HW Version of the beam: 1.35.1.6-2.1.

NEW:

I can clearly locate the sound as coming primiarily from the leftmost and rightmost speakers (pointing outwards, on the both curved ends of the beam).

Diagnostics sent as 281087345.

I have captured it very clearly on the sidewards pointing speaker this time:

http://sndup.net/vnwz

This capture is:

0-5s, Night sound off → no/very little distortion

5-10s, Night sound on → Distortion clearly audible

10-15s, Nigh sound off → no or very little distortion

15-20s, Night sound on → Distortion clearly audible

20-35s, switching TV to other channels (non stereo) → no or very little distortion

35-30s, back to Dolby Digital Plus 2.0 channel → Distortion clearly audible

P.S.: I think it is also audible with Night sound disabled, but much less prominent.
I would say the recording also features the distortion in e.g. seconds 0-5 of the uploaded snippet.

I have the same distortion as you describe. It occurs when audio is passed through from Virgin V6 box via TV. From stereo pcm or Dolby digital 2.0. It disappears when audio is direct from TV (Freeview channels or apps) to the beam. Any suggestions anyone? Does using Sonos Ones as surrounds help? Cheers 

Nearly a year later and the issue is still there. Are there any Sonos staff members still active on the forum that could escalate this? There are more and more posts about this popping up on Reddit, AV Forums etc.

Hi Sonos, anybody out there?

i think this was the same:

Anyone working on this?

This is, ultimately, a community site, if you want to communicate directly with Sonos, you might be better off if you were to call Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

Well I can try again indeed, already did twice this in the past though. 
 

To be honest I am a bit tired of going through the regular „did you try turning it off and on again“ kind of procedures… 

I’ll get myself a motivational speech and try again I guess.

I don’t think the forum moderators are looped in on what the programming team is doing, and certainly we community members are not. 

Honestly, if you were to call in to one of the companies that I’ve worked with programming teams on, we would not have ever told you that we were working on something or not. There is always too much potential for a misunderstanding, from whether it could be resolved, to how long it would take to figure out, then how long to rewrite the code (and how much needed to be rewritten, just how pervasive in the codebase was it? Bugs are rarely one or two line fixes), then the whole QA process, then the beta testing process….and anywhere along the line is the possibility that the ‘fix’ didn’t work in the way that was expected, and has to go back to the beginning for reevaluation. And at some point, there’s the opportunity for some management type to say ‘this bug isn’t impacting more than a handful, and we can make more money by focusing our resources somewhere else’….

None of that data would ever be shared publicly, for what I hope are obvious reasons. 

Your best bet, to have your complaint heard and passed on, is to call in to customer support, preferably with a diagnostic number handy, so that they can pass your ‘real world case with data’ on to the team. 

Ok, new case opened: 04346661

I understand all this, but if you roll the clock back 2 years or so you can see the Arc was having a similar problem https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/sonos-arc-metallic-sound-6843110#post16450184

A product manager at Sonos was on here and communicating with the community regarding the issue. I'm not sure about the OP but I've been in contact with Sonos support numerous times since this issue started. I've sent audio clips of the issue, they've taken diagnostics data and I've gotten an RMA. When you've been through all the official channels you start to get desperate. 

Understood, but no one in this community would have an ‘answer’ for you. You’d still need to get that directly from Sonos. As painful as that may be.

Update: i made my  way through support and there is no other way now as to RMA the unit.

I asked to keep the case open as to continue in case the new unit exposes the same behavior.

New unit received, installed, updated, … works flawless, BUT: Still I have the same issue.

We can conclude, this is not a one-off error.

Next round with support. Seems a follow-up case-number was created for the RMA 

Moderator Note: Removed identifying information

Just bumping this up:

Got a Beam Gen 2 last week and finding that I am getting the same issue after going through every setting on my LG Oled and working through with Sonos Support. Just received my new unit with RMA and still noticeable.

I find that it's really evident in Crowd and clapping scenes, very noticeable in the world cup games that are now on. When you go close to the speaker its definitely coming from the outermost speakers so must be how the sound is processed to the rear channels.

Have you had any further comms with the support team on a possible fix?

No further comments till now but Support asked me to test with the opical connection instead of HDMI (ARC).

Which I have not done till now. Maybe you can post your results of this test here, too? Mine will probably follow tomorrow.

That said, I can second what you said: The distortion is especially “evident” where there is clapping in the background.
However, silent scenes with a specific / clear and simple audio allow to capture it much more accurately.

When outmost speakers mean the “rear” channel, that could back the theory of bogous processing… as for me it is mostly evident in 2.0 channel audio, which by definition should not have any “rear”.

I've tested the optical adapter before. No change. 

Shnakey, as you seem to experience the exact same Issue that I have, do you have any specific source you can reproduce it? Till now I have only had German Live TV exposing this behaviour.

Ideally we have a Nexflix / Prime movie / specific audio channel that always exhibits this distortion. But I have not been able to identify till now.

I have it on all sources, apps etc. I also experience it with 2.1, 5.1 and Atmos content. It happens anytime there is surround sound effects, crowd noise and the likes.