When do you hear the sound? Try unplugging the Beam from power for a couple of minutes and reboot your router.

I've tried that with no success. Someone over on Reddit suggested running TruPlay. I never ran it to begin with so not sure it'll make a difference. 

Trueplay tuning should be performed regardless. It will optimize the audio from the Beam in your room.

You might also redo the TV Setup process in the Sonos app before you perform Trueplay:

Disconnect everything from your TV and unplug the TV and Beam from power for a couple of minutes. Plug the TV and Beam back into power but keep everything else disconnected. Be sure CEC is enabled on the TV. Run the TV Setup process in the Sonos app and connect the Beam to the TV when the app instructs you to using the HDMI cable that came with the Beam. When the Beam has been successfully connected, connect your other devices to your TV.

Got hold of an Apple device and ran Trueplay. Before that, I followed all the steps above and still no improvement. I've isolated it to being most noticeable when music is playing. It's definitely since the newest update, the sound seems to have degraded considerably.

What is your music source?

All music within video from any source. Inbuilt TV apps, external outputs on the TV. The metallic sound is across all audio on the Beam. It also doesn't matter the audio format. 

Really weird, not seen this on my Gen 1 or Gen 2.

as it is all sources from TV and Sonos directly streaming, I would run a diagnostic report from the Sonos app and contact support with the diagnostics ID for them to look at.

only other thing you could try is a full reset of the Beam to see if that fixes it.

I thought I might reply here to bump this topic.

The issue is still present despite an RMA and the most recent update. After some more testing I've noted that the metallic/robotic sounds only happen when playing content through the TV. Spotify/Amazon Music etc play fine. The TV isn't the issue either as it only started happening after the DTS update. I've also tested another eArc soundbar and the issue wasn't present. 

Has anyone else on the forums noticed this issue?

@Shnakey,

Nope, I have both a Beam (gen1) and (gen2) and neither of them have a metallic sound - Assuming others in your household are hearing this too, maybe make a video of what you’re hearing (if the sound can be captured with a mobile/tablet recording) and post it online for others to see and to perhaps show to Sonos Support Staff in conjunction with a system diagnostic report.

It’s certainly not something we are encountering with the HT products here.

It's immediately audible to anyone who watches anything at my place. I've been in contact with Sonos Support and they've ran diagnostics. I've also sent sound samples as well. I was reassured that the issue would be sorted, but I'm sceptical of this if there are few others with the issue (if anyone at all). I was told by one person on support there had been multiple RMAs for issues such as this, while another told me there wasn't. I may try and get a recording with my mic and post here. I'm still within my return window so I may well return it in the coming weeks. It was a top notch piece of kit up until the DTS update. 

When you hear the metallic sound, which you mention is coming ‘through’ your TV, can you check both the ‘Now Playing’ screen’ and the Beams ‘Audio In’ section in the ‘about box’ in your Sonos App - I’m just wondering that if it’s coming via your TV, if the TV is processing the audio in some way before it’s output to the Beam - It might help to pin-point the TV codec that’s possibly causing the issue.

If it is the TV that’s processing the audio through its ports - you might be able to set the audio to pass-through the TV instead, without being processed, but it depends on the features that the TV supports in its settings ..and the exact origin/journey of the audio to the Beam that’s causing you this issue.

That's what I thought, but my audio is set to passthrough as the TV supports it. I was also keeping track of the source audio format but it's happening no matter if it's Dolby 2.0, 5.0, DTS or Atmos. I notice it in the crowd noise with live sport in Dolby 2.0. I notice it in music within Netflix content in Dolby 5.1 or Atmos. I can also hear it in game music on my PS5 which is set to DTS. It's very strange and completely takes you out of whatever you're watching. 

The TV would be the obvious issue but it's only cropped up since the update I mentioned above, and the TV has no issues outputting sound over HDMI on the other two soundbars I tested. 

Ah fair enough.. it will be interesting to see if anyone else comes across the same issue. It’s all okay and working here (as mentioned), so maybe there’s a conflict with your particular TV setup, or a (developed) fault somewhere in the mix.

Thanks for the replies anyway. All I can hope is that it's miraculously solved in the next firmware update. I'll find it hard to get something that competes with the compactness of the Beam. 

Hey, ive recently purchase a beam gen 2 as you have and have encountered the same problem with the metallic audio / tinny audio. It happens during 5.1 content and I have even put the sound bar up to my ear and can hear staticy / tinny audio espeically during dialog. This is the only forum post ive found regarding this issue and was wondering if you ever found a solution to this?

Hi Michael. No solution I'm afraid. I've retuned on TruePlay a few times aswell with no success. It's a software issue and will need to be patched. Interestingly I connected the Beam to my TV through the HDMI-Optical adapter the other day and the issue was still there. This would rule out eArc/Arc being the problem. I'd raise the issue with Sonos support, as the more who complain of the issue the more likely it is to be fixed. 

@Shnakey & @Michael_2599,

What TV make/model are you each using with the Beam? I’m wondering if there is anything Sonos Staff may need to look at there too?

Sony X950H in my case.

Sony X900H.

Ive contacted Sonos and the representitive on the phone asked me to find a source of audio where this would happen and interestingly enough she ran a diagonostic on her end and it was showing that the beam would be connecting and reconnecting to my tv even tho no audio would be cut. My case was raised to senior specialists and i’m waiting on any response. Not sure if this is only happening with sony line of Tv’s but im yet to see any other posts / mentions of this issue. 

Must be more than a coincidence then if we both have Sony TVs. Well I can vouch for the issue only appearing since the DTS update. I have owned the Beam since the end of October and before the update it was flawless, sounded great. Very minute I played content after the update it was obvious something had changed straight away. 

At least the Sonos Support Staff are now aware of the matter and hopefully the info. gleaned from the reports here will assist them to find a fix.

Hope the issue gets sorted soon.

Hi all,

Would like to give a quick update. I tested the beam on a seperate TV, a Samsung LED60. The TV is older but still a smart TV and once the beam was plugged in things seemed promising up until I changed my PS5s audio output to 5.1 and the TV output to DTS instead of PCM (DTS is the only other output the tv supports). Once again Ive run into the same audio issues, dialog / effects in games on my PS5 sound tinny and robotic / washed out. Not sure if this narrows it down to software and eliminates hardware issues but thats something that was noted. Another thing is PCM and 2.1ch does eliminate the sound issues but whats the point of using 2.1 if I have purchase a product that is meant to be capable of 5.1ch.  

Just to clarify. Were you experiencing the metallic sound on other inputs and apps apart from the PS5?

In my case I'm having the problem on all the TV apps and external inputs - PS5, set top box etc.

Sorry wasn’t clear but yes I’m experiencing the metallic audio on other inputs and apps as well. I’ve heard it during a movie I watched on Netflix and the little previews for movies on Netflix as well. PlayStation was just an easy way for me to constantly replicate the sounds I was hearing.