Beam Gen 2 metallic/robotic sound since update

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. 

Any update from Sonos' end Michael?

I got an email back from the engineers asking for more info, if it was happening on in built apps and other inputs. I provided all the necessary information and they gave me an option to either send it to them for a replacement or to return back to the retailer I purchased it from. Unfortunately this is the end of my experience with the beam as I chose to return it back to the retailer. Once enough time passes and a few more updates come out and everything’s ironed out I’ll potentially come back to the beam as it did sound 10x better than the built in speakers and it looked attractive in my setup as well, but the issues I was facing was far too distracting for the price I paid for the bar. Hopefully you and anyone else experiencing this issue gets it resolved soon. 

I wanted to bump this as I’m experiencing the same thing. The effect is similar to two sources being slightly out of phase and is particularly apparent with atmospheric sounds on Dolby Atmos audio which leads me to believe it’s related to processing. Any crowd or pub scene now sounds like a weird robot army is present - Ted Lasso is virtually unwatchable! I’d love to know if this is something Sonos is going to fix any time soon?

Maybe speak to Sonos Support about your issue - have you tried it with TruePlay ‘off’ aswell as ‘on’ and have you tried a different cable, or switched to the TV’s optical output just to see if anything helps to get to the root cause.
Others (myself included) have not encountered the issue, so maybe it’s related to the TV output, in which case it’s difficult to know if Sonos have anything to fix here.

I definitely would contact Sonos with a Diagnostic Report to explore the issue further. Perhaps even temporarily try another TV, if that option is  available to you.

Hi ! 

Same issue for me here. I had several mails with sonos support, but they are totally unable to help.
Happy to see that i’m not crazy. I tried everything (HDMI ARC, optical, another TV, factory reset, shaman ritual..) 

But I guess all we have to do is to buy another hardware from another brand. It’s a shame to pay this price for this.