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One-week-old Sonos Arc Ultra makes a noticeable popping sound when navigating in/out of content. It’s not the loud pop reported earlier this year, but still audible and annoying. Factory reset twice with no change. Happens with all content types (stereo, 5.1, Atmos, YouTube, Netflix, etc.).

 

Setup: Apple TV 4K, LG C1, bitstream input, passthrough output, eARC, Sonos HDMI cable. No speech enhancement enabled.

 

What are my options/next steps?

 

Example captured on video: 

 

Could this be a setting on your TV or the Apple TV?


I’m having the exact same issue (although your pop sounds louder than mine) and using the exact same setup as you (Apple TV 4K, LG C1, same setup, but have actually tried this with like, 8 different HDMI cords at this point, just to prove I wasn’t crazy!).

I’m about to call Sonos support since their chat wasn’t able to rectify it; about ready to bring it back to the store and swap for a new one. Only other thing I can think of is this is an LG C1 issue, because I had none of these issues when I had the original Arc.


I have this pop happen randomly as well, various content, streaming services, using ATV 4K. I would rewind back to the place of the pop and it wouldn’t happen so it’s not the source directly affecting sound.

The pop sounds like a digital artifact or a compression glitch, louder than all content but louder by a percentage of the set volume. For example, at 50% volume the pop is significantly louder than if the volume is at 30%. So the pop is not 100% each time.

LG CX, ATV 4K, Ultra, 300s, Sub gen 3.


Coming from https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/1hn98vj/occasional_sparkpopping_sounds_after_upgrading_to/

I’m also getting this on the LG TV, but instead of the CX, it’s the 86NANO75SQA with the Nvidia Shield as source.

TV audio settings: Match Screen and Sound Bypass, Digital Sound Output Pass Through, eARC Support On, DTV Audio Setting Auto, HDMI Input Audio Format All on Bitstream.

I’ve opened a case with Sonos via Live Chat and followed up with a phone call, they have last requested the following information

  1. Latest Sonos app diagnostics capture
  2. Video + timestamp (+ link if possible) I heard the spark sound when capturing the diagnostics.
  3. TV model
  4. Active Source
  5. Other HDMI devices
  6. TV audio settings

So far it’s only a promise to be added to the initial update group if a fix eventually gets rolled out. I’ve just sent the information over the weekend, I’ll do another call to follow-up again soon.

I have noticed that the issue doesn’t seem to occur on Dolby Atmos tracks (it happens on standard surround and stereo) and seems to happen more often when the volume is low.


Someone from the Sonos Customer Escalation Engineering team followed up and asked to schedule a call with a level 3 engineer to get an audio capture from our Arc Ultra. 

We would like to schedule a call with you to get an audio capture from your Arc Ultra. For us to get the audio capture we will need a computer on site that we can remotely connect to and transfer the audio file from.


I’m not sure exactly what this means. Is it normal for them to ask for this? 


Not unheard of, not something I’d be overly worried about, either. Good evidence, at least in my mind, that they are taking the issue seriously, but are not necessarily able to recreate the issue locally, but that’s supposition. 


I had a call with a level 3 engineer from Sonos today who was able to capture the issue during our session so hopefully they will be able to get a fix out 🤞


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