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Beam 2 Tinny/Metallic sound over Voices

  • November 27, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 41 views
T

Tinny, Metallic, Physically Painful Audio on Beam Gen 2 After Several Months of Use – Am I Going Crazy?

 

Hi everyone,
I’m having a really frustrating issue with my Beam Gen 2 and I’m hoping someone here has experienced something similar or can point me in the right direction.

After about 6–8 months of use, the sound quality suddenly becomes extremely harsh and unpleasant, especially when using Audible or Spotify through the Sonos app. Voices take on a tinny, metallic, almost “radio-crackle” distortion, and the highs become so sharp that it causes physical ear pain and worsens my tinnitus, even at low volumes. At the same time, the mids become barely audible, and the lows turn into a solid wall of sound, almost muddy and overpowering.

This has now happened with two different Beam Gen 2 units, both showing the same symptoms after several months both at 6 to 8 months. I’m using the Beam connected to an LG C4 via eARC HDMI. I’ve already tried all the standard troubleshooting steps (rebooting Beam, restarting Wi-Fi, reconnecting devices, etc.), but nothing has made a difference.

At this point I’m genuinely wondering: Am I crazy, or has anyone else dealt with this weird degradation in sound quality over time? Any insight, similar experiences, or fixes would be greatly appreciated.

Additional Issue:
I’m also seeing a new problem with this Beam specifically: it keeps disappearing from the Sonos app/system for several minutes at a time. Also when I try to resume an audiobook, it will jump to a random spot in the book, even though the app shows it’s resuming at the correct timestamp. I have to manually scrub back to where I actually left off. This behavior is new and only happening with this Beam it happens every time i try to resume after pausing.

I should add my phone is Android so no trueplay.


Thanks in advance.

Best answer by Airgetlam

Some of what you’re experiencing seems like a challenge with the Sonos maintaining a connection to your router, and subsequently both the controller, and the outside servers. At the least, I’d want to try a simple network refresh, by unplugging all of your Sonos devices from power, then rebooting your router. Wait a couple of minutes for the router to recover, then plug back in your Sonos devices. Give them a couple of minutes to reboot and reconnect, then test. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to check the Sonos controller for any updates, and apply them. 

However, if the issue continues to occur, I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, their lawyers get sensitive about GDPR.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

1 reply

Airgetlam
  • Airgetlam
  • Answer
  • November 27, 2025

Some of what you’re experiencing seems like a challenge with the Sonos maintaining a connection to your router, and subsequently both the controller, and the outside servers. At the least, I’d want to try a simple network refresh, by unplugging all of your Sonos devices from power, then rebooting your router. Wait a couple of minutes for the router to recover, then plug back in your Sonos devices. Give them a couple of minutes to reboot and reconnect, then test. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to check the Sonos controller for any updates, and apply them. 

However, if the issue continues to occur, I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, their lawyers get sensitive about GDPR.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

Bruce
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