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Beam Gen 2 - sudden full volume hammering sound

  • 28 December 2021
  • 93 replies
  • 9309 views

Hi everyone,

Last week I got a Beam Gen 2 + Sub Gen 3 to replace my Beam Gen 1. So far everything's been running smoothly. Then today when I was listening to music with said setup while working a sudden hammering sound interrupted the music. The noise must have been at full volume despite the volume limit which I set to 40%. I jumped up from the couch and instantly pulled the plug. Music kept playing in the adjacent dining room on a pair of One/One SL for a bit before it stopped.

I tried to find the problem online and only found this video. This is exactly what I experienced with my Beam as well. However, this video does not give a good idea of how loud this really was.

Since I couldn't find a solution online, I called the support hotline. The lady on the phone told me, that such a problem has not come up yet. She asked me to replug the Beam and let some music play. After just a few minutes the noise interrupted the music again. So at least the support lady had some impression of it and I managed to send a diagnostic while the noise was on. After a few seconds the noise stopped. She then instructed me to reset the Beam/Sub setup and couldn't really help me otherwise.

Anyone here experienced this problem and possibly has a solution or knows what's the reason for this issue?

@Staff please help me out. This is really creeping me out as I feel this could come up again anytime... No fun watching movies or listening to music this way. My neighbours must hate me now.

Thank you.

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93 replies

Ken_Griffiths

Perhaps see this link and suggestion…

 

L
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Thank you, Ken_Griffiths. The issue does seem similar at least. I followed the instructions and hope it will not happen again.

Just wondering what might be triggering this behavior and how I can make sure this is not happening again...

 

 

Ken_Griffiths

Thank you, Ken_Griffiths. The issue does seem similar at least. I followed the instructions and hope it will not happen again.

Just wondering what might be triggering this behavior and how I can make sure this is not happening again...

 

Yes it’s a difficult one - but see my post in the other thread that you posted to earlier, about trying to capture more information about the issue for Sonos engineers to then look at all the data and perhaps get to the root cause and hopefully a quick solution to this issue too.

L
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

I reverted back to my Beam Gen 1 for now as I don't want to risk this happening again. Luckily, I have not given it away yet. I hope Sonos comes up with a reliable solution for this one quickly. If this is not the case within the next couple of weeks the Beam Gen 2 goes back. I sent a diagnostic in the very moment of one of these occurences, so Sonos should have helpful input from my side.

V

Just watched the video link and this exact issue has happened to me too, 4 times. Finally disconnected it on the 4th. I submitted diagnostics two times but it seems the beam disconnects and restarts which losses the log details.
 

Spoke to tech support but haven’t received any answers. Just a sincere apology for the bad experience. Has anyone else received a viable solutions?. Not sure if I should just return it and try using the arc instead but after already Dropping almost 1200 on the beam gen 2 and the sub together,  Spending additional money only to hope it doesn’t happen is a bit concerning. Anyone had any issues with the arc or gen 1 beams? I’m running a Samsung q90t (earc) to beam and an Apple TV 4K via another hdmi cable. The setup worked flawlessly for 3 days but can’t fathom or understand why it would start doing this so randomly.

L
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Never had this kind of issue with the Beam Gen 1, which is why I am using that one one instead of the Gen 2 now. Otherwise the TV setup remains the same. No issues.

A couple of days ago support contacted me and asked to return my Gen 2 Beam. Apparently they had another look at my case. So I will get a replacement and they can check out if this has something to do with the unit being faulty. Certainly hope that's the case and everything will run smoothly with the replacement.

Will keep you posted.

G
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Hey,

Same issue here with a brand new Beam 2. I’ve tried the following things:

  1. Unplugged  any device connected to the HDMI to see if a device was sending a bad return signal
  2. Plugged the Beam by ethernet to see if  it was du to a bad wifi interference
  3. Remove Google assistant to see if it was coming from another home device
  4. Changed the electric plug it into another wall socket (bad electric signal)

Issue still appearing so i can only suppose it is a faulty beam. The store where i bought it is sending me a replacement beam.

To be continued...

  

G
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Hello all,

A quick update here after having tested my replacement unit for over 24 hours.

I have not reproduced the problem so my advice would be to get in touch with Sonos support or the place where you bought the beam to check if it’s a faulty unit (these things happen).

Cheers

J
Userlevel 1

Morning,

So I had this happen to me early this morning while listening to some quiet music and it scared the living daylight out of me and my family,  It was so loud is sounded like someone was shooting a machine gun in our house.  All my dogs went crazy barking and the neighbour even came over to make sure everything was ok.  

 

We had to turn the power off from the main switchboard to get it to stop as the Beam (Gen2) I'm using is wall mounted and the power sockets are unreachable as they are behind out TV, which is also wall mounted.

 

The beam gen 2 was only purchased about 4 days ago and had been working fine until this occurred.  After turning the power back on I resumed the music I was listening too for it to only happen again 5 minutes later.  I had to turn the power off again 

After turning the power back on for the second time and playing music again, the audio sounded a bit off,  Like it was louder on the left side of the Beam rather than the right side.    I was reluctant to get my ear too close to the beam while checking to see if any of the speakers had blown up in-case the machine gun sound kicked in again but I did.  There isn't much audio coming from the Right side of the sonos logo on the front but can hear sound is coming from the left side of the logo very clearly. 

 

So I feel like these noise may have blown up one of the speakers.   Just my luck.  

 

 

D

Morning,

So I had this happen to me early this morning while listening to some quiet music and it scared the living daylight out of me and my family,  It was so loud is sounded like someone was shooting a machine gun in our house.  All my dogs went crazy barking and the neighbour even came over to make sure everything was ok.  

 

We had to turn the power off from the main switchboard to get it to stop as the Beam (Gen2) I'm using is wall mounted and the power sockets are unreachable as they are behind out TV, which is also wall mounted.

 

The beam gen 2 was only purchased about 4 days ago and had been working fine until this occurred.  After turning the power back on I resumed the music I was listening too for it to only happen again 5 minutes later.  I had to turn the power off again 

After turning the power back on for the second time and playing music again, the audio sounded a bit off,  Like it was louder on the left side of the Beam rather than the right side.    I was reluctant to get my ear too close to the beam while checking to see if any of the speakers had blown up in-case the machine gun sound kicked in again but I did.  There isn't much audio coming from the Right side of the sonos logo on the front but can hear sound is coming from the left side of the logo very clearly. 

 

So I feel like these noise may have blown up one of the speakers.   Just my luck.  

 

 

Hi Josh,

Just made an account so I could reply to your message!

I had a similar thing happen to me and my beam also sounds louder on the left side.

Been debating wether to return or not as I have 7 days left but I assume this is a fault.

Like you say, it just sounds a bit off.

I wonder if anyone else can advise as to wether the left side being louder is normal, or if this problem has damaged our right speakers.

J
Userlevel 1

Morning,

So I had this happen to me early this morning while listening to some quiet music and it scared the living daylight out of me and my family,  It was so loud is sounded like someone was shooting a machine gun in our house.  All my dogs went crazy barking and the neighbour even came over to make sure everything was ok.  

 

We had to turn the power off from the main switchboard to get it to stop as the Beam (Gen2) I'm using is wall mounted and the power sockets are unreachable as they are behind out TV, which is also wall mounted.

 

The beam gen 2 was only purchased about 4 days ago and had been working fine until this occurred.  After turning the power back on I resumed the music I was listening too for it to only happen again 5 minutes later.  I had to turn the power off again 

After turning the power back on for the second time and playing music again, the audio sounded a bit off,  Like it was louder on the left side of the Beam rather than the right side.    I was reluctant to get my ear too close to the beam while checking to see if any of the speakers had blown up in-case the machine gun sound kicked in again but I did.  There isn't much audio coming from the Right side of the sonos logo on the front but can hear sound is coming from the left side of the logo very clearly. 

 

So I feel like these noise may have blown up one of the speakers.   Just my luck.  

 

 

Hi Josh,

Just made an account so I could reply to your message!

I had a similar thing happen to me and my beam also sounds louder on the left side.

Been debating wether to return or not as I have 7 days left but I assume this is a fault.

Like you say, it just sounds a bit off.

I wonder if anyone else can advise as to wether the left side being louder is normal, or if this problem has damaged our right speakers.

Hey there. 

I spoke to sonos support and they advise I do full factory reset. App reset etc. After doing this it seems somewhat better but maybe I'm just still partly deaf from the machinegun sound.

Im going to give it 24 hours and hope to God it doesn't happen again. If it does they advised to return to the store and swap for a new unit.

 

 

D

Good luck Josh! 
Keep me updated please :)

A

I just installed my Beam 2 on 1/31/22 and it has happened 3 times now. Just call support and he said they will “look into it” but sent me an email telling to unplug it and plug it back in and let him know if it happens again, not what I want to hear. This is a SAFETY issue for loud sound exposure at the least when it happens and needs to be taken more seriously. I will give him a day to look into but but most likely will just return it, too bad I used love Sons products and have many, not this one.

A

I just purchased this on 2-8-2022 from Costco and had this happen to me twice! Having this many experiencing this issue does not provide great confidence in this product. Can’t believe a product like this would be sensitive to Wi-Fi or using one of the Voice services. I hope a true solution is being provided on what is causing this and what fixes can be done. 

D

Hey there. 

I spoke to sonos support and they advise I do full factory reset. App reset etc. After doing this it seems somewhat better but maybe I'm just still partly deaf from the machinegun sound.

Im going to give it 24 hours and hope to God it doesn't happen again. If it does they advised to return to the store and swap for a new unit.

 

 

Hey Josh,

Just wondering if this happened again? and also if you checked if the right side is still quiet? As I have 4 days left to return mine and I’d rather do it now if it’s faulty.

Thanks!

L
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

I am about to start my test phase with the replacement. To anyone who's possibly received a replacement already: Did that solve the problem sustainably?

A

I am waiting for my replacement to be delivered on Monday. My was determined to needing to be replaced and will see how the new one performs. Support was quick to respond and determined it’s replacement. Great kudos to the support team.

 

J
Userlevel 1

After resetting it worked for a few days. Sound on the right side was back to normal. 

Friday night went to sleep with my LoFi playlist on spotify going. The beam is in our bedroom FYI, 5:30am on Saturday morning while I'm still asleep the hammering started again at 100% volume. I dove out of bed and almost had a heart attack, I was fuming and super angry. I could have thrown the damn thing out the Window I was that angry.  Although this time I was prepared and had wired in a Ikea Tradfri power outlet switch so I could cut the power to the beam with a the Ikea remote.

I Left it off untill around 10am, decided to turn it back on.  At 10:23am exactly it went off again. This time I managed to capture some footage of it happening. 

After that I was over it, I put the beam back in the box and took it back to the store. Sadly they had none In stock so I had to drive back to another store which was actually closer to my house. 

I showed them the video and they gave me a new one. They also recommended that I buy the extended warranty while there which I was more than pleased to do. So I've now got 3 years replacement/refund warranty on hand for when it happens again. 

I had also ordered a second white coloured beam which had been on back order and that arrived at my house  today. So I'm hoping the replacement and the new one don't have the same issues.  

I do feel like this is some sort of software bug though since it's Inconsistsnt and happens randomly. Hopefully the sonos engineering team gets on top of this before they end up with a mountain of returned Beams! 

 

 

B
Badge

This is crazy random. All issues started in the last month or so. Mine has now done this. 3-4 times always in the middle of the night and the beam is in my bedroom so each time wakes us the hell up. 

A

I have bought the Beam gen2 on 14th, Feb and the same issue occurred the very same day. And repeated next day multiple times. I contacted the support and they tried usual reset instructions even asked me to reset my wifi router. Now after reading this thread, I am very disappointed that the support didn’t recognise this as known issue. I spoke to two engineers and both didn’t had a clue about this issue, I can’t believe they have not identified this as a known issue yet in spite  multiple people reported it even here. When I said I have a had weird problem and explained, he seems lied to me that, he happened to have had the similar issue with another speaker, so he was able to follow what I have experienced, but not with beam gen2 and sound bar is working perfectly alright. Now with this kind of customer support, I do not want this product even if the issue resolved. I am returning it, I would rather compromise on sound quality than such a low customer support.

L
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Almost three weeks now and no occurrences with the replacement. Fingers crossed.

J

Just had the same problem - without wanting to sound like a wimp, I’m now nervous to sit in front of it incase it does it again. It got my heart racing - now imagine a young child was in front of it or an elderly person.

I spoke to customer service on LiveChat and without even asking me to diagnose the problem they admitted it was a known issue that it is ‘happening to other customers’. They’re obviously nervous about it for them to just send out a replacement like that.

So I’m grateful for their quick reaction but still super nervous it’ll happen again. I’ve asked to be kept informed when they find the root cause - which will hopefully be soon!

J
Userlevel 1

I Can confirm after a month using the replacement I have no had this happen since. 

Definitely seems like it was hardware fault.  Possibility that sonos has been using cheaper chips due to the shortages, which in turn has lead to higher failure rates in their hardware.

So if you are having this happen on any of your sonos products, get a replacement ASAP before your warranty is up!! 

Im just glad it hasn't occurred since 😅. 

J
Userlevel 1

Just had the same problem - without wanting to sound like a wimp, I’m now nervous to sit in front of it incase it does it again. It got my heart racing - now imagine a young child was in front of it or an elderly person.

I spoke to customer service on LiveChat and without even asking me to diagnose the problem they admitted it was a known issue that it is ‘happening to other customers’. They’re obviously nervous about it for them to just send out a replacement like that.

So I’m grateful for their quick reaction but still super nervous it’ll happen again. I’ve asked to be kept informed when they find the root cause - which will hopefully be soon!

Request a replacement if you have purchased this from sonos direct.  If you got it from a retailer get in contact with them. 

D

This exact thing happened to me first time today on 2 month old unit. My ears still hurt 8 hours later. Gonna contact Sonos for advice.

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