Beam Gen 2 - sudden full volume hammering sound

  • 28 December 2021
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93 replies

Z

I agree with your statement, great sounding speakers, but would have loved a warning about this so that it wouldn't have woken us up in a huge scare at 3 in the morning 

N

I’m following this board on all the reported issues with the Beam 2 unexpected LOUD HAMMERING noise. Purchased a Beam 2 from Costco and within a day the same booming explosive hammer/machine gun noise occurred. This happened randomly when watching TV or streaming music. Followed up with Sonos Support and after several calls they offered to send me a replacement. However the replacement is a refurb or open box unit.

The problem with this is I just purchased a new unit that is a week old and I am not swapping it for a refurb. Since Sonos is aware of this hardware issue for over a year and not addressing it I have absolutely no confidence in their product. I was so looking forward to the Beam as my soundbar. This is going back to Costco. (One less Sonos customer).

P

It’s only happened to me once at 4 AM in the morning after I passed out watching TV. I bolted from my couch and tried to lower the volume with the remote. I finally just pulled the plug on it and left it unplugged for about 8 hours. It has not happened again and have not called customer support just yet. Wondering if this is a ticking time bomb. I went away for the weekend worrying that the machine gun blast would scare my cat to death or have my neighbors call the cops with no one to pull the plug as quick as I did. Fingers crossed this was a one time thing.

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.

 

 

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. 

T
Badge +1

I don’t have a Beam but have an Arc/Sub/Surround (Play 1s) setup and this exact same thing has happened to me. Suddenly seems like a helicopter is inside my house. I thought it was coming from the sub but maybe it’s the Arc. I’m usually so panic-ed to turn the entire system off before my elderly mother has a heart attack that I can’t isolate which device the sound is coming from. I have not had it happen while watching TV. Only when playing music through the home theater setup and then, usually only happens when playing CD quality sources (Deezer, Amazon, Radio Paradise). Driving me insane and very reluctant to play HD music sources through the Arc/Sub/Surrounds which is wrong wrong wrong for how much I paid for this stuff. No issues with the 9 other speakers (Play:1’s Play:3s and current gen Play 5:s with Sub mini. Anyone have this issue with an ARC? I just upgraded to the 15.2 firmware on 3/27/23 and am going to brace the inhabitants of my house for a very loud noise. 

A

Oh my god. I cannot put into words the dissatisfaction I have with Sonos and the absolute SH*T experience this was. I still have PTSD from this incident. I received the Sonos beam sound bar as a gift from my mother, and I was very excited to set this up. I have a play 1 that I purchased years ago which I love and has been phenomenal. Within 15 f****ing minutes of setting the beam up and turning on my TV the most atrocious soul piercing jack hammer/ machine gun sound that you all have described on this thread came out of the speakers. I quickly tried to mute my TV but that did nothing to deter the sound, I had to unplug from power to make it stop. Since I had used this product for literally 15 minutes fresh out of the freaking box using it in the recommended ARC HDMI port on my Samsung TV and using it with all the SONOS provided cables I called support and demanded they give me a new system as this experience was unequivocally unacceptable. Support wanted me to run a diagnostic - which apparently came back completely normal and wanted me to plug the speaker back in and play music… somehow expecting the noise to just magically reappear again while I had them on the phone? Sure enough, after the exchange I told myself maybe it was a fluke and attempted to use the speaker again after my call and not even 20 minutes later the same deafening sound came on and now that speaker is back in the box. I had neighbors run over and ask if I was okay because of the sound that this thing projected. 

 

A $500 speaker should NEVER do what this speaker just did in my household. This seriously makes me never want to buy another SONOs product ever again. I’m scared to get my replacement. I am genuinely scared to use this product and to leave it plugged in. Who feels like this after buying a $500 freaking home theater system??? Only SONOs customers. 

 

Dear SONOS, if you're reading this: DO SOMETHING.

G
Badge

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

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.

D

Good luck Josh! 
Keep me updated please :)

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Luc45 et al

We now consider this issue of a hammering sound issuing from Beam (Gen 2) resolved with the latest update (v15.7).

If you still encounter this issue, please ensure your Sonos system is up to date, then contact our technical support team for assistance. Thank you.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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!

R

Just had this happen on mine. I’ve had it about four months and this was the first occurrence. Was playing Pandora fairly quietly and then just exploded with full volume hammering. Tried to turn it off via the app and my app had nothing in it except my Roam. So whatever this is/does, your app can’t find the devices anymore when it’s occurring. Bought mine from Costco so if Sonos is no help at least I have their return policy. 

R

Just had it happen for a second time in the same day and I was able to run a diagnostic during the sound. Hopefully that helps figure out what’s causing this. Definitely going back to Costco if Sonos can’t resolve this. 

Airgetlam

Make sure you call Sonos Support directly to discuss it. As stated in the Diagnostics - How do they work? thread, Sonos doesn’t automatically look at every submission.

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

Bruce
J
Userlevel 1
Badge +4

Yep, RMA confirmed after support diagnostics.

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.

W

2 days in and the noise has freaked out my young kids and they won’t go near the speakers. May need to post vid on social for support because there’s nothing on this page and no customer on the weekends.  The second time it happened was when I was trying to set the volume limit.  My current solution is unplugging it when not using it.  

I

Wow, hard to believe this thread dates back over a year ago… I’ve had my Beam 2 for 3 months. I have personally had this experience for the third time and I can’t bring myself to plug it back in. This last time I had trouble getting the cable out and so I was lingering near the speaker for a few seconds fiddling with the cord and now my ear hurts hours later. I dropped my plate of food. And I wasn’t even using the sound bar or tv… just sitting on my couch and thought I was under attack. Even after experiencing it before, nothing can prepare you for 100db out of nowhere during pure silence. It's also happened while playing music for a party(embarrassing) and while watching TV. 

 

Sounds like this isn’t an issue that is resolved by replacing the unit and frankly I don’t want to experience this ever again so I’ll be returning it tomorrow. Hard to believe this issue has been going on for this long and there is still no solution. Had heard great things about SONOS so I'm really disappointed. 

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?

C

It’s not looking good guys… Got Our Beam (Gen 2) Friday 28th April (6 days ago) and have had the issue 4 times already! 
As mentioned the only way to stop the noise is unplugging the power cord whilst being deafened. 
 

Logged diagnostics instantly after each time and kept each reference number. 
 

Called support and am going through the replacement process, not ideal and pretty poor from only owning less than a week! 
 

Will give the replacement 1 try but if it happens again then it will be changed for BOSE etc, cannot imagine it happening at 2am etc or whilst away for a weekend! 


Fitted to a Samsung TV via the recommended HDMI eARC.

Fingers crossed. 

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.

 

U

For those who’ve had this issue, did you replace all your cables? Was your tv setup properly for Atmos? The reason I ask is that I reused an HDMI 2.1. I did use the Sonos AC cord. 

G

Can add to this. I got a Beam (Gen 2) from Costco for Black Friday. Setup went smooth and the first use was great. However, when I was watching Spirited in Dolby Atmos on the Apple TV app native to the Samsung TV, 7 minutes in, it made a loud, horrible machine gun sound. So, safe to say, I unplugged it and tried again next weekend by streaming National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation on HBO Max (Dolby Multichannel 5.1), and that time, it happened 3 times, the first one being a whimper, and the next 2 were the same as the first instance. The following week, I finally called Sonos to see if I could get to the bottom of this. Nothing much happened on that call, except for me getting a case number and them suggesting to update it. That update made it go away for that session, but then I powered it down. That brings us to yesterday, when I used my Sonos Beam to watch the 4K Blu-ray of The Grinch (2018) on my Samsung 4K Blu-ray player. It only lasted 7 minutes before emitting that horrific sound. After that, I called Sonos to let them know it had occurred again. Not even 5 minutes after telling them my case number and running some diagnostics (didn’t have to give a number apparently), they went straight to replacement. And it was a really abrupt tone shift at that. Anyway, that brings me to today, where I went back to an another Costco to get a replacement Beam. I didn’t take up Sonos’s offer because I wanted to get a new one and use Costco’s generous return policy. So, I am hoping to god it doesn’t happen again on this one, because I really want to get the IKEA surrounds so I can have a good audio setup. 

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