If it were a Sonos problem, the chances are that it would have already been fixed. Unfortunately, it’s more likely the Sonos is only playing what it is told by the TV set, so if it’s told to play a pop, and is not sent any further information, it would likely exhibit that exact behaviour. 

There are hundreds of these posts all over different forums and on here. It’s not a tv problem. It’s a Sonos issue. We aren’t all using the same TVs or streaming devices but are all using Sonos Arcs or beams with atmos. 

@Schlagdog If it’s just a Sonos issue, why are there so many users, including myself, who have never experienced the loud pop and shutdown and can clearly hear height channel effects from the Arc when playing Dolby Atmos content?

What model TV do you have? Are you using the Sonos-supplied HDMI cable? Is your Apple TV 4K a 1st or 2nd Gen model? Does the loud pop only happen when playing Atmos content from the Apple TV or does it happen when also playing Atmos content from the TV’s native apps?

It’s only me. That’s why there are more posts on here from a year ago to just a few days ago with the same exact issues and no solutions with about 100 people posting they have the same problem on different TVs and streaming services and streaming  boxes.  Sonos support reply is they don’t know then just disappear. 

Are you going to answer any of my questions? No one can assist you without specific details about your setup.

Are you going to make every affected user go through this song and dance?

I have this problem with Apple TV and Xbox (two different devices, the problem is Sonos), using supplied HDMI cables in both cases. My Arc is hooked up using the supplied HDMI cable. We have had an endless array of users across popular TV brands with this problem, again, Sonos being the common element. Sony and LG TVs have been most common which is not surprising considering the Sonos userbase. We are people who are willing to pay a premium for a thing that works right.

It doesn’t matter if Sonos is just “faithfully playing the signal” or whatever. Which is a hypothesis for which no evidence has been presented by the way. Just posters reflexively carrying water. If Apple TV, Xbox, Sony, and LG are affected; it’s Sonos’ problem to fix.

Finally, Sonos support itself has acknowledged the issue on this forum!!!

Yes, there’s a comment about it here from Staff (see below link). but I get the impression it’s not only a Sonos issue, as it happens with other manufacturers hardware too…

See this link:

https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/sonos-arc-loud-pop-then-audio-loss-6852340/index12.html?postid=16610040#post16610040

Hi @Schlagdog 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

The issue that we are aware of does not result in the Arc shutting down - though it is, for some, necessary to reboot it in order to get it playing again after the pop.

If your Arc shuts itself down after making this popping noise (if the white light goes off or starts flashing immediately afterwards), I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports. Please be sure to emphasize the fact that the Arc shuts down or reboots. I don’t think the issue you are experiencing is related to the known issue if indeed this is the case.

The “song and dance” just revealed to me that you are using two streaming devices that rely on a Dolby MAT encoder to deliver Dolby Atmos audio. I’m willing to guess that this factor in combination with your TV model is causing the problem. What specific TV model do you own? Is your Apple TV 4K a 1st Gen or 2nd Gen model? Have you ever tested another streaming device that uses Dolby Digital Plus to deliver Dolby Atmos instead of Dolby MAT like an Nvidia Shield, Roku Ultra, or Fire TV Stick? Does the loud pop only happen when playing Atmos content from the Apple TV and Xbox or does it happen when also playing Atmos content from the TV’s native apps?

Yes, the issue only happens with Dolby MAT encoders, but across different manufacturers. You know this. We know this. Why are you pretending that this was an insight you gleaned from my comment?

My TV is a Sony 900H. There have been plenty of reports of the same thing happening on LGs. Again, with Apple TVs and Xbox being the source devices. 

Do you even use Apple TV or Xbox Atmos? Or are you just somebody who has an unaffected source yet somehow wants to snipe at huge amounts of the Arc user base (think about how popular Xbox and Apple TV are for a second) having a legitimate issue?

Well I guess you have it all figured out and I am just wasting my time (and obviously your time). I’ll leave you alone. Enjoy the popping.

FYI… I use an Apple TV 4K (1st Gen) and have zero issues when playing Dolby Atmos content through my Arc. I’m actually enjoying Dolby Atmos music on the Apple TV as I type this, pop free.

I completely agree with the OP, it doesn’t matter what setup combination a person has, the only thing in common for anyone with this problem is having a Sonos Arc. I’ve spent at least a year looking for a solution and can’t believe there still isn’t one out there.

To add to that, this is a wide spread problem that can be shown by a simple search of the forums for the phrase “arc pop”, its frustrating that this hasn’t been fixed via a software update by Sonos by now. Does technical support not track similar problems to determine if this is an issue they need to address?

279 TOPICS!!! I called technical support and they wanted me to take a video of the problem whenever it happens. Which is crazy to me. Then the guy had never heard it the issue. I told him to type in “Sonos arc pops atmos” and he will see hundreds of threads going back a year with the problem. This amazes me sonos has apparently done nothing about it or even bothered to acknowledge and issue after over a year. I hope the guys who keeps asking about the setup and act like it’s not an issues are busy asking the 300 people on here about their setups then telling them they have no issues at all. 

I keep wondering if it’s not a Sonos problem, but a problem in the CEC devices in the TV sets, which are sending a valid “sound” to Sonos, then shutting down and not sending further information. If that is the case, then Sonos can’t really “fix” it, it’s something that has to be done with the Atmos specification, and how the “computer” in the TV set handles it. 

And the fact that it is apparently affecting, from what I’ve read, other manufacturers in addition to Sonos seems to point to it being less of a Sonos specific problem, and much more of a “there’s a problem somewhere else” kind of thing. 

I know it’s easy to blame the last thing in the chain...but I’ve not seen any definitive proof that it’s actually something Sonos can fix, yet. 

Would I like them to be able to recognize the event, keep it from playing? You bet...if it’s an identifiable and filterable event, but that won’t likely fix the computer in the TV set that’s likely generating the event. Or, potentially, the device upstream from the TV, that might be generating the issue, and sending it to the TV which is struggling on how to deal with it.

Just not sure how much I can put this on Sonos’ plate, based on all the various things I’ve read in those many topics. 

I don’t understand why people on here are so defensive of Sonos, its like a cult.

I’ve used other Atmos systems with the same setup and this never happened; I’ve used the Arc with other TVs and devices and it still happens, I’m extremely confident it is an issue with the MAT format with the Sonos Arc. If using a 4K Blu-ray instead, the issue never comes up, Blu-ray uses TrueHD format.

There are links to other manufactures soundbars that have the popping issue posted in other threads here on the forum, so it’s not just limited to Sonos. If you search using Google you may see the reported issue with other brands and it is confirmed by Staff here:

@mjherm,

Here are some examples of the ‘popping’ issue seen with other brands involved and so it shows it isn’t just a Sonos issue…

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Soundbars/comments/eth60q/lg_sl10yg_making_loud_popping_noise/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Soundbars/comments/jcyf5l/cracklingpopping_sound_on_jbl_91_soundbar/
• https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/xbox-one-made-a-loud-pop-noise-and-shut-down/40a59613-caec-4655-a3f0-ea71588cdcb8
• https://www.avforums.com/threads/strange-audio-popping-clicks-with-my-surround-sound-only-with-xbox.1548227/

@mjherm 
My thoughts are it’s either a codec issue, or a hardware issue in some TV models or connected peripherals, but that’s entirely a guess on my part. I’ve used Dolby MAT Multichannel LPCM via Apple TV to an LG OLED C9 TV, together with the Sonos Arc, surrounds and Sub and (touch wood) have never come across the ‘popping’ issue and I see why some forum users here think it maybe (just perhaps) a hardware component in the connected TV, or sending device.

If that is indeed the case, I also very much doubt Sonos would ever announce that publicly, as they are after-all partners in the industry and the last thing a company will do is hang another company’s dirty washing out to dry.

The sheer fact other branded products are also reporting the issue makes me think the matter may lie elsewhere and not at Sonos’ door.

Tried to watch Bullet Train last night and the arc popped and turned off again because it’s in Dolby Atmos.  I switched to the appletv app on my tv set and didn’t have an issue so like most people a read it seems to be an issues with players like appletv, Xbox, or whatever. Or I just got lucky playing through the apple. It seems to be weirdly intermittent because the last time it did it I was listening to Apple Music on the appletv4k and then I just gave up listening to music.  Then when I called tech support they wanted my to try and I guess sit around and film my arc until it blew out again. So I sat there and listened to the same stuff I was because an it played fine. That was until last night when it blew up during Bullet Train. 

Exchanged my Arc because of this. Sonos technical team are very well aware of the issue. It’s a combination of AppleTV 4K 2nd and 3rd Gen / XBox and the Sonos Arc. The Arc isn’t handling the Atmos content correctly from those devices.

Sonos stupid workaround is to turn off Atmos. However turning of eArc for me is working currently. 

That doesn’t make a lot of sense, from my meager knowledge. The Atmos source is passed the the TV. The TV parses the data on its onboard electronics, and reflects it out via the ARC port to the Sonos Arc. In the grand scheme of things, there’s no direct connection between the Sonos and any particular source device, the Sonos is merely connected to the processing unit in the TV. That suggests that there’s something odd being sent by the source, which the TV isn’t able to handle properly, and is consequently being passed on to the Sonos to play…

It begs the question, what is different about the Apple TV’s and Microsoft’s XBox implementation of Atmos? Or is it that they’ve done a standard implementation of Atmos, and some TV manufacturers have done something different? Perhaps merely an older version, and not a bugged implementation?

Wish I could reproduce this, but I don’t seem to have this issue on my HD Fury Arcana.

I think the difference is that, at least for Apple TV, it is using Dolby MAT format. I expect playing a 4K Bluray on Xbox would work fine because that wouldn’t use MAT format but games and apps on Xbox might use MAT format.

Apologies I was getting mixed up eArc not the issue. Only disabling Atmos on the ATV sorts the problem out. 
 

so frustrating 

No apology necessary, at least from my side.

I’m working from a “this makes sense to me” aspect, which, at least in this case, lays the responsibility somewhere other than Sonos….which I assume is why they haven’t issued a “fix”, since they can’t, it’s something in the source that they’re receiving from elsewhere upstream. 

But I could certainly be wrong, and there is always a chance that it is really a Sonos issue. That would be surprising to me, but I can’t completely discount the possibility. 

It is frustrating, to be sure, because there’s so many things in the mix of this problem. From Dolby MAT to Apple TV/Microsoft XBox to the TV’s CEC/ARC component, to the Sonos as a fairly dumb “receiver of data”. 

But that’s all my impression. I don’t have a lab in which to test any of this to point the finger at one part of that chain, merely what I consider to be “logic”.