After doing some more forum searching, I see I’m very late to this party. How disappointing.

Sonos gives no money, nor receives any, from LG. It’s commonly believed that the chances of listening to someone who has actually purchased one of their devices (and by extension, many people contacting them) would likely carry more weight. 

You could certainly counter that by saying Sonos represents a large user base, which I believe is true, but I expect that LG would want to help folks who use their own speakers, rather than Sonos’.

It is probably a crap shoot either way, but my guess is a large number of contacts from various users carries more weight, although I don’t expect that any single CS agent would be aware of the full extent. I know in my world of software support, CS is always lagging behind by some amount of time from what the engineers are doing. 

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I’m surprised, from Sono’s perspective, that they wouldn’t want one of their most strategically important products to function correctly with a  major TV brand that has such a large market share… and that they wouldn’t make every single possible effort to fix it. 

I can see why from LG’s viewpoint, they wouldn’t be in a hurry to help a competitor. 

Anyway, from reading the linked thread, it is highly suspect that this is, in fact, an LG issue. It seems pretty clear that it’s something the Beam Gen 2 is doing.

As a follow-up to @Airgetlam post…

If in fact it’s an LG firmware issue and the only 3rd party HT speaker brand having the issue is Sonos...LG is most likely gong to ignore it. In order for LG to take action...other 3rd party HT speaker manufacturers would have to complain as well. LG isn’t going to run the risk of correcting an issue for a Sonos HT speaker and by doing so upset the “status quo” with other HT speaker manufacturers. From a marketing view point it’s an acceptable flaw (for a single HT speaker) that would not be cost effective to invest resources to correct. Typically things are corrected in a future update and more times than expected may have nothing to do with issue at hand. 

I was in the market for the Beam gen 2, to use specifically on the new Apple TV and Nintendo Switch. But after reading reports on this audio cut-out I won't be buying into this system. From what I've read the Sonos Arc does NOT have this issue for some reason. Also if I use my Apple TV as an eARC receiver to my homepods it does NOT have the issue on the switch with surround sound (and yes, it does output LPCM 5.1 now). So it's a bit disheartening to read.

I've also read that when you plug the switch into HDMI 1 it doesn't drop audio, but then my Apple TV would HAVE to be in an input where it does drop. Really sad that if I wanted to go with Sonos I would have to spend 800 euro's more for a room where the beam gen2 with a sub mini would work perfectly fine, just to get an arc and sub gen 3…

 

I’d be somewhat cautious about attributing to Sonos issues that originate with the TV. 

IMO your best bet is to return it and buy an LG setup or any other brand. My experience with Sonos is they don’t care, to this day they haven’t responded to my support request as my Beam Gen2 is not producing virtual surround in addition to the problems you are experiencing.

I have a late 2022 LG C2 connected to the Beam gen2 using eArc. I also have a Sonos Mini Sub. I have a AppleTv 4K (latest gen) + PS5 (late 2022 build). On the AppleTV I experience loud pops that sound like a speaker blowing and sudden loss of audio for roughly 30seconds during movies encoded in Atmos replayed through AppleTV whether streamed or bought content downloaded to the AppleTV (ie The Batman streamed over HBOMax and SpiderMan No Way Home purchased from iTunes and downloaded; I never tested it using the software based AppleTv that runs on the LG. On the PS5 audio would drop like you're experiencing on a regular cadence, but only in games (I don’t play movies on the PS5). What I found is the Beam doesn't support surround mode properly; many will respond it’s LGs fault, but if you search the forums and reddit you’ll see it has problems with Samsung even more as well as others. At some point it’s not everyone else, it’s the Sonos product doesn’t work. If you read the Atmos forums you’ll see endless issues as well.

After reading for hours I pieced together a solution from posts other people shared not all tied to LG. Most complaints, but not all, are seeming tied to LG & Samsung, but that may be because they collectively makeup for the largest TV market share in North America.

TV settings:

HDMI Input Audio Format: Bitstream
Digital Sound Output: Pass Through
eARC Support: On
 

Apple TV Fix:

Use these settings and disable TruePlay. I got this tip from a reddit post and sure enough with no Trueplay the audio works fine (no virtual surround) but with Trueplay on the audio does the popping noises and cut outs when watching Atmos content on AppleTV 4K. I tested the theory and it’s reproducible every time. With TruePlay on I still was not able to achieve virtual surround sound and its in bedroom. No support from Sonos thus far.

Change Format: OFF
Dolby Atmos: ON

 PS5 settings:

Apply this to your Switch. The key setting is the number of channels; set to 5.1 the problem you described is consistent, set to 7.1 the problem goes away. Since I was not able to achieve virtual surround anyway it doesn't matter for me. Since you bought rear speakers you got a bigger $ investment.. I’d return and buy another brand given the chance.

Output Device: HDMI Device (AV amplifier)
HDMI Device Type: AV amplifier
Number of Channels: 7.1 ch
Audio Format (Priority): Linear PCM for gaming or when watching a DTS-encoded Blu-ray disc. When streaming content from the PS5 or watching a Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Atmos encoded Blu-ray disc, change this setting to Dolby.

When watching Blu-ray discs, there is another audio setting that must be adjusted when you start the disc. Tap the Options button on the controller, select the “…” and change the Audio Format setting to Bitstream for Dolby-encoded discs. Change this setting to Linear PCM for DTS-encoded discs.

@Airgetlam is correct. I see a lot of transfer of blame to Sonos in this community whether it be a TV, 3rd party device and most prevalent NETWORK issues. Don’t misunderstand me Sonos does have it’s issues but in the majority it’s a failing component.

I have a Beam2 connected to an older Sony Bravia with no eARC. I must use a HDFury device to get the Dolby Atmos audio to the speaker. I have no dropouts and my connect to the Beam2 is much more involved than what has been presented in this post.

Bottomline is to look at the device connecting to the Beam2 and/or other devices in the path. If you still think it’s a Beam2 issue then run a diagnostic within 10 minutes of the occurrence, post the reference ID and call Sonos tech support.

Well, my Apple TV uses eARC to output TV sound to homepods right now and PLCM 5.1 works just fine, so I know my TV doesn't have an issue with it. I don't know why people in this thread have the issues, since I don't have a beam of my own, but its easy to find lots of people having this issue specifically with the beam 2 and not with other bars (Bose, Samsung, LG etc) or even the Sonos Arc. All of them have the combination of Beam and an LG oled (CX, C9, C1-2-3). So yes, I am attributing a PART of the issue to Sonos.

I honestly think both companies are to blame at least a little bit. LG probably has some issues with HDMI 3-4 and LPCM 5.1 (not 7,1 somehow) and Sonos has an issue with the beam gen 2 and somehow the combination of these issues causes the problem as described in this thread.

I DO honestly think Sonos is working on this, as is LG. Since Sonos is actively promoting the beam 2 as Apple TV capable and lots of people have LG Oled's with that device and will experience dropouts when not set to dolby digital if content isn't atmos. I just don't really want to wait around for maybe another year before it gets fixed.

On alternatives; I've looked at plenty now and sadly lots of them have serious issues of their own (like the samsung HW-Q990B-C) dropping out the left rear speaker for lots of people and the Bose soundbar 600/900 not even mentioning support for LPCM on their site. Which means I honestly don't know where else to look for a good quality surround set other than Sonos, which might have made me a bit more bitter than I ought to be. But even so it stings.

Seriously am considering the ARC, but my partner doesn't want to put the TV cabinet and TV in the middle of the wall for aesthetic reasons (and because it would impede on the play area for the kids). Which means the right firing speaker would encounter a wall after around 30cm, whereas the left side encounters a wall after 2 meters. I could help it out by maybe placing a higher cabinet on the left side but I still think the Beam would just be better suited to my living room because of this. Rears would just be 10 feet behind us and firing straight forward with one almost in a corner and the other on a cabinet between 2 boxes.

Here’s an analogy…

If you had to cook dinner for 2000 people would you prepare a very intricate meal or go with a recipe that most are liable to eat…let’s say burgers and fries. But even so there will be some who don’t like the meal.

Sonos is trying to present a product that has to work with hundreds of devices that it has no say in how they are designed or the software that makes them work. Let’s not even begin to talk about NETWORKS. All Sonos has are generic blueprints for CEC and Networking compatibility.

Given the number of devices Sonos has on the market in active use; the issues in this community are far outnumbered by the number of users without problems. If the opposite were true I doubt Sonos would still be in business.

I hope everyone reading this understands what has been said. Don’t make me come to your home to explain this

As a side-note, I also have a SONOS Arc in my home and tried using it in this setup in place of the Beam 2 with no other changes and had no problems. 

As a follow-up to my original post… After reading the linked forum topic above top-to-bottom, I purchased the discussed uni-directional optical HDMI cable (link to the one I used below) and set it up with the “source” end connected to my TV’s eARC HDMI port (2) and the “display” end connected the the Beam 2.

This appears to have completely solved the issue. No drop-outs. So, for now, thanks to a lot of work by the people on that thread, I’m finally okay. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KZP65G7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

@JoshuaC

Glad you were able to resolve your issue. However, I believe your research legitimizes the comments by me and @Airgetlam…not to stop at Sonos and say it’s a “Sonos issue”.  Look elsewhere as well. 

One of the main problems (tongue in-cheek) with Sonos speakers is that they are so versatile in their deployment with other 3rd party products. Consequently, when an outside-the-box connection is attempted and doesn’t work…Sonos gets the blame. To be fair Sonos has issues otherwise updates would not be sent.

However, when dealing with software/firmware development and deployment…bugs are bound to crop-up. Thankfully, Sonos corrects issues/bugs directly related to its products on a timely basis. 

That’s all I have for this thread. Enjoy your Sonos!! 

I'm reading this as I'm contemplating the Arc with a sub mini, and this would just safe me a good deal of money. Like 1400 euros for the entire set instead of 1600 with the arc. As you have both; is the Arc worth the 200 more if I use the sub-mini or is the sub gen 3 a mandatory purchase?

I'll be sure to buy an optical HDMI cable as well. What does this kind of cable do that might fix the issue? All I can find is that the Sonos wouldn't be able to communicate with the TV anymore, but the TV can send signals to the Sonos.
Would the length of the cable matter as well?

I had the same issue with my Beam Gen 2 and LG C1. I tried every solution including a fiber 2.1 HDMI cable. That fixed the audio cut out but introduced a screen black out for a couple of seconds every 10 minutes or so. 

I ended up returning the Beam Gen 2 and bought a Sonos Arc. No cut outs anymore with the Arc. 

Sonos is blaming LG, but why is the Arc immune to this issue and the Beam Gen 2 not? Hard to believe that the problem is on LG alone.