Answered

Sonos Arc - Loud pop and complete loss of audio

  • 15 November 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 157 views
C

I have the same - or at least a similar - issue as many other customers describe in the community.

I experience a sudden very loud pop that sounds like a huge short circuit in the Arc, then some small pops crackling and a complete loss of audio. The led turns orange on the front.

Power cycling the Arc gets it out of the bricked state, but only until the issue happens again. Can confirm that it happened with Dolby Atmos audio content from media player on the TV.

Setup is Sonos Arc and 2x Sonos ONE surround setup. Connected to Philips OLED 65OLED806/12 on  eArc port (port 1) with HDMI 2.1 certified cable. System diagnostics collected while the Arc was not in zombie state did not reveil anything weird according to Sonos support.

I found posts going back 3 years that report this same issue, and have found no other proposed solution than “disable Dolby Atmos” and that it might have to do with the Atmos container.

While support has been friendly, they claimed to be unfamiliar with the issue. So far support has not been helpful to solve this issue. Is there anything else that I can do to help confirm, diagnose or remedy the issue within a reasonable timeframe? Please get back to me so that I can either try a potential solution or go for RMA/return.

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Best answer by Corry P 16 November 2023, 15:32

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3 replies

G
Userlevel 7

Make sure the Digital Out Format setting on the TV is set to Multichannel (bypass).

If you are only using the TV’s native streaming apps, try disabling the eARC setting on the TV. eARC is usually is not necessary for the native apps.

Also use the HDMI cable that came with the Arc.

 

You can also try this:

Disconnect everything from the TV and unplug the Arc and TV from power for a couple of minutes. Plug everything back in but keep everything disconnected. Make sure CEC is enabled in the TV settings. Run TV Setup in the Sonos app and follow the app instructions. When the app instructs you, connect the Arc to the TV’s HDMI ARC/eARC port using the Sonos-supplied HDMI cable. After the Arc has been successfully connected, connect any other device to the TV.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
C

Thank you for your response, i’ll try your suggestions.

  1. TV set to Multichannel (bypass) instead of Multichannel
  2. I am not only using the native streaming apps, but will experiment with disabling eARC if the problem persists.
  3. I’m using a new HDMI 2.1 certified cable instead of the one that was supplied with the Sonos Arc as per Sonos customer care instructions.

The complete reconnecting of the system I will try if the problem persists.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Creatier 

Good news! We are pleased to share that our team has identified a fix for the popping sound on Arc and it will be shipped to all customers as part of a software release today, Thursday Nov 16 at 09:30 ET, 14:30 GMT, 15:30 CET. Please note that some app stores may take an extra hour or two for it to become available.

During our investigation we uncovered a rare bug that impacts how Sonos Arc and Beam (Gen 2) in certain home theater configurations process Dolby MAT, a streaming technology which is used to deliver Dolby Atmos audio over HDMI. Occasionally a Sonos product will receive a corrupted audio segment from an external source and needs to filter out unwanted audio data. The bug we identified was allowing our Dolby decoder to play audible errors on certain home theater setups rather than concealing them. The solution we’ve built and tested improves our Dolby decoder so it better filters out corrupt audio data that can manifest as a popping sound. We’ll continue to monitor customer feedback closely after the fix has been released and ship additional updates if necessary.

We strive to deliver the best listening experience possible and work to address major issues that impact our customers. We apologize for the disruption this bug has caused and want to thank you for your patience while our team developed a fix.

 

If you have any questions, please post them on the main related thread and I’ll do my best to answer them.

This thread will be closed to keep all queries in that one place.

 

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