I was playing on my Xbox when the arc suddenly made an extremely loud pop sound and then lost audio completely. The app wouldn’t let me adjust the volume and Alexa wake up didn’t emit its usual tone. I had to remove the power from the arc and reapply which resumed the audio. I’m concerned that one of the speakers in the arc may have been damaged when this happened. Has anyone had this issue?
We have had no issues with the arc since purchasing it earlier this year.
Seeing this thread resurrected, I want to express how important this fix was. This week, I bought two ERA 300 and Sonos stands to upgrade my surround.
I 100% would not have done that if my home theater setup was still on 5.1 without Atmos because of the pop. I know it’s often more exciting for businesses to focus on new products. But fixing flaws in already sold goods directly impacts future sales.
Hi
It sounds like you have a different issue - especially since the issue this thread relates to is resolved. I recommend you open a new thread where you are more likely to receive help from the community.
I do, however, recommend that you first try rebooting your TV by unplugging it from power for at least a full minute.
I hope this helps.
Hi
Let us know how it goes and we're here to answer any further questions you have.
Hi
Let us know how it goes and we're here to answer any further questions you have.
Hi. Glad I’ve just seen this. Xbox Series X and Sonos ARC, very loud pop as if a speaker had blown. Diagnosis report 444345874
Same issue for me, did you hear if there’s any damage?
Hi. Think I’ve just seen your post on Reddit. Haven’t had a response yet so need to follow up but have a feeling something just seems off, was so odd as nothing was running to make it pop so loud.
Hi. Glad I’ve just seen this. Xbox Series X and Sonos ARC, very loud pop as if a speaker had blown. Diagnosis report 444345874
Same issue for me, did you hear if there’s any damage?
Hi. Think I’ve just seen your post on Reddit. Haven’t had a response yet so need to follow up but have a feeling something just seems off, was so odd as nothing was running to make it pop so loud.
Yeah I posted on Reddit too, I’m 90% sure there’s an issue. I’ve been through all the troubleshooting with Sonos and they’ve escalated it to an engineer who’ll get back to me in 24 hours.
The sound is just less “full” and it feels lacking whereas before it was amazing. I’ll let you know what the outcome is. I know speakers sometimes make a popping noise when they disconnect etc but it was wayyy louder than I had my TV or anything I’d normally hear. I’m assuming something is damaged.
Doesn't sound degraded. Ran a few different audio feeds after I power cycled the arc. All sounded normal.
I’m glad to hear that there are no audio distortions after hearing this “pop”. If this issue happens repeatedly, 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.
No reply as of yet, imagine it’ll be tomorrow now. I’ll post any update I get here 
Hey, Not heard from Sonos just yet, saw my local currys had one in stock (where I bought it from) So I took it in for a replacement and the new one sounds miles better :)
I’ll see what SONOS return with anyway and pop it in here when they eventually reply. I’ll ask them what they would’ve done had I not replaced it already too just so other people with this issue know how to proceed.
Cheers
Hey, Not heard from Sonos just yet, saw my local currys had one in stock (where I bought it from) So I took it in for a replacement and the new one sounds miles better :)
I’ll see what SONOS return with anyway and pop it in here when they eventually reply. I’ll ask them what they would’ve done had I not replaced it already too just so other people with this issue know how to proceed.
Cheers
That’s brilliant cheers mate. Good that currys swapped it usually they make things a bit hard sometimes and the fact you noticed a difference is really interesting! Thanks again for the update.
Hey, Sonos got back to me and asked me to do the following in order to test for damage to the speakers:
“As simple test to confirm, Trueplay. Please attempt to Trueplay the Arc in a 5.0 surround set up as well as while a stand along player. Please capture a diagnostic after each tune and let me know the outcome”
As I can’t do this now I’ve replaced the arc I’ve shifted the question to whether Sonos are looking into this issue we’ve all started experiencing recently. Whether it’s something they’re aware of and how we can avoid this pop sound. If it caused damage to my ARC then I’d imagine some other will follow. I’ll update again when they return with answer
cheers
Hello all. Been having this issue for some time. Contacted support and they offered me a new arc, but this has to be a bigger issue. I tried the auto hdr. It worked for quite a few days. The popping now all the sudden started again. Curious if anyone else's started popping with the hdr fix?
Hi
Same thing has just happened to me, loud pop followed by no sound. Not sure if it's damaged now. Is there any way to check each individual speaker speaker on the arc?
The easiest way is just playing something and putting your ear close to each driver, I’m afraid. You may be able to find a video that plays test tones in 5.1, however - I believe searching for “test” on Netflix will produce some results. Avoid YouTube as they re-encode uploaded 5.1 tracks to stereo (you need 5.1 to test the centre speaker).
Edit: Removed line stating issue was only on XBox
Hi
Has this been confirmed to be an Xbox issue though? I didn't have this problem using my LG soundbar and I can't find any other issues online apart from Sonos.
Apologies - I re-read the topic and noticed the Apple TV reports too.
I can only recommend that anyone who experiences this immediately submits a diagnostic and then gets in touch with our technical support team when convenient.
Hi
Welcome to the Sonos Community!
As mentioned, 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, after submitting the diagnostics. Especially if you think your Arc has been damaged.Thanks.
Hi
Thanks for adding that information. Given the multiple sources involved, and that your Arc is reporting briefly receiving data it didn’t understand how to decode as an Atmos stream, I would look to the TV as the culprit here.
What seems to be happening is that the TV is momentarily sending data in a different format (or failing to properly maintain the format feed). The Arc will play this for a fraction of a second before realising there’s something wrong with the stream and stop. It’s this fraction of a second of data that doesn’t describe a “real” sound that’s creating the pop noise. If the Arc didn’t stop playing, it would presumably sound something like a data CD playing in an Audio CD player. With no meaningful control over the volume level of this sound, it’s all at the maximum actual level that the current volume level can achieve.
Unfortunately, the only way of confirming this is either by swapping the TV (ideally for another brand) to test, or using a device such as the HD Fury Arcana to act as the coordinator of these feeds and turn the TV into a glorified monitor.
If you haven’t rebooted your TV by unplugging it from power for 30 seconds, I recommend you try this first. It can help with a lot of Home Theatre audio issues.
Hi
Have you checked if the Arcana has any updates available? I highly recommend this.
I can confirm that we don’t support the use of any HDMI switches. This isn’t to say they won’t work, just that if you’re using one then we can’t guarantee performance, and therefore don’t troubleshoot systems using them. HD Fury, however, will support your Arcana. From what I hear, HD Fury have good technical support - I recommend getting in touch with them regarding this issue.
Unfortunately, the only way of confirming this is either by swapping the TV (ideally for another brand) to test, or using a device such as the HD Fury Arcana to act as the coordinator of these feeds and turn the TV into a glorified monitor.
I don’t mean to be pedantic, but I didn’t recommend that you use an Arcana - just that it would serve as a troubleshooting tool should a second TV not be an option for testing (and it could then be returned for a refund). Unfortunately, the fact that you have one in use already means that you likely cannot test Atmos without using it due to your TV not supporting Atmos.
I’m afraid I cannot escalate a case to the next tier when it’s regarding a setup that we do not support.
Hi
I just find it odd that troubleshooting for TVs is done but for Arcana it’s denied as I’m pretty sure that HDFury devices are much better engineered, standards compliant and updated then many or most TVs. But okay…
In the case of the Arcana, I personally agree with you. Perhaps, in time, it won’t be grouped-in with other HDMI switches/adaptors.
This sounds possible to me, however I believe that both the source stream and the Arc could be at fault here about the integrity of the stream, given how many people have the same issue?
We have no reason to do anything to the audio stream. As this is happening before the Arc gets a chance to decode it (one of the first things the Arc will do), it’s seems more likely to do with the transport.
Regardless of which device’s fault it is there is one thing I think Sonos should do something about: The popping sound is so loud that I fear it could damage my hearing or the Arc speaker itself. It’s actually like a shot fired right next to you or a little explosion in you living room.
I agree with
However I have configured my Arc to a 50 % volume limit and usually only use 25 % of the Sonos volume bar, so I’m roughly at 12.5 % volume of what the Arc could do (in addition to this my PC is set to about 50 - 70 % volume itself which would further lowe that to 6 to 9 %, but let’s drop that assuming it produces a broken stream with higher volume...).
I find it hard to believe that this is the max. volume of the 12.5 % the Arc is set to. I think if those peaks are possible through a presumably broken stream at least the Arc should limit the volume of such a pop to something more healthy.
Well, that certainly sounds suspicious - I was not aware. Your PC volume probably isn’t taken into account with Atmos passthrough, but that’s immaterial. I highly recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, along with anyone else experiencing this issue. Please be sure to mention your volume levels and how loud the pop sounded.
For what it's worth I use a Playbar with the Series X and never heard a similar noise, never had loss of audio etc.
After months of this problem, I just had an occurrence of the bang that might shed some light on the problem!
It just happened while the Apple TV 4K was on screensaver. I.e., there was no sound playing whatsoever for minutes and then out of nowhere: BANG!
This makes me think it’s a Sonos Arc problem and not related to the sound source.
This happened to me Friday while watching The morning show on Apple TV 4K.
If it happens again will do a diagnostic and ring them.
I’m on a Sony 4k (X900 I believe) with HDMI 2.1. When I watch the same Dolby Atmos content through the native apps on the Sony OS I have no issues. That ATV+ And the ARC do not seem to get along.
I reached out to Sonos support (by phone) as well. The tech did a lot of putting me on hold to talk to her level 2, but I never got to talk to that person myself. They seemed unaware of the issue. I mentioned this thread.
The main takeaway was that they said my diagnostics couldn’t be used because they were more than 24 hours old. I should call them immediately after the Pop happens. However, there was one useful piece of diagnostic advice. I haven’t had the pop since (yet), but perhaps one of you can try it.
After the pop, before resetting, while the Arc is still dropped out; open the Sonos app and play music from it. Does that work?
Will see if it occurs during Hawkeye tomorrow, and attempt if it happens. 
Fenway, great response. It’s happened twice in the past week both times with Get Back on Disney+.
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