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.
Note that
I would also add one more point - even IF this is an issue that is not related to how Sonos decodes MAT and handles that content (be it upstream issues with eARC and/or CEC (when enabled) or errors in timing from BOTH the XBox and ATV encode process with MAT), Sonos still could make changes in how these errors are handled. I would far prefer if there were brief audio drops when there are decoding/processing errors with the Arc/Beam as opposed to a MASSIVE gunshot sound that wakes up my entire house, scares me to death, and makes me worried it might ultimately blow out a speaker. It would be an incremental, though substantive improvement if Atmos content did not result in such a catastrophic breakdown specific to Sonos products. I’m scared to even enable Atmos to do testing because the noise is so loud that I’m on edge the entire time (don’t even get me started on the terror it induces for our cats).
Couldn't agree more, perhaps other soundbars have had the same issue and have far superior exception handling routines over Sonos and are able to gracefully recover without hinting to the user that something is wrong.
I think the community would welcome that fix if it were at all possible
Looking at the thread on the Sonos subreddit, I'm surprised to see so many users who had the bang once or twice and it went away; or who have configurations identical to ours but no problems.
Could this be just specific Arcs malfunctioning? Has anybody had their unit exchanged and the problem came back?
If this were as straightforward as "we need new units", that would blow my mind.
I had a replacement sent to me from Sonos and still the same issue. I’m keeping mine because a) it’s specific to Dolby MAT vs DD+ and b) compared to a HT-A7000 (which I tried as a possible replacement), the Sonos killed it. While disabling Atmos on my Xbox and Apple TV sucks, the bar is fantastic and has a fairly good app experience. When it works, it works.
As I’ve said before this is a Sonos hardware bug that can be recreated with the same parameters 100% of the time.
Each time I read how we have to turn off the feature that we specifically paid for is infuriating. And the constant naysayers who are likely Sonos affiliated people is underhanded and shows what we the consumer, what kind of company we invested in.
This is a 2 year going to be 3 year issue. There is Zero excuse and Sonos is Fully aware of this issue. They have contracts with their manufacturers. This is just business. I’ve worked for large corporations in the past that release faulty hardware and software due to contracts with manufacturers and retailers.
It is far more profitable to have the likelihood of poor individuals who made the choice to plug in an Xbox Series X that DOES cause permanent damage to the Sonos Arc, rendering it completely incapable of playing Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision content concurrently from any source.
An issue that did not appear for years prior to plugging in a Sonos Arc.
This is my 3rd Arc. I unfortunately recommended the Sonos Arc to my father who currently has zero issues because I was able to warn him not to plug in an Xbox Series X that my younger half brother has.
Something we all could have benefited from bad we been given notice. Enough with the Sonos isn’t the issue nonsense.
2 of my Arcs now have this issue. Because I like so many of you thought, this might be a singular issue. As there were two releases of the Arc, one with the more expensive packaging and then the “streamlined” “uniform” box aka cheaper packaged one.
This is NOT specific to certain Sonos Arcs. This IS an issue that occurs to ALL Sonos Arcs. Considering the far fewer sales of the Xbox Series X, this is why there hasn’t been more reports than the many that already exist for over two years now.
One final note, this issue has never happened with my PS5 playing on the Sonos Arc. Which I had over a year before I got an Xbox Series X.
I still argue against your theory regarding XSX but something did change.
As I’ve said before, like you, I had period where the Arc worked fine with Atmos. Since I purchased in Dec 2020, up until around September 2021, I had no issues. Again, during this time, the Bravia X90H line, and Apple TV, and the Sonos Arc all had major OS updates. One of which most certainly introduced the issue. No change in my hardware configuration, no connected devices or cables changed or swapped. Just one day… BANG.
I’d be interested to know if you purchased an XSX around September/October 2021.
I have used my Series X with my Arc for 8 months before I heard my first and so far only pop. I don’t know what changed in those 8 months but I don’t necessarily blame Xbox
I’m not blaming Microsoft, there is no issue of blame. It is about causalities and factors that can reproduce a bug. So that Sonos can try to find a fix or workaround.
As I’ve said before at this point, Sonos will most likely come out with the Arc 2, which may not have this issue going forward. Playing ur Xbox Series X, there a specific factors that come into play. What game settings did you have, what game features did the game have. Specifically Dolby Vision and Atmos features playing concurrently. Not all games especially in the last 8 months have these “next gen” features.
PS5 didn’t have VRR for over a year when it was released back in 2020. The point is, of course it’s not Microsoft’s fault for having a console that when playing specific software parameters causes a faulty product like the Sonos Arc to have issues.
The responsibility lies with Sonos to test their products when issues appear to maintain a standard and quality that their company advertises.
My next sound system will not be Sonos. And it will take a lot before I consider or ever recommend their products again, after everything I’ve read, on multiple message boards and threads like this one. And the experience I’ve had with their products.
Like many of you, I fell for the advertising and hype that Sonos successfully executed with their brilliant campaign for the Sonos Arc.
I was far too trusting and not as discerning as I was in my youth. Going forward, I will now wait at least a year and a half before investing in a system’s release.
The Sony HT A9 is my current possible replacement choice if not for lacking a dedicated center channel speaker.
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 only get the popping sound when the Arc is used with Dolby Atmos (Xbox series x and with windows 10 computer) both connected to an LG CX. If i choice stereo, 5.1 or 7.1 no pops with the computer. The problem is with the Arc or the cable that came with the Arc.
Sonos, its time to address this issue.
Well I am deeply disappointed in Sonos at this point. The reply I got was simply that they know of the issue and it is not their fault so I should just disable Atmos. If that's the case then I want them to update their Arc product page to say NOT COMPATIBLE WITH XBOX/APPLETV/ROKU. I feel cheated right now and even though I know it most likely isn't ALL Sonos fault here, other manufacturers have seemed to push out firmware updates that fix Atmos issues with these devices. If nothing else it seems only the Sonos gives the loud BANG whereas other manufacturers just have crackles.
If Sonos are saying it’s not their fault - I can’t ever see them going onto make an announcement that it’s some other companies fault - that’s certainly not the way to build on a relationship between partner companies.
Sonos are doing the correct thing and saying nothing about whoever is responsible here, they’re simply just saying it’s not their issue. If changing the ‘other’ connected hardware solves the issue then maybe that helps to go some way to maybe confirm what Sonos says.
I can perhaps partly help on that point, as I don’t have an Xbox nor an Apple TV 4K, but I do have an Arc connected to an LG C9 TV together with a FireTV 4K and a Nvidia Shield (amongst other things) and I’ve not once experienced the popping or crackling issues mentioned in this thread. So maybe some inferences can be drawn from that fact 🤔?
They don’t have to say it is someone else’s fault, but just like when buying computer parts, there is a compatibility list as to what motherboard works with what processors. AppleTV/Xbox etc are NOT some random Chinese “media box”, they are top tier mainstream products from the highest grossing companies in the world. If the Arc doesn’t work with them, customers should be notified. The fact that other companies that are “cheaper” had no issues pushing out a firmware fix to work around the issue tells me that Sonos is simply not trying to deal with the issue.
As a customer that spent thousands on this equipment, it is a slap in the face to be told that your main reason for buying an expensive new product needs to be disabled because they can’t fix it.
And once it happens, it then continues to happen. We are all hoping for a resolution.
But for a few “we’re aware of it” engagements here, not a lot of communication from Sonos.
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
updated my Apple TV 4K to tvOS 17… so far no popping… let us pray 🙏
Beta?
It would help if ‘POP’ victims kept good logs. The log should be verbose, keeping track of time of day, temperature, play time into the movie, ARC Volume setting, etc. It would be best to submit a diagnostic and include the confirmation number in the log. If you are regularly hit with these events, the developers could be able to provide special builds and access to enhanced diagnostic procedures.
Everyone should keep an open mind. Once you decide that the problem must be […] or cannot be […], you are likely to be blindsided. One should not assume that there is a single cause. It’s possible that a string of events must occur in a certain order before there is a ‘POP’. This is why logging is important.
This is some farcical BS. The onus for comprehensive and useful logging is not on the end user. Sonos has a submit diagnostic feature for a reason that has been used countless times by the users in this thread.
Re: “keep[ing] an open mind”, you might have missed the part where this has been ongoing for almost three years. We’re passed the point of giving Sonos the benefit of the doubt and just want some kind of resolution. Even if that’s just in the form of better error handling so that we get a drop out instead a heart stopping gunshot.
Not really, I’ve been part of solving some other difficult issues (I won’t mention company names) and I’ve been aware of this issue from the first post. Since I’m not able to observe this issue, I can’t contribute any data. From my seat it mostly seems like barking at the wall.
One case the I was involved with was interesting. I came across an intermittent issue. It could present a few times an hour, days, or weeks. It was a few millisecond mute in the audio output, barely perceptible by many users. It was real easy to blame something that had no relation to this issue, but could exhibit similar symptoms. I became aware of a few people unsuccessfully attempting to get a handle on the issue. The manufacturer was not able to help. I built a little hardware monitor and was able to observe some erratic activity that usually culminated in an “event”. I suspect that relative humidity was part of the package. I contacted the manufacturer and they were aware that some users had reported an issue, but the issue could not be observed in their service shop. When I described my monitor they were excited and suggested a potential fix. They couldn’t verify the fix in their shop because they didn’t have any misbehaving units and If I am correct that relative humidity was in the mix, I don’t think that they would ever have had a misbehaving unit in their shop (due to their location). Anyway, I applied the proposed fix and had an immediate positive response from my monitor. A couple days later the manufacturer called to check in and I reported that my monitor had logged zero events. It was an easy, cheap fix and lot of people were happy.
I mention this because we may not yet have figured out which end of the ‘POP’ dog to bark at. It seems to be a multi-dimensional issue. The common dimensions seem to be PS5, X-Box, AppleTV, and versions of Atmos. The shutdown is easy to understand. The ‘POP’ is at maximum output and ARC is designed to shut down in order to protect itself.
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?
I have a Beam Gen 2 and have it connected to the eArc port on my TV and my Xbox is connected to an HDMI 2.0 port. It happens to me once every few days during several different circumstances and always seems to happen after switching media, but only after being on the new media for a few minutes.
This last time it happened I had just finished playing some Halo Infinite and switched to YouTube. After watching a video for 5 minutes the pop happened. Alexa wouldn't respond and there was no audio. I tried streaming Sonos radio from the app and it worked again, including alexa. It did not auto switch back to TV input, so I restarted my Xbox and everything worked again. All without powering off the beam, but a big hassle...
I tend to agree with this view. They were aware of it when I reported the issue a week ago. It is a bit of a concern that they have an Atmos product out there that cannot reliably play this format. It seems there are a number of different configurations/sources that I think eliminate anything upstream of the ARC.
I hadn't experienced this before as my previous TV only had ARC and not EARC so could not pass lossless atmos. It surprised me how long this issue has been going and I wonder how many others have not experienced it due to their TV not being able to pass through a full Atmos signal.
Sonos Staff have mentioned they are aware of this issue in the community here and stated they were investigating, but that the matter was also an issue with other manufacturers products too and that’s certainly reported online, as links were provided to other soundbars having the issue. So it appears that it’s an issue where the ball is not in Sonos’ court - but I agree it needs an urgent fix, (if possible) by whoever is responsible - the last I saw, was to switch off using Atmos transcoded to multichannel LPCM (uncompressed) and use DD+ (Atmos) or DD TrueHD (Atmos) codecs instead. So perhaps try that.
Hi Everyone!
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.
We would also like to thank our community users for their detailed setup information and steps to reproduce the issue, which were helpful to us in uncovering the cause of the bug.
We have a new kid in our house and I warned them that it may pop really loudly (they get scared easy) but… it didn't happen. Playing whatever, never happened. I'm messing in settings muting when I could and hoping it doesn't happen but… it didn't happen. I thought I was just getting lucky but then I googled and was shocked. My wife is relieved. I can stop steeling myself against a constant jump scare threat.
Thank you to the team for finally tracking this down. It's crazy how much stress this caused in my life.
These were some of the links where other manufacturers had the popping issue…(I haven’t tested if they’re still valid)…
This is the link where I saw the Sonos Staff comment about the issue too…
PS5, have the same issue. Have Arc, 2 Subs, 2 Fives, 2 Ones, 2 OneSL and a move, all within the 45 day window, probably get my 4k+ back, this is so bad and makes using the system not enjoyable.
I can now confirm that his problem is TV Independent. I just had this problem on my new LG C1 whereas before I was experiencing it on the Sony X900h
I’m wondering if there any common denominator devices connected to the TV, such as the Xbox or Apple TV - I’ve seen those mentioned in some of the posts here and elsewhere online, with different Soundbars too, having this same issue?
Anyone with eArc extractor and still having this issue?
i have had this issue but when i used the eArc extractor, the issue is gone
Using apple tv 4k 3rd gen + xbox x+ ps5 beta software, all tested with atmos, the issue is no more, no more pop
KeithFromSonos over on Reddit actually recommended using the Arcana as a possible workaround:
He said it’s not official guidance but it seems they’re aware that it makes a difference.
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.
+3
PS5, have the same issue. Have Arc, 2 Subs, 2 Fives, 2 Ones, 2 OneSL and a move, all within the 45 day window, probably get my 4k+ back, this is so bad and makes using the system not enjoyable.
This is do find surprising — as the PS5 isn’t Atmos enabled. It does support bitmapped Atmos from Blu-Rays, but this is normally encoded as TrueHD, not MAT so shouldn’t be an issue…
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.
This is one involving LG soundbar making ‘horrendous’ popping noise…
It seems to me to have been going on for a while - so I (still) wonder if it’s a codec problem?
Fairly new sonos user, I've had an arc work flawlessly for two months using Disney plus, Amazon prime video and just standard Freeview viewing. Decided to dust off the old Xbox one s to give it a run out along with enabling dolby Atmos, less than an hour later - pop! I nearly fell off my chair it was so loud. I was convinced with a sound like the there must have been some damage done to the arc. This was followed by silence and I'm sure I saw a flash off orange/red on the top of the arc for a moment.
I submitted by diagnostic number via the Sonos live chat but apparently all looks good from what they can tell! It seems likes it's working fine again for my usual TV viewing but I will be following the advice from previous contributers to this thread and change the sound to Dolby 5.1 on the Xbox. Although I am reluctant to load up the Xbox for the time being.
Atmos works in many configurations. But there really should be a disclaimer that it may not work with Apple TV or Xbox, whatever the underlying reason.
I like to think
+3
There is, devices that use the Dolby MAT container for Atmos (Xbox, Apple TV and now Roku). There was some debate before as to whether the TV passing through the MAT signal was doing it properly and since I’ve had failure with two different TVs now. I’m more confident it has nothing to do with the TV passing through the signal but the signal itself
Same model of TV? Same brand, different models?
Dolby MAT has been my theory all along as it’s the only consistent thread across everything. The fact that other soundbars seem to struggle with Xbox’s Atmos content is somewhat curious—on face value, that reads as if there is a bug in the Atmos codec, and/or potentially the decoder SDK (assuming it’s provided by Dolby on licence).
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.
