Has anyone reached out to Xbox or Apple directly regarding this issue? Considering Sonos hasn’t directly addressed this issue in 2+ years, I’m starting to wonder if it’s something they can even fix at all. Might be worth a try. 

Have this exact same issue, extremely loud pop which sounds like a speaker being blown followed by no audio, power cycling required to restore it, happens infrequently but very worrying when it does and sends my dog nuts.

Generally seems to happen when using my Xbox series x as others have mentioned which is using pass-through audio via my Samsung QN95A Tv, have had the problem since day dot and it also was present on my previous TV (same setup)  a Samsung Q95T.

My ARC has exhibited the same problem for a few months now.   I think I am beginning to think it is an Dolby Atmos related issue.  It was just doing it when I tried to play an Dolby Atmos playlist from my Apple TV box.  Apple TV to LG TV to eARC HDMI out to ARC.  Simple setup.  The problem stopped when I switched back to TV sound which is outputing Dolby AC3.

SONOS Diag.  748691017.

check it out please.

‘Ed

@Yiu,
To get Sonos Support Staff to check your diagnostic report, you are perhaps best to contact/chat to  them directly via this link below:

https://support.sonos.com/s/contact

At my wits end.  Went the RMA route with my arc because they thought the hardware was faulty.  No problems for literally 3 weeks.  Today the loud pop returned in the same spot it normally does in the Series X (randomly when returning to the Home Screen after playing a Dolby atmos game)

Two ARCs, Three Different HDMI cables, two different devices where it happens (Series X, ATV 4K) two different TVs.  (Sony x900h, LG C1).  Same problem, 100% confident it’s software so can’t understand why the problem can’t be replicated and solved

Will phone Sonos again on Monday, diagnostic 1981635273 if anybody from Sonos cares

At my wits end with this issue guys.  Over the last month I completed a RMA process to eliminate the possibility that this is a hardware issue.  Everything was working great with new Arc and hdmi cable and all of a sudden this weekend, two pops occurring the same way on the series X (both when playing a upconverted dolby atmos game, and then exiting back to the Home Screen)

This now makes 2 Arcs, 3 different HDMI cables, 2 different TVs (Sony x900H, LG C1) and two different source devices (Latest ATV4K, Xbox Series and I’m getting the pop on every combination.  Convinced it’s the Dolby MAT container but it’s unclear if it’s a source issue or a  Sonos one

Opened a ticket with Microsoft to see if they are aware of any issues that exist on their end, not to mention multiple calls into Sonos all which have not produced an official acknowledgment of the problem or ETA for a fix

I do have difficulty believing with this many people all having the same issues that nobody from Sonos has been unable to recreate it even in random play testing

Will try again with support Monday, in the meantime my two failures have the following diagnostics

1981635273

1052219663

Hang in there guys with enough calls to support we can bring light to this issue

I’m going to stop investing anymore in Sonos products and stop recommending them to my friends and family. This issue is easily reproducible by the patterns of hardware described in this thread and only occurs with Sonos products; no other soundbar. Support isn’t a priority for Sonos, which is a shame considering how expensive their products are.

I’m not entirely sure this is a Sonos issue, as the XBox does seem to be particularly prone to the "popping" issue (and it’s not always Sonos related). Here are a reminder of a few (of several) links that I came across in a quick browser search before. So other manufacturers appear to have this issue with their products, it is not just the Sonos Arc, as can be seen elsewhere online:

• 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/
• 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/

None of those four examples fit the behavior described in this thread.

The only thing any of them have in common is some sort of general “popping sound”. Users here are reporting that their Sonos soundbar, when playing Atmos content from an Apple TV or XBOX, makes a loud noise and crashes, requiring a power cycle to fix. I’ve yet to see an example this exact same behavior reproduced by any other soundbar.

Those were just some ‘examples’ of quite a few sites that I came across during a web search and it’s often different makes of soundbar with either the XBox or Apple-T`V.. if anything, folk should be speaking to Microsoft or Apple, I think… (Unless it’s a Dolby codec issue)?

Many examples, yet not one of them matches the behavior described by this thread? I need at least one valid example of another manufacturer’s product producing this same issue before I can be convinced.

Maybe see if the suggestions in this link below will assist you - it seems some soundbars may make a popping sound in some instances, not that I’ve experienced it with my own Arc or Beam setups here, however this site (and others) do offer some useful suggestions to try:

https://www.theaudiocritic.com/why-does-my-soundbar-make-popping-noises-n25.html

If the matter still persists for you, then you are best to continue to gather the evidence from your own setup, perhaps video & diagnostic data, and continue to report the data gathered to Sonos Support via this LINK

I’m not debating that you are not suffering the issue, I’m just personally not convinced that this is entirely a Sonos issue in everyones case, the description of such incidents do vary, even in this thread… it’s probably best to pursue/report your own ongoing issue.

It has to be a codec issue.  The single consistent factor between Apple TV, Xbox One X, and the Roku devices is that they all use the MAT container for Atmos.  Disabling Atmos, and the problem goes away on Apple TV (albeit, defeats the point of having Atmos).

I can confirm that the “pop” is caused by, or creates, a loss of signal with the Arc (and I believe the Beam, as this has shown issues also).  Following the pop, the Sonos diagnostics show that the signal being received has been dropped entirely.

Who to blame is certainly tricky; Apple and Microsoft are, for sure, the ones creating the signal so potentially introducing something wiggy in it.  But then are Sony knackering the pass through some how, and then is it a matter of Sonos not being able to recover from a small blip?

The problem is for me, at least, that Apple released tvOS 15 around the same time that Sonos released it’s major update for DTS, and also around the same time Sony released it’s Android 11 firmware for it’s TVs — which makes pegging which software update to blame difficult.  I’ve experienced bugginess in Sony’s firmware since the update too with the TV flat out freezing, so who knows…

From what I’ve heard, these issues weren’t an issue on tvOS 14.  Unfortunately, there is no away to downgrade the Apple TV 4K due to a lack of USB port…

 

Hi guys,

I have the same issue and reported it to Sonos multiple times. They’ve said that it is very unusual and they have never heard about it. Well. It happened when streaming Dolby Atmos (Apple Music, Disney+, Netflix) on my AppleTV 4K but also via the apps (Disney+, Netflix) on my Philips OLED856/12. I am also using two Play:1s as rear speakers and it seems like the problem is not occuring when I delete them from the setup and just use Arc. I’ve asked support if they are too old and if the problem would be solved if I add two One instead. According to them, using the play:1s shouldn’t be a problem. Are you also using Play:1s in your setups?     

They switched my Arc for a new one and guess what, it just happened again. This is so annoying. It gets me every time.  

Not sure what to do, but clearly this is a bigger issue. 
 

Thanks 

Bastian 
 

I just had this happen to us again this past weekend, which was frustrating, annoying and frankly scared the poop out of us. Nothing like getting caught up on Stranger Things on Netflix and…“POP!”

In our case, it seemed to be related to watching HD Atmos content via the Xbox X series, but from reading the forums, Apple TV devices seem to be an issue for others.  That said, I don’t feel this is a problem that Apple or Microsoft need to address, but certainly some resolution from Sonos is overdue.

I’ve disabled eArc in my TV settings and since then, no pop. Not cool, cause the Arc should be able to connect to eArc, but it was too frustrating. 

I called Sonos Support yesterday trying to get an update on this issue. I was disconnected after explaining the issue (again) for nearly 10 minutes. She had no clue about this issue. Of course she didn’t call back. Why do they ask for your phone number? I digress.
 

The second ‘tech’ was even worse. Had never heard about the issue. I guided him to a few Sonos Community threads. Wanted me to start changing cables and resetting my Arc to factory settings blah, blah, blah. If you are reading this, I’m betting you can relate. 
 

Then I switched to chat support. After getting past the bot, Mateo helped me and told me the update which came available yesterday/today was set to address this issue. I found that to be very coincidental, but hopefully it will help. Fingers crossed. Here is the update details: 

App Version: 14.12 (build 69131120)

Sonos are definitely aware of the issue — perhaps not at a customer support level, who for the most part (I’m assuming are scripted).

I emailed “the CEO” a few months back, which was forwarded onto an internal engineer who was definitely aware of the issue.  I’ve been trying to provide feedback where possible, including diagnostics, and at least in the case of the Apple TV, they confirm that this is something that was introduced as part of tvOS 15.

The new build of Sonos sounds positive, so fingers crossed.  I’m also running the tvOS 16 beta in case we seen any improvement there too…

I’m assuming this has the same effect as disabling Atmos — as eARC (and it’s bandwidth) is required for Atmos content?

Thanks and I really appreciate the feedback. I haven’t re-engaged the Atmos on my Apple TV4K yet as Mateo said there may be an additional Sonos update next week. The popping I was experiencing was so loud I thought it was hurting the Arc. 

Can anyone confirm if 14.12 fixes the pop issue? I haven’t had a chance to test my Xbox yet.

I am on 14.12, and I just had it happen again.  Was getting excited for a minute there because I hadn’t had the issue in over a week and a half

Sigh :(

This is ridiculous really I had 2 loud BANGS over the course of an hour and finally decided to submit an email with diagnostics and literally while TYPING THE EMAIL and my apple tv was on Screensaver BAM....ANOTHER loud bang...it's seemingly worse with this update not better.  Being told to disable the number one touted feature of this $800 device is unacceptable.

I too experienced the issue yesterday between Sonos 14.12 and tvOS 16 Beta.

Strangely, the rears also cut out this time, where as they've been playing previously. Typically seems to be the centre channel that falls out.

I’m not sure if people are experiencing more static between the preview auto-plays, but even my wife commented on how annoying the little static blip was after flicking through the Netflix app as the auto-playing preview abruptly stops between navigation. 

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.

Totally agree. Sonos needs to publish a disclaimer that these devices are not reliably compatible with Arc and could produce very loud popping noises and audio loss.
 

At the very least Sonos should offer those who are having this issue an opportunity to return their Arc. It’s false advertising to say Dolby Atmos content is available using these devices.