Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss

I’ve just experienced this issue this evening watching Dolby Atmos (Doctor Strange on Disney Plus via Apple TV)
A very large startling pop and then Sonos no longer produces audio, even though it thinks it is (rear surrounds were still working but Arc was not). Turning on and off seems to help but now I’m unclear whether there has been damage to the speaker.

Yeah strange that it’s happening to a lot of people all at once. Has to be a reason for it. I’m convinced mines damaged after this happened so I’m hoping to arrange a replacement. It didn’t sound very healthy when it happened 

This is happening to me too, Apple TV connected to LG CX77 and Sonos Arc. It happens roughly once a day.

My reply from SONOS tech support was fairly basic. They sent me to a link about unsupported media.

Which would be fine if it was continuing to react, except the only way to get any functionality back has been to power cycle the ARC.

Awaiting the next bang, and then I have a bit more experimenting to do.

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.

@Corry P Hi, in my case there is a loss of audio quality since this has happened. It’s a wider issue which seems to be happening more often.

ive been waiting for a response from the engineer team for 4-5 days. Do you know when I might hear back from them? Case number is 02710177.

thanks 

@DC92 When a case is escalated, it goes back in a queue which may take some time to clear to your position. The owner of your case was changed about 4 hours before you posted, to that of a senior technical support technician (I believe they take ownership of a few cases at the start of a day and work through them). Thank you for you patience so far, and I believe you’ll be contacted soon.

Ah that’s great thanks! I’ll keep an eye on my emails :)

@DC92 Hi, Be great to know any of the feedback you get via email in the end if that’s possible please, would certainly help with any next steps.👍

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

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

Brilliant update, thanks for taking the time to do that much appreciated!!

Not a problem, still waiting for a response. I have read somewhere that the auto HDR feature on Xbox sometimes causes the pop to occur. It happens when the image type and audio changes. So this apparently fixes the problem (not tried it) but may be worth trying :)

I have an Xbox One X attached to the Arc via the HD Fury Arcana, and I have also had the LOUD POP. 

Its proper frightening when it happens. It sounds like a gun going off in the room. 

This has happened at least a dozen times but it has always been at-random. 

I don't think my speakers were ruined but if this happened more frequently I would be concerned. 

Hey, I read online disabling the auto HDR feature on the Xbox and switching audio delay to on with the arcana should stop this happening. I have an arcana too and this is what the engineers who make the arcana suggest on their discord :) If you give this a go and let us know if it works that'd be brilliant. In the process of testing this myself 

Thanks for sharing that, @DC92. Has anyone been able to confirm that doing this has helped?

A couple of people on the discord said it’s not happened since, it hasn’t happened to myself either yet but very limited use. It’s not perfect scenario due to me having Arcana but the issue does occur with LG eARC tv’s commonly from what I’ve seen. I’ll keep the auto HDR feature turned off and then keep you posted on whether it happens again.

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. I’ve only had it happen once but it was so loud I though something had exploded, that was a few weeks back and I’ve been in and out of auto hdr games. But after using it a while since I am now more convinced something is degraded quality wise on the ARC because of that issue, so it’s good to know you were offered a replacement, will have to make contact with support.

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?

Hi @steslatt 

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

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.

I've spoken to support and after looking at my diagnostic file they said everything seems to be working ok.

Hi @steslatt 

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.