Yup LPCM option still there . I been doing some test , when I’m playing final fantasy 16 on VRR which is 48-60hz then no pop at all but when I switch back to god of war Ragnarok running VRR 48-120hz then loud pop occurs . Now we know 120hz is the problem that causing the pop . Just like the Xbox series X

That’s actually really encouraging.  Hopefully others can recreate and confirm once the update goes live and Sonos can use that as a jumping off point to finally resolve this.

When this PS5 firmware enabling Atmos goes public release, we’ll have a whole new influx of affected users, won’t we?

@rc12 did a bang up job summarizing the problem to date. I think that’s a great reference post for new users joining our thread. We should see if we can point them to it. 
 

Is there a way to make that post the “best answer” for this thread?

Popped again playing on PS5 with beta firmware . This time playing horizon zero dawn forbidden west. It’s so * annoying and horrible experience . Sonos get this fix now . Makes me want to rip that stupid ARC and slams it on the floor 🤬

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

Sonos is being ridiculous here. 
 

“this will focus on the Arc”

We’re trying to focus on the Arc. This is why we’re asking you about a solution when supports been silent. 

I’m quite suprised that this hasn’t been properly picked up by any of the tech news / review sites. Are they too much in bed with Sonos?

I reached out to a couple of tech sites last year when Sonos had the firmware debacle where they destroyed the output of the Sub when used with Trueplay.  RTINGs.com got back to me and said they would do a re-assess on whatever the latest firmware was at that time (which had the lowered bass output).

Well, they followed through on that and tested a firmware revision that was known to have the lowered bass frequencies (this was testable and could be reproduced in a repeatable way).  They noted an improvement in the bass frequencies and upped their scores.

So yeah, I don’t think you’re too far off base here.

I tried all their methods , still didn’t work . I really hope they get this issue fixed this year . I’m so fed up , the pop gives me anxiety 

here’s the latest official response from Sonos support, which seems to suggest it’s specific to some TVs. I know Microsoft has been working on a HDMI 2.1 problem with the Xbox Series X on certain LG OLED models, where the console would boot up into a resolution from 1995 instead of 4K.

 

Either way, we’ll get on to Sonos and figure out if this is TV specific or something related to Dolby MAT 2.0.

Hello everyone,
I'm having exactly the same issue with a Sonos ARC, an AppleTV and a Sony XH9005 (not LG here) : a bang, a few clicks, then nothing. Resetting all the devices and disabling CEC didn't help. The only possible workaround is to disable Dolby Atmos in the AppleTV... The last straw for an Atmos soundbar...

here’s the latest official response from Sonos support, which seems to suggest it’s specific to some TVs. I know Microsoft has been working on a HDMI 2.1 problem with the Xbox Series X on certain LG OLED models, where the console would boot up into a resolution from 1995 instead of 4K.

 

Either way, we’ll get on to Sonos and figure out if this is TV specific or something related to Dolby MAT 2.0.

I have exactly the same problem and already had 3 different OLED from LG. The CX, C1 and CS9. When I had the CX, I hadn't bought the Arc yet. The other two TVs paired with Xbox Series X and Dolby Atmos almost always made the bang we're talking about when I went from games to the dashboard. I also have the other problem with the poor resolution (640x480) on the LG OLEDs with Xbox Series X and it happened on all my OLEDs.

here’s the latest official response from Sonos support, which seems to suggest it’s specific to some TVs. I know Microsoft has been working on a HDMI 2.1 problem with the Xbox Series X on certain LG OLED models, where the console would boot up into a resolution from 1995 instead of 4K.

 

Either way, we’ll get on to Sonos and figure out if this is TV specific or something related to Dolby MAT 2.0.

For context, here’s support’s response (in this same thread) from 2021:
 

For two years they’ve been aware of the issue, have been working on a fix, and have been suggesting people disable Atmos on their Atmos capable soundbar.

This is my latest response by Sonos support . They can’t just replicate the pop on their end . 

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

Thanks Paul for the insight. What they seem to be saying is not that they can’t reproduce the issue. They can’t reproduce it reliably. So, basically, they have the same problem as we all do, which is that it happens randomly, and there is no sequence of actions that will make it occur on demand. 

That is all fine and good, but I think Sonos engineers should be adding debugging code in their ARC software that would allow them to figure out what the issue is when the problem occurs. Anyone that has worked as a software/hardware engineer knows that random issues are more difficult to debug, but if you put enough resources to it you can find the issue. 

I have an AppleTV, LGC2, and Xbox Series X, and I do get it, but infrequently. I imagine if I tried to replicate reliably I could do it.  I guess I could disable HDMI-CEC if that does indeed fix the issue, but come on.

I just tried disabling eARC and I can no longer reliably reproduce the audio pop. Re-enabling eARC hasn’t reproduced the issue either. Can anyone here who is able to reliably reproduce see if disabling and re-enabling eARC clears something? It might still come back, but it’s interesting that I can no longer reliably reproduce!

There was a point somewhere in this thread that we discussed CEC state when turning off certain features.  It seems that when a change is made the TV holds on to certain setting which if you are lucky results in more stability and less pops.  I had this happen to me personally about 6 months back.  Things were incredibly stable for over a month and the the second I got one pop.  I got a bunch of them

Tom, I am in a rare group where I found disabling Dolby Vision for Gaming on the series X makes a difference.  I have been pop free since this change, and since Dolby Vision for gaming is a feature that offers only a small enhancement over HDR, it’s worth it to me to have this disabled in exchange for Atmos.  Whether disabling this changes this internal TV / CEC state or its some other technical explanation…all I know is it works for my setup

I have a C1 / Series X / Apple TV / and full Sonos 5.1.2

I’ve been using eARC and Pass Through as “Off” for the last year. 
 

To confirm, here are the settings I’m going to choose in my Sony A80J - 

Digital Audio Out: Auto 1
Dolby Digital Plus Output: Dolby Digital Plus
Pass Through Mode: Auto
eARC Mode: Auto

Does that look correct? 
 

I see Ars Technica has picked up on the Verges article and posted the story too. I’m glad to see it’s spreading. 
 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/sonos-has-been-unable-to-fix-arc-soundbars-pop-of-death-for-over-2-years/

It’s not a guarantee fix until sonos fixes this issue on their end . But by using this method at least for now I can ensure myself the POP is not gonna happen and scare myself to death 

Happy 1,000 posts everyone!

@Airgetlam and @Ken_Griffiths : I haven’t heard from you in this thread for a while. I’m super curious:

How do you view the Sonos Pop finally getting media coverage?

It’s great that there’s coverage, but I’d love to see others than Sonos looking in to it. My current fear is it’s a failure of CEC handling format changes in a MAT container, and the result is that Sonos (and other audio sinks) are just playing what they’re being handed by eARC as part of CEC. Always easiest to lay the blame on the last device, but figuring out whether or not that ‘blame’ deserves to be there or not is a question as yet unanswered. Nor have I investigated the user agreement when companies implement standards such as CEC with sub specifications such as ARC and eARC. It’s possible, in my mind, that there is a legal clause there that says ‘you can feed us back data for us to look at and ‘fix’ , but you can not publicly point fingers’ or some such. 

Which of course raises the issue of ‘if it is a failure in CEC’s handling of format changes in a MAT container’, how do all of these TVs get updated with newer, more robust versions. And when?

Step 1 is identifying the issue, and where it lies. Hopefully this community has provided enough detail to assist in that. Where it goes from there really depends on where the issue really lies. If it was Sonos, I’d honestly would have expected a quicker ‘fix’ to be released. Since that hasn’t happened (yet), it makes me wonder how far up the chain it goes, how complex the issue really is, and who is ultimately going to be responsible for fixing it. 

I haven’t experienced the issue. I suspect that SONOS licensed a chipset and decoder software that are included in ARC and other manufacturers using the chipset or decoder are at risk too. This would explain why a few other devices are experiencing the ‘POP’. The pop could be some sort of software overrun or perhaps a variable (from chip to chip) sensitivity to voltage or temperature and AMP’s environment is at an edge.

Since I cannot observe the issue, is there any dependency on the movie? For example, if you replay a ‘POP’ movie, does the event tend to repeat? Does it repeat at the same spot? Does one movie tend to predispose a following movie to ‘POP’?

 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 a…] or cannot be s…], 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.

Have you read this thread? Apple TV and Xbox are hands down the most common source devices affected at this moment. Yes, PC and some TV app can have it happen as well. But those are smaller install bases because not as many people hook up a PC to an Arc for the former and because few TVs output in Dolby MAT for the latter. I suspect that will change once the PS5 Atmos firmware goes from beta to production, since beta users have been affected by the pop.

You are correct that the pop seems to happen when devices using Dolby MAT are connected. That is the common denominator. You are describing getting “pops” when using multichannel PCM on PS5. I assume that this is a series of pops that are nothing like the problem that this thread is about. The Verge story about our problem has a nice video of the Sonos Pop. It is loud. And then the Arc cuts out while the surrounds keep playing.

In any event, I suspect you haven’t read this thread. Give it a read! It’s a wild ride and will answer all of the questions you currently have.

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.