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.
I don’t know the depth of the issue. If licensed software is involved there could be contract details that prevents SONOS from imbedding proper logging code.
I don’t want to be an apologist. Everyone in the chain: hardware, software, SONOS, and users wants to pass the issue up the chain, while the chain wants to push the issue down in order to minimize their support costs. It’s the nature of companies at this point. Maybe all big business managers take the same courses and this is how they are taught to run a “smart” business. It takes weeks and weeks to justify, build, and schedule a team to take on a project. Meanwhile, users need to wait.
And that’s twice in two days for me, two different films on Disney+ on Apple TV 4K.
After the first yesterday (and a power cycle) everything worked fine for about 3 hours of film watching (in Atmos).
Today I got the pop and loss of sound exactly 10 minutes into viewing.
Diagnostic is 968159060 for whatever that is worth.
This (and the seeming lack of response) is so poor for equipment of this spec and value.
Hi All, Happy New Year.
Quick update, so changing out the cable between Xbox Series X and Sony A80J had no effect, still pops. It was worth a try!
I have now also contacted support to report the issue and I was told that the senior engineers are aware and working on an update currently in Beta so hopefully something comes out soon to address.
Hopefully everyone else on this thread has logged it with support :) Thankfully its really easy.
Chris
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
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.
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
Did some replication testing this morning with the same playlist (Dance in Spatial Audio) on Apple TV/Apple Music.
First attempt, pop in two minutes on the first song.
Second attempt, 45 minutes of playing with no pop.
So this remains as difficult to replicate as ever.
Update 15.4 is available
Which extractor? Are you sending HDMI-eARC to ARC or are you sending audio over TOSLINK (optical).
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.
That’s a shame another new victim, it didn’t happen for me with my PS5 until after my Xbox Series X was plugged in, now it happens with any source including PS5 which I had for over a year and a half before my Xbox Series X, playing Dolby Atmos content with no problems.
Thankfully you still have your window. You should warn your retailer when you take it back. My 6k+ is gone. I can’t even sell my systems second hand with good conscience to anyone. I wouldn’t even give it away. It’s like giving someone a broken toaster.
+1
This is happening to me on a Beam Gen 2, connected to an Apple TV 4K and a Sony XBR TV. It has occurred quite often while playing Apple Music on the Apple TV. Done all the resets and cable connections and no luck…still happening. Have switched the Apple TV to stereo and have not encountered the problem but I bought the Beam for Atmos sound and now feel ripped off.
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.
Cheers for the update in that, will call them tomorrow myself to see outcome from the report, as you say, seems less full, it was definitely the Xbox that caused the issue just can’t see how or why.
Thanks
Sorry, it wasn’t my intention to imply that you were recommending it. I’m aware that Sonos can’t guarantee to work with any HDMI device or TV as you don’t have control over third party devices and their implementation flaws.
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...
You are right, I can only test Atmos with Arcana. I know that HDFury support is great and I’m always running the latest firmware version (v0.80 when it happened, and v0.82 since yesterday which fixes a different issue that occured with the update to Sonos 13.1). I will also check with them on the issue.
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.
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?
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.
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.
+3
Attempting to pattern match for some common ground…
From what I can tell from this thread; it’s pretty much exclusively Atmos, if not entirely.
It seems to be common from Xbox and Apple TV — both encode into Dolby MAT, which I think might be a root cause here.
What’s the ground on the televisions people are using? I’ve seen people report issues with Sony and LG — I’m a Sony owner myself. Curious if the TV is garbling the signal in the middle of the chain. I’ve not had any issues since I bought everything this time last year, so I’m curious, why now… software issue, somewhere?
These were some of the links where other manufacturers had the popping issue…(I haven’t tested if they’re still valid)…
I cannot find anything recent that relates to this particular issue with other soundbars. The latest one (2 years ago) relates to a JBL soundbar. I cannot see any mention anywhere of other premium soundbars having this kind of issue.
A lot of those reports talk about popping/crackling noise whereas the Sonos is a loud bang - probably the term popping is not the right description in this case.
Well it was from an old thread - I did find these in a quick search;
https://www.cinemaequip.com/why-is-my-samsung-soundbar-making-crackling-noise/
https://www.theaudiocritic.com/why-does-my-soundbar-make-popping-noises-n25
If I find others, when I have more time, I will post them.
It’s not an issue I’ve personally encountered with my Arc or Beam, but then again I don’t use MC LPCM as I don’t have an Xbox or Apple TV 4K etc. (however I do use Dolby Vision FWIW🤔?)
+3
I had the same issue last night, twice whilst mid stream on Netflix. I reported through support and was provided with a reference. I have got a new TV with Atmos/EARC capability.
I have been advised to turn off Atmos which defeats the point of paying a significant amount of money for this functionality and not being able to use it.
I was surprised reading the comments on here as to how long this had been going on for.
What are the specifics of your setup? Which TV model are you using, and was it the native app within the TV or an external device, if so, which?
@Sonos
Hello? Are you there?
I am still awaiting a fix for the issue at hand here. Your customer support team needs to give us answers. This problem isn’t just going away. Either you need to send out fixed hardware to those affected free of charge or you fix the software. I don’t care which one but one has to be done to fix it.
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.
Might it be a problem with the Xbox series x or even the codec, as I see these things are mentioned online, even with other brands of soundbar,
I had the same issue last night, twice whilst mid stream on Netflix. I reported through support and was provided with a reference. I have got a new TV with Atmos/EARC capability.
I have been advised to turn off Atmos which defeats the point of paying a significant amount of money for this functionality and not being able to use it.
I was surprised reading the comments on here as to how long this had been going on for.
What are the specifics of your setup? Which TV model are you using, and was it the native app within the TV or an external device, if so, which?
The TV was a Samsung 65QN90B and it was a native app on the TV
+3
Update 15.4 is available
But doesn’t help for me… :-(
+3
I had the same issue last night, twice whilst mid stream on Netflix. I reported through support and was provided with a reference. I have got a new TV with Atmos/EARC capability.
I have been advised to turn off Atmos which defeats the point of paying a significant amount of money for this functionality and not being able to use it.
I was surprised reading the comments on here as to how long this had been going on for.
What are the specifics of your setup? Which TV model are you using, and was it the native app within the TV or an external device, if so, which?
The TV was a Samsung 65QN90B and it was a native app on the TV
Thanks — could you humour me, if you play some Atmos content in the same way, and open the Sonos App and navigate to Settings > System > About my System, what do you get for “Audio In”? Atmos (DD+), Atmos (TrueHD), or just “Atmos”. I’m guessing it’s the latter?
Which extractor? Are you sending HDMI-eARC to ARC or are you sending audio over TOSLINK (optical).
Its 2.0b eArc extractor
https://www.bungpung.com/products/4k-hdmi-earc-audio-adapter
bought this one to see if it fixed the issue before buying an expensive 2.1 extractor and it fixed it
now ill save up for 2.1 arcane🥹 as i need it for gaming consoles for vrr and 120
Many thanks.
Same exact issue.
Equipment:
Sony A8H
XBOX Series X
Apple TV 4K
Sonos Arc White (purchased late June 2020)
Description:
Very loud, startling pop happens intermittently. All sound stops, then after 15-30 seconds the sound resumes. Has happened with Apple TV 4K in mid-summer 2020. Currently only happens when using XBOX Series X, so I would assume the issue is not isolated to only XBOX. Also happened on a previous TV using Apple TV 4K (Sony A8F). This event seems to only happen while watching Dolby Atmos content.
I’ve called twice, and had a chat session with support. The latest service rep asked me to get a video of the incident happening, and to also try to duplicate the issue on another TV. There is no way I’ll be able to record this very random occurrence to video.
I am also worried, like the rest of you, that the Arc could be damaged because the pop is so loud. This is extremely disappointing.
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