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 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?
Yes it just says Dolby Atmos
Unfortunately, this forum is not the official communication arm of Sonos. Occasionally, we get tidbits from the Forum moderators, but not very frequently. I understand your frustration, but am trying to temper your expectations of getting any sort of ‘official’ response here.
+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?
Yes it just says Dolby Atmos
So another device pushing out the MAT container. Interestingly, this is a direct TV to Sonos Arc connection via the native app, so the TV isn’t acting as the passthrough middle man or anything. 🤔 That would also, potentially, remove some theories about bandwidth being an issue, as surely, only the audio would be routed to the Arc?
This thread alone has users affected by the problem on Samsung, Sony, and LG TVs. If this issue appears on the three largest manufactures, as well as both major consoles (with the PS5 Atmos update), and Apple TV; there is nothing limited to it.
This was my initial thought when I read their response. I’ve heard of the popping happening on all of the major brands and it’s not limited to the TV being a certain type of panel (OLED, QLED, Mini-LED and so on).
I don’t disagree with Sonos in saying that it’s not hardware related. The issue does appear to be related to software but the fact that they’ve yet to fix or even say they replicated the issue is concerning. I’m not entirely certain on what information they receive when we send diagnostics in but surely they can see something went wrong when these pops occur.
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)
+6
for what it’s worth here are my set ups and I have never experienced this issue. Just putting it out there for more data
Living room:
sony A9g OLED
apple tv 4K 3rd gen
sonos arc, 2 subs, play:1 as rears
using eArc
game room:
LG CX OLED
Using eArc
sonos arc, 1 sub, 2 era 100 as rears
xbox series x with atmos enabled
nintendo switch
PS5 using beta firmware with atmos enabled
Hope Sonos can fix this soon for those affected
But does the pop damage the unit and how are we meant to know if it has?
Only had it once, not since and so can’t do the diagnostic and ring them.
UPDATE & ADVICE: after a somewhat frustrating experience with support (call got dropped, email that was promised never arrived, they wanted me to send a video of it which seemed silly since this is such a widely known issue, the pop actually happened twice while we were on the call and their diagnostics couldn’t pick it up) I followed their advice to try a new HDMI cable between TV & ARC. So far, fingers crossed, this has worked.
The HDMI cable I had been using was the one that came with the ARC - perhaps Sonos shipped a bunch of defective HDMI cables? Anyway, it’s worth a shot to just swap in a new cable and a lot easier to just try it than call support.
I have performed the following testing:
It is possible that somewhere in there we are looking at a permanent fix. At this point, I consider it more likely that we have a reset to “before the first pop”. I had Atmos for weeks before it popped for the first time. If CEC ties into the Arc malfunction, it also raises the question why only LPCM/Dolby MAT Atmos is affected.
When I have time I will continue testing by reconnecting the Xbox and playing with its CEC settings.
I ONLY turned off CEC while leaving Volume control on through HDMI (not sure exactly how that works without CEC? unless its a new eARC feature?). I was able to go 3 hours without a pop last night. Never before has that been possible with my Apple TV. I will keep testing with this setup and see if/how long for a pop.
No pop in the last four days, including both Apple TV and Xbox usage. It sucks not having Xbox CEC (used to be that I didn’t need the TV remote at all), but it’s a price I’m willing to pay and I don’t want to risk the pop coming back after the bad times over the last two years. I’m really hoping that Sonos is paying attention and eventually giving everybody an official statement on the cause and resolution of the pop.
When you say ‘unplugged everything’ does that include the HDMI cables and if so, any particular order when plugging everything back in? HDMI then Power? Or Power then HDMI? Thanks everyone for the testing and tips!
Update 15.4 is available
But doesn’t help for me… :-(
By that do you mean it still has issues?
It is my understanding that we have users in this thread who have the pop but have never had an Xbox connected.
I for one have never had an Xbox connected. I have a very basic and common set up. Sony 900H TV, Xfinity X1 cable TV box on HDMI/1, Sonos Arc on eArc HDMI/3, and Apple TV 4K on HDMI/4. My pooping started roughly a year ago.
After reading recent posts I checked my Sony TV setting and sure enough, it had been set to ‘Enhanced Format (Dolby Vision)’ on every HDMI output. I’ve changed each to ‘Enhanced Format’ setting.
I currently have my Apple TV Dolby Atmos disabled and my settings set to 4K SDR (60Hz), Chroma 4:4:4 and Match Content Range & Frame Rates set to on. The Dolby Vision is not enabled. However, it is my understanding that with these settings the Apple TV will match whatever video format that is thrown at it. Wouldn’t that mean that it would match content that was in Dolby Vision?
+3
Update 15.4 is available
But doesn’t help for me… :-(
By that do you mean it still has issues?
Yes, after 15.4 Update still dropping atmos sound in different intervals sometimes also starting with a loud plopping. Worst if using apple tv 4k with any service playing Atmos content.
Playing true HD Atmos ftom BD player drops sound much less often… only one time for 30 seconds after playing without problems for half an hour before.
So imho Sonos has more or less problems playing atmos from different sources, but definitely it has problems.
Anyone know if Sonos S2 v. 14.0 fixes this popping issue? The update just dropped today and I know Sonos was developing a fix.
Hey,
I add my contribution to this topic too. Couple of months ago I heard this loud bang and low volume after that first time, when watching Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision content from Apple TV 4K. Turning on TV speakers and then bacl to Sonos fixed the problem, until I heard it again when using xBox Series X and again Dolby Atmos content. Total of 5 times. Today, early morning when watching Viaplay from Apple TV 4K I had multiple sound cutouts, that got fixed by ”hardbooting” the app, but when I turned tv on later today, Sonos is complete silent! No matter what source connected to TV I use (Playstation 5, xBox Series X, Nvidia Shield Pro, Apple TV 4K, or TV’s internal apps) there’s no audio at all. Alexa on Sonos arc works fine, also when streaming spotify from iPhone everything works. But via TV, it’s all silent 🥺
Sonos Arc + sub.3gen + 2xPlay:1
Sony 85X90H
+2
I spoke too soon . It happened today when I’m playing resident evil 4 with 4k 120hz VRR . Darn it !!!
sonos !! Put your act together we need this fix now !!!
otherwise I’m returning my Era 300!😡
Indeed. Considering that many threads like these were begun over two years ago, with no appreciable effect (despite the laudable best efforts of some people here), I am not personally too optimistic.
there was a mentally loud pop when I was in the xbox menu and pressed the glowing x in the middle of the pad. Turning off the automatic selection of the signal input on the tv when we press this button helped
I’ve got a Beam 2, LG CX TV and Xbox Series X. The pop frequently occurs for me during Xbox Cloud Gaming. The Beam 2 reboots and the sound eventually returns.
Any update on the Pop? Lg c2 with Xbox seriesX and era 300s. Getting pop when playing Dolby atmos on series x
I was able to make the POP go away by unplugging the TV , XBOX and ARC for 60 secs then plug everything back in . CEC also disabled . This is a guarantee fix for me but it’s annoying every time I have to do that when I turn on my TV and XBOX
Shocker…
As someone with an Arc + Sub + 2x Era 300 I refuse to disable Atmos as that’s the whole reasoning for my setup.
Sonos support has been useless here. I am not giving up on my Xbox or Apple TV. This issue needs a fix today. Screw their “performance and stability updates” that fix things I’ve never noticed. I need it to fix the biggest issues plaguing them.
I should have bought Bose
Edit: I called Sonos and they’re adamant that their engineers are looking into it and she took my information. I don’t expect much but she did call me back 20 minutes later to ask me what model TV I have (Sony A80J) and if I’m using eARC which I am. They also took my address because they may want to send me a replacement which I’m okay with even though I doubt that’s the issue.
Can I ask how long you’ve had your Arc? I was a very early adopter. When I’ve called and asked for replacement, they tell me it’s out of warranty.
Unfortunately I spoke too soon. We had dropouts last night. The weird thing with our Beam is that it keeps dropping the dialogue track but you can still hear the environmental sounds, traffic, birds, rain etc. Sometimes it will drop the dialogue track permanently until you switch Dolby Atmos off.
Arc + surrounds + sub + Apple TV 4K + LG C2 - I’ve had the popping off and on once a month or so, but have the dialogue audio dropouts even more frequently. Most often with Hulu. Super annoying but it never dawned on me that it could be SONOS related as well.
Update. I swapped both HDMI cables from XBOX to TV and Arc to TV with brand new 4K versions. At first I thought it had cured iit, but alas no - about 45 mins in and crack/pop sound gone. However it did come back without having to change source input. So I went to XBOX settings and changed audio output form Atmos to DTS and hey presto it’s stopped. However the Atmos sound is far superior and, I agree unacceptable it is an issue
That’s certainly an interesting tidbit about it being the TV manufacturers fault and not Sonos. If I had to read between the lines it’s either a problem with the eARC ports technical standards, the passthrough mechanism or the CEC which we have discussed at length on this forum
Certainly is tough to understand how all the TV manufacturers get this wrong the same way if there isn’t a deep rooted problem with one of the specs the TV uses
I totally agree. This has been happening to my arc and it’s just ridiculous they are still selling these pieces. I just got one and it’s been pretty aweful in every way. Lol. Pretty sure the arcs are all flawed by certain software that is unpatchable or will not respond to some of the percentage or the firmware updates. I’m an audio engineer and these speakers suck. Lol. But everyone thinks they are the are this flagship? The reality will eventually catch up with the advertising and i think Sonos will not be around in 10 yr. Lol.
Does this damage the speaker at all? I believe the Sonos rep has said they haven’t seen any indications that it does, but Rios said that it does?
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