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.
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.
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
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, 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!!
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.
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
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,
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 Everyone!
As this is only happening with the XBox, I highly recommend you all report it to Microsoft if you haven’t already - the more reports they get, the more seriously they’ll take the issue.
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?
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).
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.
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.
Just happened again.
Hi, I have had the same issue occurred twice now. Xbox Series X and an Arc. very loud pop then no sound. Connected to LG CX TV with eARC back to the arc. Cables not loose.
Report #1731740023
The same has been happening to me about 8 to 12 times over the last couple of months. The first two times it happened I thought one of my devices had exploded in my living room.
I would add some more aspects to this:
It happened twice on Monday, I took diagnostics 538921711 and 889378457 immediatly after that. Power cycled the Arc after the second time and it didn’t happen again after that.
I will also open a support case, just wanted to add this to the discussion.
Hi
Thank you for the quick reply.
I’m actually using an HDFury Arcana, no sound passes through my TV. The two HDMI sources are connected to an HDFury Vertex2 that passes the sound to the Arcana via “HDMI Audio Out” and the Video directly to the TV.
I just had a chat with Sonos first level support, unfortunately they denied support because of the Arcana. The agent claimed that only eARC connections would be supported. When I explained that the Arcana is eARC he changed this to “only connecting to a TV is supported as these adapters produce error signals”. :-(
Can you confirm that using a HDFury Arcana is not supported? Your comment above suggests otherwise.
I referenced this thread which shows that several customers have that problem and asked my case to be escalated to second level which was also denied. Mentioning that the sound is so loud that I fear it could damage both my ear drums and the Arcana were just ignored. :-(
The ticket number is 0xxxxxxx. Could you help to escalate this to someone who can help troubleshoot on a technical level?
I’m a networking engineer myself and have the expertise and understanding to work with technical support on this.
/Mod edit: removed case number]
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.
That might be challenging to do. How does Sonos realize the sound is coming from a device (TV or Arcana) changing formats, rather than a rifle shot in a quiet movie scene? Not sure there is enough information coming to the Sonos to determine whether the ‘sound’ is a valid, or invalid one. I’d likely want the machine sending the errant signal to not do so, rather than expecting the Sonos to be able to recognize and filter it.
I have had this happened twice in the last week, both whilst using my Xbo Series X, loud pop and then no sounds, switching TV to another source such as Sky brings sound back.
My diagn number is 292236251
It sounds like a fuse popping (very loudly). I think its electrical, probably a power surge.
Not sure where the issue originates but the commonality of people using Xbox consoles is hard to ignore. My TV, Xbox, Arc and and a few other components are all on the same powerbar. I would be interested to know if other people are also using the same powerbar / circuit?
Surely somebody at Sonos HQ has replicated this issue by now?
Something I noticed yesterday when it happened again: At first the Arc switches to “Dolby Multichannel PCM 1.0” (silent) and after that to “Dolby Multichannel PCM 6.1” (sometimes some sound fragments). Do these formats even exist?
I have had this Pop happen probably a dozen times in the past 6 months. I have the arc connected directly to my LG OLED65 CXAUA. The sound completely drops. I then have to unplug from TV and just use thebuilt in speaker. This occurs when streaming movies or shows through Netflix and Apple TV. I have to disconnect my Arc speaker from the TV and now.
I am disappointed to see this as a recurring issue for people. I have sent diagnostics. This does not seem to happen when streaming music over Wi-Fi.
What did Sonos say when you contacted them with your diagnostics number after submitting it?
Just had this happen with my Xbox series x and LG Oled C1 via eARC.
diagnostic: 707320152
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