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 have been having this issue too. Happens a couple of times a week, both on Apple TV 4K and Xbox One Series X. Very annoying. Downright embarrassing when guests are over.
It’s so loud, the first time I thought a big piece of furniture had fallen over somewhere.
+1
Happened 3 times in about two weeks. Scares the sh#$ out of my dog and sounds like its damaging the speaker.
On Xbox Series X and LG 65'CX while watching tv on an AAC 6.0 media.
Diagnostic number 650768644.
Managed to keep away from the issue for a few weeks/months after changing to Dolby Vision as the default video output. Seemed like it shouldn't have worked, but it remained dormant until recently. Two pops in one week. Disappointing.
Same. I hadn't had any issues since my last post until I tried playing a game the other night and then, suddenly, a pop while it was just in a menu screen. I'm going to try just turning Atmos off and having the sound come through as Dolby Digital or something instead, but it's made me hesitant to even play anything on the Xbox because of it.
Do you turn Dolby Vision off from the TV, Apple TV or Sonos itself?
and once you do aren’t you loosing something?
Thanks
I just removed ALEXA from SONOS ARC and issue was gone! That was changing point from my previous setup (no issue happened before), I added ALEXA a couple of weeks ago (never enabled before). Hope this solution works for all.
current setup is:
XBOX SERIES X DOLBY ATMOS enabled.
EARC MODE AUTO
PASS-THRU AUTO
DOLBY AUDIO DIGITAL PLUS enabled
I’ve had the same problem when using my Series X outputting Dolby Atmos to the Arc. Really loud pop which did sound like a gun shot. This was a couple of months ago. I read somewhere to disable Atmos from the Series X and Ive had no problems since, however sort of defeats the object of having an Atmos soundbar. Was just having a look around the net today to see if the problem has been acknowledged by Sonos or has been fixed.
+17
Just forget it, just happened again!!!
But now this time I changed in SONOS APP from COMPRESSED AUDIO AUTO to UNCOMPRESSED AUDIO and finally is working great. No pop sound and ATMOS working great. And actually makes sense because my tv is configured for uncompressed audio output. That AUTO function from SONOS APP may not be working as expected.
+3
I had time for a small experiment today. I bought a fiber optic HDMI cable to connect the Arc to the TV. Fiber cables contain active chips at each end that convert between electrical and optical signals.
I got the usual pop within half an hour. I believe this eliminates the physical layer of the connection as the problem since there is no electrical connection between the TV (and Apple TV) and the Arc anymore.
Not a huge surprise. I think we are all expecting this to come down to how Sonos decodes Dolby MAT. But there you have it.
I also tried an experiment, I set my HDMI 3 (eARC/ARC) to Enhanced format (Dolby Vision). And when playing DV DA content on my Apple TV with my Apple TV Video format setting to 4K HDR 60, disabling Dolby Vision on my Apple TV. The popping error occurred like clockwork.
Then I changed the HDMI signal format on my HDMI 3 to Enhanced Format without Dolby Vision. With my Apple TV format setting to 4K HDR 60, disabling Dolby Vision on my Apple TV. The popping error did NOT occur, and the Sonos Arc was able to play Dolby Atmos as long as the Dolby Vision was disabled in both my Sony TV HDMI setting and my Apple TV.
This is somewhat confusing — so you attempted to use the “Enhanced (Dolby Vision)” HDMI profile for your Arc, which is connected to HDMI 3 (for eARC reasons), despite that setting being an Input profile i.e. the Arc doesn’t output DV, or even 4K for that matter. Confused as to what difference this would make, unless the Arc is getting heavily confused at the EDID settings 🤔
Also assuming that whilst your Apple TV was set to 4K60 HDR, you also had “Match Dynamic Range” turned off in settings?
Auto 1.
Auto 2 and PCM you can think of as compatibility options that change some or all audio to PCM.
Doesn't sound degraded. Ran a few different audio feeds after I power cycled the arc. All sounded normal.
Same issue here. Loud Pop and silence until cycling power to the ARC. Happened twice when streaking on Apple TV and I’ve only had the Arc for a month or so. I submitted a diagnostic but was told by the technician that is was unusable because they can only see it when submitted when watching something directly on the tv because that is what the ARC is connected to. I’m on an LG 65 CX TV. The agent told me everything looked fine but to change settings on the tv from auto to PCM. Hopefully that helps
+3
It worked for 3-4 days and all the sudden the pop happened again. The update didn't fix it for me.
Yeah, same old same. Reboot normally alleviates the issue temporarily.
What I haven’t got around to testing is if multiple different formats causes the issue, and there’s some memory overflow somewhere i.e. if you watched DA content continuously, and not flick between 5.1, etc., would the issue continue? 🤔
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.
Changed mine yesterday and no luck. Getting seriously annoyed with this. There won’t be any more Sonos purchases till this is resolved.
LG C1 with the Xbox Series X being the main culprit
Might as well add my experience. Recently bought an Arc and Sub (Gen 3) in November 2022 and experienced the popping issue. I experienced the popping issues in the Xbox Series X (in-game, in-app, in a menu, etc.) and an Apple TV 4K. Similar to everyone here, it’s random (i.e. I can’t create it on-demand) but after troubleshooting with Sonos support and submitting multiple (at least 5) diagnostic reports, it was determined to be with Dolby Atmos content coming out the aforementioned devices. (The Xbox is really bad with this as it’s in Dolby Atmos the entire time, it does not change audio codec/format automatically or based on the content...that’s a whole other issue!)
Besides submitting diagnostics to support, I have had 3 Arcs, one of which was sent to me by Sonos directly. And like everyone else, I have disabled Dolby Atmos on the Xbox Series X and Apple TV 4K. Support confirmed the error is a faulty amp error.
In addition to buying an Arc, I also upgraded my TV to a LG C2 77”. The webOS versions of Netflix, HBO Max, etc. play Dolby Atmos fine (or at least I don’t recall experiencing the pop when playing Dolby Atmos content from said apps).
I’ve called a few times asking for an ETA/status update on the supposed fix and I keep getting told to “rest assure they are working on the issue”. At this point, I’m willing to wait since it appears to be device specific AND the quality of the Sonos Arc and Sub are good. Even the mobile app experience is nice, so for now I’m dealing with it. I really hope that Sonos can address this OR Microsoft/Apple can address this for.
Lastly, I haven’t combed through all responses but has anyone spoken to Microsoft or Apple about this? I get the sense that they will deny the issue, say it’s not happening, or it’s not their fault.
Thanks!
Auto 1.
Auto 2 and PCM you can think of as compatibility options that change some or all audio to PCM.
Great! Thanks a lot and thank you very much for all you are doing to help with the popping issue.
Definitely seems like of Sonos dedicated a little time and money to endurance testing in some of the configurations listed in this form, that they could provide an answer to their customers. Not impressed that’s this form has been going on so long with no answer
Last Update: After setting to PCM I noticed a drop in sound quality so I did a little digging. On the LG CX I have enabled eARC and set the option between PCM, Auto, and pass through to pass through, it was previously set to Auto. Hoping this resolves the popping issue. Really hoping PCM isn’t the solution because I think it’s a noticeable degradation.
Hi all,
To throw my 2¢ in here, as I've read the entire thread after experiencing issues (daily) myself, I'm running a very similar set-up to many of you:
Sony Bravia X90H
Xbox S, Switch, Arc, PS5 (in order of HDMI 1-4 slots)
The popping noise has only come about when playing Xbox, and was happening 2-3 times each evening. I opened a ticket with support during the day, and after getting home power cycled the Arc as well as swapping out the HDMI cable (just in case) before submitting a diagnostic.
Support said things looked good on their end, but I imagine what did the trick more so was disabling Auto HDR on the Xbox. After turning that feature off I had no sound disruption at all last night, even after ~4 hours of gaming. I'll post an edit/update if they come back, but compared to the last few weeks that's already a vast improvement.
One thing I'd like to note is the rep stated I may want to remove all other HDMI devices plugged in to the TV when using the Arc, which was an... interesting suggestion. Not sure I'm willing to use the Arc only when using streaming services via my TV.
Similarly, kinda, is that I changed from 4k50 SDR to 4k50 Dolby Vision in my Apple TV video settings last night. Made it through The Book of Boba Fett without issue, but will report back if anything *does* happen in the near future.
Mainly because it seems that whilst the Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen) is advertised at supporting DV over AirPlay for Photos, it only seems to work if the video output is DV by default—it won’t “upgrade” SDR to DV when starting an AirPlay stream (as it would everything else).
Whilst I can’t comprehend why video settings would affect audio; AV stuff, tracing all way back to good ol’ RF signals, is a tricky beast.
I won’t claim to be knowledgable enough to know why it seems like so many of these issues are more tied to video output than audio, but it does seem to be the case, doesn’t it? Just theorizing but maybe something to do with how the information translates over the eArc channel? I have no real idea, just spitballing.
Tangentially, since my first post I’ve played… a lot of Xbox (new purchase for me and loving Game Pass). I haven’t had any issues at all since turning off Auto HDR. Still curious to know what the real underlying reason is, but given how much I played over the past week I’m ready to consider the problem settled for now.
Has anyone tested the Apple TV 4K 3rd-gen with this issue yet? Thinking about picking one up today or tomorrow to see if the issue exists with that combination of hardware, I did try a bunch of config changes to my setup and had the pop happen within 30 minutes again
Confirmed this issue still exists in the Apple TV 4K 3rd Gen → Sony X90CH->eArc - Sonos Beam Gen2 +Sub Mini+ Pair of One SL. Loud pop with reboot of Beam.
Same content played from the same built in TV app (Prime Video) had no issues while playing in Atmos.
no not the same i had a loud bang. yours looks like something else
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.
+3
Still trying to judge if there are some commonalities across the issue here — for those with the X900H/XH90/XH92 — what HDMI port is your Apple TV connected to? Mine’s on HDMI 2, and admittedly, this was fine Dec 2020 to Oct 2021. So I doubt it would make a difference, just trying to tally the variables.
Just wondering if the whole DV and DA enabled at the same time has something to do with bandwidth? 🤔
I too am experiencing this issue. There’s a loud pop / bang noise and then the Sonos Arc stops outputting sound. I have to switch sources and back for it to work again. Really troubling and I fear something is wrong with the hardware. I bought this earlier this year. Has the cause been identified yet?
EDIT: I notice it happens a lot when I start playing on my Xbox Series X. Also got an Apple TV 4K and sometimes it’s happened there as well I think.
It sounds very much like a gunshot - very loud. I just read some of the feedback on this thread about taking a video recording - I find that to be very unhelpful since how am I supposed to know when this will happen? It appears to be quite random!
Further testing:
My current state is Apple TV both CEC options on, Xbox all CEC off. Atmos on both, no pops yet. If you are affected by the pop, please try the following steps:
Okay so just Popped, albeit after switching things off last night and back on today.
Gone back to 5.1
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