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.
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
Hi
Welcome to the Sonos Community!
As mentioned, 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, after submitting the diagnostics. Especially if you think your Arc has been damaged.Thanks.
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
Thanks for adding that information. Given the multiple sources involved, and that your Arc is reporting briefly receiving data it didn’t understand how to decode as an Atmos stream, I would look to the TV as the culprit here.
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.
Unfortunately, the only way of confirming this is either by swapping the TV (ideally for another brand) to test, or using a device such as the HD Fury Arcana to act as the coordinator of these feeds and turn the TV into a glorified monitor.
If you haven’t rebooted your TV by unplugging it from power for 30 seconds, I recommend you try this first. It can help with a lot of Home Theatre audio issues.
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]
Hi
Have you checked if the Arcana has any updates available? I highly recommend this.
I can confirm that we don’t support the use of any HDMI switches. This isn’t to say they won’t work, just that if you’re using one then we can’t guarantee performance, and therefore don’t troubleshoot systems using them. HD Fury, however, will support your Arcana. From what I hear, HD Fury have good technical support - I recommend getting in touch with them regarding this issue.
Unfortunately, the only way of confirming this is either by swapping the TV (ideally for another brand) to test, or using a device such as the HD Fury Arcana to act as the coordinator of these feeds and turn the TV into a glorified monitor.
I don’t mean to be pedantic, but I didn’t recommend that you use an Arcana - just that it would serve as a troubleshooting tool should a second TV not be an option for testing (and it could then be returned for a refund). Unfortunately, the fact that you have one in use already means that you likely cannot test Atmos without using it due to your TV not supporting Atmos.
I’m afraid I cannot escalate a case to the next tier when it’s regarding a setup that we do not support.
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.
Hi
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…
In the case of the Arcana, I personally agree with you. Perhaps, in time, it won’t be grouped-in with other HDMI switches/adaptors.
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?
We have no reason to do anything to the audio stream. As this is happening before the Arc gets a chance to decode it (one of the first things the Arc will do), it’s seems more likely to do with the transport.
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.
I agree with
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.
Well, that certainly sounds suspicious - I was not aware. Your PC volume probably isn’t taken into account with Atmos passthrough, but that’s immaterial. I highly recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, along with anyone else experiencing this issue. Please be sure to mention your volume levels and how loud the pop sounded.
For what it's worth I use a Playbar with the Series X and never heard a similar noise, never had loss of audio etc.
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
I got my first scary pop last night at about 12:30 am. Scared the heck out of me. Thought something exploded. I was using my Xbox Series X connected to my LG C9 with EARC HDMI connection to Sonos Arc.
I recently switched the HDMI input on my C9 that the Xbox Series X is using to PC Mode to unlock 4:4:4 full bandwidth signal. Not entirely sure it was related, but was an interesting coincidence.
Also had my first reoccurrence of this issue last night with a Series X and Sonos Arc with a Sony x900h TV
I was watching videos from the Dolby App and as soon as I prematurely closed a video by pressing the back key I got the pop sound, Arc stopped working at that point until reset
Worth noting that the surrounds were still working fine afterwards only the ARC wasn’t.
Obviously I don’t want to do damage to the Arc, so if it is in fact just garbage playing at highest volume I feel a little more at ease, would be nice to see a true diagnosis and a fix though
I have the same problem.
It happened to me twice, for the moment, while watching a movie on my AppleTV.
diagnostic : 878538476
Just happened to me. LG G1 and Series X. Just in the middle of playing Psyconaughts 2 and then loud bang followed by no sound. Switching input brought the sound back. Scary.
Did you submit a diagnostic, and contact Sonos directly?
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.
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!
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