Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss



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Userlevel 7
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I’m able to reliably reproduce the issue, that’s how I captured it on video. I’ve offered to work with Sonos engineers to troubleshoot, so we’ll see if they’re able to do that remotely or not. 

Where are you located Tom? Sonos should come visit you to debug this, they have engineering offices in Boston, Santa Barbara and Seattle (and maybe some others too).

As a software guy myself, getting a consistent repro is key to bug determination. Lets not forget the time the MS Office engineer put his actual phone number in an error message in order to get someone to call him when the bug repro-ed. (After the initial euphoria about someone calling him, things got out of hand quickly...)

I still have the same issues with Atmos, which involve audio loss every 15 minutes (for 1 second). The update didn’t yield results in my case.

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?

Apple TV 4K seems to be a common denominator for a lot of the reports.

UPDATE: I had an HD Fury Arcana which I used with my older TV that only had an ARC port (never had this issue then). I have not used it since getting a new TV with an eARC port. I decided to try the HD Fury and have not encountered the issue in the last 48 hours. For clarity the below is the setup:

Apple TV 4K → HD Fury → Video to TV eARC and Audio to Sonos Arc system

If this resolves the issue, it would not be ideal for most since the HD Fury is a 249USD device.

I am having the same issue with the Sonos arc when used with Xbox series X. This is the second time this has happened so is there a fix yet?

 

Sent diagnostic 1364356135

Have this exact same issue, extremely loud pop which sounds like a speaker being blown followed by no audio, power cycling required to restore it, happens infrequently but very worrying when it does and sends my dog nuts.

Generally seems to happen when using my Xbox series x as others have mentioned which is using pass-through audio via my Samsung QN95A Tv, have had the problem since day dot and it also was present on my previous TV (same setup)  a Samsung Q95T.

I am having the same issue with the Sonos arc when used with Xbox series X. This is the second time this has happened so is there a fix yet?

 

Sent diagnostic 1364356135

The XBox does seem to be particularly prone to the "popping" issue (and it’s not always Sonos related). See below links. So it might be something that Microsoft, or Dolby, need to fix (perhaps?)

I have a 6 month old Arc and I get the same issue intermittently and it happens with Apple TV or Sky Q. A loud pop followed by sound loss for 3 seconds or so and then back to normal. This issue needs addressing.  

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I've only had the problem with my Xbox Series X so far and I've had it a number of times. Today I was able to reproduce it every time I played Forza 5 and then went to the dashboard. A few seconds later there was a loud bang and the LED on the arc burned orange. So I decided to turn off Dolby Vision because I've also read this here in the chat that it's supposed to help. I couldn't believe it, but in the Xbox settings I just unchecked "allow dolby vision" and "dolby vision for gaming" and since then I haven't been able to reproduce the problem. maybe it's just a coincidence, but when I had Dolby Vision active, the bang came every time in connection with Atmos. But this means doing without Dolby Vision and “only” using HDR10.

Userlevel 7
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Hi Folks,

We’ve still nothing to share at this point, but we are continuing to investigate this issue which is not specific to Sonos alone.

Userlevel 4
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You know, I can’t help but think that if it’s a known issue, ethically, Sonos should put a warning on the product page. Or maybe mention the malfunction in an FAQ.

Right now we keep having new customers that have to go through all these steps to figure out what’s even going wrong.

Hi @ProfessorFrag, after many trials i IMAGE MANAGEMENT in TV and XBOX I found that if I use 4K + 120hz the pop noise happens, I’ve been playing XBOX reducing to 60hz and no issue happened for at least a couple of ours… I thing there should be some bug or something which makes a relationship between hz image output and ATMOS. Could you please try? In my case running both DV enable at 60hz and DV disable at 60hz works so far good. I tried DV disable at 120hz and failed. I could try DV at 120Hz because my TV doesn’t accept it.

I have the exact same problem for two years !!! 4k120hz atmos have loud bang . If I select 4k 60hz then the bang will never show up . It’s so damn frustrating with this issue .  Disable CEC does not resolve the issue 

Userlevel 4
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I've only had the problem with my Xbox Series X so far and I've had it a number of times. Today I was able to reproduce it every time I played Forza 5 and then went to the dashboard. A few seconds later there was a loud bang and the LED on the arc burned orange. So I decided to turn off Dolby Vision because I've also read this here in the chat that it's supposed to help. I couldn't believe it, but in the Xbox settings I just unchecked "allow dolby vision" and "dolby vision for gaming" and since then I haven't been able to reproduce the problem. maybe it's just a coincidence, but when I had Dolby Vision active, the bang came every time in connection with Atmos. But this means doing without Dolby Vision and “only” using HDR10.

I have always had Dolby Vision disabled for gaming but I forgot why. It may have been a VRR thing. Either way I’ve been using HDR-10 and the issue exists. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi Folks,

We’ve still nothing to share at this point, but we are continuing to investigate this issue which is not specific to Sonos alone.

Which other hardware is it affecting, @Corry P ?

Userlevel 6
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I’m afraid I too got the bang with DV off on the XBOX. But if it fixes it for you and losing DV is worth Atmos to you, congratulations! Life has gotten a little better. 

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I have this same problem with Beam gen 2 and Atmos content (btw just realized most of my content nowadays is Dolby Atmos which is nice). Almost got a heart attack when it happened first time. A Loud pop and then a loss of sound. Is this harmful to the speaker?

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Gosh it’s disappointing to come back to this thread after so long and still see no fixes or transparency. After each system update I hope for improvement but nothing. My simple set up (Sonos Arc plus AppleTV) sounds great playing Atmos content until the damn gunshot and loss of sound. I was trying to watch the Mandolorian with my kids and it was happening every few minutes. We gave up in the end.

 

Here’s a video of it happening just now: Popping and loss of sound


In the past the frequency of “pops” seems to lessen when I unplug the Sonos and everything else, and then reconnect before I watch anything. Oddly tonight it started popping almost immediately.

Haven’t investigated the CEC fix but seems an odd one to me.

 

sigh.

 

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A friend of mine has been playing PS5 with Dolby Atmos MAT for days and has no problems. He has an Arc + LG CX (2020) and I have the same setup only with the LG CS9 (2022). For me it pops within 10 minutes and for him it doesn't pop at all. The only question is, is it the TV or isn't every Sonos Arc affected? He plays today Spider-Man 2 for 6h and no pop.

Both of you using same graphic mode with vrr?

saw someone in reddit with pop in spiderman 2, he change the audio setting in ps5 to av and 7.1 channels and the pop no more

 

Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I've only had the problem with my Xbox Series X so far and I've had it a number of times. Today I was able to reproduce it every time I played Forza 5 and then went to the dashboard. A few seconds later there was a loud bang and the LED on the arc burned orange. So I decided to turn off Dolby Vision because I've also read this here in the chat that it's supposed to help. I couldn't believe it, but in the Xbox settings I just unchecked "allow dolby vision" and "dolby vision for gaming" and since then I haven't been able to reproduce the problem. maybe it's just a coincidence, but when I had Dolby Vision active, the bang came every time in connection with Atmos. But this means doing without Dolby Vision and “only” using HDR10.

This has worked for me without fail.  Remember that there aren’t very many games that natively support DV, so to me most games really dont do much more than HDR does anyway.  Atmos sound is far more valuable to have than DV at this stage

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Every Sonos Arc is NOT affected. I’ve had one for maybe 4 years without a single POP. 

And the blame game redirection implies that it’s not any one thing- like not just AppleTV or Xbox or PS5 or a television or a cable or ATMOS setting on or CEC setting on. There’s too many different third party potential catalysts while others have no issue for me to believe it’s any 1+ (external) thing. 

I go back to the common denominator- the Arc itself- (me) guessing either a bad batch (if hardware) or something in on-board software is driving this issue. It’s easier to sling blame at other stuff but look at the example I offered:

  • my own has never popped in maybe 4 years of ownership
  • my friends was fine for a few hours before running Trueplay, then pop-mania for anything that generated audio (including stereo music or just touching the buttons on the arc) starting immediately AFTER running Trueplay, then factory reset + setup again but skipping Trueplay step: no more pops for weeks now. All other variables & settings (TV, cable, sources of video & audio, etc remain consistently the same) but no more pops. What changed? For them, it was not re-running Trueplay on a fresh setup. If not Trueplay (bug, which some have since seemed to negate), the factory reset seemed to fix it. 

If it’s ATMOS or CEC or TV or cable, it would consistently repeat by using that same tech and the same settings. But it seems that it is not replicable for many, which implies it is probably NOT much of the stuff getting the (redirection) blame. 

I have to think it is some bugs in software or a bad batch of hardware production. Else, if it is any one thing, someone could:

  • set up an Arc, hook it to the catalyst thing, generate pops.
  • Factory reset, bypass the catalyst thing, no pops.
  • Insert the catalyst thing again, generate pops. 

Pinning it down like this would allow others to run the same test, generate the same result and then the blame game would have more credibility… and SONOS themselves could execute the same test to replicate it themselves. Instead, we have 45 pages of “my setup is generating pops” with others saying “my <different> setup is generating pops” and other people sharing their same setup does NOT generate pops or that their Arc- like my own- has NEVER popped. 

Collectively find an absolute, repeatable cause & effect catalyst, repeated/repeatable on more than one Arc and it would give SONOS an absolute point of focus. As is, we’re all over the place with possible causes and possible remedies with others countering each guess. 

I created a separate question in an attempt to help Sonos diagnose this issue, but have a feeling I will end up in this thread anyway. So let me jump in here.

I experience the same issue as OP.

There is a sudden very loud pop that sounds like a huge short circuit in the Arc, then some small pops crackling followed by a complete loss of audio. The led turns orange on the front.

Power cycling the Arc gets it out of the bricked state, but only until the issue happens again. Can confirm that it happened with Dolby Atmos audio content from media player on the TV itself.

Setup

  • Sonos Arc
  • 2x Sonos ONE surround setup.
  • Philips OLED 65OLED806/12 on eArc port (port 1) with HDMI 2.1 certified cable.

System diagnostics collected while the Arc was not in zombie state did not reveil anything weird according to Sonos support.

These posts are going back 3 years that report this same or a similar issue, and I have found no clear solution other than maybe “disable Atmos”.

Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I've only had the problem with my Xbox Series X so far and I've had it a number of times. Today I was able to reproduce it every time I played Forza 5 and then went to the dashboard. A few seconds later there was a loud bang and the LED on the arc burned orange. So I decided to turn off Dolby Vision because I've also read this here in the chat that it's supposed to help. I couldn't believe it, but in the Xbox settings I just unchecked "allow dolby vision" and "dolby vision for gaming" and since then I haven't been able to reproduce the problem. maybe it's just a coincidence, but when I had Dolby Vision active, the bang came every time in connection with Atmos. But this means doing without Dolby Vision and “only” using HDR10.

This has worked for me without fail.  Remember that there aren’t very many games that natively support DV, so to me most games really dont do much more than HDR does anyway.  Atmos sound is far more valuable to have than DV at this stage

I’m glad it works for you. As I mentioned above it happens with HDR10 without fail every time in my case. 
 

Sonos needs to fix this nonsense

Same issue here.

always on Xbox series x

my diagnostic code is 137046043

this happens 2-3 times a month.

Userlevel 2
Badge +2

I’ve experienced this problem with LG C9 OLED and XSX, I’ve just recently upgraded to an LG G3 OLED, not experienced the problem as yet but I’ve only had the G3 a few days so will report back if the problem persists with the G3.

Userlevel 2
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I still have the same issues with Atmos, which involve audio loss every 15 minutes (for 1 second). The update didn’t yield results in my case.

Me too on Beam Gen 2 but approx every 19-20 mins for me

Userlevel 4
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Further to this, wondering how many other sound bar / reciever users use their TV as a passthrough mechanism.  When looking at the specs of them generally the devices connect directly to them opposed to using the eARC on behalf of all HDMI ports.  
 

This obviously is a discussion we have never had with the Arc / Beam only having a single inout HDMI allowing only a passthrough configuration but it could be why other soundbars / receivers seem unaffected

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