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samro1094
Contributor I
December 8, 2020

Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss

  • December 8, 2020
  • 1202 replies
  • 90707 views

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.

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    Pinned Reply By Corry P

    Hi Everyone!

    Good news! We are pleased to share that our team has identified a fix for the popping sound on Arc and it will be shipped to all customers as part of a software release today, Thursday Nov 16 at 09:30 ET, 14:30 GMT, 15:30 CET. Please note that some app stores may take an extra hour or two for it to become available.

    During our investigation we uncovered a rare bug that impacts how Sonos Arc and Beam (Gen 2) in certain home theater configurations process Dolby MAT, a streaming technology which is used to deliver Dolby Atmos audio over HDMI. Occasionally a Sonos product will receive a corrupted audio segment from an external source and needs to filter out unwanted audio data. The bug we identified was allowing our Dolby decoder to play audible errors on certain home theater setups rather than concealing them. The solution we’ve built and tested improves our Dolby decoder so it better filters out corrupt audio data that can manifest as a popping sound. We’ll continue to monitor customer feedback closely after the fix has been released and ship additional updates if necessary.

    We strive to deliver the best listening experience possible and work to address major issues that impact our customers. We apologize for the disruption this bug has caused and want to thank you for your patience while our team developed a fix.

    We would also like to thank our community users for their detailed setup information and steps to reproduce the issue, which were helpful to us in uncovering the cause of the bug.

     

    1202 replies

    Show previous replies
    jamie_shaw
    jamie_shaw
    Enthusiast I
    October 20, 2022

    Just to note I upgraded my sonos Arc to 14.18 last night and the Windows Sound test using “Dolby Atmos for home theatre” vi HDFury Arcana no longer produces the loud pops.  

     

    I re-enabled Atmos on my Apple TV following the update. Popped in the first show that I watched.  

      Fenway
      Lyricist II
      October 20, 2022

      Noticed this from the new Apple TV announced this week. 

      New Apple TV 4K features A15 Bionic chip and HDR10+ support

      Will this help address the pop issue? 

      Airgetlam
      Airgetlam
      October 21, 2022

      I wouldn’t think so, since it doesn’t appear to be Apple TV or Sonos only, at this point. 

      Bruce
      TheFlamesFan
      Enthusiast II
      October 21, 2022

      Came across something interesting on Reddit 

      https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/y9d84i/apple_tv_spatial_audio_with_sonos_arc_issue_fix/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

       

      In this post the user has the same issue discussed many times in this forum, however making changes to the video setting seems to have fixed his issues.

       

      Wondering if this is a Dolby Vision / Dolby Atmos combination thing?  I know for me I get this issue on the Xbox series X and have both activated all the time.  I don’t get this on the Apple TV because I match dynamic range settings


      What are others experiences??

       

       

      dsands75
      Lyricist III
      October 21, 2022

      Just to note I upgraded my sonos Arc to 14.18 last night and the Windows Sound test using “Dolby Atmos for home theatre” vi HDFury Arcana no longer produces the loud pops.  

       

      I re-enabled Atmos on my Apple TV following the update. Popped in the first show that I watched.  

      It makes me wonder if the issue is how both the sending source and eARC device handle atmos content.  I haven’t had another pop since the update and just tested Windows Sound test again and no issue.  

      Bee22
      Lyricist III
      October 27, 2022

      I just came home with a brand new Arc and set it up with my Samsung S95B.  I enabled Atmos on my Series X and everything appeared ok.  
       

      I loaded up Overwatch 2 and less than a minute into the game…“POP” and the sound cut off.  :|   I quit out of the game and there was another smaller pop and then the audio returned. This is very disheartening. 
       I was aware of this issue from browsing the forums but was hoping I wouldn’t be affected or at least not often.  
       

      I captured a diagnostic and called Sonos support and they basically just said since my sound had returned the issue was fixed and if it happens again to call back.  They seemed very dismissive of the popping sound/cutoff occurring which is obviously what the concern is. 

      I don’t know what to do now as far as keeping or returning.  Again this is very disheartening after spending $1000.    I’m already scared to leave Atmos enabled but and not sure if it’s worth it without it. 
       

      I know this has been a long standing issue but is there any acknowledgment or confidence that this will be resolved?

       


       

        Ken_Griffiths
        Ken_Griffiths
        October 27, 2022

        I just came home with a brand new Arc and set it up with my Samsung S95B.  I enabled Atmos on my Series X and everything appeared ok.  
         

        I loaded up Overwatch 2 and less than a minute into the game…“POP” and the sound cut off.  :|   I quit out of the game and there was another smaller pop and then the audio returned. This is very disheartening. 
         I was aware of this issue from browsing the forums but was hoping I wouldn’t be affected or at least not often.  
         

        I captured a diagnostic and called Sonos support and they basically just said since my sound had returned the issue was fixed and if it happens again to call back.  They seemed very dismissive of the popping sound/cutoff occurring which is obviously what the concern is. 

        I don’t know what to do now as far as keeping or returning.  Again this is very disheartening after spending $1000.    I’m already scared to leave Atmos enabled but and not sure if it’s worth it without it. 
         

        I know this has been a long standing issue but is there any acknowledgment or confidence that this will be resolved?

        It sounds like a real frustrating issue and it has always seemed to me, as an outsider looking in, just reading about the matter, to be quite prevalent whenever there’s an XBox, or Apple TV 4K, in the mix.

        Support Staff here have said they are aware of the issue, but seem to speak as though the problem lies elsewhere and outside the control of Sonos, but that’s just some speculation on my part, although other brands of soundbar apparently have the same issue too.

        I would definitely take your issue back to Sonos Support if it happens again and try to gather video and diagnostic evidence, as that perhaps may help with the ongoing issue etc.

        William_61
        Enthusiast II
        October 27, 2022

        I just came home with a brand new Arc and set it up with my Samsung S95B.  I enabled Atmos on my Series X and everything appeared ok.  
         

        I loaded up Overwatch 2 and less than a minute into the game…“POP” and the sound cut off.  :|   I quit out of the game and there was another smaller pop and then the audio returned. This is very disheartening. 
         I was aware of this issue from browsing the forums but was hoping I wouldn’t be affected or at least not often.  
         

        I captured a diagnostic and called Sonos support and they basically just said since my sound had returned the issue was fixed and if it happens again to call back.  They seemed very dismissive of the popping sound/cutoff occurring which is obviously what the concern is. 

        I don’t know what to do now as far as keeping or returning.  Again this is very disheartening after spending $1000.    I’m already scared to leave Atmos enabled but and not sure if it’s worth it without it. 
         

        I know this has been a long standing issue but is there any acknowledgment or confidence that this will be resolved?

         


         

        Sonos needs to put a disclaimer on the atmos feature of the Arc. 

          ProfessorFrag
          Enthusiast II
          October 29, 2022

          Sonos needs to put a disclaimer on the atmos feature of the Arc. 

           

          I agree. Even if this isn’t a Sonos issue, there should be a warning to consumers that Atoms doesn’t work right with Apple TV and Xbox. That’s just being honest at this point. 

            TheFlamesFan
            Enthusiast II
            October 29, 2022

            Hi everyone 

             

            just wanted to give an update to my post 8 days back about the issue maybe not being a Dolby atmos issue entirely and could be due to devices / TVs pushing through a Dolby Vision / Dolby Atmos signal together

            I disabled the force Dolby vision option in the Xbox Series X and re-enabled Atmos and after a week of playing I have yet to encounter the “pop” that we have described on this thread.  I would usually encounter this at least once a day when quitting games and returning to the home screen

            I think there could be merit to this approach, but obviously need the community to try this as well. Also not ruling out that bug fixes from the October Xbox update and Sonos 14.18 could of fixed this issue entirely from their end as they have also been released during this timeframe

             

            Will keep everybody updated!

             

             

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