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samro1094
Contributor I
December 8, 2020

Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss

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.

     

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    Rios
    Enthusiast II
    November 30, 2022

    Just ordered both beam and arc to see which is best. With all this going on, should I just return the arc and keep the beam?

    I only have a gen 1 Beam myself (no Atmos) but my understanding is that both the current Beam and Arc are affected. 
    So I think the real question is whether you’re cool with turning off Atmos. Hopefully we’ll get a fix and then we can turn it back on. 

    Oh. Is it only with particular devices? Is the new apple 4k tv that just came out affected? Ps5? TIA

    No I have a PS5, no issues. My 4K Apple TV is the previous version. And it only began to have issues, after my Xbox Series X started the problem in the first place. I’ve also read that the Gen 2 Beam also has sound popping issues on Reddit. I don’t know if it’s the same issue. The only thing I know in my case as well as others who have the same set up as me, the Sonos Arc has issues playing Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content at the same time, after the Xbox Series X initially causes the popping sound. Look into the Sony HT-A9 sound system.

    Or another soundbar. This issue is over a year old and unfortunately nothing has been done about it from the Sonos end of things.

      Rios
      Enthusiast II
      November 30, 2022

      Just ordered both beam and arc to see which is best. With all this going on, should I just return the arc and keep the beam?

      If you do end up going with Sonos, depending on your space and living situation, I would go with the Arc with two Sonos One Gen 2 for surround (and the subwoofer if you live in a house), for the living room and Beam Gen 2 for the bedroom.

      Just don’t ever hook up an Xbox Series X to your Sonos. Ever! Lol. I wish I hadn’t. PS5 and Switch had no problems for 2 years. Until I bought an Xbox Series X. And Apple TV 4K is fine as long as you never ever hook up an Xbox Series X. I never tried the beam, the beam has their own issues apparently.

      Had I known about all of this prior I would never have gotten the Xbox, this is a good time now to look into the Sony HT-A9 with the Black Friday sales.

        Usood89
        Lyricist II
        November 30, 2022

        Just ordered both beam and arc to see which is best. With all this going on, should I just return the arc and keep the beam?

        If you do end up going with Sonos, depending on your space and living situation, I would go with the Arc with two Sonos One Gen 2 for surround (and the subwoofer if you live in a house), for the living room and Beam Gen 2 for the bedroom.

        Just don’t ever hook up an Xbox Series X to your Sonos. Ever! Lol. I wish I hadn’t. PS5 and Switch had no problems for 2 years. Until I bought an Xbox Series X. And Apple TV 4K is fine as long as you never ever hook up an Xbox Series X. I never tried the beam, the beam has their own issues apparently.

        Had I known about all of this prior I would never have gotten the Xbox, this is a good time now to look into the Sony HT-A9 with the Black Friday sales.

        Got it. Stay far away from Xbox 😂😂. Thank you. 

          Rios
          Enthusiast II
          December 1, 2022

          One final thing I’ll say about all this that I’m sure so many others have already done with the “help” of the Sonos Support. I’ve tried restoring my Sonos Arc to factory settings, and updating etc etc. Nothing worked. Ever since the initial error was caused by hooking up my now sold Xbox Series X, my Sonos Arc has the permanent popping noise loss error when playing Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content simultaneously from any source.

          It’s been over a year that this issue was first reported by multiple Sonos Arc owners. And still no fix. I had recommended the Sonos Arc to my dad. We all are dissatisfied and disappointed that this issue hasn’t been address much less talked about by Sonos. I purchased my Sonos Arc, after watching multiple reviews, one of which had 2 reps from Sonos being interviewed.

          I wish I had gone with the Sony HT-A9 now. 

          As of now there is still no fix, or update to address this. At the very minimum, there should be a warning sent out through the Sonos App or email, to warn customers to NEVER hook up an Xbox Series X to the Sonos Arc, as it will cause permanent damage to the Sonos Arc. 

            ADDs86
            Lyricist II
            December 3, 2022

            I can't believe this is still happening, had my arc for 2 years now changed my tv and my hdmi cables and still getting this awful sound.

            Fix this Sonos before my arc gets broken!!!!!!!

              jamie_shaw
              jamie_shaw
              Enthusiast I
              December 5, 2022

              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? 🤔 

              ProfessorFrag
              Enthusiast II
              December 5, 2022

              900H owner here. Apple TV is on HDMI 2, Xbox on HDMI 4 (in VRR mode for the HDMI port so no DV). 

              Arc pops with both. 

              TheFlamesFan
              Enthusiast II
              December 5, 2022

              So I was very curious this weekend.  I was thinking  perhaps Xbox had fixed the issue and that my disabling Dolby vision and auto HDR wasn’t necessary, as I had been symptom free for over a month

               

              So I deactivated both and within two days of light play I got the pop, and it was with a game that uses both natively (Forza Horizon 5).  There is definitely something behind this line of thinking that Dolby Vision is causing some of the issue

               

              I have since deactivated both again and have been symptom free again

               

              Stay Tuned

              ProfessorFrag
              Enthusiast II
              December 5, 2022

              Thanks for sharing the data point. I get the pop on Xbox even with DV turned off. For EDID reasons, I always have DV off on my Xbox. I also don’t use auto HDR.

              jamie_shaw
              jamie_shaw
              Enthusiast I
              December 5, 2022

              So I was very curious this weekend.  I was thinking  perhaps Xbox had fixed the issue and that my disabling Dolby vision and auto HDR wasn’t necessary, as I had been symptom free for over a month

               

              So I deactivated both and within two days of light play I got the pop, and it was with a game that uses both natively (Forza Horizon 5).  There is definitely something behind this line of thinking that Dolby Vision is causing some of the issue

               

              I have since deactivated both again and have been symptom free again

               

              Stay Tuned

              It wouldn’t surprise me — I’ve been saying for a good while now that the culprit is specifically the Dolby MAT container, and it’s usage with Atmos.  Definitely smells like there is a potential bandwidth issue, somewhere.

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