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.
Hi
I am having the same issue. Sonos Arc, 5.1. Xbox, Sony xh90.
Loud Pop, makes the dog jump. Complete loss of audio.
What is interesting, not sure if you are aware. I can still send the audio signal to other rooms. The audio is fine on play 1 or one sl in kitchen, still off in the living room.
Spoken to support says the system is fine.
Diagnostic info : 488565616
Regards
Dan
So I’ve been following this thread for a while I got my arc on Black Friday and experienced the popping noise whilst playing my Xbox on the first day. After reading this thread I disabled Dolby vision as suggested by a poster. Since doing so I haven’t had a pop. This might just be luck and it’s a shame to have to sacrifice having nicer visuals for the sake of preserving the soundbar. Let’s hope there’s an update soon.
Unfortunately not working for me, I always have DV disable and issue occurs… so no other option than change to 5.1 DTS, very very poor sound experience specially with XBOX (Forza, Halo, etc)
Adding my identical experience to this thread.
Sonos Arc. Xbox Series X with Dolby Atmos selected. CEC disabled. LGC1 utilizing eArc.
Loud pop (like a gunshot) whenever I leave a game running Dolby Atmos and return to the Xbox dashboard. Horrifying every time.
Grateful for RC12’s advocacy on this thread.
C’mon Sonos.
Cleary, you have identical hardware and setup to me. If you disable “Dolby Vision” and “Dolby Vision for gaming” on your Series X. Do you get the pop?
Update: turned off Dolby Vision on my Xbox Series X and played a couple hours with frequent jumps back to the dashboard. No gunshot pop sound as of yet!…
Xbox Series X in 4K/120fps mode with VRR. Both CEC and Dolby Vision are disabled. Dolby Atmos back on. Sonos Arc and Sonos Sub (Gen 3). LG C1 with Sonos Arc on eARC, Pass Through, Bitstream. SIMPLINK-CEC on LG C1 set to On,
Total conjecture: does some credence to the idea that the Xbox with 4K 120fps VRR Dolby vision is hitting the LGC1’s 40 gbps HDMI 2.1 with the Dolby MAT encoding on Dolby Atmos. Maybe?
Will keep testing (ie gaming for science)
Maybe see this link to a thread (8 pages) I found online:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254099712
It still seems like this is not a Sonos issue, as other TV connected products are mentioned.
Hi,
I’m experiencing a similar issue to that described by othered here. Sonos Arc setup (with Sub Mini and 2 Era 300s). Very loud popping sound (startlingly loud), sometimes a series of additional sporadic pops, then complete loss of volume. Occurs frequently when watching Dolby Atmos content on Apple TV. I’ve tried power cycling the TV and the sound bar. The issues repeats regardless. Each time I wonder if my system will ever produce sound again. Is this the speakers themselves? The power amps?
I’m reading that the issue has existed for many users for a couple years now and that the recommended fix is to disable Atmos. The whole point of this soundbar is to play hi-res spatial audio. Still no DTS:X support which is disappointing but that’s a different story.
Sonos, there’s enough of us with this issue for long enough now that it deserves significant attention. We need a real fix please.
Neil
+3
I experienced this issue last Friday for the first time since owning the Arc watching Shang-Chi on Disney+ on an Apple TV 4K – Atmos enabled.
Attempted Snowpiercer on Netflix, same result after about 8 minutes.
After upgrading to 13.4 last night; let both run through as I worked downstairs and checked periodically to see if the audio had dropped. After a full viewing on both, no issue.
Not sure if 13.4 fixed the issue from Apple TV but it did get me digging further. Not sure if it’s been mentioned in this thread already but the common factor between Atmos on Apple TV and Xbox Series X is that they both use Dolby MAT.
(After that first failure, I tried my TV’s native Disney+ app and a Ultra HD Blu-Ray, both worked without failure, which are DD+ and Dolby TrueHD, respectively).
This keeps happening to me while playing hellblade on the Xbox series x!
Quite infuriating
Hi
I appreciate that you want an update - I would too - but I’m afraid I have nothing to tell you, other than that we are still actively investigating.
Maybe difficult to say from your side, but at least could you confirm issue was able to reproduce during you investigation? Maybe root cause and countermeasure still not defined, but at least is a good starting point.
If so, have you notice any damage to any part of hardware? Specially speakers…
What’s your expert recommendation? Turn off ATMOS output in any device connected through TV to SONOS ARC?
Honestly I think we need a Statement from SONOS at least in the meantime you find a solution, otherwise we will damage our equipment and of course we will eventually claim for a replacement.
Paul, I highly doubt that. You’d think Sonos would mention that in the patch notes considering it’s such a big deal.
Sonos are in denial that this is happening, even if they fixed it there is no way they would include it.
This is so frustrating - I have submitted numerous diagnostic reports for this problem and Sonos have never resolved the issue. Cannot use Atmos on XBox - using 7.1 and no pop. Either Sonos don’t care enough to fix it, or simply cannot fix for whatever reason. Either was its not good enough for high end equipment.
I have had the same issue with my arc popping using Disney+ with my Apple 4K. I think I just solved it for my situation. I changed the video settings on the Apple 4K to turn off the Dynamic Range and Frame rate matching. I can recreate the issue by turning them back on. I haven’t tried them individually yet, but maybe this can help someone out there
Tried this change to the settings on mine and it all seemed to be fine. Watched Hawkeye (and others) without a problem but tonight watching “Book of Boba Fett” it’s happened three times in succession. Music played with no problem after each instance.
what was new was that there was a loud pop and no sound, but then a few seconds later a small, quieter pop and the sound came back. This hasn’t happened before.
resorted to the TV app and no problems at all…
would be nice for some kind of acknowledgment of the problem from Sonos- it isn’t the cable.
I have had this happening for the last month. Getting a little old. I love the Arc but may have to hook up the Beam Gen 2 if this problem persists or drop Sonos all together and move on.
So interesting situation tonight.
Was using my ps5. Pop happened, arc cut out but the surrounds kept playing.
Power cycled the arc and then was fine again.
Odd.
This has been happening for me for 3+ weeks. Have called Support Twice, left diagnostics, and have ended calls with “solutions” that days later only has it happening again.
Apple 4K plus ARC for me as well. Happens most often while watching ATV+ and Disney+ Dolby Atmos content, but it’s also happened while listening to Apple Music through ATV4K, and even while screen saver runs. I even managed to capture video of it.
I’m currently running 13.4 so that hasn’t helped either.
Sometimes it knocks out the centre channel, other times it’s just the pop. Neither is ideal
I’m experiencing the same popping issue on my Arc and can reproduce the POP on-demand using the Windows 11 System Sound control test panel and selecting “Dolby Atmos for home theatre” for Spatial Audio. If someone from Sonos would like to contact me I’d be glad to give a demo and do any kind of tracing that might help them resolve the issue sooner rather than later!
That’s amazing work making the problem reproducible! Thank you! Let’s hope it leads to a fix.
In addition to Sonos, I think this could be helpful for tech reviewers too. Gives them an easy way to check if the problem exists on new Sonos products.
+18
Hi
That is not completely surprising, but I do not know if it is useful information or not. I shall certainly inform someone though, as it may give more indication as to which stage of the audio reproduction process the issue occurs - thank you.
Looking at the thread on the Sonos subreddit, I'm surprised to see so many users who had the bang once or twice and it went away; or who have configurations identical to ours but no problems.
Could this be just specific Arcs malfunctioning? Has anybody had their unit exchanged and the problem came back?
If this were as straightforward as "we need new units", that would blow my mind.
I had a replacement sent to me from Sonos and still the same issue. I’m keeping mine because a) it’s specific to Dolby MAT vs DD+ and b) compared to a HT-A7000 (which I tried as a possible replacement), the Sonos killed it. While disabling Atmos on my Xbox and Apple TV sucks, the bar is fantastic and has a fairly good app experience. When it works, it works.
As I’ve said before this is a Sonos hardware bug that can be recreated with the same parameters 100% of the time.
Each time I read how we have to turn off the feature that we specifically paid for is infuriating. And the constant naysayers who are likely Sonos affiliated people is underhanded and shows what we the consumer, what kind of company we invested in.
This is a 2 year going to be 3 year issue. There is Zero excuse and Sonos is Fully aware of this issue. They have contracts with their manufacturers. This is just business. I’ve worked for large corporations in the past that release faulty hardware and software due to contracts with manufacturers and retailers.
It is far more profitable to have the likelihood of poor individuals who made the choice to plug in an Xbox Series X that DOES cause permanent damage to the Sonos Arc, rendering it completely incapable of playing Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision content concurrently from any source.
An issue that did not appear for years prior to plugging in a Sonos Arc.
This is my 3rd Arc. I unfortunately recommended the Sonos Arc to my father who currently has zero issues because I was able to warn him not to plug in an Xbox Series X that my younger half brother has.
Something we all could have benefited from bad we been given notice. Enough with the Sonos isn’t the issue nonsense.
2 of my Arcs now have this issue. Because I like so many of you thought, this might be a singular issue. As there were two releases of the Arc, one with the more expensive packaging and then the “streamlined” “uniform” box aka cheaper packaged one.
This is NOT specific to certain Sonos Arcs. This IS an issue that occurs to ALL Sonos Arcs. Considering the far fewer sales of the Xbox Series X, this is why there hasn’t been more reports than the many that already exist for over two years now.
One final note, this issue has never happened with my PS5 playing on the Sonos Arc. Which I had over a year before I got an Xbox Series X.
I still argue against your theory regarding XSX but something did change.
As I’ve said before, like you, I had period where the Arc worked fine with Atmos. Since I purchased in Dec 2020, up until around September 2021, I had no issues. Again, during this time, the Bravia X90H line, and Apple TV, and the Sonos Arc all had major OS updates. One of which most certainly introduced the issue. No change in my hardware configuration, no connected devices or cables changed or swapped. Just one day… BANG.
I’d be interested to know if you purchased an XSX around September/October 2021.
I’ve said this 3 times before now. This is the last time. Please read the thread. When I mention the Xbox Series X it is a 100% reproducible way to recreate the bug/issue 100% of the time.
There is NO argument. I have clearly stated. For those that are having issues that are NOT related to Xbox Series, I am NOT saying that the issue is ONLY if you plug in an Xbox Series X. I’m saying that if you have your specific issue that is caused by some other method. Ok I believe you. Again this is a SONOS issue.
I have never said that all other causes are invalid. For any future posts that only clog up this thread with statements or answers that have already been addressed I simply won’t answer them. And no I purchased my Xbox Series X in October of 2022. Something I regret to this day.
Neither one of you have ever been affected by the pop, right? You just like to frequent every thread about it emphasizing that it’s probably not Sonos’ fault.
We’ve been down the path of these isolated reports. They may use the word ‘pop’ but are describing fundamentally different symptoms.
Look at this thread. We’ll be breaking 1,000 posts eventually.
No I’ve not had the popping issue with the Arc, but I’m not using Apple TV 4K, or Xbox - I have an LG C9 TV with Arc, Sub, Surrounds and connected are:
Just experienced two pops today for the first time, have had my Arc+One+OneSL for a few years. I thought it was a bird hitting the window until the second one.
The biggest change, recently moved to an LG C3 from a Samsung Q9FN. Since getting the C3 we used the webos apps, but I realized this week a bunch of the LG streaming apps don't offer Atmos but on Xbox they do. Started using Xbox Series X again, got two pops today, both while navigating around.
Definitely had Atmos working on the 2018 Samsung at times (not earc or full hdmi 2.1) so it seems to be some combo of the earc/LG, Xbox, and Sonos for me, and potentially while pressing universal remote buttons to navigate UI.
In my book, it still points to the issue as mainly involving the multi-channel LPCM (container) format where the Atmos metadata is sent alongside the lossless audio stream - so my money is still on the Atmos metadata falling out of sync with the stream and sometimes creating that noise, which you describe as ‘a bird hitting a window’. Maybe it’s devices en-route like the TV and/or cables causing this anomaly too, as clearly it doesn’t happen for everyone and it explains why some users may find solutions when changing a cable or introduce an audio extractor into the path and bypass their TV etc.
I don’t personally use LPCM for Atmos playback, as I don’t have the hardware that supports it and so far I’ve not heard the noise and that’s with an LG TV too, albeit the older C9 TV.
Interesting point actually, not a scientific test but the pop did not occur until I switched to Monoprice cables.
If you want a guaranteed pop...put on Get Back (Beatles Doc) from Disney+
+3
For those with Apple TV — humour me, what are your video settings? Format, frame rate, auto HDR, auto frame rate…
Interesting point actually, not a scientific test but the pop did not occur until I switched to Monoprice cables.
Changing the cables will refresh the CEC settings so it’s possible that this tripped the same issues that we have talked about in this thread
I experienced this issue last Friday for the first time since owning the Arc watching Shang-Chi on Disney+ on an Apple TV 4K – Atmos enabled.
Attempted Snowpiercer on Netflix, same result after about 8 minutes.
After upgrading to 13.4 last night; let both run through as I worked downstairs and checked periodically to see if the audio had dropped. After a full viewing on both, no issue.
Not sure if 13.4 fixed the issue from Apple TV but it did get me digging further. Not sure if it’s been mentioned in this thread already but the common factor between Atmos on Apple TV and Xbox Series X is that they both use Dolby MAT.
(After that first failure, I tried my TV’s native Disney+ app and a Ultra HD Blu-Ray, both worked without failure, which are DD+ and Dolby TrueHD, respectively).
That’s interesting about Dolby MAT, and whether 13.4 might have fixed it for Apple TV.
I’ve ruined any chance of being able to confirm that as last night I added a Dr HDMI 4K between the Apple TV and my Sony TV and updated both Sonos and the Apple TV. No chance of a baseline now!
Fingers crossed I’ve had the last “pop”.
With an air of false confidence I took out the Dr HDMI shortly after this post and have had almost a month of no issues at all (with a lot of atmos content being watched).
Until watching Hawkeye last night when I got the pop at the usual approx. 7 minute mark (unusually I got a pop and then a second pop shortly after when the video was paused. That was a new thing).
I tried playing music straight away and that played without a problem, switching back to TV then had all sound playing normally and for the rest of the episode.
I think the Apple TV box had updated so I’m unsure whether some working combination has been updated out.
I’m going to switch to the Apple TV app on my TV until this is sorted as it’s just frustrating and I’m unsure what damage is being done to the Arc each time….
Hello all. Been having this issue for some time. Contacted support and they offered me a new arc, but this has to be a bigger issue. I tried the auto hdr. It worked for quite a few days. The popping now all the sudden started again. Curious if anyone else's started popping with the hdr fix?
Hi. I’ve only had it happen once but it was so loud I though something had exploded, that was a few weeks back and I’ve been in and out of auto hdr games. But after using it a while since I am now more convinced something is degraded quality wise on the ARC because of that issue, so it’s good to know you were offered a replacement, will have to make contact with support.
I can confirm that I switched off Dolby vision 2 weeks ago. I haven't had a single issue since with Atmos. Just wanted everyone to know!
Haven’t had time to test this myself, but it would explain why we’ve had no reports from people with Samsung TVs. Samsungs can’t do Dolby Vision! Newer Sonys and LGs can.
Sophie’s Choice: do you kill Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos? Ouch.
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