Contributor I

Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss

1202 replies
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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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jamie_shaw

Enthusiast I

I have a Sony 900H and replicated some of this testing today. For those unfamiliar with the TV, it has 4 possible settings for HDMI ports 3 and 4: Standard (HDMI 2.0), Enhanced (HDMI 2.1, No DV, No VRR), Enhanced (with DV, no VRR), Enhanced (with VRR, no DV). HDMI 3 is the eARC port, so where the Sonos Arc is plugged into.

I think this is partly where the confusion lays, and one of the issues with the language are on that screen. All ports support DV, but I don't get why 3 and 4 have a separate setting for it. My Apple TV is on HDMI 2, and between Dec 2020-Oct 2021, served both DV and DA without fail. There's been no hardware changes, either inclusions, removals, or reconfigures since Dec 2020. Only software changes.

jamie_shaw

Enthusiast I

I have a Sony 900H and replicated some of this testing today. For those unfamiliar with the TV, it has 4 possible settings for HDMI ports 3 and 4: Standard (HDMI 2.0), Enhanced (HDMI 2.1, No DV, No VRR), Enhanced (with DV, no VRR), Enhanced (with VRR, no DV). HDMI 3 is the eARC port, so where the Sonos Arc is plugged into.

I think this is partly where the confusion lays, and one of the issues with the language are on that screen. All ports support DV, but I don't get why 3 and 4 have a separate setting for it. My Apple TV is on HDMI 2, and between Dec 2020-Oct 2021, served both DV and DA without fail. There's been no hardware changes, either inclusions, removals, or reconfigures since Dec 2020. Only software changes.

Just to confirm my own thoughts — this was the screenshot before the VRR update on the X900H around Oct 2021, and I think is why the language is used. You have the option for either DV, or HDMI 2.1 features such as 120fps.

I guess the newer options on the 3 and 4 equate to being limited to the following feature sets depending on what you select.

“Enhanced” i.e. high speed formats e.g 4K60 4:4:4/RGB or 120 4:2:2
Dolby Vision
VRR

Also worth noting that these seem to do little for Arc itself. I believe mine is set to “Standard” as it outputs nothing more than 1080, but eARC works just fine (with it’s handshaking being controlled by the eARC option in Audio Output settings).

A

Atxb

Lyricist I

Hi @Pahakissa

We’re not aware of this issue happening on Beam, though it is related to Atmos. Therefore, we would appreciate it - if it ever happens again - if you could immediately submit a support diagnostic and later get in touch with our technical support team so we can document the occurrence. We’re also not aware of this issue causing any actual damage to the units it happens on.

Hi Corry - I have experienced on my Beam Gen 2. Although I am very hesitant to try and recreate it and damage the speakers. It occurs when playing a game with Atmos and then switching to the dashboard. I’m not sure if there’s a length of time that the game would need to be played before switching to recreate, but it’s happened 2 days in a row.

P

ProfessorFrag

Enthusiast II

It is my understanding that we have users in this thread who have the pop but have never had an Xbox connected.

@Rios : I have a Sonos Arc.

W

William_61

Enthusiast II

It is my understanding that we have users in this thread who have the pop but have never had an Xbox connected.

@Rios : I have a Sonos Arc.

I for one have never had an Xbox connected. I have a very basic and common set up. Sony 900H TV, Xfinity X1 cable TV box on HDMI/1, Sonos Arc on eArc HDMI/3, and Apple TV 4K on HDMI/4. My pooping started roughly a year ago.

After reading recent posts I checked my Sony TV setting and sure enough, it had been set to ‘Enhanced Format (Dolby Vision)’ on every HDMI output. I’ve changed each to ‘Enhanced Format’ setting.

I currently have my Apple TV Dolby Atmos disabled and my settings set to 4K SDR (60Hz), Chroma 4:4:4 and Match Content Range & Frame Rates set to on. The Dolby Vision is not enabled. However, it is my understanding that with these settings the Apple TV will match whatever video format that is thrown at it. Wouldn’t that mean that it would match content that was in Dolby Vision?

@Rios are you saying this would not be the case? That Dolby Vision would not engage with these settings? Thanks for all your work and input on this crazy issue. So many of you in this community have gone above and beyond to help us and Sonos. I hope they appreciate it too.

P

pcfarrar

Lyricist III

I’ve got a Beam 2, LG CX TV and Xbox Series X. The pop frequently occurs for me during Xbox Cloud Gaming. The Beam 2 reboots and the sound eventually returns.

A

Atxb

Lyricist I

Does this damage the speaker at all? I believe the Sonos rep has said they haven’t seen any indications that it does, but Rios said that it does?

jamie_shaw

Enthusiast I

Does this damage the speaker at all? I believe the Sonos rep has said they haven’t seen any indications that it does, but Rios said that it does?

Having been experiencing pops for over a year, and having replaced the Arc as of last week, truthfully, I can’t tell if there is any difference.

jamie_shaw

Enthusiast I

I currently have my Apple TV Dolby Atmos disabled and my settings set to 4K SDR (60Hz), Chroma 4:4:4 and Match Content Range & Frame Rates set to on. The Dolby Vision is not enabled. However, it is my understanding that with these settings the Apple TV will match whatever video format that is thrown at it. Wouldn’t that mean that it would match content that was in Dolby Vision?

That is exactly the case—if you have your Apple TV set to SDR, it will change to HDR or Dolby Vision depending on the content, and if supported by the TV (or vice versa, if you’re using HDR and the content is SDR).
I’m curious, now that you have it on Port 4 as “Enhanced”, do you still get the options for setting the Apple TV to Dolby Vision, or is it purely HDR and SDR options that are listed? This is more for my understanding of what the different options of “Enhanced” do on Port 3 and Port 4.

@Rios are you saying this would not be the case? That Dolby Vision would not engage with these settings? Thanks for all your work and input on this crazy issue. So many of you in this community have gone above and beyond to help us and Sonos. I hope they appreciate it too.

If you disable “Match Dynamic Range” — you’ll be locked at whatever you pick as the default format, in your case, 4K60 SDR.

W

William_61

Enthusiast II

I currently have my Apple TV Dolby Atmos disabled and my settings set to 4K SDR (60Hz), Chroma 4:4:4 and Match Content Range & Frame Rates set to on. The Dolby Vision is not enabled. However, it is my understanding that with these settings the Apple TV will match whatever video format that is thrown at it. Wouldn’t that mean that it would match content that was in Dolby Vision?

That is exactly the case—if you have your Apple TV set to SDR, it will change to HDR or Dolby Vision depending on the content, and if supported by the TV (or vice versa, if you’re using HDR and the content is SDR).
I’m curious, now that you have it on Port 4 as “Enhanced”, do you still get the options for setting the Apple TV to Dolby Vision, or is it purely HDR and SDR options that are listed? This is more for my understanding of what the different options of “Enhanced” do on Port 3 and Port 4.

@Rios are you saying this would not be the case? That Dolby Vision would not engage with these settings? Thanks for all your work and input on this crazy issue. So many of you in this community have gone above and beyond to help us and Sonos. I hope they appreciate it too.

If you disable “Match Dynamic Range” — you’ll be locked at whatever you pick as the default format, in your case, 4K60 SDR.

Thank you for pointing out the fact that once I selected Enhanced, the Dolby Vision option no longer exists on the Apple TV settings. Now, only Enable HDR is an option on top (see pics). That answers my concern that the Apple TV would automatically enhance to DV due to the match content being set to on. I understand that is now impossible.

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