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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Rrrrwrighty

Contributor I

Update. I swapped both HDMI cables from XBOX to TV and Arc to TV with brand new 4K versions. At first I thought it had cured iit, but alas no - about 45 mins in and crack/pop sound gone. However it did come back without having to change source input. So I went to XBOX settings and changed audio output form Atmos to DTS and hey presto it’s stopped. However the Atmos sound is far superior and, I agree unacceptable it is an issue

K

Kikopower

Lyricist I

Hi

I have an Arc, with Sub (3rd Gen) and two One SL setup hooked up to an LG G2 77 via eARC and use the latest 4K AppleTV for all streaming. The system is brand new, so its been in use for just a week.

I experienced the very loud electrical sounding bang yesterday night although at first it didn’t lost the sound as I was able to continue watching the movie till the end but once I finished I switched to watch another app using the Apple TV 4K and that’s when I bumped into the loss of audio that was only restored with a reboot and several changes on the HDMI configurations till I got the sound bar back to normal.

Before attempting to reboot I checked that the soundbar was functioning perfectly ok with Airplay music from my iPhone, so apparently nothing was “broken” still I struggled to get it back to work with the sound from the TV.

I started to look into this issue and as soon as I discovered this thread, I have decided to put everything back in the boxes (which I still have) an return the whole SONOS Sound System back to the dealer as this definitely NOT acceptable and it looks like there is no feasible solution available in the short period of time.

B

brick2002

Contributor I

Just throwing my hat in the ring. Haven’t had this loud pop in a few months, but tonight when pulling up the info during a movie I got a loud pop and loss of audio. This is on the Xbox Series S. Clearly this is still an issue years later.

Rrrrwrighty

Contributor I

Hello. I am experiencing this issue. I previously had the Beam (Gen2) which worked perfectly. Since upgrading to the Arc, when using the XBOX Series X there is a regular loud popping / cracking noise and the LED flashes Amber, followed by loss of sound. If I change the source back to Sky, then back to XBOX the sound returns for a short while then rinse and repeat. I thought it maybe heat related as the XBOX is directly underneath the Arc and emits quite a bit of heat. So moved it, and the problem still persists. Next step, is a new 4K HDMI cable… Just to add, no sound issues exist with Sky Q or any TV apps like Prime or Netflix. Just the XBOX connection.

Also, previous setup with Beam was with a Samsung TV. I now have a Sony Bravia with the Arc Whether that makes any difference I don’t know

Rrrrwrighty

Contributor I

Just throwing my hat in the ring. Haven’t had this loud pop in a few months, but tonight when pulling up the info during a movie I got a loud pop and loss of audio. This is on the Xbox Series S. Clearly this is still an issue years later.

Are your XBOX audio settings set to Atmos?

R

Rios

Enthusiast II

Can reproduce this at will flicking between an atmos title on xbox series x and home - vid here: https://1drv.ms/v/s!At6Mgf3ymchZhJBUhmqLsqwM54sik. Fifth time to support today, they said to switch to Dolby 5.1!

“I have checked this and we are aware of this behavior and are investigating it, but we do not have any additional information to share at this time.

Workaround: Disable Dolby Atmos and use Dolby Digital 5.1 instead.”

Beyond a joke, this is a company knowingly selling a product that has issues performing what it’s advertised to do to consumers without warning them. After the whole S1 to S2 forced obsolescence debacle, I should have learnt my lesson.

Avoid.

Ridiculous. As I’ve said before it’s time to switch. And never look back.

Ken_Griffiths

Ridiculous. As I’ve said before it’s time to switch. And never look back.

Switch to what? …It happens on other makes of soundbar too, by all accounts.. I would rather ditch the Xbox or Apple TV 4K, but I’m happy to use DD5.1 anyway, personally speaking, until the matter is resolved. I still think the issue lies with the Mc LPCM codec, but that’s just a guess on my part.

P

ProfessorFrag

Enthusiast II

It’s not an issue I’ve personally encountered with my Arc or Beam, but then again I don’t use MC LPCM as I don’t have an Xbox or Apple TV 4K etc. (however I do use Dolby Vision FWIW🤔?)

@Ken_Griffiths , I thought you didn’t have an Apple TV or Xbox and that you had never been affected by the pop.
Has your situation changed? Are you now also affected?

Ken_Griffiths

It’s not an issue I’ve personally encountered with my Arc or Beam, but then again I don’t use MC LPCM as I don’t have an Xbox or Apple TV 4K etc. (however I do use Dolby Vision FWIW🤔?)

@Ken_Griffiths , I thought you didn’t have an Apple TV or Xbox and that you had never been affected by the pop.
Has your situation changed? Are you now also affected?

I don’t have XBox, but I do have Apple TV (running tvOS 16.3 public beta), but I don’t have the ‘popping’ issue. I have however changed the ATV audio format to disable Mc LPCM and use Dolby 5.1 instead, as a precautionary measure… I do have Atmos compressed (DD+) audio options though, both on my TV (in-built Apps) and via a Nvidia Shield - I am just personally convinced that the popping issue spoken about here (albeit I’m not experiencing it personally) lies with the Mc LPCM codec - so it’s staying disabled here on my ATV. I hope that assists to clarify my earlier post.

B

bromos

Lyricist III

It’s not an issue I’ve personally encountered with my Arc or Beam, but then again I don’t use MC LPCM as I don’t have an Xbox or Apple TV 4K etc. (however I do use Dolby Vision FWIW🤔?)

@Ken_Griffiths , I thought you didn’t have an Apple TV or Xbox and that you had never been affected by the pop.
Has your situation changed? Are you now also affected?

We all get it, you are a huge fan boy, but this exact issue does NOT happen with another manufacturer and lies solely with Sonos. We are all happy you are happy to cripple your expensive soundbar by removing atmos but the rest of us are wanting our product to function as advertised, and that's why we are working with Sonos to get this issue fixed. If everything works perfect for you then great! This topic isn't for you. For everyone else on the now 24 pages of this thread amongst many others, we are looking for a solution to this common defect that will allow us to use our product as designed without issue.

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