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.
A Sonos Pop Prayer:
Sonos Pop doesn’t happen.
And if it does, it’s not that bad.
And if it is, it’s only one source.
And if it’s many, other speakers pop too.
And if they don’t, you can’t replicate it.
And if you can, it’s not Sonos fault.
And if it is, users should be patient.
And if they are, then what’s the problem?
...I would far prefer if there were brief audio drops when there are decoding/processing errors with the Arc/Beam as opposed to a MASSIVE gunshot sound that wakes up my entire house, scares me to death, and makes me worried it might ultimately blow out a speaker….
You know, it didn’t even occur to me that this should be the case but now that you’ve said it, it seems obvious.
Sonos, please AT A MINIMUM make this happen.
A Sonos Pop Prayer:
Sonos Pop doesn’t happen.
And if it does, it’s not that bad.
And if it is, it’s only one source.
And if it’s many, other speakers pop too.
And if they don’t, you can’t replicate it.
And if you can, it’s not Sonos fault.
And if it is, users should be patient.
And if they are, then what’s the problem?
Amen, brother
I just want to add my voice to this thread as yet another user that has the same problem and I am very frustrated and disappointed to have spent a fortune equipping my whole house with Sonos products and now not being able to watch Atmos content without the constant fear of the ‘pop’.
Please Tom Warren, you guys should definitely report on it. I would think that the combination of Apple TV + LG TV + Sonos ARC is very prevalent. They are the TV, the streamer and the soundbar recommended by all sites like The Verge, Wirecutter, etc.
My config: Apple TV 4k (2nd Gen), LG G2, Sonos Arc + Sub + Amp.
This has happened twice to me so far. Here’s a video from last night.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/K1MCjDXJqxQPg3Nx6
Is there any fix? Does Sonos even acknowledge the problem?
Same issue: (diag:1831142006)
loud popping during movie
Netflix → FireStick4K → Sony → Sonos Arc
XBR65X950G
Sony Bravia 4K UR2 ver 9
We were watching a show through our Fios box and had the loud pop with the loss of sound until it had power cycled. I’m very worried about damage it may have caused. We just got this for ourselves as a Christmas gift, so it has only been used for less than 4 weeks. Any progress on a fix.
Unfortunately not good news for me. Ever since I had a pop with the game “contrast” on the series X. I now have recurring pops on games I never used to have them on. CEC is disabled and I have done power cycle but no longer having the same luck as I did before. Seems like getting back to the state I had before isnt as easy as just resetting my configuration to the options I previously had. Crazy frustrating!!
Cory. Sure would be nice to get an official Sonos update on this. The longer that Sonos keeps to the story that the technical teams are looking at this and nothing more concrete, the more I start to wonder if a fix is actually coming. The optics sure don’t look good for Sonos, seeing that this has been a problem for 2 years and only under investigation for a few months, I will remember to take my time as well when Sonos wants me to spend more money to upgrade my ones to Era 300s
Promising info!
I can now watch movies for the first time with my full setup enabled. Arc + Sub + Era 300
Hey guys I have received back an email from Sonos Level 3 support team . It looks like they have more info about the POP and sounded promising . Will keep you guys updated soon once I receive more info from them
Golly, I wonder happened to kickstart the investigation??
Hey guys I have received back an email from Sonos Level 3 support team . It looks like they have more info about the POP and sounded promising . Will keep you guys updated soon once I receive more info from them
Golly, I wonder happened to kickstart the investigation??
I’m certain it was Sonos good will and had nothing to do with The Verge putting them on blast by advising no one to support their products until there is a fix.
On a side note I installed a full Arc+Sub+Era 300 system for a client yesterday. He loved it but I showed him the Verge video where he demonstrates the bang and he was startled. He was actually considering returning everything but I told him to wait up and let’s see how this progresses during his return window.
Over a week has passed, I’ve been using Apple TV and Xbox plenty with Atmos on, and there has been no pop. It appears that CEC-off on Xbox plus power cycling all around has solved the problem. It’s a little annoying that I now have to use the TV remote for input switching and power on/off when using Xbox, but that’s OK. More importantly my family can use Apple TV with just its remote and CEC works fine.
I have to add that I am surprised how much better I feel when watching movies and playing games. I didn’t realize just how much stress and frustration pent up from having dropped thousands on a sound system that didn’t work for its advertised purpose and, perhaps worse, where the manufacturer spent years aware of the problem and still hasn’t publicly acknowledged it.
Will I ever buy another Sonos product? I don’t know. But I’ve learned my lesson that it’s more like AliExpress than the reputable brands (Denon, Klipsch, Sennheiser, etc) from which I typically buy.
If I don’t post in this thread again for a while, bon voyage, fellow forumers. I hope your problem is resolved as well. You have been troopers sharing information, replicating, troubleshooting, etc. Yes, there are a few users who tried to throw us off the solution path through persistent gaslighting that the problem didn’t exist or surely couldn’t be Sonos’. But you all hung in there and we’ve made it. You will always have my thanks.
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?
I had time for a small experiment today. I bought a fiber optic HDMI cable to connect the Arc to the TV. Fiber cables contain active chips at each end that convert between electrical and optical signals.
I got the usual pop within half an hour. I believe this eliminates the physical layer of the connection as the problem since there is no electrical connection between the TV (and Apple TV) and the Arc anymore.
Not a huge surprise. I think we are all expecting this to come down to how Sonos decodes Dolby MAT. But there you have it.
+3
Our two posts crossed - it makes me think perhaps there is an issue with the LPCM format with Atmos, but obviously that’s just a guess on my part, but it seems to be one of the common denominators whenever people report this popping sound.
This has been my theory for a long time — between Apple TV, Xbox and Roku — it’s the common denominator: Dolby MAT.
Just bought a Beam Gen 2 that arrived Thursday. I don’t have an X-Box, but I am connected to an Apple TV 4K. I turned on Atmos tonight. Just a few minutes into a show, there was a pop that scared the crap out of us. It was so loud we expected sparks and fire and smoke. That brought me to this thread.
After reading almost all of this 2 year old thread, I’m shocked that Sonos is sending these out to unsuspecting customers with no warning or recommendations. If I had any faith that Sonos was really doing something, I’d keep it and wait for a fix. But it’s pretty clear after reading this thread that they’re just jerking us around. The sticking point for me is that I don’t believe for a second that they are unable to reproduce this.
Mr. Spence, I’d suggest you read this entire thread and get into the conversation with an honest report of exactly where you are on this issue. Because this is a class action waiting to happen.
+3
Yes they are all using Atmos
Curious.
For me, I’m sold on it being a software issue as I was using the Arc in the same hardware configuration for a good 12 months before I experienced the pop, which only occurred after major revisions to the Sonos OS, Apple TV, and BRAVIA XH92. 🤔
The challenge may be, and I’m guessing here, that it’s not a Sonos issue at all, but something that’s being sent from the TV (although that may not be the origination point, I don’t know). If that’s the case, Sonos is merely playing what they’ve been told to play, and it’s the switching upstream by some other device that’s causing the issue.
I do tend to agree with
And if that is the case, Sonos is unlikely to call out publicly who the responsible party is, since they’re on the “we want to be friends with everyone so they’ll interface with our system” train.
All I can say for sure is that I’ve not had this issue on my system, which is indeed driven by an Apple TV through a Vizio TV to a Sonos Arc. But that doesn’t mean it’s not happening at all, just means that there’s something else going on, and it may not be an endemic issue with Sonos itself.
+3
I had time for a small experiment today. I bought a fiber optic HDMI cable to connect the Arc to the TV. Fiber cables contain active chips at each end that convert between electrical and optical signals.
I got the usual pop within half an hour. I believe this eliminates the physical layer of the connection as the problem since there is no electrical connection between the TV (and Apple TV) and the Arc anymore.
Not a huge surprise. I think we are all expecting this to come down to how Sonos decodes Dolby MAT. But there you have it.
If this is indeed down to the Sonos’ decoding of MAT, this was introduced during 13.4 (The one bringing DTS support). Well, for me at least.
From Dec 2020-Oct 2021; I had no issues with the exact same setup that I had now. Both DA and DV enabled from the Apple TV. 🤷♂️
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.
Hey, I read online disabling the auto HDR feature on the Xbox and switching audio delay to on with the arcana should stop this happening. I have an arcana too and this is what the engineers who make the arcana suggest on their discord 
If you give this a go and let us know if it works that'd be brilliant. In the process of testing this myself
Thanks for sharing that,
A couple of people on the discord said it’s not happened since, it hasn’t happened to myself either yet but very limited use. It’s not perfect scenario due to me having Arcana but the issue does occur with LG eARC tv’s commonly from what I’ve seen. I’ll keep the auto HDR feature turned off and then keep you posted on whether it happens again.
Any luck with the 15.5 update?
I like to think
I think if a Sonos update finally fixes this long-standing problem, you'd hear about it before the update rolls out.
I’m having the same issue as OP but on my Gen 2 Beam (with One and One SL as surrounds) connected via eARC through a Samsung QN65Q80A to an Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen.
Every 30 minutes of play or so there is a loud “pop” followed by a beam restart. Only happens with Dolby ATMOS audio.
Turning off Auto HDR on series X does make the pop go away . I’m happy now at least I can play Resident evil 4 with Atmos !! :)
Happy 900th post, thread!
I encourage everyone to link rc12’s post directly for anyone new to the Sonos Pop. Here is the direct link:
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