Contributor I

Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss

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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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Rios

Enthusiast II

PS5, have the same issue. Have Arc, 2 Subs, 2 Fives, 2 Ones, 2 OneSL and a move, all within the 45 day window, probably get my 4k+ back, this is so bad and makes using the system not enjoyable.

That’s a shame another new victim, it didn’t happen for me with my PS5 until after my Xbox Series X was plugged in, now it happens with any source including PS5 which I had for over a year and a half before my Xbox Series X, playing Dolby Atmos content with no problems.

Thankfully you still have your window. You should warn your retailer when you take it back. My 6k+ is gone. I can’t even sell my systems second hand with good conscience to anyone. I wouldn’t even give it away. It’s like giving someone a broken toaster.

jamie_shaw

Enthusiast I

PS5, have the same issue. Have Arc, 2 Subs, 2 Fives, 2 Ones, 2 OneSL and a move, all within the 45 day window, probably get my 4k+ back, this is so bad and makes using the system not enjoyable.

This is do find surprising — as the PS5 isn’t Atmos enabled. It does support bitmapped Atmos from Blu-Rays, but this is normally encoded as TrueHD, not MAT so shouldn’t be an issue…

K

Kevmart

Lyricist I

PS5, have the same issue. Have Arc, 2 Subs, 2 Fives, 2 Ones, 2 OneSL and a move, all within the 45 day window, probably get my 4k+ back, this is so bad and makes using the system not enjoyable.

This is do find surprising — as the PS5 isn’t Atmos enabled. It does support bitmapped Atmos from Blu-Rays, but this is normally encoded as TrueHD, not MAT so shouldn’t be an issue…

Really weird, happened last night playing a game, (NHL23) would come on when I wasn’t actually in a hockey game, when character was in locker room or not in the actual game, sound came back on, as soon as the game went to an actual game…happened, every time.

R

Rios

Enthusiast II

PS5, have the same issue. Have Arc, 2 Subs, 2 Fives, 2 Ones, 2 OneSL and a move, all within the 45 day window, probably get my 4k+ back, this is so bad and makes using the system not enjoyable.

This is do find surprising — as the PS5 isn’t Atmos enabled. It does support bitmapped Atmos from Blu-Rays, but this is normally encoded as TrueHD, not MAT so shouldn’t be an issue…

Really weird, happened last night playing a game, (NHL23) would come on when I wasn’t actually in a hockey game, when character was in locker room or not in the actual game, sound came back on, as soon as the game went to an actual game…happened, every time.

Considering you purchased your Sonos Arc recently, perhaps the “recent” models have cheaper components inside to cut manufacturing costs. As I’ve said in a previous posts this is all speculation and not the point. We all have a defective product, if you have the opportunity to return it, I would take it back. I wish I could.

J

Joakim B

Lyricist III

The question is not if you will be sued, but when!

J

Jonjon1239

Contributor I

I've had a few instances of the sound popping and then my system restarting on a Beam Gen 2 with sub and surrounds set up. I got in touch with Sonos at the start of January who advised to factory reset everything which I did but it was a massive headache doing so.

Yesterday the issue happened again, so I got in touch with customer support via the chat and they have confirmed that the issue is well known for the Arc but as it's not typical of the Beam they have been able to arrange a replacement.

P

ProfessorFrag

Enthusiast II

I've had a few instances of the sound popping and then my system restarting on a Beam Gen 2 with sub and surrounds set up. I got in touch with Sonos at the start of January who advised to factory reset everything which I did but it was a massive headache doing so.

Yesterday the issue happened again, so I got in touch with customer support via the chat and they have confirmed that the issue is well known for the Arc but as it's not typical of the Beam they have been able to arrange a replacement.

That’s very interesting. Let us know if getting new hardware has fixed the problem. What’s your setup? Apple TV? Xbox? I find listening to a Spatial Audio playlist in Apple Music on Apple TV to be a reliable trigger for the pop. But of course, that’s after it happened for the first time. When I first got Sonos Arc, Atmos worked for a while before the Arc started malfunctioning.

J

Jonjon1239

Contributor I

I've had a few instances of the sound popping and then my system restarting on a Beam Gen 2 with sub and surrounds set up. I got in touch with Sonos at the start of January who advised to factory reset everything which I did but it was a massive headache doing so.

Yesterday the issue happened again, so I got in touch with customer support via the chat and they have confirmed that the issue is well known for the Arc but as it's not typical of the Beam they have been able to arrange a replacement.

That’s very interesting. Let us know if getting new hardware has fixed the problem. What’s your setup? Apple TV? Xbox? I find listening to a Spatial Audio playlist in Apple Music on Apple TV to be a reliable trigger for the pop. But of course, that’s after it happened for the first time. When I first got Sonos Arc, Atmos worked for a while before the Arc started malfunctioning.

Will do! My set up is an Xbox Series X with Atmos enabled but I've noticed the pop on Atmos soundtracks on Netflix too, granted it's few and far between.

The advisor on the chat did say it's a known problem with Arc sound bars and to use 5.1 instead, until I made a point that I bought a Beam Gen 2 purely for Atmos. Because they didn't recognise it as a Beam issue they agreed to replace it.

I should have the replacement in the next 3-7 days so I'll keep you all updated.

P

ProfessorFrag

Enthusiast II

You know, I can’t help but think that if it’s a known issue, ethically, Sonos should put a warning on the product page. Or maybe mention the malfunction in an FAQ.

Right now we keep having new customers that have to go through all these steps to figure out what’s even going wrong.

A

alidav

Lyricist I

I have the same issue with my ATV 4K (1st gen) + Samsung QE65Q90 (trough eARC). My sonos setup is Arc, 2xOneSL and the Sub. Got this specifically for Dolby Atmos. Experience 4-5 sound cut outs during every single dolby atmos movie.

Bought my Arc in march 2021, and did not have this issue until iOS update 15-16 (do not remember exactly which one). Have been waiting for Sonos to release a fix for about a year. Reading this thread it seems we are not even getting close.

The setup set me back around 20 k. Nice to see Sonos giving a damn about their costumers…

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