Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss

just popping in - pun intended to see if there was a fix for this yet.  so frustrating 

BTW, has anyone tested the Arc with Atmos content now that firmware 15.1 is out? I haven’t yet as it’s very new but curious if anyone else was brave enough to do so!

Quick update.

So the replacement Beam Gen 2 I got was fine up until today when playing Rocket League on the Xbox Series X with Atmos enabled. The Series X is set to pass through and I have eArc enabled, but I have the HDMI control off on the console.

So it looks to be a software issue. Any advice on how to avoid this happening?

Chris Welch from The Verge is soliciting questions for an interview of Sonos CEO Patrick Spence on Reddit. Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/119bkie/if_you_could_ask_patrick_spence_a_sonos_question/

if you want to put this issue on the table. 

I am in same boat but with Sonos Arc, and have an option to get a replacement. I am highly doubtful if that will fix this issue. I use Apple TV 4k and PS5. Yesterday it popped for a second and then works fine after that. This is really stupid but I do love the sound from Arc :( 

As a new Sonos user, I thought I would add my voice to the choir concerning the “popping” issue.  I had just bought a new Sony TV and an Apple TV for one of my bedrooms and I wanted to add a soundbar.  I decided to do some research before dipping my toe into the Sonos ecosystem.  I already had a dedicated home theater/game room in my home.  This would be just a bedroom TV.

I originally intended to buy a Sonos Arc.  Researching the Arc was when I first learned of the popping issue.  I certainly believed it was real, but I kept thinking that I’m sure Sonos has sold a ton of soundbars.  Maybe I was just reading the comments from a relatively small vocal group that was having an isolated issue.  After all, no one is going to complain about how great their soundbar is working.

Ultimately, because of the bedroom size and sound needs, I decided that maybe a Beam Gen 2 would be a better fit.  It was also in the back of my mind that most of the popping complaints seems to be from the Arc.

It’s now been about 3 weeks since I bought the Beam Gen 2 from the Sonos website.  Setup was a breeze.  It sounded good, looked great, and I liked the software.  I liked it so much that I ran out and bought a Sonos Amp to power two pre-existing built in speakers as surrounds.  The ability to use those speakers via the Amp was another reason I went with Sonos.  It all worked great.

Now, here we are, several weeks later, and I’ve had the “pop” happen five times while streaming Atmos content.  It’s a loud pop and then the Beam goes dead.  The video keeps playing and the Sonos Amp keeps playing the surround sound.  If I press pause and then play on the Apple remote then the Beam sound resumes.

I contacted Sonos support.  I didn’t really expect a solution.  I just wanted to officially log the issue.

After a few questions about my TV model and software version, the tech just came out and said it.  It’s a known problem with the Beam 2 and Arc.  I appreciate the candor, although I do find it a bit disingenuous of Sonos to sell a premium Atmos soundbar with a known issue whose solution is to disable Atmos.  Of course, he said that other manufacturers are also having similar issues with their Atmos soundbars.  I don’t know.  I haven’t tried them.  I guess it’s possible.

He provided a couple of possible solutions.  The first was the disable CEC/power cycle idea.  The second was the aforementioned, disabling of Atmos.  By the way, the Apple TV 4K is the only device connected to this TV.  No other device has ever been connected to it.  I’m using the Sonos provided HDMI cable connected to the TV’s eARC port.  Every device is on Ethernet.  Every device has been updated.  It’s pretty much a basic setup.  Everything works perfectly, except for the popping.

There are so many things that I really do love about the Sonos Beam.  I might try disabling Atmos since it’s just a bedroom TV.  It’s not like the Beam really produced any noticeable Atmos effect anyway.  If I’m satisfied with the non-Atmos sound then I’ll probably just keep it.

Having said that, if I were looking to build an “Atmos” home theater system, then I don’t think I would go with current Sonos Atmos soundbars.  This is just my experience and opinion.  Your milage may vary.

Hah that’s funny, I guess the devs do read these boards after all

@Corry P it appears disabling CEC might resolve the issue for most. Does Sonos know why this is happening and can it be fixed? 

Thanks 

Hi @Magnesiumion 

I understand your need for an answer.

Unfortunately, I can only share the information that has been provided to me, and at present, I don’t have any addition information to share.

I believe our engineers are presently working on confirming this possible fix (they had a lot of trouble in replicating the issue in the first place) before publishing it as “the answer” or making changes to our software in order to prevent it. Please be assured that we are still working on this issue.

I hope this helps.

What’s so strange about the CEC fix is that it works for those of us with an Xbox. Turn it off on the Xbox, and now everything is good even with CEC-on on the TV and Apple TV.

But then there are others with the bang that don’t have an Xbox, or even an Apple TV! I hope support has a nice spreadsheet going of all affected customers and the totality of their equipment (TVs and source devices) so that they can run cross-tabs on whether combinations of equipment produce the bug on Sonos. And then only one of the affected devices would need to go CEC-off.

Plus that would make for the best possible FAQ on the product pages. E.g. “Be advised that this product has a compatibility issue with Apple TV and Xbox being used in combination. CEC will have to be deactivated on one of those devices.” Or something along those lines.