Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss

Funny how AI has been able to give a plausible explanation when Sonos support over two full years haven’t.  
 

Maybe AI can do the fix for us 😬

Somehow all the other soundbars can handle it.

I am amused that a generative AI can make such a plausible-sounding explanation. Mind you, I can reliably produce the pop on Apple TV screensaver with no audio playing. But that of course doesn’t preclude some control signals still being transmitted.

Sure would be nice if someone from the actual engineering team that has been working on this (for over two years) could be engaged to comment more directly. I know many have sent in diagnostics that capture these pops - what do those show? What specifically has been done in house to recreate the issue and what progress has been made from a technical standpoint? Other systems and sound bars have figured out this issue - why does the Arc continue to have this issue? And if the issue is this well known, why does Sonos continue to advertise the product as Atmos compatible (a main selling feature) with no disclaimer or warning that many ultimately are forced to disable Atmos - at this point, it seems to be nothing short of false advertising. As others have discussed above, the Arcana Fury does not seem to fix the issue either. Again, we would not have to do as much speculating if someone from Sonos more directly would comment SPECIFICALLY on what has been done, how many folks are working on this issue and how actively, and next steps (with a timeline) for moving this issue forward. If no timeline can be given, it would seem that advertising Atmos compatibility should be removed from the Arc advertising and website until the issue is resolved. 

Atmos works in many configurations. But there really should be a disclaimer that it may not work with Apple TV or Xbox, whatever the underlying reason. 
 

I like to think @Ken_Griffiths and @Airgetlam would even agree with that. 

Pop is an understatement. We tested again last week and BANG is a much more appropriate word for what happens. 

I would say that the Arc definitely supports the advertised Atmos audio in the form of Dolby TrueHD (uncompressed) and Dolby Digital Plus (compressed), as I have used/use both those codecs and not seen an issue with those formats. There’s no pop/bang noise at all. So any mention by others here that the Sonos soundbars do not support Atmos, as advertised, is a non-starter in my book, as clearly Atmos audio works just fine on Sonos Soundbars for the majority.

I’ve also not personally had any issue with LPCM 5.1 audio (in general) when it comes to surround sound audio, or other surround sound audio, like DTS 5.1 - So it seems to be that issue only occurs with LPCM (Atmos) uncompressed audio only. I think many perhaps might now agree with that comment.

The AI search I mentioned earlier, seems to infer it’s the ‘sending’ device that’s sending the Atmos metadata, required for Atmos channel distribution, which is arriving at the (destination) soundbar out of sync when using the LPCM codec and that, in-turn, is then causing the ‘pop’, or ‘bang’, noise. 

If the AI response is correct (and I have no supporting evidence to say it is at this point in time) then I’m not sure how other Soundbar manufacturers may have fixed the issue (thats if they have?), as it appears to me to be outside ANY soundbars capability to make that Atmos metadata arrive alongside the sent audio, in perfect sync. 

Anyhow those are my thoughts and I’m just throwing it about here for discussion, as when I read the AI answer to my question, it just seemed that it was a somewhat plausible explanation. If it is true, I’ve no idea how to fix the issue, that’s something that the software/hardware Engineers will have to try to resolve. I’m not (yet) convinced though that it’s an issue that (just) Sonos should be solving, particularly as Atmos audio is working fine with all the Sonos Soundbars when using the mentioned Dolby codecs

In relation to the AI response mentioned earlier, I think what this Sonos Support Page (link below) mentions is also quite interesting too…

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/supported-home-theater-audio-formats

As the footnote highlights the Atmos format used by Apple TV and other devices within the Dolby MAT container and make reference to the ‘Atmos object data’.

@Ken_Griffiths you don’t think potential customers should get a heads up that Atmos may not work with Apple TV or Xbox?

There probably needs to be a warning: ‘Crunchy, Raw, Unboned Real Dead Frog’….but only if it’s an issue in Sonos’ software, and it isn’t just playing a pop being handed it by the CEC /ARC signal by the TV set. 

Doesn’t really matter whose fault it is. Customers deserve to know before they buy. 

For all I care they could write it up as “Xbox and Apple TV send flawed Atmos signals that may produce an incompatibility with Arc. And they should feel bad.”

It seems unfair that Sonos knows of many users being affected, often not until after the return period, and there’s no official acknowledgement.