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samro1094
Contributor I
December 8, 2020

Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss

  • December 8, 2020
  • 1202 replies
  • 90685 views

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.

     

    1202 replies

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    ProfessorFrag
    Enthusiast II
    October 6, 2021

    It’s probably too late for my specific case since I already restarted the Arc to get sound back, but I went ahead and submitted one now. 1617994945
     

    I disagree that contacting support one by one is the way to go though. We would never know that the problem is widespread if we did that. And what has been posted here as results from support (“Send us video proof. It’s your specific sources that are causing the problem. Etc.”), I would refer to as the run around. I honestly do not have time to try and record this issue. 
     

    I’ll wait until we hear in this thread about what the issue is, or what Sonos is doing to resolve it, before I reach out to support. 

    pcfarrar
    Lyricist III
    October 7, 2021

    Just had this problem with my new Beam Gen 2 and Xbox Series X. Never happened before with my Beam Gen 1.

    Sparks1960
    Sparks1960
    Lyricist I
    October 13, 2021

    Hi  I’ve just had the same problem I  was watching YouTube on Xbox series x and the arc popped like something had blown then no sound changed over to sky and sound came back then about twenty minutes later it did it again while watching YouTube on Xbox series x it’s seems ok now but do you know what’s causing this as this thread been going for sometime now without any solution 

    ProfessorFrag
    Enthusiast II
    October 21, 2021

    It just happened again and I managed to grab a diagnostic immediately after: 2061452815
     

    Just in case this helps with Sonos acknowledging the problem as systemic rather than individual. 

    RpSb
    Lyricist I
    October 26, 2021

    Same issue here. Loud Pop and silence until cycling power to the ARC. Happened twice when streaking on Apple TV and I’ve only had the Arc for a month or so. I submitted a diagnostic but was told by the technician that is was unusable because  they can only see it when submitted when watching something directly on the tv because that is what the ARC is connected to. I’m on an LG 65 CX TV. The agent told me everything looked fine but to change settings on the tv from auto to PCM. Hopefully that helps

    RpSb
    Lyricist I
    October 26, 2021

    Definitely seems like of Sonos dedicated a little time and money to endurance testing in some of the configurations listed in this form, that they could provide an answer to their customers. Not impressed that’s this form has been going on so long with no answer

    RpSb
    Lyricist I
    October 26, 2021

    Last Update: After setting to PCM I noticed a drop in sound quality so I did a little digging. On the LG CX I have enabled eARC and set the option between PCM, Auto, and pass through to pass through, it was previously set to Auto. Hoping this resolves the popping issue. Really hoping PCM isn’t the solution because I think it’s a noticeable degradation. 

    thefelonattorney
    Lyricist I
    October 27, 2021

    OK, sorry a lot to unpack.  Same thing happened to me with Apple TV on a Vizio OLED 65 inch.  Who do I call or what do I do.  My diagnostic was sent my confirmation is 1189733447.  This is a fairly expensive item to have this happen,  I have noticed I am limited to how load I can set the arc now before it goes down in volume and a orange light appears.  Also sound quality has taken a dive for sure.  Didn’t know if that has also been happening.  

     

    James L.
    James L.
    Retired Community Staff
    October 27, 2021

    OK, sorry a lot to unpack.  Same thing happened to me with Apple TV on a Vizio OLED 65 inch.  Who do I call or what do I do.  My diagnostic was sent my confirmation is 1189733447.  This is a fairly expensive item to have this happen,  I have noticed I am limited to how load I can set the arc now before it goes down in volume and a orange light appears.  Also sound quality has taken a dive for sure.  Didn’t know if that has also been happening.  

     

    Hi @thefelonattorney,

     

    I’ve taken a look at your diagnostic, and combining that with the information in your post, I suspect your Arc is suffering from a hardware failure.

    Please get in touch with our customer care team to explore the options available to you.

    Make sure you give them this diagnostic number, as it shows the issue more clearly on your system: 1296489069

    Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
      Iaincb
      Lyricist III
      October 28, 2021

      First post - and it’s on this thread because this happened to me tonight for the first time (and it did it three times).

      Had the Arc since mid-August with no issues through any source but tonight watching a film on Apple TV (in Dolby Vision and Atmos) had the loud pop a couple of minutes in and then only surround speakers working. Went through setup again and all was fine until it did it again (twice).

      Found this thread so I did a power cycle and it ran for over an hour without a problem. I’ve had no issues with other Atmos or Dolby Vision sources and it had been faultless up to this point.

      Next time it does it I’ll capture a diagnostic…

       

       

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