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.
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.
There is, devices that use the Dolby MAT container for Atmos (Xbox, Apple TV and now Roku). There was some debate before as to whether the TV passing through the MAT signal was doing it properly and since I’ve had failure with two different TVs now. I’m more confident it has nothing to do with the TV passing through the signal but the signal itself
Same model of TV? Same brand, different models?
Different models
Sony x900H to start, LG C1 now
I experienced this same issue last night.
Loud “POP” and sudden loss of sound from Arc. Sub and rear speakers functioned normally.
After unplugging the power, and replugging, the Arc function normally again.
Was watching Netflix on the Xbox Series X with Dolby Atmos. Arc + Sub + SR + SL.
Diagnostic reference number #67513007.
This seems to be a disturbingly common problem with this configuration.
This nightmare is reoccurring. It has happened several times since my previous post and has again this morning while watching The Westside Story on Disney+ via the XBox Series X (reference #1102089801). It scared the sh*t out of my wife.
The original post is from a year ago, is there any resolution in sight? Most disappointing.
Hi - same issue here while watching TV, not playing games. Diagnostic number 990074139. Has been happening for a couple of months and has happened several times tonight while watching CODA on AppleTV. Thanks! Paul
Add another one to annoying popping noise on the arc.
Using a lg c1. It also happened on my Sony xbr940e.
Same issue here. Apple TV 4K and Sony X90CH. 2 calls to Sonos support and 1 to Apple with no resolution. Guess it’s disabling atmos content for now…
+3For those with Apple TV — humour me, what are your video settings? Format, frame rate, auto HDR, auto frame rate…
I am having the same issue with the Sonos arc when used with Xbox series X. This is the second time this has happened so is there a fix yet?
Sent diagnostic 1364356135
I am having the same issue with the Sonos arc when used with Xbox series X. This is the second time this has happened so is there a fix yet?
Sent diagnostic 1364356135
The XBox does seem to be particularly prone to the "popping" issue (and it’s not always Sonos related). See below links. So it might be something that Microsoft, or Dolby, need to fix (perhaps?)
I am having the same issue with the Sonos arc when used with Xbox series X. This is the second time this has happened so is there a fix yet?
Sent diagnostic 1364356135
The XBox does seem to be particularly prone to the "popping" issue (and it’s not always Sonos related). See below links. So it might be something that Microsoft, or Dolby, need to fix (perhaps?)
Thanks Ken,
I’ve had a quick look through some of those links you provided but the scenarios don’t quite match up. The loud pop noise happens randomly but the Xbox remains on screen but no sound comes out. I then turn off and on the Xbox and the sound it there again. Very weird but the pop noise is very loud, almost like a speaker blew or something if that makes sense.
thanks for sending on the links so quickly though, it’s really appreciated.
+1Happened 3 times in about two weeks. Scares the sh#$ out of my dog and sounds like its damaging the speaker.
On Xbox Series X and LG 65'CX while watching tv on an AAC 6.0 media.
Diagnostic number 650768644.
Sure would be nice to hear an official statement from Sonos on this. It’s the bare minimum that I would expect from such a high end audio product
We all know these boards are monitored, so the fact that people continue to have problems with so Sonos intervention or guidance is really sad. The problem will not go away on its own
Same issue reoccurring since few months ago and it seems more frequent recently.
Sonos Arc / Sub (Gen3) / One SL’s (Gen 2 x2)
TV is Sony X900H
Source is Apple TV 4K
Diagnostic number 2051423738
+1I made a comment here 4 days ago. I reached out to support (case no. 03802500), rebooted my system and was told most chances it won’t recur.
And here I am again… However, no rep to help me out this time.. New diagnostic # 514444573
Same issue here.
Loud pop and complete loss of audio on my Sonos Arc within a streaming session on my Xbox Series X.
LG OLED TV from 2020 with eARC.
Diagnostic number: 1635222821
+1Reached out to Support again, I gotta say that the reps are really professional and kind and that the experience is efficient. I appreciate not having to repeat myself and seeing a resourceful person on the other end of the conversation.
We did a factory reset this time. If the issue recurs, I will most probably have to replace my Arc. Hoping it won’t recur but I’m doubtful. I also hope that if needed, a replacement would help. Looking at the comments here, seeing how many people experience this, and all have a shared scenario of streaming content through Xbox Series-X on an eArc output; I doubt it will help too.
The Service rep who assisted me promised to escalate this thread internally. I hope someone from Sonos can comment on this.
UPDATE & ADVICE: after a somewhat frustrating experience with support (call got dropped, email that was promised never arrived, they wanted me to send a video of it which seemed silly since this is such a widely known issue, the pop actually happened twice while we were on the call and their diagnostics couldn’t pick it up) I followed their advice to try a new HDMI cable between TV & ARC. So far, fingers crossed, this has worked.
The HDMI cable I had been using was the one that came with the ARC - perhaps Sonos shipped a bunch of defective HDMI cables? Anyway, it’s worth a shot to just swap in a new cable and a lot easier to just try it than call support.
I have a Sony X85 91j with a second gen apple tv 4k. I set the HDMI interface to Dolby Vision on the Google TV. The TV was fully up to date and Apple tv is as well. The apple TV was set to Dolby Atmos as auto and Dolby Vision. I have a Sonos Arc with 2 Gen 3 Subs and the SL rears using the eARC interface off the TV. I have the same loud popping sound when playing any movie with ATMOS off the apple tv. If I use the built in apps on the tv or a Amazon Firestick 4k Max I did not experience the issue. It has to be something with the appletv. Im not sure if Sonos or Apple needs to do the update to correct this?
UPDATE & ADVICE: after a somewhat frustrating experience with support (call got dropped, email that was promised never arrived, they wanted me to send a video of it which seemed silly since this is such a widely known issue, the pop actually happened twice while we were on the call and their diagnostics couldn’t pick it up) I followed their advice to try a new HDMI cable between TV & ARC. So far, fingers crossed, this has worked.
The HDMI cable I had been using was the one that came with the ARC - perhaps Sonos shipped a bunch of defective HDMI cables? Anyway, it’s worth a shot to just swap in a new cable and a lot easier to just try it than call support.
Changed mine yesterday and no luck. Getting seriously annoyed with this. There won’t be any more Sonos purchases till this is resolved.
LG C1 with the Xbox Series X being the main culprit
There does seem to be some audio & hardware issues surrounding the Xbox series X.
There are noisy audio problems mentioned on YouTube and elsewhere too. Just two examples are linked below:
Plenty of similar issues mentioned on YouTube and elsewhere. Plus see the links in my earlier post.
So it still seems like Sonos is not the cause here, as so many things appear to be mentioned about the Xbox, even when a Sonos product does not form part of the setup.
Loud popping on my Sonos Arc here too followed by sound loss playing Atmos content from AppleTV. So annoying.
+3Managed to keep away from the issue for a few weeks/months after changing to Dolby Vision as the default video output. Seemed like it shouldn't have worked, but it remained dormant until recently. Two pops in one week. Disappointing.
Sure would be nice to hear an official statement from Sonos on this. It’s the bare minimum that I would expect from such a high end audio product
We all know these boards are monitored, so the fact that people continue to have problems with so Sonos intervention or guidance is really sad. The problem will not go away on its own
I have about $2k worth of SONOS equipment and things like this thread have me seriously reconsidering investing anymore. There’s practically no acknowledgment of a reproducible issue occurring with a range of (very common) hardware: Apple TV, XBOX Series X/S, Sony X900H, LG C1.
The Arc sure sounds nice, but defeats a lot of the purpose of owning one if the solution is “turn off Atmos”, seeing how as it’s one of the main reasons why I purchased one.
I don’t know if anybody’s experience mimics my own. But I can keep the problem at bay by doing a weekly power cycle on the Sonos Arc
Its almost like the running software starts to become less reliable over time and I’ve noticed if I go a more than a few weeks between reboots my system is more inclined to pop….never before though
This loud pop and audio loss just happened to me while on my Xbox series x. Controller was idle for a bit, picked it up and went to select a game and then a loud ass POP! Scared the crap out of me. I had to unplug/replug the Arc to get audio back.
Diagnostic code: 757099552
Managed to keep away from the issue for a few weeks/months after changing to Dolby Vision as the default video output. Seemed like it shouldn't have worked, but it remained dormant until recently. Two pops in one week. Disappointing.
Same. I hadn't had any issues since my last post until I tried playing a game the other night and then, suddenly, a pop while it was just in a menu screen. I'm going to try just turning Atmos off and having the sound come through as Dolby Digital or something instead, but it's made me hesitant to even play anything on the Xbox because of it.
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