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.
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
Sadly, yes, the HDMI switch only worked for a bit. The popping noise returned with a vengeance and has continued across multiple programs. I’ve done a factory reset and hoping that addresses it but we’ll see. I’ve also noticed that there are many other threads about this same issue on the community board. Really unfortunate that this isn’t being more proactively addressed by Sonos.
+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.
Issue just recurred. Will reach out to Support now.
+1Diagnostic number 164610293.
And that’s just great.
Looks like the only way to reach Support is by emailing the CEO. WTF Sonos…?!
+1Perhaps an email to Sonos CEO would help:
Perhaps an email to Sonos CEO would help:
Great email, thank you for doing that. Hopefully it will get us an official position and eta from sonos
Also BTW. V14.6 of the software released, maybe a fix is included?
I have had the loud pop happen twice today, in fact it’s been happening regularly (weekly) since I purchased the Sonos Arc nearly a year ago, my setup is LG55CX, Xbox Series X, PS5, Sky tv, Panasonic 820, Sonos Arc with Symfonisk gen 1 Lamps and I have a Sonos sub arriving in the nxt few hours. I’m worried about ruining my new sub, I havnt contacted Sonos about this as there’s no point after reading this thread that started a year ago…… it’s very poor customer service that there’s zero acknowledgement really, surely Sonos should of put out a statement by now with some information as they must of looked into it. It’s absolute crazyness when I think of it considering the price of the product and all the money spent by people in this blog from over a year back. Come on Sonos. Speak !!
I reckon that almost every report I have ever read about this ‘popping’ issue mentioned online in relation to Soundbar’s (not just Sonos ones, but others brands too) that somewhere in the HT setup, is either an XBox or an Apple TV-4K (or both) - those two connected products seem to be a common denominator and it’s certainly happening with other manufacturers Soundbars, if you look online. It makes me wonder if it’s not a Sonos-owned issue🤔??
It might also ‘perhaps’ explain why Sonos is not making any public comment about the issue, if it is partner-related.
+3I reckon that almost every report I have ever read about this ‘popping’ issue mentioned online in relation to Soundbar’s (not just Sonos ones, but others brands too) that somewhere in the HT setup, is either an XBox or an Apple TV-4K (or both) - those two connected products seem to be a common denominator and it’s certainly happening with other manufacturers Soundbars, if you look online. It makes me wonder if it’s not a Sonos-owned issue🤔??
It might also ‘perhaps’ explain why Sonos is not making any public comment about the issue, if it is partner-related.
And the common denominator between Xbox and Apple TV 4K (and Roku it seems), is that they all use Dolby MAT as the audio container.
The challenge may be, and I’m guessing here, that it’s not a Sonos issue at all, but something that’s being sent from the TV (although that may not be the origination point, I don’t know). If that’s the case, Sonos is merely playing what they’ve been told to play, and it’s the switching upstream by some other device that’s causing the issue.
I do tend to agree with
And if that is the case, Sonos is unlikely to call out publicly who the responsible party is, since they’re on the “we want to be friends with everyone so they’ll interface with our system” train.
All I can say for sure is that I’ve not had this issue on my system, which is indeed driven by an Apple TV through a Vizio TV to a Sonos Arc. But that doesn’t mean it’s not happening at all, just means that there’s something else going on, and it may not be an endemic issue with Sonos itself.
Same issue here.
always on Xbox series x
my diagnostic code is 137046043
this happens 2-3 times a month.
+3Rebooted the Arc yesterday.
Made it 24 hours, a grand total of 2 shows before happening 30 seconds into an episode of Severance.
At this point, I'm ready to throw the Apple TV out of the window. It’s the only thing causing me grief.
Having the exact same issue. Loud pop sound and then the sound turns off. Changed to TV speakers and back to ARC. Solved the issue for a while. Always seems to be happening when playing Dolby Atmos and when there is a lot of different sounds. Like the sound processor can’t handle all the bandwidth and just crashes.
Hello, I am experiencing the same issue on an Apple TV. The issue gets fixed by rewinding the TV program or movie a few seconds, but it happens again within 10 or 15 minutes.
Called in today because I experienced the issue for the first time in weeks. Didn’t get very far with Sonos support because they wanted me to record the issue happening, which tells me they either don’t understand the issue or they can’t reproduce it themselves. I find it extremely hard to believe that Sonos has not been able to reproduce this in the almost 2 years that this issue has been prevalent.
Has anybody been able to get farther with support like an actual diagnosis on what could be happening here? This is extremely frustrating for what is supposed to be a high end audio product
Happened a few times over the weekend still random occurrence but at least all at the same place. On the Series X, using Dolby Atmos when playing a game, when I exit out of that game and go back to the Home Screen….I get the pop
Earlier in this thread (or another one on Sonos) it was eluded that perhaps the problem occurs when one audio format ends and another one begins. This is at least consistent to that theory
Anybody else get the same behaviour?
+3Whilst I don’t wish to tempt fate, I’ve recently updated to tvOS 15.6 beta after seeing somewhat positive things.
I did a restart (power off->on) of all devices including the TV, Apple TV and ARC after the install just to be safe; and haven’t had any issues yet. YET. 🤞
Just chiming in that the issue still keeps happening for me too, regularly, on Xbox and Apple TV. Sony 900H TV.
Nothing has helped. Sonos support is giving me the same run around as the rest of you so I’ve stopped calling. Mission accomplished for them I suppose.
Asking for a recording. Pretending they are not aware of it being a widespread problem. Wanting me to establish if it happens with the Sonos music app (who cares?). Etc.
I only get the popping sound when the Arc is used with Dolby Atmos (Xbox series x and with windows 10 computer) both connected to an LG CX. If i choice stereo, 5.1 or 7.1 no pops with the computer. The problem is with the Arc or the cable that came with the Arc.
Sonos, its time to address this issue.
I only get the popping sound when the Arc is used with Dolby Atmos (Xbox series x and with windows 10 computer) both connected to an LG CX. If i choice stereo, 5.1 or 7.1 no pops with the computer. The problem is with the Arc or the cable that came with the Arc.
Sonos, its time to address this issue.
Might it be a problem with the Xbox series x or even the codec, as I see these things are mentioned online, even with other brands of soundbar,
hey im new to this thread. Sort of nice to know other people have this issue and it isnt isolated to me. i own a series x, series s, apple tv, lg c9 with arc sub and ones connected. Have not had any issues with the apple tv but only the series x. Im not bothering with support as it seems sonos doesnt even know whats going on at this point. Only thing i am concerned with is speaker damage. Has anyone else noticed any damage to the arc or other accessories?
+3I spoke too soon. Had it occur during Kenobi last night.
Womp womp.
I’ve been getting the loud pop daily for the last two weeks. All with the XBOX Series X. I want a new ARC this is BS
Just had it happen to me twice on series x. Wtf sonos. Guess I need to submit a report but I might just return the arc and sub. Spent $1600 for this and do not expect these types of issues.
It does seem like they rushed the ARC to market, this along with all the drop out issues with 14.6 doesn't bode well for new customers.
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