Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss


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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.

Corry P 4 months ago

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.

 

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Hi everyone 

 

just wanted to give an update to my post 8 days back about the issue maybe not being a Dolby atmos issue entirely and could be due to devices / TVs pushing through a Dolby Vision / Dolby Atmos signal together

I disabled the force Dolby vision option in the Xbox Series X and re-enabled Atmos and after a week of playing I have yet to encounter the “pop” that we have described on this thread.  I would usually encounter this at least once a day when quitting games and returning to the home screen

I think there could be merit to this approach, but obviously need the community to try this as well. Also not ruling out that bug fixes from the October Xbox update and Sonos 14.18 could of fixed this issue entirely from their end as they have also been released during this timeframe

 

Will keep everybody updated!

 

 

I just encountered this first time (I hadn’t played much Xbox SX after getting my arc). It is def still there with latest Xbox / Sonos update. You might be right though assuming it happens when enabling high bandwidth options - for me 4K 120hz / Dolby Vision plus atmos. Switching between gears 5 and dashboard produces this loud pop…

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After all the software updates, I decided to test again. Apple TV playing Apple Music in Spatial Audio → Sony 900H → Arc/Ones/Sub. All OEM cables. 
 

It took a little under 6 minutes until pop and audio loss. Diagnostic: 1209526902.

Hi everyone 

 

just wanted to give an update to my post 8 days back about the issue maybe not being a Dolby atmos issue entirely and could be due to devices / TVs pushing through a Dolby Vision / Dolby Atmos signal together

I disabled the force Dolby vision option in the Xbox Series X and re-enabled Atmos and after a week of playing I have yet to encounter the “pop” that we have described on this thread.  I would usually encounter this at least once a day when quitting games and returning to the home screen

I think there could be merit to this approach, but obviously need the community to try this as well. Also not ruling out that bug fixes from the October Xbox update and Sonos 14.18 could of fixed this issue entirely from their end as they have also been released during this timeframe

 

Will keep everybody updated!

 

 

Just checked my XBox settings... Can't find this force Dolby vision setting... Please can you tell me where to find it?

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Has anyone tested the Apple TV 4K 3rd-gen with this issue yet? Thinking about picking one up today or tomorrow to see if the issue exists with that combination of hardware, I did try a bunch of config changes to my setup and had the pop happen within 30 minutes again

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Came across something interesting on Reddit 

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/y9d84i/apple_tv_spatial_audio_with_sonos_arc_issue_fix/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

 

In this post the user has the same issue discussed many times in this forum, however making changes to the video setting seems to have fixed his issues.

 

Wondering if this is a Dolby Vision / Dolby Atmos combination thing?  I know for me I get this issue on the Xbox series X and have both activated all the time.  I don’t get this on the Apple TV because I match dynamic range settings


What are others experiences??

 

 

This is exactly correct. As soon as I disable Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos works perfectly without any popping, as soon as I enable Dolby Vision on Apple TV, pop within 7min, every time. Hard reset repeat, always occurs. I was a QA Tester for Sony, and this what would be classed as an “A” Bug. It is reproducible. And it always initially occurs with an Xbox Series X. Prior to last week, when I got an Xbox Series X, I had zero issues with my Apple TV no matter what the setting or content. As soon as the Xbox Series X was played with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, this error occured. After which, the Apple TV 4K began to have issues and is now permanently having issues. So Brian, this IS a Sonos issue, as once the error has occurred from initial Xbox Series X connection, now any Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos combined from any source, Sonos Arc can no longer function properly.

Userlevel 4
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Hi everyone 

 

just wanted to give an update to my post 8 days back about the issue maybe not being a Dolby atmos issue entirely and could be due to devices / TVs pushing through a Dolby Vision / Dolby Atmos signal together

I disabled the force Dolby vision option in the Xbox Series X and re-enabled Atmos and after a week of playing I have yet to encounter the “pop” that we have described on this thread.  I would usually encounter this at least once a day when quitting games and returning to the home screen

I think there could be merit to this approach, but obviously need the community to try this as well. Also not ruling out that bug fixes from the October Xbox update and Sonos 14.18 could of fixed this issue entirely from their end as they have also been released during this timeframe

 

Will keep everybody updated!

 

 

Just checked my XBox settings... Can't find this force Dolby vision setting... Please can you tell me where to find it?

I believe it’s called Force HDR.  If you also have Dolby Vision enabled it auto forces Dolby Vision instead of its HDR equivalent

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Came across something interesting on Reddit 

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/y9d84i/apple_tv_spatial_audio_with_sonos_arc_issue_fix/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

 

In this post the user has the same issue discussed many times in this forum, however making changes to the video setting seems to have fixed his issues.

 

Wondering if this is a Dolby Vision / Dolby Atmos combination thing?  I know for me I get this issue on the Xbox series X and have both activated all the time.  I don’t get this on the Apple TV because I match dynamic range settings


What are others experiences??

 

 

This is exactly correct. As soon as I disable Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos works perfectly without any popping, as soon as I enable Dolby Vision on Apple TV, pop within 7min, every time. Hard reset repeat, always occurs. I was a QA Tester for Sony, and this what would be classed as an “A” Bug. It is reproducible. And it always initially occurs with an Xbox Series X. Prior to last week, when I got an Xbox Series X, I had zero issues with my Apple TV no matter what the setting or content. As soon as the Xbox Series X was played with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, this error occured. After which, the Apple TV 4K began to have issues and is now permanently having issues. So Brian, this IS a Sonos issue, as once the error has occurred from initial Xbox Series X connection, now any Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos combined from any source, Sonos Arc can no longer function properly.

I tried the “disable Dolby Vision” on Apple TV and still had the pop occur when playing Atmos yesterday

Userlevel 1

Upgraded from a playbar to Arc a couple of weeks back. LG C1 and an Xbox one X. Had popping a number of times now.

 

Previously zero issues before the Arc. This must be a sonos Atmos issue.

 

Have they even acknowledged this as a bug? Not really acceptable for any product, let alone one that costs this much.

 

Sonos? 

 

What is being done about this?

Userlevel 3
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Upgraded from a playbar to Arc a couple of weeks back. LG C1 and an Xbox one X. Had popping a number of times now.

 

Previously zero issues before the Arc. This must be a sonos Atmos issue.

 

Have they even acknowledged this as a bug? Not really acceptable for any product, let alone one that costs this much.

 

Sonos? 

 

What is being done about this?

Be prepared for people on here to attack you claiming this isn’t Sonos’ fault and they have nothing to fix or even acknowledge 

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Been constantly checking with the Sonos support team who say they are aware of the issue and it’s also persistent in other sound bars. The only option is to disable Atmos content and go for 5.1 instead. After selling one of my kidneys to afford the Arc + Sub + Surrounds, my other kidney is calling me a politician for promising some of that Atmos content and not delivering.

 

Is everyone down to email the CEO? ceo@sonos.com is the address given on the contact page. Not sure what else we can do?

I’m also having this loud crackling sound and then audio loss until I reset the bar.

It began once like a month ago, but with time it’s becoming a more frequent issue. Last week and this week it happened several times.

That really loud popping sound can damage the speakers.

 

 Diagnostic: 510072696

 

LG 55G16LA with and xbox series X. Every connection uses the official cables that come with the products. It used to work perfectly since a month ago, and nothing has changed in the configuration of my tv and Sonos arc.

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Has anyone tested the Apple TV 4K 3rd-gen with this issue yet? Thinking about picking one up today or tomorrow to see if the issue exists with that combination of hardware, I did try a bunch of config changes to my setup and had the pop happen within 30 minutes again

I picked up an Apple TV 4k (3rd Generation), this issue still exists with it.

Userlevel 4
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Came across something interesting on Reddit 

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/y9d84i/apple_tv_spatial_audio_with_sonos_arc_issue_fix/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

 

In this post the user has the same issue discussed many times in this forum, however making changes to the video setting seems to have fixed his issues.

 

Wondering if this is a Dolby Vision / Dolby Atmos combination thing?  I know for me I get this issue on the Xbox series X and have both activated all the time.  I don’t get this on the Apple TV because I match dynamic range settings


What are others experiences??

 

 

This is exactly correct. As soon as I disable Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos works perfectly without any popping, as soon as I enable Dolby Vision on Apple TV, pop within 7min, every time. Hard reset repeat, always occurs. I was a QA Tester for Sony, and this what would be classed as an “A” Bug. It is reproducible. And it always initially occurs with an Xbox Series X. Prior to last week, when I got an Xbox Series X, I had zero issues with my Apple TV no matter what the setting or content. As soon as the Xbox Series X was played with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, this error occured. After which, the Apple TV 4K began to have issues and is now permanently having issues. So Brian, this IS a Sonos issue, as once the error has occurred from initial Xbox Series X connection, now any Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos combined from any source, Sonos Arc can no longer function properly.

I tried the “disable Dolby Vision” on Apple TV and still had the pop occur when playing Atmos yesterday

What setting did you put for your Apple TV? Did you set the video setting to HDR 60Hz? And when playing the content from Apple TV does the content have Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos as the source that’s playing when the popping occurs?

also how did your error initially come about? Was it from connecting an Xbox Series X? And then you had issues with your Apple TV 4K? When I’m playing Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content with both enabled, the popping occurs every time within 12 min. I should have clarified when I set the video setting on Apple TV to HDR 60Hz, I am able to play the same content with Dolby Atmos registering on the app, with zero issues.

For me. The popping audio loss error only occurs with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content. When Apple TV is set to Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos auto. 

Also when Xbox Series X Dolby Vision setting is off, I am able to play Xbox Series X with zero issues for hours.
 

 

 

 

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Upgraded from a playbar to Arc a couple of weeks back. LG C1 and an Xbox one X. Had popping a number of times now.

 

Previously zero issues before the Arc. This must be a sonos Atmos issue.

 

Have they even acknowledged this as a bug? Not really acceptable for any product, let alone one that costs this much.

 

Sonos? 

 

What is being done about this?

Be prepared for people on here to attack you claiming this isn’t Sonos’ fault and they have nothing to fix or even acknowledge 

I’m not sure if you read what Rowley_1 said, “This must be a Sonos Atmos issue.” Denoting this IS a Sonos issue/ fault.

From what I’ve read on this topic in multiple posts, the only people being  “attacked” and criticized from others are people who claim that this IS a Sonos issue. And just as Rowley_1, (and the vast majority of everyone else who posted), said, “Not acceptable for any product, let alone one that costs this much.”

We are all awaiting solution/ update fix. What is the point of having a TV capable of Dolby Vision and HDMI 2.1 Dolby Atmos when the component that we all purchased is unable to process the signal that it’s advertised to process better than other 2.1 sound systems?

 

 

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I emailed the CEO and one of the escalation team picked it up. Unfortunately the response was not great.

 

============================

 

Hey Yusuf,

Thank you for taking the time to reach out. My name is Justin, I’m a member of the Escalation Team here at Sonos Support.

Your initial email has been shared with our CEO. Patrick, however, cannot reply to all the contacts he receives, and as such a case was created in our customer care system and escalated to a Senior Technician to address your feedback.

I understand you’re experiencing troubles with loud pops with Dolby Atmos, I’ll be more than happy to take ownership of your case and see you through to a resolution.

I completely understand how frustrating it is when you face issues for a longer period and it's still not fixed. We are aware that this takes a while, but let me assure you that other soundbar manufacturers are facing the same issues as we do. There are multiple TV brands and models known for this issue, and we are all working together to get the issue resolved but when it finally will be resolved is still unknown.

The only workaround at the moment is indeed to use Dolby Digital 5.1 instead of Atmos, and I know that Atmos is way nicer to experience, but with DD 5.1 you will not hear the pops.

If you are able to reproduce the issue consistently, are you willing to help us garner more information about the root cause? If you are interested in this I will escalate your case to our higher technical department and they will reach out to you for more information.

Looking forward to your reply.

With best regards,

Justin
Sonos | Escalation Team | Contact Us
Ask questions, find answers, and share your thoughts on the Sonos Community.

 

============================

 

No timescale as to when this will be fixed, kinda saying well it’s affecting everyone, and can you help us so this takes more time….

 

Genuine question, how hard can it be for the Sonos team to Get an AppleTV, hook  it up with an Arc and play some atmos content? Surely this cannot take a year. Why should the consumers risk damaging their Arcs with pops when Sonos probably have a few test ones lying around that can provide a far more verbose diagnostic output. Also sad they’re saying this affects multiple TV’s and brands when it’s well documented the common denominator is the ATV4K and or XBox. Sad.

 

Can more people email the ceo too so more cases get escalated perhaps?

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I submitted a diagnostic report last night and spoke to support, they acknowledged the issue exists for many and they have a team gathering info to work on a resolution, I provided details of the different TVs and devices I’ve experienced the issue on

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I submitted a diagnostic report last night and spoke to support, they acknowledged the issue exists for many and they have a team gathering info to work on a resolution, I provided details of the different TVs and devices I’ve experienced the issue on

We’ve been doing this for literally year now. They don’t seem to care 

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Finally had time to test with the new Sonos software. No surprise, pop and sound cut out in less than 30 minutes. Diagnostic: 1131417922

 

Sonos, it’s been well over a year. What is happening?

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I emailed the CEO and one of the escalation team picked it up. Unfortunately the response was not great.

 

============================

 

Hey Yusuf,

Thank you for taking the time to reach out. My name is Justin, I’m a member of the Escalation Team here at Sonos Support.

Your initial email has been shared with our CEO. Patrick, however, cannot reply to all the contacts he receives, and as such a case was created in our customer care system and escalated to a Senior Technician to address your feedback.

I understand you’re experiencing troubles with loud pops with Dolby Atmos, I’ll be more than happy to take ownership of your case and see you through to a resolution.

I completely understand how frustrating it is when you face issues for a longer period and it's still not fixed. We are aware that this takes a while, but let me assure you that other soundbar manufacturers are facing the same issues as we do. There are multiple TV brands and models known for this issue, and we are all working together to get the issue resolved but when it finally will be resolved is still unknown.

The only workaround at the moment is indeed to use Dolby Digital 5.1 instead of Atmos, and I know that Atmos is way nicer to experience, but with DD 5.1 you will not hear the pops.

If you are able to reproduce the issue consistently, are you willing to help us garner more information about the root cause? If you are interested in this I will escalate your case to our higher technical department and they will reach out to you for more information.

Looking forward to your reply.

With best regards,

Justin
Sonos | Escalation Team | Contact Us
Ask questions, find answers, and share your thoughts on the Sonos Community.

 

============================

 

No timescale as to when this will be fixed, kinda saying well it’s affecting everyone, and can you help us so this takes more time….

 

Genuine question, how hard can it be for the Sonos team to Get an AppleTV, hook  it up with an Arc and play some atmos content? Surely this cannot take a year. Why should the consumers risk damaging their Arcs with pops when Sonos probably have a few test ones lying around that can provide a far more verbose diagnostic output. Also sad they’re saying this affects multiple TV’s and brands when it’s well documented the common denominator is the ATV4K and or XBox. Sad.

 

Can more people email the ceo too so more cases get escalated perhaps?

 

This is absolutely crazy. Sonos is trying to say that this is an industry-wide issue that’s plaguing other sound bar manufacturers, too. That’s a real “pass the buck” kind of response. I certainly haven’t seen these issues mentioned on forums for other manufacturers sound bars (and I’ve read a lot the last several months researching high end/premium sound systems).

 

In addition, the whole thing simply makes NO sense. Sonos is attempting to lay the blame elsewhere, with the statement about other sound bar manufacturers. But that would mean they are blaming Dolby themselves for having two incompatible technologies. So, now, they are just saying one can’t use Dolby Vision with DOLBY Atmos? I’m shocked. It’s bad enough that the full Arc/surround setup remains 5.1.2 and not 7.1.2 but now, you can’t even get full Atmos support and are limited to just 5.1. This shatters any hope I once had for Sonos enabling DTS:X support.

 

I have a Sonos setup for our bedroom that we’ve temporarily used in our main living area to try out. We were planning on moving that back to the bedroom and upgrading to a full Sonos setup with Arc, Sub, and surrounds. But with it taking 3 months for them to fix the recent firmware debacle (a problem they created by forcing the profile/sound change without warning & breaking TruePlay w/Sub) and seeing that this Dolby Vision/Atmos issue has been going on for more than a year now with no resolution, I’m seriously rethinking investing so much with Sonos. I also can’t believe they are having their customer base do their testing. As other members have said, why can’t Sonos test this out with an AppleTV? 

 

Disappointed.

Userlevel 1
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Sony 75x93j and apple tv. Never had that issue before 14.19. Now i get it also pops and restarts very often. They fixed the sub issue and now i have another one. 

I can confirm that I switched off Dolby vision 2 weeks ago. I haven't had a single issue since with Atmos. Just wanted everyone to know!

Userlevel 6
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I can confirm that I switched off Dolby vision 2 weeks ago. I haven't had a single issue since with Atmos. Just wanted everyone to know!

Haven’t had time to test this myself, but it would explain why we’ve had no reports from people with Samsung TVs. Samsungs can’t do Dolby Vision! Newer Sonys and LGs can.

Sophie’s Choice: do you kill Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos? Ouch. 

Userlevel 1

I can confirm that I switched off Dolby vision 2 weeks ago. I haven't had a single issue since with Atmos. Just wanted everyone to know!

Haven’t had time to test this myself, but it would explain why we’ve had no reports from people with Samsung TVs. Samsungs can’t do Dolby Vision! Newer Sonys and LGs can.

Sophie’s Choice: do you kill Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos? Ouch. 

 

I have a 2022 Samsung S95B which like you mentioned does not support Dolby Vision but as I posted a couple pages back, had the issue occur with this setup on the first game I tried with it on the Series X after hooking up my Arc. 
I do have HDR10 enabled but even without Dolby Vision it still occurs on my Samsung so I don’t think it’s linked to that, at least not exclusively. 

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I have a 2022 Samsung S95B which like you mentioned does not support Dolby Vision but as I posted a couple pages back, had the issue occur with this setup on the first game I tried with it on the Series X after hooking up my Arc. 
I do have HDR10 enabled but even without Dolby Vision support it still occurs on my Samsung so I don’t think it’s linked to that, at least not exclusively. 

Thanks for the data point. I clearly overlooked you (and maybe others)! I guess LGs and Sonys are just disproportionally popular with Sonos owners. I had the impression those were the only brands represented in our thread. 

Userlevel 3
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Upgraded from a playbar to Arc a couple of weeks back. LG C1 and an Xbox one X. Had popping a number of times now.

 

Previously zero issues before the Arc. This must be a sonos Atmos issue.

 

Have they even acknowledged this as a bug? Not really acceptable for any product, let alone one that costs this much.

 

Sonos? 

 

What is being done about this?

@Corry P Any update on any of this? We see more and more posts like this one with no reply. It’s as if your customers are yelling for help in a dark room. It’s hard to believe the only responses we’ve seen from Sonos is that it’s happening to other un-named Atmos sound-bars. There are no other updates to an issue that’s serious and going on a year old? Thanks for any feedback you can give us.
 

Btw, when I call Sonos support I’m still told to change the cables. 🤷‍♂️😵‍💫

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