I’m quite suprised that this hasn’t been properly picked up by any of the tech news / review sites. Are they too much in bed with Sonos?

I reached out to a couple of tech sites last year when Sonos had the firmware debacle where they destroyed the output of the Sub when used with Trueplay.  RTINGs.com got back to me and said they would do a re-assess on whatever the latest firmware was at that time (which had the lowered bass output).

Well, they followed through on that and tested a firmware revision that was known to have the lowered bass frequencies (this was testable and could be reproduced in a repeatable way).  They noted an improvement in the bass frequencies and upped their scores.

So yeah, I don’t think you’re too far off base here.

hello everyone. 
 

I have just started to have this issue and I contacted sonos support, I have owned the arc for 18 months and the issue only started now after the latest update. 
 

They mentioned the engineers are working on it and there is only 2 known workarounds at the moment, which is crazy considering this has been a known issue for atleast 2 years. 
 

I am using Xbox series x on a Sony x9000h, does anyone have any better ideas other then the workarounds provided by sonos below? 

Workaround 1: Disable CEC on HDMI connected devices, then reboot these devices as well as the TV by unplugging from power for 60 seconds then plug it back in. a. This may allow Atmos content to be played, but cannot be guaranteed. Workaround 2: Disable Dolby Atmos and use Dolby Digital 5.1 instead.

I tried all their methods , still didn’t work . I really hope they get this issue fixed this year . I’m so fed up , the pop gives me anxiety 

I’m sorry to hear you’ve been affected. Those workarounds are best that we have figured out so far. Lower success rate: some posters have had luck disabling 120 Hz and/or Dolby Vision to get rid of the pop. 

As you mentioned, many of us have been affected for well over two years. We’ve submitted diagnostics or even dev mode “recordings” of the pop. We’ve not been told of any progress by Sonos to date. 

I just started having the issue over the past couple of weeks on my personal system at home and I’m shocked to hear it has been affecting people for years. I’m also a reporter at The Verge, so I’ll do my best to get Sonos to comment on this properly. It’s a disgrace that they haven’t so far.

here’s the latest official response from Sonos support, which seems to suggest it’s specific to some TVs. I know Microsoft has been working on a HDMI 2.1 problem with the Xbox Series X on certain LG OLED models, where the console would boot up into a resolution from 1995 instead of 4K.

Either way, we’ll get on to Sonos and figure out if this is TV specific or something related to Dolby MAT 2.0.

here’s the latest official response from Sonos support, which seems to suggest it’s specific to some TVs. I know Microsoft has been working on a HDMI 2.1 problem with the Xbox Series X on certain LG OLED models, where the console would boot up into a resolution from 1995 instead of 4K.

 

Either way, we’ll get on to Sonos and figure out if this is TV specific or something related to Dolby MAT 2.0.

Hello everyone,
I'm having exactly the same issue with a Sonos ARC, an AppleTV and a Sony XH9005 (not LG here) : a bang, a few clicks, then nothing. Resetting all the devices and disabling CEC didn't help. The only possible workaround is to disable Dolby Atmos in the AppleTV... The last straw for an Atmos soundbar...

here’s the latest official response from Sonos support, which seems to suggest it’s specific to some TVs. I know Microsoft has been working on a HDMI 2.1 problem with the Xbox Series X on certain LG OLED models, where the console would boot up into a resolution from 1995 instead of 4K.

 

Either way, we’ll get on to Sonos and figure out if this is TV specific or something related to Dolby MAT 2.0.

I have exactly the same problem and already had 3 different OLED from LG. The CX, C1 and CS9. When I had the CX, I hadn't bought the Arc yet. The other two TVs paired with Xbox Series X and Dolby Atmos almost always made the bang we're talking about when I went from games to the dashboard. I also have the other problem with the poor resolution (640x480) on the LG OLEDs with Xbox Series X and it happened on all my OLEDs.

Hi Tom,

Big fan of your reporting and as someone who has been experiencing this issue for 2 years I hope you’ll be able to get Sonos to properly acknowledge this issue.
 

Cheers!

This thread alone has users affected by the problem on Samsung, Sony, and LG TVs. If this issue appears on the three largest manufactures, as well as both major consoles (with the PS5 Atmos update), and Apple TV; there is nothing limited to it. 

here’s the latest official response from Sonos support, which seems to suggest it’s specific to some TVs. I know Microsoft has been working on a HDMI 2.1 problem with the Xbox Series X on certain LG OLED models, where the console would boot up into a resolution from 1995 instead of 4K.

 

Either way, we’ll get on to Sonos and figure out if this is TV specific or something related to Dolby MAT 2.0.

For context, here’s support’s response (in this same thread) from 2021:
 

For two years they’ve been aware of the issue, have been working on a fix, and have been suggesting people disable Atmos on their Atmos capable soundbar.

By far the best news we have heard on this thread in a while.  Not that you are having issues, but that there is somebody with deep links to the tech community that can start to put a little exposure on this issue outside this thread.

Welcome Tom, big fan here personally!

This was my initial thought when I read their response. I’ve heard of the popping happening on all of the major brands and it’s not limited to the TV being a certain type of panel (OLED, QLED, Mini-LED and so on). 
 

I don’t disagree with Sonos in saying that it’s not hardware related. The issue does appear to be related to software but the fact that they’ve yet to fix or even say they replicated the issue is concerning. I’m not entirely certain on what information they receive when we send diagnostics in but surely they can see something went wrong when these pops occur. 

I just want to add my voice to this thread as yet another user that has the same problem and I am very frustrated and disappointed to have spent a fortune equipping my whole house with Sonos products and now not being able to watch Atmos content without the constant fear of the ‘pop’. 

Please Tom Warren, you guys should definitely report on it. I would think that the combination of Apple TV + LG TV + Sonos ARC is very prevalent. They are the TV, the streamer and the soundbar recommended by all sites like The Verge, Wirecutter, etc. 

My config: Apple TV 4k (2nd Gen), LG G2, Sonos Arc + Sub + Amp. 

We have a response, but all it largely says is that they can’t reproduce the issue. I’m going to offer to ship my TV, Sonos Arc, and Xbox to Sonos.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/10/23824258/sonos-arc-dolby-atmos-problems-loud-audio-pop

This is my latest response by Sonos support . They can’t just replicate the pop on their end . 

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

Thanks Paul for the insight. What they seem to be saying is not that they can’t reproduce the issue. They can’t reproduce it reliably. So, basically, they have the same problem as we all do, which is that it happens randomly, and there is no sequence of actions that will make it occur on demand. 

That is all fine and good, but I think Sonos engineers should be adding debugging code in their ARC software that would allow them to figure out what the issue is when the problem occurs. Anyone that has worked as a software/hardware engineer knows that random issues are more difficult to debug, but if you put enough resources to it you can find the issue. 

I’m able to reliably reproduce the issue, that’s how I captured it on video. I’ve offered to work with Sonos engineers to troubleshoot, so we’ll see if they’re able to do that remotely or not. 

I have the pop/bang issue as well.  What has “fixed” the issue for me was disabling Trueplay.  I think there is something getting corrupted in the Trueplay profile that affects Atmos/MAT encoding.  

@tomwarren Thank you, Tom. It means so much to us that someone is finally noticing.

I would like to direct you to an interaction I had with Sonos on December 21 of 2022. They had an engineer work directly with me and record pop data while they had my Arc in “devmode”, which provides detailed recordings and diagnostics to Sonos.

I produced multiple on-demand pops, on Xbox, on Apple TV, and even on the Apple TV screensaver when no sound was playing; and submitted the recordings. I have not heard back since. Here is the link:

https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-229129/sonos-arc-loud-pop-then-audio-loss-6852340/index21.html?postid=16633668#post16633668

I am not the only user that can easily reproduce the pop. Just put on a Spatial Audio playlist on Apple TV and you should get it within 30 minutes. We have also had reports of at least one user in this thread that was affected by the pop and never had a peripheral connected. It was coming straight from the TV which uses Dolby MAT, a rarity for TVs of course.

Where are you located Tom? Sonos should come visit you to debug this, they have engineering offices in Boston, Santa Barbara and Seattle (and maybe some others too).

As a software guy myself, getting a consistent repro is key to bug determination. Lets not forget the time the MS Office engineer put his actual phone number in an error message in order to get someone to call him when the bug repro-ed. (After the initial euphoria about someone calling him, things got out of hand quickly...)

Sonos could send engineers to people who can reliably reproduce the issue, as Apple did for me one time long ago:

Fixing difficult issues and customer support

I have an AppleTV, LGC2, and Xbox Series X, and I do get it, but infrequently. I imagine if I tried to replicate reliably I could do it.  I guess I could disable HDMI-CEC if that does indeed fix the issue, but come on.

I just tried disabling eARC and I can no longer reliably reproduce the audio pop. Re-enabling eARC hasn’t reproduced the issue either. Can anyone here who is able to reliably reproduce see if disabling and re-enabling eARC clears something? It might still come back, but it’s interesting that I can no longer reliably reproduce!