I’m asking if it’s really a fix it it would happen again. I wouldn’t say it is. 
 

For the record I’ve tried this in the past and the bang always came back quickly. That’s what I’m basing my experience off of. If it helps solve your bang I’m happy for you.

It’s not a guarantee fix until sonos fixes this issue on their end . But by using this method at least for now I can ensure myself the POP is not gonna happen and scare myself to death 

Tom’s Guide article is up:

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/sonos-arc-has-a-dolby-atmos-problem-what-you-need-to-know

So for now, proceed with caution before buying a Sonos Arc soundbar. Again, we had no issues in our testing, and Sonos claims the issue is limited to a small number of customers, but there’s no way to guarantee that your Arc soundbar wouldn’t develop this issue — possibly after it's too late to return the soundbar. Which is a shame, because when the Arc works, it’s a great soundbar.

Happy 1,000 posts everyone!

@Airgetlam and @Ken_Griffiths : I haven’t heard from you in this thread for a while. I’m super curious:

How do you view the Sonos Pop finally getting media coverage?

I assume you mean the Verge coverage? If so, then yes it was helpful to read the summary and that Sonos are continuing to work on trying to reproduce and (hopefully) fix the issue, but it seems there’s no announcement just yet, I guess‍♂️.

It’s still not clear where the problems actually lie, if it’s certain hardware/TV’s, or software etc. I still think the Atmos metadata moving out of sync from the audio stream, as being one plausible possibility, but here’s hoping the matter can get resolved soon for you and the others here that may encounter this issue.

Yeah, I should have specified. I meant The Verge, Ars Technics, and Tom’s Guide.

I wonder if it will hit the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, or if it’s too in-the-weeds for that.

It’s great that there’s coverage, but I’d love to see others than Sonos looking in to it. My current fear is it’s a failure of CEC handling format changes in a MAT container, and the result is that Sonos (and other audio sinks) are just playing what they’re being handed by eARC as part of CEC. Always easiest to lay the blame on the last device, but figuring out whether or not that ‘blame’ deserves to be there or not is a question as yet unanswered. Nor have I investigated the user agreement when companies implement standards such as CEC with sub specifications such as ARC and eARC. It’s possible, in my mind, that there is a legal clause there that says ‘you can feed us back data for us to look at and ‘fix’ , but you can not publicly point fingers’ or some such. 

Which of course raises the issue of ‘if it is a failure in CEC’s handling of format changes in a MAT container’, how do all of these TVs get updated with newer, more robust versions. And when?

Step 1 is identifying the issue, and where it lies. Hopefully this community has provided enough detail to assist in that. Where it goes from there really depends on where the issue really lies. If it was Sonos, I’d honestly would have expected a quicker ‘fix’ to be released. Since that hasn’t happened (yet), it makes me wonder how far up the chain it goes, how complex the issue really is, and who is ultimately going to be responsible for fixing it. 

@tomwarren While I appreciate your article and hope it helps bring more attention to this problem, I wonder why it is written as if Sonos Apple and XBox are the only brands with such problems. The internet is full of reports of people having problems with the Apple TV4k, especially the 3rd generation, but also with other external devices (PS5, Switch etc.) and with many different AV manufacturers and soundbar brands (Samsung, Bose etc.).

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254099712?answerId=258137714022&page=8

Mabye it would help to get a statement from other manufacturers like Apple as well?

II do not know what should be so difficult to reliably reproduce the problem. Can’t they just send the devices to each other? I do not know who is to blame and who can solve it (if possible at all). Imho disabling eARC is the way to go for now.

FWIW, I think Tom made exactly the right call in his presentation. Apple TV and Xbox are the major consumer devices that are affected by the Sonos Pop at the moment. PS5 probably will be, but that’s only on beta firmware, so too soon to report. I expect additional coverage in the tech press if that beta software goes production and users start experiencing the pop. There are a lot more PS5 out there than Xbox and Apple TV. 
 

On the TV brand side, we have at a minimum lots of Samsung, Sony, and LG users affected. So that’s basically everyone. 
 

And then on the soundbar side, only Sonos Arc and Beam 2 make the Sonos Pop. Yes, there can be problems with other soundbars, such as crackling, rhythmic clicking, etc where users may use the word “pop” to the describe the issue. But a gunshot-like sound followed by audio drop out on the soundbar while the surrounds keep playing? That’s totally unique to Sonos. 

I haven’t experienced the issue. I suspect that SONOS licensed a chipset and decoder software that are included in ARC and other manufacturers using the chipset or decoder are at risk too. This would explain why a few other devices are experiencing the ‘POP’. The pop could be some sort of software overrun or perhaps a variable (from chip to chip) sensitivity to voltage or temperature and AMP’s environment is at an edge.

Since I cannot observe the issue, is there any dependency on the movie? For example, if you replay a ‘POP’ movie, does the event tend to repeat? Does it repeat at the same spot? Does one movie tend to predispose a following movie to ‘POP’?

 It would help if ‘POP’ victims kept good logs. The log should be verbose, keeping track of time of day, temperature, play time into the movie, ARC Volume setting, etc. It would be best to submit a diagnostic and include the confirmation number in the log. If you are regularly hit with these events, the developers could be able to provide special builds and access to enhanced diagnostic procedures.

Everyone should keep an open mind. Once you decide that the problem must be a…] or cannot be s…], you are likely to be blindsided. One should not assume that there is a single cause. It’s possible that a string of events must occur in a certain order before there is a ‘POP’. This is why logging is important.

Does everyone get the pop everytime? I have noticed audio dropping out with Atmos content in general. Sometimes I notice the loud pop, but also sometimes it seems to drop and then the Arc almost resets with a green LED on the front blinking before it picks up the signal again.

The pop does not happen at a specific point in time during content. It is however relatively easy to reproduce as it happens usually within 30 minutes of playing Atmos content. 
 

I (and others) have worked directly with Sonos in documenting the pop. Not just using “submit diagnostic” that’s available to all users. But also by having my Arc remotely put into dev-mode by Sonos, which allowed me to submit an extended (~60 seconds) data dump when encountering a pop. 
 

I have submitted such dev mode files for multiple pops both when using Apple TV and Xbox. 
 

There is no evidence that the pop happens outside of the Sonos Arc and Beam 2. 

How do you know that Apple TV and Xbox are the major consumer devices that are affected? That's an assumption?

With a PS5, I can unfortunately reliably get loud pops when using multichannel PCM 7.1 with an eARC TV. It sounds like small loud bangs, if something was breaking.

I think, like many others in this discussion, that it has something to do with high bitrate multiPCM or encapsulated dolby atmos MAT (which includes multichannel PCM),

The cause must be with HDMI eARC, which is buggy when using high bitrate streams from external devices. I never have problems when streaming Atmos directly from my TV apps. That is the way I actually listen to Atmos now.

There must be flawed error handling when external HDMI devices are involved, and HDMI switch manufacturers like HDfury or Feintech seem to know how to work around these errors. But I'm not willing to pay more for unsupported devices and my system was expensive enough.

Have you read this thread? Apple TV and Xbox are hands down the most common source devices affected at this moment. Yes, PC and some TV app can have it happen as well. But those are smaller install bases because not as many people hook up a PC to an Arc for the former and because few TVs output in Dolby MAT for the latter. I suspect that will change once the PS5 Atmos firmware goes from beta to production, since beta users have been affected by the pop.

You are correct that the pop seems to happen when devices using Dolby MAT are connected. That is the common denominator. You are describing getting “pops” when using multichannel PCM on PS5. I assume that this is a series of pops that are nothing like the problem that this thread is about. The Verge story about our problem has a nice video of the Sonos Pop. It is loud. And then the Arc cuts out while the surrounds keep playing.

In any event, I suspect you haven’t read this thread. Give it a read! It’s a wild ride and will answer all of the questions you currently have.

This is some farcical BS.  The onus for comprehensive and useful logging is not on the end user.  Sonos has a submit diagnostic feature for a reason that has been used countless times by the users in this thread.

Re: “keep.ing] an open mind”, you might have missed the part where this has been ongoing for almost three years.  We’re passed the point of giving Sonos the benefit of the doubt and just want some kind of resolution.  Even if that’s just in the form of better error handling so that we get a drop out instead a heart stopping gunshot.

Hi 

I believe I just had this issue, I have had my arc for almost a year and regularly used my xbox series x to watch blue rays but tonight I turned my xbox on and it was just sitting on the dashboard when it happened.

However when I contacted sonos support to have a diagnostic ran on my arc just to be safe they advised me they found the below fault

" see. I can see that your Sonos Arc is having an Amp Fault. And for this one, we just need to reboot the Sonos Arc. Just unplug it to the power outlet and plug it back in after 10 seconds. Then observe if the Arc is still producing the loud pop noise so we can further isolate the issue"

Correct me if km wrong but would thag not suggest a hardware fault, I rebooted the arc and re ran the diagnostics and he said the fault has cleared. Has anyone else had sonos say the above when they experienced the pop or should I push for a hardware swap.

Not really, I’ve been part of solving some other difficult issues (I won’t mention company names) and I’ve been aware of this issue from the first post. Since I’m not able to observe this issue, I can’t contribute any data. From my seat it mostly seems like barking at the wall.

One case the I was involved with was interesting. I came across an intermittent issue. It could present a few times an hour, days, or weeks. It was a few millisecond mute in the audio output, barely perceptible by many users. It was real easy to blame something that had no relation to this issue, but could exhibit similar symptoms. I became aware of a few people unsuccessfully attempting to get a handle on the issue. The manufacturer was not able to help. I built a little hardware monitor and was able to observe some erratic activity that usually culminated in an “event”. I suspect that relative humidity was part of the package. I contacted the manufacturer and they were aware that some users had reported an issue, but the issue could not be observed in their service shop. When I described my monitor they were excited and suggested a potential fix. They couldn’t verify the fix in their shop because they didn’t have any misbehaving units and If I am correct that relative humidity was in the mix, I don’t think that they would ever have had a misbehaving unit in their shop (due to their location). Anyway, I applied the proposed fix and had an immediate positive response from my monitor. A couple days later the manufacturer called to check in and I reported that my monitor had logged zero events. It was an easy, cheap fix and lot of people were happy.

I mention this because we may not yet have figured out which end of the ‘POP’ dog to bark at. It seems to be a multi-dimensional issue. The common dimensions seem to be PS5, X-Box, AppleTV, and versions of Atmos. The shutdown is easy to understand. The ‘POP’ is at maximum output and ARC is designed to shut down in order to protect itself.

I understand the point you’re making.  I disagree that the end users should be responsible for recording extraneous data in the hopes that it might somehow be helpful in tracking down the root cause of the issue.  If support needs data points like time of day and relative humidity, I would expect that their diagnostic tools would collect that data.

Again, bear in mind the amount of time that Sonos has had to figure out which “end of the dog to bark at.”  They’ve had nearly three years to throw oddball ideas at the wall and see what sticks.  We have no idea what they have and haven’t tried as so far they’ve been pretty tight-lipped about it.

I don’t know the depth of the issue. If licensed software is involved there could be contract details that prevents SONOS from imbedding proper logging code.

I don’t want to be an apologist. Everyone in the chain: hardware, software, SONOS, and users wants to pass the issue up the chain, while the chain wants to push the issue down in order to minimize their support costs. It’s the nature of companies at this point. Maybe all big business managers take the same courses and this is how they are taught to run a “smart” business. It takes weeks and weeks to justify, build, and schedule a team to take on a project. Meanwhile, users need to wait.

Anyone with eArc extractor and still having this issue?

i have had this issue but when i used the eArc extractor, the issue is gone

Using apple tv 4k 3rd gen + xbox x+ ps5 beta software, all tested with atmos, the issue is no more, no more pop

Which extractor? Are you sending HDMI-eARC to ARC or are you sending audio over TOSLINK (optical).

KeithFromSonos over on Reddit actually recommended using the Arcana as a possible workaround:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/14pupmm/extremely_well_done_post_on_the_nature_and_causes/jrevwxe/

He said it’s not official guidance but it seems they’re aware that it makes a difference.

Its 2.0b eArc extractor 

https://www.bungpung.com/products/4k-hdmi-earc-audio-adapter

bought this one to see if it fixed the issue before buying an expensive 2.1 extractor and it fixed it

now ill save up for 2.1 arcane🥹 as i need it for gaming consoles for vrr and 120

I’m personally getting a little frustrated at this “other devices are experiencing the same ‘POP’”.  I will personally deliver $100 to the first person that records a NON SONOS device that produces a GUNSHOT BANG while playing ATMOS audio.  If you read comments on the various news sites finally covering this you will even see them say “I wasn’t too worried until I heard the video, but THAT was a GUNSHOT!”.  This issue has gone on far too long and as someone else who designs hardware for a fortune 300 I would NEVER ignore a blatant issue like this from my customers.

A Sonos Pop Prayer:

Sonos Pop doesn’t happen.

And if it does, it’s not that bad.

And if it is, it’s only one source.

And if it’s many, other speakers pop too.

And if they don’t, you can’t replicate it.

And if you can, it’s not Sonos fault.

And if it is, users should be patient.

And if they are, then what’s the problem?