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Trending Lyricist I
January 25, 2023
Answered

SONOS Arc: Loud Random and Bone Chilling Noise

Hello,

I have an extensive SONOS system throughout my home and an Arc+2-ones+sub in the living room. 

The issue first occurred 5-6 weeks ago while an Amazon playlist was playing at a reasonable volume with 4 rooms grouped.

It happened again 3-4 weeks ago and it was also on an Amazon Playlist with 4 rooms including arc grouped.  At this point, I assumed that it was a song with an issue.  It was annoying and creepy but I'd eventually be able to find/remove the song from my playlist.

It happened again today while listening to an apple Playlist and I know for a fact it was a different song.

It took me until today to realize the sound is emanating from the arc(because the sound is so loud it sounds like its coming from everywhere including inside my brain).  For a random period of I'd say is 5-8 seconds, a loud metallic, alien, and haunting sound comes out of the living room sonos which has the arc.  The volume of the sound is inconsistent with the volume of the music that was playing.  The music resumes playing on all rooms at appropriate volumes..  Its the most unsettling noise I can imagine, instantly gives me chills and even as I'm typing this, I'm getting chills just thinking about it.

The last 2 times it happened, I thought it was a fluke and the same song.  That changed today and it bothered me enough to seek support.  There was a witness present for all 3 of these occurrences.

Please don't ask me for a recording, its literally 5 seconds out of weeks and happens at random.  I don't think that will be possible.

I saw some other sonos arc threads but they didn't match my symptoms exactly. 

 

Please, its so scary, I think the arc is telling my toaster to eat me! **This last part is just a joke for the Product Manager**

 

But the sound IS really really scary.  Please help!

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Stanley_4
Stanley_4Answer
Grand Maestro
January 25, 2023

First thing I’d do is look at the steps to submit a diagnostic to Sonos support so the next time it happens you will be able to do one fairly quickly. The logs seem to cover about 15 minutes but I’d try to be on the early side of that. You might also want to submit two or three diagnostics as some seem to arrive at Sonos corrupted.

Once sent contact Sonos support with the number(s) and describe the problem to them. You could also post them here and they will usually be seen, Sonos staff here is a bit thin and has limited capabilities compared to the phone crew.

34 replies

Lyricist III
June 5, 2024

Just got chat terminated half way through having waited 30 mins for agent. Now waiting for call back after being told 80 minutes wait on phone. 

Trending Lyricist I
June 5, 2024

I have eliminated the possibility that it was microwave interference. One of the times it happened it happened while the microwave was running and another time exactly when I opened it but it happened again in the last two weeks and the microwave wasn’t running. 

Lyricist I
June 19, 2024

Happen to me as well. Yesterday evening around 8 and this morning just after 6am.

It sort of sounds like the Netflix when it starts. Because it’s so loud and frightens you.

Lyricist I
June 24, 2024

This just happened to us this morning. One of our stereo-paired Roams went offline (as usual) and this time I grouped to our Arc setup, then ungrouped the Roam setup and regrouped it. That fixed the speaker drop out. A few minutes later we thought our home had been destroyed by an electrical failure, alien pulse beam or something. OP described the sound accurately. Yes it was bone chilling. I ran into the living room expecting a fire. Both our hearts remained pounding for some time. Then it happened again about an hour or two later. I’ll leave it on today and try to get audio recordings. 

Lyricist I
July 2, 2024

 Sergeantpup2 - I know it’s been a while since you posted this but I have a similar system throughout my home and just recently I experienced the EXACT bone chilling noise! Did you ever find out what caused it?

Trending Lyricist I
July 2, 2024

No, there was a few posts ago where somebody had it happen multiple times in a short period and they were going to try to get a recording because that’s the last thing SONOS asked for before they would even touch this issue. It’s still happening. It happened to me within the last month. 

Lyricist I
August 14, 2024

Just happened to me for the second time. Same as everyone described. Very alien and startling sound. Stops after a few seconds and everything resumes as if it never happened. 

Ken_Griffiths
August 14, 2024

Just happened to me for the second time. Same as everyone described. Very alien and startling sound. Stops after a few seconds and everything resumes as if it never happened. 

I would perhaps just follow @Stanley_4’s advice in his answer to this thread.

Trending Lyricist I
August 15, 2024

Just happened to me for the second time. Same as everyone described. Very alien and startling sound. Stops after a few seconds and everything resumes as if it never happened. 

I would perhaps just follow @Stanley_4’s advice in his answer to this thread.

Don't bother unless you have a recording. Several of us have sent diagnostics and all SONOS says in return is that we need a recording of a 5 second sound that can happen any time over a period of months. 

Ken_Griffiths
August 15, 2024

Just happened to me for the second time. Same as everyone described. Very alien and startling sound. Stops after a few seconds and everything resumes as if it never happened. 

I would perhaps just follow @Stanley_4’s advice in his answer to this thread.

Don't bother unless you have a recording. Several of us have sent diagnostics and all SONOS says in return is that we need a recording of a 5 second sound that can happen any time over a period of months. 

Does it not occur frequently then and can it not be easily reproduced? I have the Arc in the Living Room (used all day/most days), but can’t say I’ve ever encountered the issue.