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Contributor I
October 9, 2021
Answered

Sonos beam gen 2 issues

I got delivery of my beam 2 on the 6th and have the 5.1 setup with sub and one SLs which is great.

Ive had an issue twice now with my beam going full volume sounding like a machine guns going off in my livingroom which is unbearable, especially for my dog 😅 and I’ve unplugged it straight away. Once plugged back in it’s fine.

The first time was when connecting the beam to my TV but the hdmi had not yet been plugged into the unit, so power on only, 2nd time was when I had paused the tv for a few minutes.

I will submit a diagnostic to Sonos next week when I can contact support but thought in the meantime I’d check if this is something anyone else has had issues with as I can’t find anything online?

Thanks in advance 🎵

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Corry P
Corry PAnswer
Sonos Staff
August 31, 2023

Hi @baz3986 et al

We now consider this issue of a hammering sound issuing from Beam (Gen 2) resolved with the latest update (v15.7).

If you still encounter this issue, please ensure your Sonos system is up to date, then contact our technical support team for assistance. Thank you.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

47 replies

Lyricist I
December 31, 2021

Just an update for my replacement Beam 2.  

I replicated my settings and played music via Youtube music linked to the Sonos app. It ran 3 hours straight without a jackhammer/machinegun incident.

We watched movies/shows/Youtube during the weekend. I also left the TV playing from different apps for an hour each, Netflix, Disney, and Youtube. No static noise incident. 

So far so good. There has been no incident as of yet. Hopefully it was just a defective unit and the problem doesn’t come back. For those experiencing this issue, definitely reach out to support and try to get it replaced. 

Just some things I might’ve missed with my experience.

-Jackhammer/machinegun or static noise does not occur when not playing anything (Standby/low power mode)

-None of the 3 reps I’ve talked with heard of this issue

-All of the diagnostics I’ve submitted came back clean and problem could not have been identified. 

Hope this helps.

Lyricist I
January 4, 2022

This is unbelievable, same issue ,sore ears ,scared the poo out of the cat . This is totally unacceptable. I would sue these bastards. This device can cause permanent ear damage . Yes it sounds ok for a D class bunch of amps stuffed into a little oblong with minuscule speakers. It doesn't do surround very well ,the stereo separation is crap but the 120 Db white noise i can definitely  do without . Will never buy any of their products again. 

Lyricist I
January 9, 2022

Hi,

I got Beam 2 as a gift from my wife an hour ago. I was all excited, set it up, was listening to music and adjusting the levels and out of nowhere my living room reverberated with machine gun shots. I was baffled, muted my TV, but the sound wouldn't stop. Finally, I pulled the plug.  Thought it may to do with some setup error. Plugged it back in, played music from my Spotify and it started again within 10 minutes. That's it! Am done. Have packed it, ready to be returned tomorrow. Am glad I came across this forum to know it's not just me. Also surprised that why hasn't this product got recalled by the company. This was my first Sonos product and the first experience wasn't a pleasant one.

Lyricist I
January 10, 2022

Is anyone aware of a solution to the beam gen2 machine gun noise?

 

thanks!

Lyricist I
January 24, 2022

Just picked up my beam gen 2 this evening from Argos.  Got it home, and got it set up, usability was great and incredibly easy.  Started to watch a film, sound was good, then all of a sudden full volume gunshot noises start firing out of the speaker, no more than 45 mins post set up. Tried to to stop it but only pulling the plug did it in the end.  Right ear drum throbbing and burning due to having to reach around the back of the beam to unplug the power cord.

Extremely disappointed with the product, was super excited to own the speaker, looks great, sounds great, easy to use, and links up to everything nicely.

but, it’s impossible to me to ever relax again whether it’s watching a film or listening to music, even if the product it replaced, genuinely a traumatic experience and not one I’d like to experience again, I’d also have to unplug it after I leave for work daily due to the anxiety of it doing it mid day, the sound it truly deafening.

I truly hope Sonos acknowledge this as a legitimate problem with this product, it’s taken the brand from quality to crap in 45 minutes for me now.  I’m not sure I’d ever be able to own one of their products again unless I knew the problem had been fully addressed and sorted.

Will unfortunately have to move on to a different brand now, real shame.  I’d appreciate some feedback on this from anyone who’s has any further dealings with Sonos on the matter. Thanks :)

Lyricist I
January 24, 2022

Hi,

I got Beam 2 as a gift from my wife an hour ago. I was all excited, set it up, was listening to music and adjusting the levels and out of nowhere my living room reverberated with machine gun shots. I was baffled, muted my TV, but the sound wouldn't stop. Finally, I pulled the plug.  Thought it may to do with some setup error. Plugged it back in, played music from my Spotify and it started again within 10 minutes. That's it! Am done. Have packed it, ready to be returned tomorrow. Am glad I came across this forum to know it's not just me. Also surprised that why hasn't this product got recalled by the company. This was my first Sonos product and the first experience wasn't a pleasant one.

i feel your pain!! Mine went from being unboxed and setup to back in the box within the hour, truly a vile experience!

Lyricist I
January 30, 2022

I also experienced this with my brand new beam.  On the support contact page (https://support.sonos.com/s/contact?language=en_US)  there is a way to email the CEO directly.  

I sent the following a few weeks ago. I doubt these actually go to him, I hope they are at least get reviewed by a someone...but I have yet to hear back.  I will post back if I do.

 

Hi Patrick, 

I am writing to you about the bad, borderline traumatic, experience I had with my first Sonos product (Beam Gen 2).  For some background; I have had mixed luck with soundbars in the past.  The LG one I purchased with my OLED TV was extremely large\unsightly and wasn't the best sound quality.  I then attempted a Vizio, which was compact and clean, but failed after a few months.  This led me to the Beam.  It was a bit more than I wanted to spend (when you add up the additional One's for surround, and eventually the sub), but given the issues I had in the past, I decided to splurge, making this my first entry into the Sonos ecosystem.

Setting up was a breeze.  My wife approved of the (compact) look, and loved the warmth of the sound it produced in our bedroom.  This was until around 11:30pm on the eve of the purchase.  Randomly the Beam went to full volume, playing a static or jackhammering sound.  We both jumped out of bed, disoriented, holding our ears. I tried yanking the HDMI cable first, but ultimately had to pull the power for it to stop.  It was so loud it woke up my entire house (3 kids, a dog, and a set of in-laws).  Your support was very good in trying to help.  The first agent had never heard of the problem, but walked me thru some steps to reset the sound bar.  However, a few days later, and after convincing my wife to allow me to plug it back in, it happened again.  

This time the agent had heard of this issue.  They asked me to plug it back in to play some music and send some diagnostics.  I did, and it just so happened to occur again (I caught it on video).  They confirmed that it was defective and offered to send a new one.  I declined since I was not sure I would trust a replacement and could return it to Costco, where I just purchased it.

While my initial experience with the sound quality of Sonos (and your support team) was very good.  My wife and I are extremely uneasy about purchasing another Sonos product because of this issue.  I don't know if this issue is hardware, software, or a mix of both.  I'm sure your engineers will figure that out.  But the fact that it could happen, and there are no built in safeguards to prevent potential hearing damaging sound from randomly coming out of a device in my bedroom gives me second thoughts.

I wouldn't normally take the time to write something like this, but it was honestly a scary experience for us in the room (my wife and I), so much we were shaking after it happened. I'm only glad my children were not in the room at the time.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read, hopefully this email helps you to identify the issue and prevent it in the future.

 

 

Trending Lyricist I
January 30, 2022

Hi all,

I have had the same random machine gun like everyone else here.

Short version: Google assistant seems to be the culprit as I have removed the voice assistant and the issue seems to have stopped. 

Long version:

Bought the Sonos beam 2 two days ago. Installation went smoothly and was working fine at first. Then suddenly the machine gun noise came up while listening to Spotify. Had to pull the plug to stop it.

I then began my research to try and fix the issue. Went through the settings of my projector (plugged by earc) to see if it was sending an unexpected signal. Plugged the beam by ethernet to elimated the possibility of a wifi interference issue. Changed the wifi channel of my router. Tried all kind of different settings. But in vain the issue would keep appearing randomly. 

After a factory reset, the issue seemed fixed until it started randomly again. 

I was about to give up and send it back when I tried activating my roborock by Google assistant and it crashed immediately while before it had alway been at random times after playing music or a movie for a while. I then realized that the issue had always appeared after I had installed the Google assistant back on the beam. 

I then deactivated the voice assistant and haven't had the issue since. 

Fingers crossed that its some kind of interference with certain devices and Google assistant.

 

 

Trending Lyricist I
January 31, 2022

Unfortunately the issue started again so the theory about Google assistant was wrong. 

The store where I bought has offered to send me a new one.

Hopefully it was just a faulty beam... 

Lyricist II
February 1, 2022

Hi all,

 

I’m having this issue sporadically on my Beam Gen 2 despite multiple factory resets, using the hmdi cable, and having ethernet plugged in. 

 

Why hasn’t Sonos addressed this issue? It’s complete ***** that I now have a $500 paperweight in my apt because it randomly plays the loudest sound you’ve ever heard in your life. What can I do????

 

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