Sonos Sub Gen 3 crackling/static sound

did you solve?

Seems odd to have the issue repeatedly after trying several replacement Subs, might it be the electricity supply at the local property? Maybe give it a try setup at another premises (friend/relatives Home) and just see if the issue goes away. Worth a try, at least.

I have a number of Subs and not noticed the issue, although I’ve seen some others mention hearing the static/ticking sound when you put your ear really close to the Subs aperture. I dont hear the static, but maybe it’s the switching PSU power supply, hence my suggestion to try the sub powered up elsewhere, away from the Home, just to see if the issue changes and/or goes away completely.

So if you put your ear near the subs when they are receiving data you hear nothing? Unfortunately I have a conditioned power grid as I have a recording studio, and even at a friend house the last one did the same… can’t understand.

Not that I’ve ever noticed anything outside the playing low frequency channel audio. The Subs all seem to sound fine to my ears, what is it you actually hear when they are playing then, is it a clicking sound?

I’m on my hands and knees now (as I type) listening to Dolby 5.1 audio (Netflix Movie) and I’m not noticing it? I’m about 6 inches away from the opening I have two Gen-3’s attached to a Sonos Arc and Surrounds and listening close up. When the .LFE channel is not outputting audio at quiet moments in the movie too, I just hear nothing from the Sub 🤔?

I can clearly hear the WiFi/data transmission buzzing, like an old modem

Dunno then 🤷‍♂️ …are you able to perhaps grab/isolate it in a recording and post it online? I’m not hearing/noticing such a sound here. Maybe others will then chime in here too.

Perhaps it’s a sound/frequency your hearing has become sensitive too - it’s hard to say without hearing/knowing what I’m looking for, but will happily listen out for it if you post it online. I’m happy to explore these things.

I’ve had my Wife listening for sounds from the Sub too and she isn’t hearing anything either, she says, other than the obvious/usual low-level frequencies.

I have a video for each of the replacement units.. even the fourth is having the same issue.

could you perhaps try to isolate the sub and check ? If you start playing something (or even during the update! There is a data transfer.. the noise comes from the sub WiFi module) having the sub placed in another room, can you hear the data transfer noise from it? You should be able. At this point I think this is a “feature” (unbelievable for a near 900€ product), but every unit has this

@Vanx,
Can you perhaps post a link to your videos or the recordings, as that may help others here to understand the issue of what you’re hearing - why does the Sub need to be isolated in a different room to hear it? It sounds like it is hard to detect, so a video will hopefully assist. Then others here can perhaps chime in too. 

As you have a recording studio I assume you can isolate and perhaps highlight the issue so we can see/listen what to look for.

If every unit has it, I’m surprised that a lot more people are not reporting it here and elsewhere online .. could it be a case you have just become sensitive to the sound? It’s sometimes difficult to unhear things once you notice them, even when they are extremely quiet sounds. This would apply moreso if you have your ear right next to the speaker and actually looking for the noise instead of general-listening to audio say at the ‘sweet spot’, or some distance away, elsewhere in the room.

Is it affecting, or spoiling the audio when it’s actually playing, or is it just something you hear shortly before playback begins?

A decent recording from your studio of what you’re hearing perhaps may help as I’m not (yet) noticing anything here, even when listening up close.

First: the Sonos support team has been AMAZING, probably the best I've dealt with.

Second: I just got a new sealed Sub Gen 3 A202 (not refurb), and it is the worst I ever heard, the chirping sound is SO LOUD you can clearly hear it from the other side of the room.

I’ll now link an audio to make you better understand what the issues sounds like, even if the 9 pages of this thread have successfully highlighted every bit of the problem… not solved after 2 years! I mean, 2 years! So I think the design flaw is so big it can’t be solved before SUB GEN 4. I’m curious if the new Sub Mini suffers of the same issue or not.

The units I tested:

-1 Sub Gen 3 A201 BRAND NEW→ was chirping loudly, scratched from the box

-1 Sub Gen 3 A202 Refurb → was chirping but lower volume

-1 Sub Gen 3 A200 Refurb → was chirping loudly

-1 Sub Gen 3 A200 Refurb → was chirping but lower volume plus cracked finish

-1 Sub Gen 3 A201 Refurb → was chirping loudly plus panel not sitting flush (big bow)

-1 Sub Gen 3 A202 BRAND NEW REPLACEMENT → IS chirping immensely loudly plus panel not flush (big bow)

Not to say I'm utterly tired of breaking my back unboxing/reboxing/shipping the units plus wasting a lot of time and not being able to enjoy my near 2000€ Sonos system.

I hope some Sono rep./technician will chime in to solve this issue………

I mean it is like the sub got a small speaker that continuously emits wi-fi related modulating chirping sounds……….. this never stops. I can even hear it during playback, as it gets worse and if you don’t crank the system up it remains audible.

This is something serious going on, and at this point I'm not entirely sure I'll not publicly advise everyone through my channels to avoid Sonos products like a plague.

800+ € standalone subwoofer that got a major design flaw (audio related!) that was never fixed in 2+ years of it being acknowledged (read previous posts).

Here two audio samples, the first in “standby” (but it sounds like it is dying) and the second during playback.

Link to the audio file:

https://ufile.io/4fiznjty

@Vanx,

I could only see one audio file (size: 607kb) in the link. I listened to that ’clip’ several times over headphones here. Your bass audio recording sounds terribly muffled at the start and then, when all goes quiet, I hear a cricket/static-like sound. So was that audio clip done in your recording studio? I had my player volume set really high here to listen to it aswell.

Was it recorded with a mic close-up to the Sub itself, or was it placed a certain distance away, across a room? Maybe it’s me, but I find the recording quite poor, truth be told.

I definitely do not hear such a (cricket/static-like) sound from the Sonos Subs I have here. Are you sure it’s not related to the ‘conditioned’ power supply at your studio, which you mentioned earlier?

Also have you tried the Sub bonded to a different Sonos product, just in case that has any bearing on what you are hearing?

Maybe others here will listen to the posted ‘clip’ too and chime in with their thoughts.

My after-thoughts are,  maybe you are hearing the Subs built-in switching power supply perhaps🤔? …but I know I don’t hear these things generally speaking from such quiet power sources, so your hearing is perhaps sensitive to these things? - My hearing just mostly hear the core music frequencies, so perhaps it’s outside my hearing range and I might only pick-up on such sounds when recording close up with a mic and then playing back the sound at a much higher volume level. I doubt I would hear such noise in a natural listening environment, but let’s see what others say/think about the audio ‘clip’.