Sonos Sub Gen 3 crackling/static sound

Show first post
This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

246 replies

V
Userlevel 2
Badge

@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

 

 

 

 

 

 

R
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

They sent me a replacement but it was refurbished Gen 2 sub instead LOL! back to Sonos support, what a nightmare, bit disappointed with this, mistakes happen but a bit frustrating when you're spending this kind of money.

V
Userlevel 2
Badge

@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 recoding 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 to listen to it too.

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’.

Hello Ken, thanks for listening.

nope, I didn’t use any high end condenser microphone as it wasn’t needed.. and it would be really disturbing for your hearing.

 

the “muffled” sound you hear on the first track isn’t actually muffled, is the low frequency sound from the subwoofer (isolated, as it was placed in another room especially for the test). The other buzz, at high frequency, is the noise in mentioning.

 

in the second part of the clip it is clearly heard the fax/modem chirping type of sound it emits, unbearable. Yes, I’m sure it isn’t related to electrical/amp/power source. 

it disappears if you disable the sub WiFi and use a Ethernet cable. But the magic and convenience of the SONOS system is its style and, of course, wireless operation.

 

I can clearly hear the buzz by playing it in on iPhone, no headphones needed. Certain types of frequencies (higher ones) are difficult to be heard the more you get old, and if you strained your hearing through the years.


Not saying in any way you’re too old or destroyed your ears :)

 

this WiFi modulating chirping sound is on the higher spectrum of the frequencies

Ken_Griffiths

Yes, it could be my age, I guess. I certainly don’t claim to have the hearing of a youngster now I’m in my early sixties. My Wife (aged 21yrs) has much better hearing and she doesn’t hear anything from the Sub here either.

 

Ok I lied about the Wife’s age - she made me do it !!… ha 😂 but she doesn’t hear the noise in question from the Sub and she hears almost everything. 🤷‍♂️

R
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

It was Sonos Support.

buzz

To me it sounds mostly like switch mode power supply physical noise, but there is some modulation that could be related to line power noise. Is the noise related to Volume setting or Mute? Is the noise level related to the physical location of the microphone relative to SUB? Do you have a spectrum analyzer associated with the microphone? The spectrum would be interesting, but might not tell the whole story because it or the microphone may have a limited bandwidth with respect to the noise. Is there any change in the noise if you turn OFF SUB in the SONOS controller? If you remove SUB from the surround system and have it sitting alone, not bonded to any product, is the noise the same? If you physically change SUB’s orientation does the noise change?

T
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Just wanted to note from Andrew and I’s cases, evidence points to this being a hardware issue and Sonos says a fix isn’t available yet. Wouldn’t advise a replacement unit because nothing will change. Call Sonos and cite Andrew’s case number and they’ll link the issue to your case. We can get more traction on the problem and you’ll have your situation documented and on file.

buzz

 I lied about the Wife’s age - she made me do it !!… ha 😂 but she doesn’t hear the noise in question from the Sub and she hears almost everything. 🤷‍♂️

Wives never age.

V
Userlevel 2
Badge

To me it sounds mostly like switch mode power supply physical noise, but there is some modulation that could be related to line power noise. Is the noise related to Volume setting or Mute? Is the noise level related to the physical location of the microphone relative to SUB? Do you have a spectrum analyzer associated with the microphone? The spectrum would be interesting, but might not tell the whole story because it or the microphone may have a limited bandwidth with respect to the noise. Is there any change in the noise if you turn OFF SUB in the SONOS controller? If you remove SUB from the surround system and have it sitting alone, not bonded to any product, is the noise the same? If you physically change SUB’s orientation does the noise change?

If you change its orientation it stays the same. No related to volume setting or mute.

If you turn the sub off from the app or remove it from the system the noise changes (but remains).

You can clearly hear it changing as more data is exchanged by the wifi board of the unit, so it is really evident when you’re associating it with the system, when you stream music etc.

 

If you disable its wifi and attach an ethernet cable…. the magic happens, no more noise.

 

as stated by @TapDatApp on the first page:

 

“Just had my call with the Sonos folks regarding this. It sounds like they’ve done quite a bit of work on identifying the issue based on Andrew’s case and from what I was told, it sounds like they did identify a hardware issue that is causing this and confirmed the effect can vary based on WiFi traffic.”

 

This was and this remains, no fix released for this issue.
 

 

 

PS:

Tested:

-Different power cables

-Different rooms

-Different outlet/w or wo powerstrips/conditioning

-Different house

 

buzz

Seems like a physical issue with the PC board. They may need to replace a board. In other contexts I’ve seen adhesives used to stabilize components become conductive over time (years) and cause issues. In either case a physical interaction with the SUB internals is required.

buzz

Yes, eventually The Beatles will be introducing new music --- every day!

L
Userlevel 2
Badge

Hi @Mansfield46 & @Judge_Cookie 
 

would be great to hear if your issue could have been solved before others start the process. 
 

Thank you very much!!!

R

I have a A202 and it’s making that electric noise from the Dropbox link!

Very annoying when watching quiet horror movies.

 

Hello everyone,

I have also just received a brand new A202 (in Germany) as well and was frankly shocked by the high-frequency whirring that it emits throughout the room. Granted, one can only hear it with quiet music or light conversations on TV but this certainly does not sound “right”. It also emits the aforementioned crackling when you put your head close to the sub.

 

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/c0077398557b8372cded0840d19f028520220105171945/654b67159529db056462486a65d3fcdf20220105171945/8536ab

 

I didn’t know about this problem before I experienced this myself and I am honestly appalled by the extent of it. This seriously diminishes my trust in Sonos as a company, even though I am very happy with the rest of my Arc surround set.

Sonos Support was quick to dispatch a brand new replacement, but I am curious to see whether it won’t show the same issues. If it does, I’ll just return the sub for good and wait a couple of months and hope they’ll iron it out. Moreover, one could keep the sub and return it before the 100 day period ends.


Just to follow up: obviously it is very admirable to manage transport from the Netherlands to Southern Germany in a day, but that’s about it.

The new sub is making the noise at a much quieter level and without any of the previous crackling. Now all I can hear is a quiet humming, but now it seems it is even doing it all the time as the standard “white noise” standby-noise. And I can hear it, when it is quiet in the house, in the whole room.

I mean, I want to love the system, because it is awesome, but at 850 Euros it is a very bitter pill to swallow.

V
Userlevel 2
Badge

Seems like a physical issue with the PC board. They may need to replace a board. In other contexts I’ve seen adhesives used to stabilize components become conductive over time (years) and cause issues. In either case a physical interaction with the SUB internals is required.

Here we’re talking about six units (plus the other had/sent back by the other thread participants).

I agree with you, the fix will likely be that, but they first need to address the issue and make an “A203”.

The question is, why 2 years passed and the sub still suffers from the same issue? Why can’t this be solved? Even simple acoustical isolation of the board could reduce this issue (we are talking about high frequency noise)

V

I bought a sub gen 3 with this issue at a bestbuy store. Got it replaced the same day at another bestbuy that had the sub gen 3. The new unit still has the same issue...

M
Userlevel 1

Hi @Livius21,

thats what I call timing. 😂 

 

Let me give you the current status of my story:

Just for your information I am from Germany. Ordered my Sub Gen 3 with my ARC 24.9 on the Sonos Website. All fine. Compared it to a Bose 900 with Sub and found the Sonos ARC way better. Cheers Sonos.

I then started to watch some quiet horror/thriller movies. There I realized there was some buzzing noise…Sitting 3 meters away from the sub. Found this thread. Exactly the sound from the dropbox link above. Checked I had a A202, which should have solved the problem.

Then I reached out to the Sonos the support as @Corry P advised me to. Exchanged it and received the replacement unit today. The sticker said “refurbished certified” and A201. I was instantly like nice I order a full price product something is not working and then I get a refurbished one for full price… 

I instantly called the Sonos Support. The guy on the phone was really nice, checked the serial number and told me it is labeled refurbished, because the Sonos team checked the Sub internally and it was never sold to a customer. So if thats true, then its not a problem for me, otherwise it definitely would be.

Right now, I just added it to my ARC, turned it on put my ear near the sub and what do I hear, yes you are right the buzzing, it seems a little higher in tone. I will check it this evening with some horror movie and if its the same volume as the A202 and I hear it from 3m away, I will have to call the support again. For a product worth 849€ I am not accepting this, since the Bose Sub did no noise at all.

 

Thats all for now,

Mansfield46

V

Yes, I decided to buy the Sonos Sub July 21st, they only had 1 at a Best Buy store near Montreal, Canada . Was super excited since this is my first sub and was ment to go along with the Arc. I went trough the usual setup once I got home and noticed it right away. I have 6 Sonos at home and I’ve never heard one do this noise. I tried looking posts online to see if this was a normal noise for the sub but found this really weird for a product of this price. I did a reset of the Sub and the problem was still there. I could only explain the noise as a faulty device. I found another sub gen 3 available at another Best Buy and got it exchanged the same day. But to my surprise the second one also did the same noise. 

W

Apologies to re-ignite an old thread but I’m looking for assistance. 

As mentioned above my Sub was faulty - same crackling issue. I contacted Sonos support who - initially - were great. They took some diagnostics and asked for footage/sound clip of the Sub crackling. I sent this over and they forwarded me the returns label. 

I organised the return with DHL who collected the sub made it back to their Euro warehouse in Poland on approx 12/05/2023. Since then I have heard nothing from them…..

I have sent numerous emails with very little response and when I phoned them (17/05/203) they advised the replacement sub was due to be sent out by the end of that week. Nothing has arrived. 

Now when I try contacting them the wait times are ludicrous and no one is reponding to my emails. I’m pretty shocked at how bad the service has been from this brand. Has anyone else experienced this? I’m hoping I am a minority in this aspect. 

C
Userlevel 2
Badge

Just to add my experience to the mix, I received my gen 3 sub from Amazon just the other day and noticed that it has the ticking/hum issue outlined by others here. Sonos support has been very helpful and they offered a replacement, but I just worry the replacement unit will have the same problem. I think the best course of action for me is to go ahead and return the unit to Amazon and maybe think about revisiting purchasing the sub a few months from now when they are hopefully able work out the kinks. I am bummed as I have been waiting for the sub to come into stock for some time now and it was the last thing needed to complete my system. I wanted to accept the flaw at first because I love my current setup and want to support Sonos, but I just can’t for a product of this price.

Ken_Griffiths

Apologies to re-ignite an old thread but I’m looking for assistance. 

As mentioned above my Sub was faulty - same crackling issue. I contacted Sonos support who - initially - were great. They took some diagnostics and asked for footage/sound clip of the Sub crackling. I sent this over and they forwarded me the returns label. 

I organised the return with DHL who collected the sub made it back to their Euro warehouse in Poland on approx 12/05/2023. Since then I have heard nothing from them…..

I have sent numerous emails with very little response and when I phoned them (17/05/203) they advised the replacement sub was due to be sent out by the end of that week. Nothing has arrived. 

Now when I try contacting them the wait times are ludicrous and no one is reponding to my emails. I’m pretty shocked at how bad the service has been from this brand. Has anyone else experienced this? I’m hoping I am a minority in this aspect. 

Have you contacted the global sales team? If not, then perhaps give them a call. Here is their contact details:

https://support.sonos.com/s/global-sales-help

andrewchiu1st
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Just to add my experience to the mix, I received my gen 3 sub from Amazon just the other day and noticed that it has the ticking/hum issue outlined by others here. Sonos support has been very helpful and they offered a replacement, but I just worry the replacement unit will have the same problem. I think the best course of action for me is to go ahead and return the unit to Amazon and maybe think about revisiting purchasing the sub a few months from now when they are hopefully able work out the kinks. I am bummed as I have been waiting for the sub to come into stock for some time now and it was the last thing needed to complete my system. I wanted to accept the flaw at first because I love my current setup and want to support Sonos, but I just can’t for a product of this price.

@cstyow I’m not sure whether a replacement unit is going to fix the issue and it seems like even the newer batches have the same problem as well.
I think you should log the case to Sonos support and I’m sure that once the fix is in place, they will send a new SUB with perfect condition.

andrewchiu1st
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

@smaes  

Thanks for the update! It’s a bit of a surprise to me that each country’s support team is working separately. But it’s great to see that they are working together and sharing the information.

It seems to me that the problem is more widespread than I thought, Canada, US, UK, and Netherlands.

@cstyow 

Did they say that they will not offer you a replacement? That’s actually what the support guy I’m in contact with promised me, but I guess it will take some time to manufacture the new SUB if they are able to iron out the issue. But I agree, it’s a lot of hassle for a premium product.

S
Userlevel 1
Badge +1

Hi All ( @andrewchiu1st  @cstyow )

Great to hear your updates, but what a hassle all of this…

Just got answered by Sonos in the Netherlands just a day after I sent the audio recordings. They stated: “The ticking/crackling is clearly audible. The problem you’re experiencing is under investigation with us right now. We hope to fix this issue with the next software update.”

Sonos in the Netherlands thinks the issue is cause by software, so they think they can probably fix it with a software update. I doubt this, so I replied: “I heard rumours about a hardware issue on the Sonos Community, but you think this is a software problem?” and “Do you have a time indication about how long this software fix is going to take and when it will be available? Also, is the Sub Gen 3 in this state safely usable and won’t it damage itself?”

 

I will keep you posted, but what do you think about this story?

 

Cheers guys!

S
Userlevel 1
Badge +1

@smaes  

Thanks for the update! It’s a bit of a surprise to me that each country’s support team is working separately. But it’s great to see that they are working together and sharing the information.

It seems to me that the problem is more widespread than I thought, Canada, US, UK, and Netherlands.

@cstyow

Did they say that they will not offer you a replacement? That’s actually what the support guy I’m in contact with promised me, but I guess it will take some time to manufacture the new SUB if they are able to iron out the issue. But I agree, it’s a lot of hassle for a premium product.

This was a suprise for me as well, strange that they have seperate investigation teams. But somehow it makes sense, 230/110v systems different AC frequencies and so on? 

I’m kinda worried about the spreading of this as well!

A7ibaba
Badge

Wow ,i planed to buy Sonos SUB 3 next week,and i stumble on this thread. It seems i will wait for revision 2

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings