Sonos Sub Gen 3 crackling/static sound

andrewchiu1st
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Hi guys,

 

I just bought the Sonos Arc and the new Sub Gen 3 and I paired them with 2 Sonos One (Gen 1) speakers for the surround setup.

Yesterday I noticed that while idling and playing, there are some tiny constant crackling/static/electric current sounds coming from the brand new Sub and I found it quite irritating. So what I did first was to make sure that the connection with the power cord is secure, which it was. Then I tried to remove the Sub from the group, factory reset it and added it back to the system. But the same issue persists.

I don’t suppose this is normal, right? Does anyone has a similar issue with the new Sub?

I’ve checked my Sonos Arc, One and Beam and none of them has this issue.

Since I just bought it from Best Buy last week, should I return it and get a new one to see if it’s something wrong with the one I’ve got? 

It’s not a cheap device and I don’t want to compromise on its quality.

 

Thank you all!

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246 replies

Airgetlam

Since I’ve never owned a Hisense, any instructions I’m giving would be hazy at best, but somewhere in the settings for the TV set would be an area for Audio Settings. Somewhere in that area would be something that likely say Digital Audio, or ann option along those lines. I suspect it has at least two options, either ‘pass through’ or ‘auto’. Flip it from what it is now to the other and see if that fixes your issue. 

Or, you could call Sonos Support directly to discuss it. They probably have better information than I do. 

Bruce
M

I'm not tech savvy unfortunately. 

What setting do I need to change please? 

Airgetlam

There was a recent thread that suggested that for Hisense TVs, you needed to change the setting fom ‘pass through’ to ‘Auto’….or perhaps it was the other way around. I don’t own a Hisense to confirm.

If that doesn’t fix your issue, I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

Bruce
M

I didn't have this problem until I connected to my new TV yesterday and it's driving me crazy now!!

I got a 65" Hisense tv as it's newer and also had the eArc.

I can't believe this problem with such an expensive bit of kit. 

It's unbearable! 

Airgetlam

Ah, I see, a 6 month old thread. 

Bruce
P

Thanks for the tip; I’ll definitely press Pause on ordering the Sub 3…  maybe the Sub 4 in 2025 will be “fixed”.  *digresses*  I got the cheaper sub a month ago, and it’s been a champ so far.

Ken_Griffiths

I 

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

Thanks mate I contacted them this morning; turns out my replacement hasnt even been organised and nobody seems to really know whats going on. I was so dissappointed. 

The agent has now escalated it to the warehouse team who should be back in touch ‘between now and Monday’, again shocking. 

I asked about their complaints escalation procedure and the guy had no idea, referred me to the forums and told me to email their CEO. He said he would try to organise a call back but seemed very non-commital about it. You pay thousands for a system and the aftercare is this bad, I don’t think so. 

I’m really dissappointed in SONOS I expected so much better. 

Ah it sounds like something must have gone awry on this occasion - it’s not something I see often mentioned on these boards but I guess that’s no satisfaction in your case. At least it sounds like the matter is now back in hand and being sorted by the Staff. So hopefully you will get your Sub soon.

W

I 

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

Thanks mate I contacted them this morning; turns out my replacement hasnt even been organised and nobody seems to really know whats going on. I was so dissappointed. 

The agent has now escalated it to the warehouse team who should be back in touch ‘between now and Monday’, again shocking. 

I asked about their complaints escalation procedure and the guy had no idea, referred me to the forums and told me to email their CEO. He said he would try to organise a call back but seemed very non-commital about it. You pay thousands for a system and the aftercare is this bad, I don’t think so. 

I’m really dissappointed in SONOS I expected so much better. 

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

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. 

W

Morning all from the UK, thought I would throw my name in the hat to this (2 years later). 
 

Not long had my system (Arc, Play 1’s, Sub and Beam), noticed yesterday this was happening whilst the sub was idle. Had no clue what the noise was until I followed it straight to the sub. 
 

Quick Google brought me here. I’ll be phoning Sonos today to start whatever process has to be started. Series number for me is A202. Once again forums to the rescue. 

P
Badge +2

You perfectly presented the current situation, I may add that it is really bad given the Sonos positioning and the premium prices.

I’m currently stuck with a chirping sub that I had to disconnect from the system.

 The support just forwarded my case to the US engineering team, but I’m not so confident there is  a flawless unit being manufactured right now.

 

 Wondering if the sub mini (a part from the plastics/assembly problems) suffers from the chirping and standby issues

Sadly, yes, I can report that my partner’s Sub Mini has been similarly plagued (all 3 of them…).

A

I also had the sub replaced this week and the problem continues. Sonos has been aware of this problem for at least 2 years and it remains unsolved. It's time to collect and repair the subs or guarantee replacement to customers with a new version (A203??) or with a new generation.

 

V
Userlevel 2
Badge

Based on my conversation with Sonos Support in the past couple of months, there is definitely still a known issue with the Sub A202, they advised not me not to replace again for the time being because I will most likely hear the same issue, so that does not indicate to me that this is a rare occurrence.  The pop sound from standby definitely should not be happening, and it should be completely avoidable with  a “soft start” circuit so the surge of electrical power to the amplifier when powering up from standby doesn’t cause a pop sound. This soft start circuit is standard on premium amplifiers so people won’t hear an annoying thud or pop sound when the amplifier is being powered up, here’s an example of a soft start module: https://theaudiocrafts.com/soft-start-module-audiograde 

 

I think the low crackling sound is perhaps indirectly related because of poor electrical shielding within the Sub that is causing inference on the amplifier.  Either Sonos can’t source enough supply of quality components to provide features like soft start, or there’s a fundamental design flaw in the Sub Gen 3. Now that supply chain constraints are easing, I will be leaning more to this being a design flaw if people receiving new Subs manufactured in recent months are still presenting with the same issue. 

You perfectly presented the current situation, I may add that it is really bad given the Sonos positioning and the premium prices.

I’m currently stuck with a chirping sub that I had to disconnect from the system.

 The support just forwarded my case to the US engineering team, but I’m not so confident there is  a flawless unit being manufactured right now.

 

 Wondering if the sub mini (a part from the plastics/assembly problems) suffers from the chirping and standby issues

A
Userlevel 1

Based on my conversation with Sonos Support in the past couple of months, there is definitely still a known issue with the Sub A202, they advised not me not to replace again for the time being because I will most likely hear the same issue, so that does not indicate to me that this is a rare occurrence.  The pop sound from standby definitely should not be happening, and it should be completely avoidable with  a “soft start” circuit so the surge of electrical power to the amplifier when powering up from standby doesn’t cause a pop sound. This soft start circuit is standard on premium amplifiers so people won’t hear an annoying thud or pop sound when the amplifier is being powered up, here’s an example of a soft start module: https://theaudiocrafts.com/soft-start-module-audiograde 

 

I think the low crackling sound is perhaps indirectly related because of poor electrical shielding within the Sub that is causing inference on the amplifier.  Either Sonos can’t source enough supply of quality components to provide features like soft start, or there’s a fundamental design flaw in the Sub Gen 3. Now that supply chain constraints are easing, I will be leaning more to this being a design flaw if people receiving new Subs manufactured in recent months are still presenting with the same issue. 

buzz

Even simple acoustical isolation of the board could reduce this issue (we are talking about high frequency noise)

Maybe. There could also be conduction to, then radiation by the enclosure. This could be somewhat explored by temporarily blocking the ports with a high frequency absorber or with varying microphone positions. Radiated noise will tend to exit through the ports or driver membranes.

If there is electrical leakage on the board, the noise might appear as input to the amplifier. In this case the noise is emitted by the speakers. My conductive adhesive could do this, but it typically requires many years for the adhesive to become conductive. These factory fresh SUB’s are likely too young -- unless they are using a “new improved” adhesive that I have not experienced.

I can also imagine the factory introduced some sort of production change causing an issue that was not present in the development lab or early production. And, this change might not affect every unit. In this case the engineers can pull a few units from stock and not observe the issue. Years ago (before SONOS) there was a speaker driver from a well known model that started to fall apart in shipping. This was both brand new speakers and replacement parts. It took some weeks to track down, but it ultimately came down to parts assembled by a single person on the production line over a few day period many weeks prior to the failures.

V
Userlevel 2
Badge

I mean… look at the “related topics” I get on my left bar:

 

 

It is a serious thing

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)

buzz

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

Ken_Griffiths

So there is actually some benefit to getting old then?

 

 

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.

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

 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.

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?

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. 🤷‍♂️

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