My partner, and at least one other person he works with, is having the same issue but bonded to the Beam (Gen 2), if that is any help to you. Someone else using two Era 300’s solely as a stereo pair has messaged me here to ask a similar question. (Apparently he has already returned the products, which is a shame as he was new to Sonos but has been totally put off future purchases.)

I know exactly what you mean—got the same pops (from each speaker) while running Trueplay many times now, this after fruitlessly cycling/rebooting everything on my network several times. (My phone autocorrected “cycling” to “crying” … both would be equally accurate.)

Cross referencing a Reddit thread, evidently widespread.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/12aizq7/static_pop_sound_stereo_set_era_300_only_using/

Sound is like the popping/clicking that can be heard while listening to vinyl albums. Happening in stereo streaming Apple Music in the app or audio-in both on wireless and wired.

Submitted diagnostics and will call into support now to see if there’s any case already open or whether debug info can be captured to help investigate.

Thanks for this.  I’d seen a few threads like this one over there but was not so clever as you were to bookmark any at the time! I was just hopping from thread to thread to thread, hoping for a workaround.

Before anybody is confused since the Arc issue is often also called a ‘pop’, that one is different: it’s a super loud bang sound, like a large piece of furniture falling over, followed by the Arc no longer playing sound.

Yes, with only Sonos Era 300, same issue

Thanks, what a shame.  Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

As a follow-up, I was able to get support over the phone reporting this issue. After a few diagnosis I was asked to attempt to capture a video of the sounds. After 15 minutes of pointing my phone at the speaker streaming music via the Sonos app, I was able to capture an audible “pop”. 

Unfortunately at this time the resolution attempt is to issue an RMA for the affected speakers. I will report back regarding whether the replacements resolve the issue or not after I receive them and have a little time to test.

Hopefully it’s just a software issue. But still, this shouldn’t have happened with all the “testing” that goes into these expensive speakers. 

Does anyone have a recording of this pop they could share so we know what it sounds like and what to "hear"out for?

Here's two.

It's like the pop you used to hear when playing records.

Right after “Knife”.

You can hear it just after “Godzilla”

https://youtu.be/TWmhzIWAwKk

I am experiencing the same crackling and popping along with connection issues that are clearly specific to the ERA 300s and none of the other speakers in my system. Unfortunately am leaning towards returning now in spite of good they sound for Atmos content. More issues than I've had with all other Sonos speakers combined. I assume they will be sorted out, but not risking potentially faulty hardware.

I experience the same popping in my Era 100’s as well. Blutetooth stereo pair

Both of the replacement Era 300s I received also have the same issue. The “pallet-id” on the boxes are different from one another so I have no evidence of it being a hardware or software issue.

I’m doing more testing in hopes there could be some setting but it seems unrelated to

• volume or volume limit
• Atmos or regular audio
• streaming, bluetooth or audio-in source
• wifi or ethernet
• stereo pairing or solo
• streaming latency setting (from audio-in)

I was able to hear the low-volume static version of the popping for over a minute while very close to a speaker just after it had made the “success” tone after stereo pairing. There seems to be some audible sound when it is ready to play some sound that I’d describe as an opening and closing “thup” that can be heard after some audio events.

All 4 of these Era 300s shipped out of the same location so it is plausible it could be a manufacturing issue with some component in specific batches, an overall hardware issue with the speaker or something software related. I suspect if it were either of the latter it would be reported far more commonly though.

I need to sit down with them a bit longer to record and document the sounds further and will reach back out to Sonos. I certainly hope I don’t need to burn through more RMAs especially if it turns out to be software related.

Thanks for following up. I would send them back and wait and see if Sonos acknowledges and does a software update to see if it fixes it

I have it too and have contacted.  they go on a deeper investigation. I think its Software

Apart from my surround Era 300’s I feel like I’m also hearing a similar “vinyl” like pop coming from my Sonos Arc (not to be confused with the loud pop associated with the Xbox and Apple TV). This is was not present prior to adding the Eras and running true play after updating to 15.2. I’m starting to lean towards this being a TruePlay/Software issue with rather than a hardware issue since the pop is present on my Arc as well.

Looks like a software issue (i hope)! Still waiting on a decent comment from Sonos! 

I am experiencing Arc pops as well @LuiG. Partner is experiencing the same on his Beam (Gen 2) at his place. Only began once Era 300’s were added as surrounds.
 

Given how much Sonos struggles to fix anything (as evidenced by the many long-standing complaint threads), I am not optimistic…. Increasingly I believe I will be returning these before the return window closes. Too many problems. This was not fit to be released (unless you are an exec who wants to see inflated numbers just in time for the next earnings report).

This describes it perfectly for me. 

what is more realistic a hardware or software problem with the information we have?

yes is this possible?

I have the same (or similiar issue). If I pair two era 300 as stereo pair and set treble >= 5 some music tracks have a weird background noise. If I set up two independent systems the problem is gone. 

obvious software problem