Contributor I

Answered

Sonos era 300 static, pop sound

266 replies
18112 views

I was so excited to receive my Sonos Era 300 yesterday. Everything sounded great at first. But last night I was going to fall asleep to some music like I sometimes do and I noticed a static pop sound. It’s like listening to your music while someone is slowly closing a bag of chips.

I tried everything. Unplugged, reset, tried playing through both the Sonos and Apple Music app and it still did it.

Anyone else notice this issue?

I’m hoping it’s a software issue, but I’m not waiting to see if it is

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Corry PAnswer

Sonos Staff

Hi @Musky75 et al

The recent software update (release date: 5/31/2023) included steps that we believe resolved this problem with unwanted noises coming from Era speakers.

If you don’t mind, please ensure you are running the latest software (Settings » System » System Updates » Check for Updates), then test once again and post here whether you continue to hear these noises or not. We’d most especially like to hear from anyone who has installed the update and still hears these noises, but hope not to. Thank you.

Edit: Corrected release date

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

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D

dnoise

Lyricist III

Is this happening to anyone without the Arc?

Yes, with only Sonos Era 300, same issue

P

Pixaranimated

Lyricist III

Is this happening to anyone without the Arc?

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.)

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

J

jrennell

Lyricist III

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.

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.

M

Musky75Author

Contributor I

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.

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.

Flare

Prominent Collaborator I

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

M

Matthijst

Lyricist I

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”.

S

Spacedams

Lyricist II

You can hear it just after “Godzilla”

https://youtu.be/TWmhzIWAwKk

I

IshZach

Contributor I

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.

Y

yorkiepork

Lyricist I

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

J

jrennell

Lyricist III

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.

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