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Bang from Sonos Arc


Watching TV with Sonos Arc, a powerful bang and sparkling sound appeared from Arc. I sounded like the whole speaker exploded, it was no sparks but I sounded terribly frightening. Speaker shut down, the I turned Arc on again and it sounded like before. Have anyone experienced this before ? I have two Arcs and the one that had this strange/undefinable loud sparking for 3 seconds, is a new/refurbished Sonos Speaker from Sonos Holland.

 

 

 

 

Best answer by buzz

Reports have given sketchy details, but it seems like they were watching a video source. Your report is a little different.

It’s often hard to track something like this down. If there was a major design flaw, I think we’d be flooded with hundreds of reports. There could be a bad batch of parts or an issue on the production line, either might effect a small number of units

Years ago (before SONOS existed) there was a sudden problem with a speaker that had been an excellent, trouble free, product for many years. Brand new speakers would fail soon after purchase or out of the box. Replacement parts would fail in shipment. It took a few weeks, but is was eventually determined that a single production line worker was not following proper protocols over a three day period.

By the way, I’m not assuming anything. For a product as complex as ARC a failure could be triggered only after a long sequence of specific events and this sequence is executed only by a small group of users.

Again out of curiosity, when was your unit assembled? Don’t publish the full serial number of your unit. The first four numeric characters of the serial number give the production date. For example, “2408” would indicate August of 2024. SONOS will have more exact data on the unit’s history, but knowing the approximate production details might help us here.

For other readers of this thread: it’s important that you report such incidents to SONOS support. Do this by submitting a diagnostic within 10 minutes of an ‘event’, log the confirmation number, then follow-up with SONOS phone support. Don’t post the confirmation number here.

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9 replies

Corry P
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  • Sonos Staff
  • 8550 replies
  • March 20, 2025

Hi ​@bjornaxel 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Sorry to hear of this event happening with your Sonos Arc.

I just spoke to an engineer about this specific event you experienced, and while he thinks it was probably just a noise and not actually damage being caused, he did recommend that you contact our technical support team and arrange a replacement of the unit, just in case.

I hope this helps.

 


Corry P
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  • Sonos Staff
  • 8550 replies
  • March 20, 2025

Hi ​@bjornaxel 

In the meantime, please unplug the Arc from power. Again, “just in case”.

 


Bjorn Axel
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  • Lyricist II
  • 3 replies
  • March 23, 2025

Thanks Corry for advice.

 

I restarted and spoke to Sonos technician in Sweden, he gave instructions on connections. I unplugged and sent an analysis to Sonos. He did not find any problems. Good Enough, Arc worked as expected, until the same thing happened again. ( ie. Loud cracking, booms and electric noises, I Just waiting for it to come smoke from the Bar, nothing just went silent. Noted warm temp. on the back side.

 

Reset it and now it works well again. 

 

But … I can't have an Arc that behaves like this. All other Sonos speakers  etc I have are completely 100% reliable. Just as it should be.

 

I bought it at Sonos_Espana_Tienda_Oficial, shipped from Netherlands, (bought from their official site on E-Bay). I have asked them for help. Preferably I will be offered a return, replacement or money back. Let see how that goes. 

 

Meanwhile I will certainly unplug it, thanks for your reply and support. 


buzz
  • 23916 replies
  • March 23, 2025

I’m curious what TV Program were you watching? Was this passing through a cable box? TV App? Was the audio format simple stereo or an advanced format?


Schlumpf
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  • Prodigy III
  • 1364 replies
  • March 24, 2025

@Bjorn Axel 

I recommend to follow Corrys advice and contact your local Sonos support for a replacement. As long as your Arc is under warranty it doesn’t matter where it was bought. Just if you like to get a full refund, you will have to contact your Sonos reseller. 


Bjorn Axel
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  • Lyricist II
  • 3 replies
  • March 24, 2025

Thanks all, ​@buzz the sonos arc is supporting my new LG OLED tv ( 2025 model ) Tv is connected to internet with a net-cable.

 

Arc connected with HDMI to TV and set according to easy to follow instructions by LG.

 

Advanced format, with surround speakers plus a sub.

Arc works 95 % of the time, sometimes it throws me out when I listen using  WIFI with Spotify from Iphone, plus most seriously the speaker “crackle and boom explosion” has just happened twice. But that “boom” is one too many times. Very unpleasant.


buzz
  • 23916 replies
  • Answer
  • March 24, 2025

Reports have given sketchy details, but it seems like they were watching a video source. Your report is a little different.

It’s often hard to track something like this down. If there was a major design flaw, I think we’d be flooded with hundreds of reports. There could be a bad batch of parts or an issue on the production line, either might effect a small number of units

Years ago (before SONOS existed) there was a sudden problem with a speaker that had been an excellent, trouble free, product for many years. Brand new speakers would fail soon after purchase or out of the box. Replacement parts would fail in shipment. It took a few weeks, but is was eventually determined that a single production line worker was not following proper protocols over a three day period.

By the way, I’m not assuming anything. For a product as complex as ARC a failure could be triggered only after a long sequence of specific events and this sequence is executed only by a small group of users.

Again out of curiosity, when was your unit assembled? Don’t publish the full serial number of your unit. The first four numeric characters of the serial number give the production date. For example, “2408” would indicate August of 2024. SONOS will have more exact data on the unit’s history, but knowing the approximate production details might help us here.

For other readers of this thread: it’s important that you report such incidents to SONOS support. Do this by submitting a diagnostic within 10 minutes of an ‘event’, log the confirmation number, then follow-up with SONOS phone support. Don’t post the confirmation number here.


Bjorn Axel
Forum|alt.badge.img
  • Lyricist II
  • 3 replies
  • March 24, 2025

@buzz I bought it refurbished from SONOS in January 2025, I have had it for 2 months.

Date of production 2308. 

Sonos have accepted a return and money back. Looking forward to hand it over top UPS and purchase a brand new ARC.  


buzz
  • 23916 replies
  • March 25, 2025

I have a friend who was a field service engineer for a minicomputer firm. These were larger systems, not desktops. The goal of service was to get the system up and running again as soon as possible, usually within a very few hours and most of this elapsed time was travel time. Most of the “repair” was done by swapping large PC boards. The defective board was sent to a refurbish station to be repaired and tested. The re-certified board was then released back into the repair pool. If this board came back for repair again, it was sent to the crusher.


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