Beam Gen 2 - sudden full volume hammering sound

  • 28 December 2021
  • 93 replies
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Hi everyone,

Last week I got a Beam Gen 2 + Sub Gen 3 to replace my Beam Gen 1. So far everything's been running smoothly. Then today when I was listening to music with said setup while working a sudden hammering sound interrupted the music. The noise must have been at full volume despite the volume limit which I set to 40%. I jumped up from the couch and instantly pulled the plug. Music kept playing in the adjacent dining room on a pair of One/One SL for a bit before it stopped.

I tried to find the problem online and only found this video. This is exactly what I experienced with my Beam as well. However, this video does not give a good idea of how loud this really was.

Since I couldn't find a solution online, I called the support hotline. The lady on the phone told me, that such a problem has not come up yet. She asked me to replug the Beam and let some music play. After just a few minutes the noise interrupted the music again. So at least the support lady had some impression of it and I managed to send a diagnostic while the noise was on. After a few seconds the noise stopped. She then instructed me to reset the Beam/Sub setup and couldn't really help me otherwise.

Anyone here experienced this problem and possibly has a solution or knows what's the reason for this issue?

@Staff please help me out. This is really creeping me out as I feel this could come up again anytime... No fun watching movies or listening to music this way. My neighbours must hate me now.

Thank you.

Corry P 6 months ago

Hi @Luc45 et al

We now consider this issue of a hammering sound issuing from Beam (Gen 2) resolved with the latest update (v15.7).

If you still encounter this issue, please ensure your Sonos system is up to date, then contact our technical support team for assistance. Thank you.

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Wow I didn’t know a speaker would be capable of causing so much chaos. Mine just erupted with what can only be described as deafening machine gun firing sounds. Already boxed it up and sending it back. I can’t have a product in the house that has the capability of doing that. It terrified my dogs. My blind dog was so scared she ran into a wall. I damn near torn my ACL trying to get to the thing to unplug it. This thing is going to spark a class action lawsuit. A speaker that can actually cause physical harm to living things in your house! Quite the accomplishment.

Wow I didn’t know a speaker would be capable of causing so much chaos. Mine just erupted with what can only be described as deafening machine gun firing sounds. Already boxed it up and sending it back. I can’t have a product in the house that has the capability of doing that. It terrified my dogs. My blind dog was so scared she ran into a wall. I damn near torn my ACL trying to get to the thing to unplug it. This thing is going to spark a class action lawsuit. A speaker that can actually cause physical harm to living things in your house! Quite the accomplishment.

Its just a real pity you couldn’t have remained calm and captured the issue on video and taken a system diagnostic report, as that may have helped everyone else to get to the root cause of the issue.

It’s certainly an issue I’ve seen reported online involving several other ‘brands’ of Soundbar/Speaker too, so it makes me wonder if it’s a codec, or a particular component issue.

Oh well let’s hope that if it ever happens to anyone else, that they are able to ’keep calm and carry on’ and gather the information that’s really needed to help resolve the issue

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Wow I didn’t know a speaker would be capable of causing so much chaos. Mine just erupted with what can only be described as deafening machine gun firing sounds. Already boxed it up and sending it back. I can’t have a product in the house that has the capability of doing that. It terrified my dogs. My blind dog was so scared she ran into a wall. I damn near torn my ACL trying to get to the thing to unplug it. This thing is going to spark a class action lawsuit. A speaker that can actually cause physical harm to living things in your house! Quite the accomplishment.

Its just a real pity you couldn’t have remained calm and captured the issue on video and taken a system diagnostic report, as that may have helped everyone else to get to the root cause of the issue.

It’s certainly an issue I’ve seen reported online involving several other ‘brands’ of Soundbar/Speaker too, so it makes me wonder if it’s a codec, or a particular component issue.

Oh well let’s hope that if it ever happens to anyone else, that they are able to ’keep calm and carry on’ and gather the information that’s really needed to help resolve the issue

There is no calm in a house with 4 dogs and a 100 decibel speaker blaring. I suggest the place to test Sonos products is in their lab and not my living room.

There is no calm in a house with 4 dogs and a 100 decibel speaker blaring. I suggest the place to test Sonos products is in their lab and not my living room.

I guess no amount of lab-testing can cater for every single real-world situation with all the different unique network and A/V products that can form part of a setup - it’s just a shame that perhaps some important information might have been lost here on this occasion amongst your chaos and panic, but never-mind if you’ve packed things away now to send back - It was just my own thoughts that your experience here might perhaps have assisted others who encounter a similar issue, particularly as it’s not a very widely reported issue.

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Another instance of the issue here - brand new Beam 2 arrived and installed today with the supplied cables.

No issue with the connected surround speakers (Play 1s), just the Beam 2. As with the previous poster, the dogs went absolutely crazy. 

To me, it seems widely enough reported for support to know about it (as acknowledged above), to have received and tested returned faulty models, and for customers not to need to kill their pets or deafen themselves trying to diagnose themselves. Sounds like a known issue and a simple RMA / replacement - and hope the replacement doesn't suffer the same issue. 

​​​

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Yep, RMA confirmed after support diagnostics.

Same thing happen to me just now and it scared the crap out of me and my family(including a 2 month old baby sitting on a swing right next to the beam and a 3 yr old watching TV). This is outrageous! I only wish the kids don’t get PTSD from the blasting machine gun sound. I’m not keeping this faulty product. Not worth it. I fear it’s going to happen again and I won’t even try to troubleshoot it. I’m using beam 2 with samsung frame tv. 

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Same thing happen to me just now and it scared the crap out of me and my family(including a 2 month old baby sitting on a swing right next to the beam and a 3 yr old watching TV). This is outrageous! I only wish the kids don’t get PTSD from the blasting machine gun sound. I’m not keeping this faulty product. Not worth it. I fear it’s going to happen again and I won’t even try to troubleshoot it. I’m using beam 2 with samsung frame tv. 

Was it brand new??  Or have you had it a while?  If you don’t just do a straight return and try to RMA / fault find, be ready for multiple attempts to reproduce to get the logs uploaded.  

Just had this happen on mine. I’ve had it about four months and this was the first occurrence. Was playing Pandora fairly quietly and then just exploded with full volume hammering. Tried to turn it off via the app and my app had nothing in it except my Roam. So whatever this is/does, your app can’t find the devices anymore when it’s occurring. Bought mine from Costco so if Sonos is no help at least I have their return policy. 

Just had it happen for a second time in the same day and I was able to run a diagnostic during the sound. Hopefully that helps figure out what’s causing this. Definitely going back to Costco if Sonos can’t resolve this. 

Make sure you call Sonos Support directly to discuss it. As stated in the Diagnostics - How do they work? thread, Sonos doesn’t automatically look at every submission.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

I also had a great Beam 2 experience today when out of the blue the machine gun sound broke lose. I was in the garden, my little one sat in front of it listening to a radio play. I called the German support - the guy found an article about it -without solution! It seems like they still dont know whats going on. Beam 2 can cause real physical harm. I'm wondering if someone is already having an acute hearing loss because of this thing. Someone should sue Sonos in the US.

They will now send me a replacement. Dont know if I can ever trust this device again.

I have the exact same issue,  its really a deafening sound and my ears hurt each time it happens. I and am being told just to do a reset on it / my hopes are low...

 

It has happened 4 times for us already, once when the TV was running, once when nothing was on, once when the beam was in group mode, each time the family freaked out.

 

I made a video of when it happened last (only managed to catch the last few seconds). Can upload if interested.

I have the exact same issue,  its really a deafening sound and my ears hurt each time it happens. I and am being told just to do a reset on it / my hopes are low...

 

It has happened 4 times for us already, once when the TV was running, once when nothing was on, once when the beam was in group mode, each time the family freaked out.

 

I made a video of when it happened last (only managed to catch the last few seconds). Can upload if interested.

Don’t forget to also take a Sonos system diagnostic report. It’s probably best to contact Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and send them your video / describe the steps that led up-to the issue.

I sent the video to Sonos support but was just told to reset the device and try again.. which I did.. well..

Happened again tonight, this time it was so loud that my neighbors woke and my ears are still ringing - I am never going to turn this thing on again, and I hope Sonos can issue me a replacement.

 

I sent the video to Sonos support but was just told to reset the device and try again.. which I did.. well..

Happened again tonight, this time it was so loud that my neighbors woke and my ears are still ringing - I am never going to turn this thing on again, and I hope Sonos can issue me a replacement.

Don’t forget to grab the data suggested and submit a diagnostic report. - and contact Sonos Support Staff when available via this LINK.

Just had it happen for a second time in the same day and I was able to run a diagnostic during the sound. Hopefully that helps figure out what’s causing this. Definitely going back to Costco if Sonos can’t resolve this. 

Sonos replaced my Beam 2 two months ago and today it just happened again, at a much lower volume, on my new Beam 2. Not sure what to do at this point, guess return it and buy something else? Clearly this isn’t resolved. 

Sonos replaced my Beam2 now and the new one has not had the issue so far.

Sonos replaced my Beam2 now and the new one has not had the issue so far.

Hi! I replaced my Beam2 today, what about your Beam2? Still having the issue?

Just finally found this thread after having the exact same issue 4 times with my Beam. Twice today. Is there no fix?!

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@adamk111 What content was playing just before this happend?

 

I had this issue today for the first time after having my Sonos Beam for 10 months. We were watching something on YouTube through my Samsung TV and suddenly this machine gun firing sound started. We were so scared for a moment and took time to realize it is from the speaker. We immediately unplugged the power and the sound stopped.  

The sound impact was so horrifying that we didnt dare to turn ON the sonos again. After reading all the updates from everyone in this forum, I am thinking to call Sonos tomorrow. 

 

But since I had purchased it from Costco,  not sure if Sonos will attain my problem or will they ask me to contact the retailer directly.  With Costco, not sure if thet will provide a replacement or refund now after crossing the 90 days return policy. Keeping fingers crossed. 

 

2 days in and the noise has freaked out my young kids and they won’t go near the speakers. May need to post vid on social for support because there’s nothing on this page and no customer on the weekends.  The second time it happened was when I was trying to set the volume limit.  My current solution is unplugging it when not using it.  

Same problem here. The first time it happened, I was streaming HBO on my Samsung TV at 12:30am -- it woke and terrified the whole family. I unplugged the HDMI, but it continued, so I unplugged the power. I figured a reset would fix it, and for weeks afterwards things were going fine. But then last week, it happened to my 13-year-old while playing on the PlayStation 5. She cried, it was so awful. That time, we caught it on video to send to support.

Thanks to everyone here for sharing their experiences. This should really be an urgent priority for Sonos.

Just finally found this thread after having the exact same issue 4 times with my Beam. Twice today. Is there no fix?!

Doesn’t seem like it.  They just sent me a new one but have to wait till my kids aren’t home to test it.  For the price of the whole system I shouldn’t have to worry like this.  My fear is that the issue shows up a month from now and they tell me to reproduce it when it seems to happen at random.

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