Beam Gen 2 - sudden full volume hammering sound

  • 28 December 2021
  • 93 replies
  • 8993 views
L
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  • Luc45
  • Trending Lyricist I
  • 18 replies

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 7 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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93 replies

S
Userlevel 1

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.

RangerDog
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

I had this happen multiple times. At first I couldn’t figure it out and since I bought a new TV at the same time wasn’t sure which product to blame. (It never happened to me at any time other than watching TV. Not during music or when quiet. Also, I did not find this thread until after the issue was resolved.) I finally called SONOS tech support. (FYI: I’ve called them several times over the years and have always been very happy with the service.)

After asking a few questions tech support told me they would replace the speaker and send me a pre-paid label to send back the old one in the box from the new one. I called on a Monday morning and the replacement speaker arrived Tuesday afternoon, e.g. the next day! The simple swap required me to go through the setup process again. It has been a few weeks and the replacement speaker is performing exactly as it should.

I currently own 15 SONOS speakers and have given about that many again as gifts. This is the first time one required replacement and the service was outstanding.

Sure, I would have preferred my speaker never exhibited that loud hammering noise. And I wish SONOS had sent out some sort of alert indicating it could happen and explaining they would fix it. But overall, the my experience with customer service/tech support is far ahead of the vast majority of companies producing tech products. End result: I still love my SONOS system.

V

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. 

R

Isn't it time for a Twitter *** storm? They had over a year to fix this heart attack time bomb and the best they come up with is "working on a fix but we don't have a timeline yet”??

From a business perspective I totally understand them ignoring it, for a month or two but not a year. This is one of the best reviewed products in its class if not the best. But with an issue that bad it's really undeserved. 
A recall like this is scary expensive but the longer they wait, the more expensive it's gonna get.

 

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

P

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. 

 

J
Userlevel 1
Badge +4

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. 

​​​

U

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.

L
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Almost three weeks now and no occurrences with the replacement. Fingers crossed.

V

I spoke too soon. I had the noisy version of the issue today.

V

I had the issue occur multiple times this weekend already. I’ve submitted diagnostics twice in the past 24 hours (although the issue occurred far more than just the twice) - but have not reached out to support yet as the timing was not great for sitting on the phone.

I have a “case #” that I was given the last time I actually reported it to support - It would be great if there was a mechanism so that I could attach the # that the app reports when I submit diagnostics to my case # so that support could look at the diagnostics without needing to be prompted by a call.

T

2nd time it happened now. Ive purchased this thru the military base; had it for 6 months now.  Great sound when watching shows and movies. 

Then the deafening MACHINE GUN sounds;

1st time was at 3am, I woke up running out of the bedroom trying to figure out whats going on.  Woke up our 6yr and 3yr old kids, crying and horrified.

2nd time is today, both kids ran to the bedroom  terrified and the 3yr old ran so fast he couldn't control himself and hit the door knob on his head.  

The sound was deafening machine gun sounds, FULL BLAST even though volume of movie being watched was only 30%.

I do have PTSD from the war and I hate that feeling.  

Sonos need to fix this asap! 

S
Userlevel 1

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.

L
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Thank you, Ken_Griffiths. The issue does seem similar at least. I followed the instructions and hope it will not happen again.

Just wondering what might be triggering this behavior and how I can make sure this is not happening again...

 

 

Ken_Griffiths

Thank you, Ken_Griffiths. The issue does seem similar at least. I followed the instructions and hope it will not happen again.

Just wondering what might be triggering this behavior and how I can make sure this is not happening again...

 

Yes it’s a difficult one - but see my post in the other thread that you posted to earlier, about trying to capture more information about the issue for Sonos engineers to then look at all the data and perhaps get to the root cause and hopefully a quick solution to this issue too.

A

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

N

Update from email I sent to Sonos CEO:

I received a reply from Jake (not the Jake from State Farm lol) but from Sonos Cusomer Experience. Here’s his response … 

Patrick forwarded your note along to me as I am a supervisor here at Sonos. Your case has been assigned to our team here at Sonos Customer Experience.

Thanks for bringing it up. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience. As of now, we are actively investigating this matter and working on a fix but we don't have a timeline yet. I will make sure to let the Engineering Team know about the feedback

And of course another case id.

If Engineering is only now investigating this what with all the complaints over a year ago they must have a low priority for this problem. I’m not taking a chance on another Beam 2 and will move on from Sonos. An interesting option is the Bose 600  introduced in October which has upward firing speakers. 

K

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?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @SubmarinePilot 

I recommend you follow @Airgetlam’s advice above:

Here is how to submit a system diagnostic. You’d need to submit it within roughly 10 minutes of the event, as the space for the diagnostic information on your system is not infinite. And once you’ve submitted it, you need to inform Sonos folks which one they should be looking at, and why. 

You can get in touch with our technical support team via this link.

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

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.

T

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

W

Based on what I have read through the thread there’s no one app, service, device that reproduces the problem.  On the first beam 2 I got it happened when I was using the TV and from my phone using different apps.  Once it happened within 10 min of use, 5 min of use then 2 h of use.  Currently testing the new beam 2 they sent me.

R

Glad I found this thread. 

I’ve had the exact same experience with my Beam (gen 2). It has happened seven times in three months of usage.

Is the consensus that this is a hardware issue, only fixed with a replacement?

 

The replacement Beam 2 Sonos sent me still has this problem, but it’s no longer happening at volumes that would give you a heart attack. 
 

In fact mine just did it again today after 3 months of not doing it, doing something entirely different than either of the previous situations. Sonos still hasn’t fixed this and it sucks. 

J
Userlevel 1

Morning,

So I had this happen to me early this morning while listening to some quiet music and it scared the living daylight out of me and my family,  It was so loud is sounded like someone was shooting a machine gun in our house.  All my dogs went crazy barking and the neighbour even came over to make sure everything was ok.  

 

We had to turn the power off from the main switchboard to get it to stop as the Beam (Gen2) I'm using is wall mounted and the power sockets are unreachable as they are behind out TV, which is also wall mounted.

 

The beam gen 2 was only purchased about 4 days ago and had been working fine until this occurred.  After turning the power back on I resumed the music I was listening too for it to only happen again 5 minutes later.  I had to turn the power off again 

After turning the power back on for the second time and playing music again, the audio sounded a bit off,  Like it was louder on the left side of the Beam rather than the right side.    I was reluctant to get my ear too close to the beam while checking to see if any of the speakers had blown up in-case the machine gun sound kicked in again but I did.  There isn't much audio coming from the Right side of the sonos logo on the front but can hear sound is coming from the left side of the logo very clearly. 

 

So I feel like these noise may have blown up one of the speakers.   Just my luck.  

 

 

D

Morning,

So I had this happen to me early this morning while listening to some quiet music and it scared the living daylight out of me and my family,  It was so loud is sounded like someone was shooting a machine gun in our house.  All my dogs went crazy barking and the neighbour even came over to make sure everything was ok.  

 

We had to turn the power off from the main switchboard to get it to stop as the Beam (Gen2) I'm using is wall mounted and the power sockets are unreachable as they are behind out TV, which is also wall mounted.

 

The beam gen 2 was only purchased about 4 days ago and had been working fine until this occurred.  After turning the power back on I resumed the music I was listening too for it to only happen again 5 minutes later.  I had to turn the power off again 

After turning the power back on for the second time and playing music again, the audio sounded a bit off,  Like it was louder on the left side of the Beam rather than the right side.    I was reluctant to get my ear too close to the beam while checking to see if any of the speakers had blown up in-case the machine gun sound kicked in again but I did.  There isn't much audio coming from the Right side of the sonos logo on the front but can hear sound is coming from the left side of the logo very clearly. 

 

So I feel like these noise may have blown up one of the speakers.   Just my luck.  

 

 

Hi Josh,

Just made an account so I could reply to your message!

I had a similar thing happen to me and my beam also sounds louder on the left side.

Been debating wether to return or not as I have 7 days left but I assume this is a fault.

Like you say, it just sounds a bit off.

I wonder if anyone else can advise as to wether the left side being louder is normal, or if this problem has damaged our right speakers.

B
Badge

This is crazy random. All issues started in the last month or so. Mine has now done this. 3-4 times always in the middle of the night and the beam is in my bedroom so each time wakes us the hell up. 

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