Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss


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I was playing on my Xbox when the arc suddenly made an extremely loud pop sound and then lost audio completely. The app wouldn’t let me adjust the volume and Alexa wake up didn’t emit its usual tone. I had to remove the power from the arc and reapply which resumed the audio. I’m concerned that one of the speakers in the arc may have been damaged when this happened. Has anyone had this issue?

We have had no issues with the arc since purchasing it earlier this year.

Corry P 4 months ago

Hi Everyone!

Good news! We are pleased to share that our team has identified a fix for the popping sound on Arc and it will be shipped to all customers as part of a software release today, Thursday Nov 16 at 09:30 ET, 14:30 GMT, 15:30 CET. Please note that some app stores may take an extra hour or two for it to become available.

During our investigation we uncovered a rare bug that impacts how Sonos Arc and Beam (Gen 2) in certain home theater configurations process Dolby MAT, a streaming technology which is used to deliver Dolby Atmos audio over HDMI. Occasionally a Sonos product will receive a corrupted audio segment from an external source and needs to filter out unwanted audio data. The bug we identified was allowing our Dolby decoder to play audible errors on certain home theater setups rather than concealing them. The solution we’ve built and tested improves our Dolby decoder so it better filters out corrupt audio data that can manifest as a popping sound. We’ll continue to monitor customer feedback closely after the fix has been released and ship additional updates if necessary.

We strive to deliver the best listening experience possible and work to address major issues that impact our customers. We apologize for the disruption this bug has caused and want to thank you for your patience while our team developed a fix.

We would also like to thank our community users for their detailed setup information and steps to reproduce the issue, which were helpful to us in uncovering the cause of the bug.

 

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After months of this problem, I just had an occurrence of the bang that might shed some light on the problem!

It just happened while the Apple TV 4K was on screensaver. I.e., there was no sound playing whatsoever for minutes and then out of nowhere: BANG!

This makes me think it’s a Sonos Arc problem and not related to the sound source. 

Then submit a diagnostic within ten minutes of the occurrence and contact Sonos directly with the number of that diagnostic. If the cause is the Arc, it should show up as an issue in the diagnostic. Sonos then would have the opportunity to not only understand what the issue is, but hopefully be able to assist you in fixing the issue. Anecdotal discussion provides no hard data for them to confirm anything.

As an alternate viewpoint, this does not ever happen on either of the two Sonos Arc devices I have, which suggests, from a logical perspective, one of two things. Either the signal is being sent by the TV to the Arc across HDMI ARC, or there is some failure in your particular Arc, neither of which can be traced by mere text discussion. The diagnostic, presented to Sonos and discussed would be the optimum course of action.

 

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Then submit a diagnostic within ten minutes of the occurrence and contact Sonos directly with the number of that diagnostic. If the cause is the Arc, it should show up as an issue in the diagnostic. Sonos then would have the opportunity to not only understand what the issue is, but hopefully be able to assist you in fixing the issue. Anecdotal discussion provides no hard data for them to confirm anything.

As an alternate viewpoint, this does not ever happen on either of the two Sonos Arc devices I have, which suggests, from a logical perspective, one of two things. Either the signal is being sent by the TV to the Arc across HDMI ARC, or there is some failure in your particular Arc, neither of which can be traced by mere text discussion. The diagnostic, presented to Sonos and discussed would be the optimum course of action.

 

Hi I also have the same issue - please advise how do I send you the diagnostic data? What do I need to do? Thanks!

Fair enough, let me supply a link to the FAQ: submit a system diagnostic

Oh, and after submitting, you should call Sonos Support to discuss it.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

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.

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It’s probably too late for my specific case since I already restarted the Arc to get sound back, but I went ahead and submitted one now. 1617994945
 

I disagree that contacting support one by one is the way to go though. We would never know that the problem is widespread if we did that. And what has been posted here as results from support (“Send us video proof. It’s your specific sources that are causing the problem. Etc.”), I would refer to as the run around. I honestly do not have time to try and record this issue. 
 

I’ll wait until we hear in this thread about what the issue is, or what Sonos is doing to resolve it, before I reach out to support. 

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Just had this problem with my new Beam Gen 2 and Xbox Series X. Never happened before with my Beam Gen 1.

Hi  I’ve just had the same problem I  was watching YouTube on Xbox series x and the arc popped like something had blown then no sound changed over to sky and sound came back then about twenty minutes later it did it again while watching YouTube on Xbox series x it’s seems ok now but do you know what’s causing this as this thread been going for sometime now without any solution 

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It just happened again and I managed to grab a diagnostic immediately after: 2061452815
 

Just in case this helps with Sonos acknowledging the problem as systemic rather than individual. 

Same issue here. Loud Pop and silence until cycling power to the ARC. Happened twice when streaking on Apple TV and I’ve only had the Arc for a month or so. I submitted a diagnostic but was told by the technician that is was unusable because  they can only see it when submitted when watching something directly on the tv because that is what the ARC is connected to. I’m on an LG 65 CX TV. The agent told me everything looked fine but to change settings on the tv from auto to PCM. Hopefully that helps

Definitely seems like of Sonos dedicated a little time and money to endurance testing in some of the configurations listed in this form, that they could provide an answer to their customers. Not impressed that’s this form has been going on so long with no answer

Last Update: After setting to PCM I noticed a drop in sound quality so I did a little digging. On the LG CX I have enabled eARC and set the option between PCM, Auto, and pass through to pass through, it was previously set to Auto. Hoping this resolves the popping issue. Really hoping PCM isn’t the solution because I think it’s a noticeable degradation. 

OK, sorry a lot to unpack.  Same thing happened to me with Apple TV on a Vizio OLED 65 inch.  Who do I call or what do I do.  My diagnostic was sent my confirmation is 1189733447.  This is a fairly expensive item to have this happen,  I have noticed I am limited to how load I can set the arc now before it goes down in volume and a orange light appears.  Also sound quality has taken a dive for sure.  Didn’t know if that has also been happening.  

 

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OK, sorry a lot to unpack.  Same thing happened to me with Apple TV on a Vizio OLED 65 inch.  Who do I call or what do I do.  My diagnostic was sent my confirmation is 1189733447.  This is a fairly expensive item to have this happen,  I have noticed I am limited to how load I can set the arc now before it goes down in volume and a orange light appears.  Also sound quality has taken a dive for sure.  Didn’t know if that has also been happening.  

 

Hi @thefelonattorney,

 

I’ve taken a look at your diagnostic, and combining that with the information in your post, I suspect your Arc is suffering from a hardware failure.

Please get in touch with our customer care team to explore the options available to you.

Make sure you give them this diagnostic number, as it shows the issue more clearly on your system: 1296489069

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First post - and it’s on this thread because this happened to me tonight for the first time (and it did it three times).

Had the Arc since mid-August with no issues through any source but tonight watching a film on Apple TV (in Dolby Vision and Atmos) had the loud pop a couple of minutes in and then only surround speakers working. Went through setup again and all was fine until it did it again (twice).

Found this thread so I did a power cycle and it ran for over an hour without a problem. I’ve had no issues with other Atmos or Dolby Vision sources and it had been faultless up to this point.

Next time it does it I’ll capture a diagnostic…

 

 

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Really starting to get frustrated by this problem, and based on the other users here it seems to be a little more widespread then just random individuals.  Would really appreciate a statement from Sonos on what they are doing for this problem

 

Reason why i say this is because i have experienced this issue a few times over the last couple of weeks and have submitted diagnostics for each of them

Most recent ones are: 1118141455 and 1729108796

Each time i call in the only suggestions that i get are things like power cycling and software reset….none of these obviously have solved the problem

 

For a high end audio product, i would expect a little more than silence on the support side

 

Rant over

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I’ve had the same problem when using my Series X outputting Dolby Atmos to the Arc. Really loud pop which did sound like a gun shot. This was a couple of months ago. I read somewhere to disable Atmos from the Series X and Ive had no problems since, however sort of defeats the object of having an Atmos soundbar. Was just having a look around the net today to see if the problem has been acknowledged by Sonos or has been fixed. 

I am having the same issues, Sony TV and Xbox Series X connected to the eARC port on the TV.  While using the Xbox I get a loud pop, like a gunshot, from the Arc and no sound.  I have to change sound source to TV and then back to the Arc to get sound back.  So far this only happens when using the Xbox.  I have been able to watch cable and stream from the TV with no issues.

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Following on from my last post- it just happened again playing Dolby Atmos from the Disney+ app on a 4K Apple TV.

Submitted a diagnostic - 1763217727

Haven’t spoken to anyone in support as it's out of hours but I’ll try to get hold of someone next week.

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I experienced this same issue last night.

Loud “POP” and sudden loss of sound from Arc. Sub and rear speakers functioned normally. 

After unplugging the power, and replugging, the Arc function normally again.

Was watching Netflix on the Xbox Series X with Dolby Atmos. Arc + Sub + SR + SL.

Diagnostic reference number #67513007.

This seems to be a disturbingly common problem with this configuration.

This happened to me Friday while watching The morning show on Apple TV 4K.

If it happens again will do a diagnostic and ring them.

Happened to me for the first time, less than 24 hrs ago. It has since happened 2 more times; both times during the movie Jungle Cruise. My setup is Arc + 2 Sub Gen 3s + 2 One SLs. I've had the full system with One Sub since December 2020 and never experienced this; added the 2nd Sub less than a week ago. Not sure if there is a relationship there.

Since this issue has been reported almost a year ago by others without some answer from Sonos, is very troubling.

I can't recall if the first instance was while streaming from my AppleTV 4K...but for sure the 2nd snd 3rd times were.

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And that’s twice in two days for me, two different films on Disney+ on Apple TV 4K. 

After the first yesterday (and a power cycle) everything worked fine for about 3 hours of film watching (in Atmos).
 

Today I got the pop and loss of sound exactly 10 minutes into viewing.

Diagnostic is 968159060 for whatever that is worth.

This (and the seeming lack of response) is so poor for equipment of this spec and value.

Same issue for me as described above. My diagnostic report is 591027322. Happened with an Apple TV 4K connected to a Sony x900h while watching a movie with Dolby Atmos.

Apple TV 4K seems to be a common denominator for a lot of the reports.

UPDATE: I had an HD Fury Arcana which I used with my older TV that only had an ARC port (never had this issue then). I have not used it since getting a new TV with an eARC port. I decided to try the HD Fury and have not encountered the issue in the last 48 hours. For clarity the below is the setup:

Apple TV 4K → HD Fury → Video to TV eARC and Audio to Sonos Arc system

If this resolves the issue, it would not be ideal for most since the HD Fury is a 249USD device.

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