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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Same problem here; system is less than two months old. Loud popping noise started a couple of weeks ago, only occurrs when XBOX Series X is in use. So far I have not had the issue using any other source. What seems to trigger the issue in my case is switching between apps on the XBOX (from a game to spotify then back to the game or when switrching to the youtube app on the Xbox).   

Diagnostic report 945832635 

 

TV: 2021 LG G1

Sonos Arc / Sonos Sub (Gen3) / One SL’s (Gen 2 x2)

XBOX Series X. 

HDMI 2.1 Certified cables on all devices.

It happens about every time I start up Atmos/Dolby Vision content. Just happened with the Tragedy of MacBeth a few min in.

Diagnostic 1298467104

Sonos Arc

TV is Sony X900H

Source is Apple Tv 4k

Using newer belkin cables for both the apple tv and Arc. 

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So I ran into the issue twice more over the weekend (one from ATV and one from Xbox) and I noticed a pattern starting to emerge.  I have the issue occur in bunches and then after a hard reset of the Sonos system it goes away for a month or two with no other resets in between

 

I am wondering if the working software isn’t experiencing some sort of memory leak as after a reboot it’s rock solid for weeks on end and then happens two and three times in a single evening

 

The strange thing is that it also isn’t always a killer. I’ve noticed that sometimes, it is a “pop”, followed by complete silence from the ARC. Sometimes, you can hear a subtle “crackle” in the track (still Atmos content) but audio continues.

But as you say, always fixed by a Sonos reboot.

(If only we still had the :1400 pages…, could automate it overnight 🙄 )

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Anyone know if Sonos S2 v. 14.0 fixes this popping issue? The update just dropped today and I know Sonos was developing a fix. 

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Anyone know if Sonos S2 v. 14.0 fixes this popping issue? The update just dropped today and I know Sonos was developing a fix. 

Update: I just fired up my Xbox Series X and repeatedly jumped between 2 games that use Dolby Vision/Atmos and the Home Screen which usually triggers that loud pop. So far, no popping issue to report here. Did this for about 20 minutes and nothing. Seems like 14.0 might have fixed the issue but it would be great to hear others experience with the new update before coming to that conclusion.

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Anyone know if Sonos S2 v. 14.0 fixes this popping issue? The update just dropped today and I know Sonos was developing a fix. 

Update: I just fired up my Xbox Series X and repeatedly jumped between 2 games that use Dolby Vision/Atmos and the Home Screen which usually triggers that loud pop. So far, no popping issue to report here. Did this for about 20 minutes and nothing. Seems like 14.0 might have fixed the issue but it would be great to hear others experience with the new update. 

Time will tell — I thought the same after the last update.

I think the truth is, the installation just includes a reboot of the Sonos, which commonly—but temporarily—fixes the issue.

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I have just spent an hour or so on xbox series one x playing a couple of games that were guaranteed to ‘pop’ with Atmos enabled and it hasn’t happened so far again, since update. But will reserve judgement just yet in case its related to the reboot as part of the update to v14.

Fingers crossed though!

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I can confirm that Sonos 14 hasn’t fixed the issue, neither has tvOS 15.3.

Just experienced the issue minutes after starting a purchased iTunes Movie on the Apple TV.

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I have just spent an hour or so on xbox series one x playing a couple of games that were guaranteed to ‘pop’ with Atmos enabled and it hasn’t happened so far again, since update. But will reserve judgement just yet in case its related to the reboot as part of the update to v14.

Fingers crossed though!

Update: So still no popping after many hours of xbox series X and atmos enabled, playing the games that previously would pop without fail (Forza Horizon 5, MS Flight Sim, Cyberpunk 2077). I also watched a 4K bluray with an atmos soundtrack and no pops. I never had issues with other sources such as my Apple TV 4K or the inbuilt apps on the Sony A8J and thankfully still don’t. Still keeping fingers crossed and hoping its solved it but why for me and not you Jamie I don’t know :(

It worked for 3-4 days and all the sudden the pop happened again. The update didn't fix it for me.

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It worked for 3-4 days and all the sudden the pop happened again. The update didn't fix it for me.

Yeah, same old same. Reboot normally alleviates the issue temporarily.

What I haven’t got around to testing is if multiple different formats causes the issue, and there’s some memory overflow somewhere i.e. if you watched DA content continuously, and not flick between 5.1, etc., would the issue continue? 🤔 

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It popped again 😔 at least I don’t nearly **** myself when it happens now. 

 

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

Same problem here, loud pop noise.

Sonos Arc, Xbox series X and LG G1.

Diagnostic 1668529943

 

Everything has been updated to their last SW. This is so annoying…

Sono team, can you please let me know if I can do something?

Thanks,

Ivan

Hi all,

 

To throw my 2¢ in here, as I've read the entire thread after experiencing issues (daily) myself, I'm running a very similar set-up to many of you:

Sony Bravia X90H

Xbox S, Switch, Arc, PS5 (in order of HDMI 1-4 slots)

 

The popping noise has only come about when playing Xbox, and was happening 2-3 times each evening. I opened a ticket with support during the day, and after getting home power cycled the Arc as well as swapping out the HDMI cable (just in case) before submitting a diagnostic.

Support said things looked good on their end, but I imagine what did the trick more so was disabling Auto HDR on the Xbox. After turning that feature off I had no sound disruption at all last night, even after ~4 hours of gaming. I'll post an edit/update if they come back, but compared to the last few weeks that's already a vast improvement. 

One thing I'd like to note is the rep stated I may want to remove all other HDMI devices plugged in to the TV when using the Arc, which was an... interesting suggestion. Not sure I'm willing to use the Arc only when using streaming services via my TV. 

 

 

 

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Hi all,

 

To throw my 2¢ in here, as I've read the entire thread after experiencing issues (daily) myself, I'm running a very similar set-up to many of you:

Sony Bravia X90H

Xbox S, Switch, Arc, PS5 (in order of HDMI 1-4 slots)

 

The popping noise has only come about when playing Xbox, and was happening 2-3 times each evening. I opened a ticket with support during the day, and after getting home power cycled the Arc as well as swapping out the HDMI cable (just in case) before submitting a diagnostic.

Support said things looked good on their end, but I imagine what did the trick more so was disabling Auto HDR on the Xbox. After turning that feature off I had no sound disruption at all last night, even after ~4 hours of gaming. I'll post an edit/update if they come back, but compared to the last few weeks that's already a vast improvement. 

One thing I'd like to note is the rep stated I may want to remove all other HDMI devices plugged in to the TV when using the Arc, which was an... interesting suggestion. Not sure I'm willing to use the Arc only when using streaming services via my TV. 

 

Similarly, kinda, is that I changed from 4k50 SDR to 4k50 Dolby Vision in my Apple TV video settings last night.  Made it through The Book of Boba Fett without issue, but will report back if anything *does* happen in the near future.

Mainly because it seems that whilst the Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen) is advertised at supporting DV over AirPlay for Photos, it only seems to work if the video output is DV by default—it won’t “upgrade” SDR to DV when starting an AirPlay stream (as it would everything else).

Whilst I can’t comprehend why video settings would affect audio; AV stuff, tracing all way back to good ol’ RF signals, is a tricky beast.

Hey, 

 

I add my contribution to this topic too. Couple of months ago I heard this loud bang and low volume after that first time, when watching Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision content from Apple TV 4K. Turning on TV speakers and then bacl to Sonos fixed the problem, until I heard it again when using xBox Series X and again Dolby Atmos content. Total of 5 times. Today, early morning when watching Viaplay from Apple TV 4K I had multiple sound cutouts, that got fixed by ”hardbooting” the app, but when I turned tv on later today, Sonos is complete silent! No matter what source connected to TV  I use (Playstation 5, xBox Series X, Nvidia Shield Pro, Apple TV 4K, or TV’s internal apps) there’s no audio at all. Alexa on Sonos arc works fine, also when streaming spotify from iPhone everything works. But via TV, it’s all silent 🥺

 

Sonos Arc + sub.3gen + 2xPlay:1

Sony 85X90H

 

Hi all,

 

To throw my 2¢ in here, as I've read the entire thread after experiencing issues (daily) myself, I'm running a very similar set-up to many of you:

Sony Bravia X90H

Xbox S, Switch, Arc, PS5 (in order of HDMI 1-4 slots)

 

The popping noise has only come about when playing Xbox, and was happening 2-3 times each evening. I opened a ticket with support during the day, and after getting home power cycled the Arc as well as swapping out the HDMI cable (just in case) before submitting a diagnostic.

Support said things looked good on their end, but I imagine what did the trick more so was disabling Auto HDR on the Xbox. After turning that feature off I had no sound disruption at all last night, even after ~4 hours of gaming. I'll post an edit/update if they come back, but compared to the last few weeks that's already a vast improvement. 

One thing I'd like to note is the rep stated I may want to remove all other HDMI devices plugged in to the TV when using the Arc, which was an... interesting suggestion. Not sure I'm willing to use the Arc only when using streaming services via my TV. 

 

Similarly, kinda, is that I changed from 4k50 SDR to 4k50 Dolby Vision in my Apple TV video settings last night.  Made it through The Book of Boba Fett without issue, but will report back if anything *does* happen in the near future.

Mainly because it seems that whilst the Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen) is advertised at supporting DV over AirPlay for Photos, it only seems to work if the video output is DV by default—it won’t “upgrade” SDR to DV when starting an AirPlay stream (as it would everything else).

Whilst I can’t comprehend why video settings would affect audio; AV stuff, tracing all way back to good ol’ RF signals, is a tricky beast.

I won’t claim to be knowledgable enough to know why it seems like so many of these issues are more tied to video output than audio, but it does seem to be the case, doesn’t it? Just theorizing but maybe something to do with how the information translates over the eArc channel? I have no real idea, just spitballing.

 

Tangentially, since my first post I’ve played… a lot of Xbox (new purchase for me and loving Game Pass). I haven’t had any issues at all since turning off Auto HDR. Still curious to know what the real underlying reason is, but given how much I played over the past week I’m ready to consider the problem settled for now.

Userlevel 3
Badge +3

Hi all,

 

To throw my 2¢ in here, as I've read the entire thread after experiencing issues (daily) myself, I'm running a very similar set-up to many of you:

Sony Bravia X90H

Xbox S, Switch, Arc, PS5 (in order of HDMI 1-4 slots)

 

The popping noise has only come about when playing Xbox, and was happening 2-3 times each evening. I opened a ticket with support during the day, and after getting home power cycled the Arc as well as swapping out the HDMI cable (just in case) before submitting a diagnostic.

Support said things looked good on their end, but I imagine what did the trick more so was disabling Auto HDR on the Xbox. After turning that feature off I had no sound disruption at all last night, even after ~4 hours of gaming. I'll post an edit/update if they come back, but compared to the last few weeks that's already a vast improvement. 

One thing I'd like to note is the rep stated I may want to remove all other HDMI devices plugged in to the TV when using the Arc, which was an... interesting suggestion. Not sure I'm willing to use the Arc only when using streaming services via my TV. 

 

Similarly, kinda, is that I changed from 4k50 SDR to 4k50 Dolby Vision in my Apple TV video settings last night.  Made it through The Book of Boba Fett without issue, but will report back if anything *does* happen in the near future.

Mainly because it seems that whilst the Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen) is advertised at supporting DV over AirPlay for Photos, it only seems to work if the video output is DV by default—it won’t “upgrade” SDR to DV when starting an AirPlay stream (as it would everything else).

Whilst I can’t comprehend why video settings would affect audio; AV stuff, tracing all way back to good ol’ RF signals, is a tricky beast.

I won’t claim to be knowledgable enough to know why it seems like so many of these issues are more tied to video output than audio, but it does seem to be the case, doesn’t it? Just theorizing but maybe something to do with how the information translates over the eArc channel? I have no real idea, just spitballing.

 

Tangentially, since my first post I’ve played… a lot of Xbox (new purchase for me and loving Game Pass). I haven’t had any issues at all since turning off Auto HDR. Still curious to know what the real underlying reason is, but given how much I played over the past week I’m ready to consider the problem settled for now.

Made it through another episode of Book of Boba Fett — so testing continues.

Out of curiosity, of those with Apple TV, what is your current video output setting?
Additionally, for those experiencing on Xbox, do you have “Auto HDR” enabled?

My Arc has done this several times. It happened 3 times this morning! So frustrating! 
 

Diagnostic 1667308177

I experience the same. Xbox Series X - Atmos… Signal comes via eARC from an Sony XH9000.

 

My Diagnostic 1540348382

I experience the same. Xbox Series X - Atmos… Signal comes via eARC from an Sony XH9000.

 

My Diagnostic 1540348382

This is just one example link of several others I have seen online, but it seems the Xbox is prone to this popping noise even with other brands of Soundbar…

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/xbox-one-x-dolby-atmos-sound-popping/951333dc-053d-49c6-9ff4-0d2860e16dea

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I can now confirm that his problem is TV Independent.  I just had this problem on my new LG C1 whereas before I was experiencing it on the Sony X900h

I can now confirm that his problem is TV Independent.  I just had this problem on my new LG C1 whereas before I was experiencing it on the Sony X900h

I’m wondering if there any common denominator devices connected to the TV, such as the Xbox or Apple TV - I’ve seen those mentioned in some of the posts here and elsewhere online, with different Soundbars too, having this same issue?

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I can now confirm that his problem is TV Independent.  I just had this problem on my new LG C1 whereas before I was experiencing it on the Sony X900h

I’m wondering if there any common denominator devices connected to the TV, such as the Xbox or Apple TV - I’ve seen those mentioned in some of the posts here and elsewhere online, with different Soundbars too, having this same issue?

There is, devices that use the Dolby MAT container for Atmos (Xbox, Apple TV and now Roku).   There was some debate before as to whether the TV passing through the MAT signal was doing it properly and since I’ve had failure with two different TVs now.  I’m more confident it has nothing to do with the TV passing through the signal but the signal itself

 

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There is, devices that use the Dolby MAT container for Atmos (Xbox, Apple TV and now Roku).   There was some debate before as to whether the TV passing through the MAT signal was doing it properly and since I’ve had failure with two different TVs now.  I’m more confident it has nothing to do with the TV passing through the signal but the signal itself


Same model of TV? Same brand, different models? 

Dolby MAT has been my theory all along as it’s the only consistent thread across everything.  The fact that other soundbars seem to struggle with Xbox’s Atmos content is somewhat curious—on face value, that reads as if there is a bug in the Atmos codec, and/or potentially the decoder SDK (assuming it’s provided by Dolby on licence).

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