A senior editor of the Verge one of the world’s leading tech sites has warned consumers not to buy the $1,499 Sonos Arc soundbar because of consistent Dolby Atmos problems.
He is not alone with over 1,000 Sonos customers not able to get a satisfactory response the US sound Company in three years since Sonos first became aware of the problem.
Tom Warren, is a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech.
He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
He purchased one of the problematic Sonos products only to find that the product was “not reliable” and worse still the business did not have a solution to the problem.
He said “If you’re even considering a Sonos Arc soundbar to use with an Xbox Series X or Apple TV 4K, avoid this $900 soundbar until Sonos has fixed this problem or can give us a more detailed response. Otherwise, you’ll probably be left like hundreds or thousands of other Sono’s customers with a Dolby Atmos soundbar that can’t handle Dolby Atmos properly”.
He claims that his Sonos Arc soundbar sounds like it’s exploding with a startling loud bang and a series of audio pops when I try to use Dolby Atmos content.
He said “I’m not alone, either. I was shocked to learn that hundreds of Sonos Arc owners have experienced these extremely loud audio pops for nearly three years without a fix”.
Sonos markets this Arc soundbar as being able to “bring all your entertainment to life and experience breathtakingly realistic spatial audio powered by Dolby Atmos.”
The reality for many is that it’s a Dolby Atmos soundbar that can’t handle Atmos properly Warren claims.
“I’ve been experiencing these loud audio pops over the past few weeks, with no changes to my setup. Others have been suffering with them for years without a fix in sight, with a single thread on Sonos’ forum full of nearly 1,000 responses from disappointed Arc owners.
After contacting Sono’s support to add my voice to the growing number of affected users, I was met with two official workarounds: disable CEC on devices or disable Dolby Atmos and use Dolby Digital 5.1 instead.
With one of these offerings Warren would have lost the ability for his TV to control other devices over HDMI-CEC.
The most frightening issue is that Sonos who brag that they are a premium sound Company has not been able to come up with a solution for three years.
Sono’s product manager Scott Fink told the Verge ” We are aware that a small percentage of customers have experienced an interoperability issue which is causing a popping sound on Arc. What we know now is that this issue occurs on some Dolby Atmos enabled audio products, including Arc, when connected to certain combinations of streaming devices and TVs while playing Dolby Atmos content”.
Sonos management who has known of the problem for at least three years claim that they are “committed to finding the root cause and we’re continuing to test for a reliable reproduction of what customers are describing online”.
Warren responded writing “Sonos says it can’t reliably reproduce the issue, but that’s bizarre since many customers can. I’m also able to make the audio pop simply by navigating around the Xbox dashboard and then moving to content that isn’t Dolby Atmos and back again. The audio pop is incredibly loud and startling, and the first time I experienced it, I thought the soundbar had exploded and died since the light flashed red and it looked like it briefly turned off”.
The “solution” to disable Dolby Atmos “doesn’t feel good,” according to KeithFromSonos, a Sonos employee who regularly posts on Reddit answering community concerns.
“I hesitate to say a ‘fix’ is in the works. Only because I don’t want anyone to get tied to the idea that something is coming ‘soon’.
Warren even offered to ship his 65-inch TV, Xbox Series X, and Sonos Arc to Sonos so it can reproduce the issue and figure out a fix.
But in between time he’s warning “Don’t buy a Sonos Arc Soundbar”.