Sonos has finally fixed the Dolby Atmos “pop of death” in its Arc soundbars

Enlarge / Sonos notes that its Arc soundbar pairs "Dolby Atmos and the upward-firing drivers," which some users have not enjoyed during cacophonous pops. (credit: Sonos)

A bang, a gunshot, a "pop of death": Some owners of Sonos' Arc and second-gen Beam soundbars have been dealing with a striking audio disruption with their audio systems since at least December 2020.

The issue now has a fix, and it should already be available to users. Updating a Sonos mobile or desktop app and then checking for system updates should push the changes to Sonos speakers.

A Sonos staff member writes that the Arc and Beam soundbars "in certain home theater configurations process Dolby MAT," which delivers Atmos audio over HDMI connections. Sonos products could receive corrupted audio from that connection but were failing to filter out those bits, playing them instead. The corrupted audio "can manifest as a popping sound." The Sonos devices' improved Dolby decoder should no longer force listeners to hear what it sounds like when digital audio transmissions go awry.