Sonos says there actually isn’t an issue with the latest firmware

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Initial confirmation of a bug was "premature"

Home cinema soundbar: Sonos Beam Gen 2
(Image credit: Sonos)

Sonos has said that after investigating claims from its users experiencing audio dropouts since updating to the latest version of the company's firmware, it does not believe there is a widespread software issue after all.

A representative for Sonos posted on the Sonos forum saying: "While we have been investigating [the] issue, we have not seen an increase in surround audio errors and do not see anything that suggests that you all will experience the same issue following the recent update.

"If you do experience issues while listening to your Sonos system, we always encourage you to contact us and we will do our utmost to support you."

The latest firmware for the Sonos operating system, version 14.6, was released on April 19th and included bug fixes as well as adjustable volume control for the Beam Gen 2's virtual height channels. Since then a number of users have taken to the company's forum and Reddit claiming that after updating they have experienced erratic audio from satellite speakers within a Sonos Beam Gen 2 or Sonos Arc set-up.

The issue most users describe appears to occur when they try to change input sources or swap to a different audio codec, resulting in a loss of audio in their surround or sub speakers. It has been suggested that power cycling the afflicted speakers rectifies the issue, but only temporarily, while some of those affected say that after regaining signal, their surrounds or sub are out of phase with the main soundbar.

A Sonos rep had previously indicated that there might be a bug saying: "Just to let you all know, we have now identified an issue whereby some Sonos Home Theatre satellites will experience audio interruptions after the latest 14.6 update.

"We are investigating the situation and hope to resolve it soon. At present, we have no further information to share."

Any users experiencing problems with their Sonos product are encouraged to contact the company directly and submit a diagnostics report to help them with their investigations. This can be done by heading to the settings tab of the S2 app.

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Mary Stone

Mary is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi? and has over a decade of experience working as a sound engineer mixing live events, music and theatre. Her mixing credits include productions at The National Theatre and in the West End, as well as original musicals composed by Mark Knopfler, Tori Amos, Guy Chambers, Howard Goodall and Dan Gillespie Sells. 

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Missionsparta
    W Lehmberg said:
    BS - there is a real problem and they are ignoring it. Go here https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/lost-surround-and-sub-after-update-6868561/index42.html#post16597199
    42 pages of problems mine included. Sonos messed things up with the 14.6 update and support is in denial about this.

    Please make this known...

    I can confirm this. After 14.6 it has audio randomly shutting down from my sub. System was flawless before this update (including all updates prior to this) and not one thing in the setup has changed. Same tv, same streaming devices, same power cables, same HDMI cables, etc. The company ys says they can't roll back because new updates are for the new devices being released....in other words, selling new devices trumps the old devices they are already fleecing us for. Anyone looking at these new devices, should think twice, because a similar scenario either those, will result in the same handling. STOP THE LAUNCH OF THE NEW DEVICES AND ROLL THE UPDATE BACK TO FIX THE PRODUCTS YOU ALREADY SOLD, #SONOS.
    Reply
  • willhowe
    Also suffering from the same issue, 5 weeks now, really needs to be more widely reported so Sonos acknowledge the issue. Lack of transparency is the real kicker, most users just being told to power cycle or have their wifi blamed. Needs action.
    Reply