HT-ZF9 + X90J dropouts

[llima27]

Hi all.

I have an HT-ZF9 soundbar connected to a X90J TV via HDMI using ARC. eARC was giving me trouble and ARC has been working well since setup a few months ago.

Yesterday, out of nowhere, I started to get 1-2 second dropouts in the audio. It happens every 5 minutes or so in the main soundbar and subwoofer: the sound goes completely mute and then comes back.

There have been no changes in my physical setup. Apps have been updating themselves as usual. I have the latest soundbar and TV firmware.

I haven't been able to isolate this to any particular app or audio format yet because it comes and goes.

Any suggestions of where I should be investigating?

Thanks.

[LightFoot]

Hi @llima27   I take it you have tried a soft reset (power cycle) on both TV and Soundbar plus all connected devices.

[llima27]

Hi @LightFoot. Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I have done that and it may have solved the issue. I need to observe more and for longer. I'm still annoyed it happened in the first place, hence my post, so I wanted to check for other potential issues before forgetting about the whole thing.

Have you seen this before? Do you have the same soundbar and/or TV?

More binging tonight 🙂 so let's see how it goes.

[LightFoot]

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@llima27 wrote:

Hi @LightFoot. Have you seen this before? Do you have the same soundbar and/or TV?

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Hi @llima27   

I had the HT-ZF9 with the two rear speakers (SA-Z9R) for a few years until I sold them earlier this year. I have never experienced your problem but then again I used to reboot everything occasionally to keep them in tip top condition. 

Being somewhat old, I discovered that the dialogue from the TV speakers XE93 and now A95K was much better and clearer than the soundbar. Tastes change as you get older. 🎈

[llima27]

The problem seems to have gone for now. I'll keep my ears open, but I would have been happier to understand what happened.

As for sound quality, I've heard the A's have excellent sound. However, depending on how old you are, perhaps you're happier with sound that is heavier on the midrange - typically what you get from TVs - than with all the highs and lows you get from a soundbar. As we get older we lose hearing at the extremes, so the clearest frequencies are the ones in the middle.

[llima27]

@LightFoot and all, the issue is now back only after a couple of days so it does seem that something has changed, even though I haven't touched a thing.

Suggestions are welcome. I have so far:

1. Restarted TV and bar

2. Powered down TV and bar

3. Reconnected cable

4. Reconfigured sound settings (undid some changes and put them back on)

5. Cleaned TV system cache

6. Uninstalled Netflix updates, forced stop, cleaned data, and reinstalled updates (at one point I suspected Netflix was the culprit)

If the problem comes back today, my next step is to reset the bar to factory and to replace the cable, although I can't see how a cable that was working is now faulty without anyone touching it.

My last resort is to reset the TV to factory. It's nicely configured with quite a bit of automation and app preference, and I would hate to lose and/or have to re-do all of that.

Thanks.