KevinB

I just got my warranty replacements: A new BAR 48. New Surround 3 speakers. Shortly after I set it up, I too started having random popping sounds from my right surround. This is an issue I did not have on my original system but one that other customers have reported in these forums.

If you can't return it to your retailer, make sure you register your product then open a ticket with Klipsch customer support and ask for a warranty replacement.

@btlancaster24 The Cinema 600 is the newer soundbar. Both soundbars have essentially the same features including a "Night" feature to disable the subwooder. The Cinema 600 has a larger subwoofer, higher power, and slightly better frequency response according to the specs. The BAR 48 has a number of issues, some of which may have been corrected. To learn more, search the community for "BAR 48". I have no hands on experience with the Cinema 600 but know the BAR 48 all too well. I would probably go with the Cinema 600.

Try this: Load the update onto a correctly formatted 8 GB thumb drive. Remove power from your soundbar. Insert the thumb drive onto the soundbar. Reapply power to the soundbar. The soundbar should see the firmware update and install it when it powers on.

Bluetooth is complicated! If you're interested, have a look at this Wikipedia Bluetooth article. I was able to learn from Klipsch customer support that the Bar 48 uses Bluetooth version 4.1. To play music via Bluetooth you have to be able to connect to the BAR 48. Before you can connect you have to pair your device with the BAR 48. I am aware that even after a device is paired with the BAR 48 it may not be able to connect with it. After a year I am finally getting a warranty replacement for my BAR 48 and Surround 3 speakers. I don't know what hardware revisions may have been incorporated into the most recent models but I will check to see which, if any, of my issues have been resolved and report back.

@Olivier Michaud I see that no one has responded to your post. I'm sorry I haven't checked for recent posts in several weeks. I have a BAR 48 that came with the original firmware. I updated to v83 then to v30 and noticed no difference in the sound levels. My source is my Samsung TV using an HDMI ARC connection. I don't often use a Bluetooth connection so I don't know if that has been impacted but the sound level with Bluetooth is dependent on the sound level from the source. From the reports customers have posted in these forums, the BAR 48 appears to suffer from a variety of manufacturing defects, aside from various firmware issues. I would suggest you try to obtain another replacement. By the way, I purchased my BAR 48 on Black Friday 2019 and have encountered most of the issues reported in these forums. Many of the issues still remain after installing the v30 firmware. In August Klipsch Customer Support agreed to provide a warranty replacement. I'm still waiting for it to arrive: the Surround 3 speakers have been out of stock for months. 😞

Hi John, It seems I missed the the Klipsch community email notifying me of the update to this thread... I have not heard of anyone else using a second subwoofer with their BAR 48. As I have advised others, open a ticket with Klipsch. It may take a while before they get back to you. In the mean time, you may be able to learn something with a little troubleshooting. Do you still get the pop if the wireless subwoofer is not powered on? Do you still get the pop if all cables are disconnected from the BAR 48 other than the power cable and the subwoofer cable? Have you tried to power the subwoofer from a separate power bar or electrical outlet? Have you tried a different cable (i.e. different make, wire gauge, shielding, etc.) to connect the subwoofer to the BAR 48? The more information you can gather about what might be causing this issue the more likely you are that Klipsch tech support may find a solution. By the way, what are you using for your second subwoofer?

Hi Olivier, This is a Community forum. Those of us posting or answering questions about BAR 48 issues are Klipsch customers, like you. We can't fix anything! If you have registered your product, opened a ticket, and have not yet received a response, I suggest you phone Product Support. You may wait on the phone for an hour but at least you should get a response. Another thing to consider is that you opened your ticket only a month ago. It is not unreasonable to expect a response after a month but to put things into perspective I have had a ticket open for nine months. It was a long time before I got a response and while I have recently been corresponding with Product Support on a pretty regular basis, none of my issues have yet been resolved.

@Kenhugh Quite a few people have reported issues with their BAR 48. I have tried to address their concerns. This link shows all the BAR 48 posts in the Klipsch Community. If you read through them they should answer your questions.

@billups You should register your BAR 48 with Klipsch (Product Registration) then open a service request. The first thing Klipsch tech support will want to know is whether you have installed the latest firmware so I suggest you do that before you open the service request. The fact that more than one person has encountered this issue suggests to me that it may affect many devices. As users attempt to exploit lesser used features more such issues will surface. It will likely take quite some time before tech support resolves this issue and they won't discuss with you any progress they might be making. I would return your BAR 40 to your retailer for a replacement as that is something else that tech support will suggest. It may be your specific device is defective and, if so, it is probably the fastest way to resolve your issue. If the replacement has the same issue then that provides further evidence that this is a generic issue that requires a firmware update or a hardware refresh to resolve.

@Fernando Risso If you power off the soundbar then power it on, does the light still flash? You can also try to disconnect it from the power source, wait a minute, then reconnect it. Once you have paired a device you should be able to connect without paring again. Select the Bluetooth source on the soundbar but don't hold the button down to force it to pair and see if your devices will connect. I have noticed when I try to connect to my BAR 48 from my iPhone that it connects for a second then disconnects. I immediately connect a second time and the iPhone stays connected.

@Brassman101 Klipsch Tech Support leaves much to be desired. The first step is to opened a service request and get an SR number. You should get an email response but that could take weeks. Your best bet is to phone but it is not unusual to wait on the line for an hour. Some people have complained that after an hour they get a message saying that no one is available and the line disconnects. It is what it is. I have not heard this training message. You will likely have to wait until it is removed. 😞 I have not tried the TV Remote Programming myself nor has anyone else posted similar issues but I am not surprised to learn there are new issues with some of the more obscure functions. It is not clear exactly what a factory reset does. It doesn't appear to do very much. I believe it will remove existing Bluetooth parings. Did the BAR 48 volume controls work properly before you tried the TV Remote Programming? As an end user, like yourself, I don't have any inside information regarding undocumented functions or procedures so I can only speculate on what may help. Perhaps of you have a different remote you could try to set it up and see if you experience different behavior. The other thing you can do is return it to your retailer for a replacement and hope the new one doesn't have the same issues. I'm sorry I don't have any better suggestions.

@Fernando Risso You have the latest firmware. That is the first step. You can't tell from the BAR 48 what devices have been paired. If your devices show that they are paired with the BAR 48, then they are. Once a device has been paired with the BAR 48, you then have to connect to the BAR 48 from the device before you can hear any sound from the soundbar. Make sure the volume level on your S8 and Motorola are at maximum and the volume level on the BAR 48 at an appropriate level. When using Bluetooth to play music, the source device will control the volume. A common issue is that the volume level on the source device is too low to hear any sound.

@New-2-Klipsch These are community forums and not monitored by Klipsch. Like you, I'm a BAR 48 owner. I've had mine for about seven months and I'm happy to share what I have learned. The first thing you need to do is get your firmware updated. Follow these Bar 48 - Firmware V30/V83a Update Instructions and make sure your thumb drive is formatted to FAT32 and is 8GB or less in size. You may find the YouTube video I posted earlier helpful. I would recommend you register your device and open a service request if the firmware update doesn't resolve your issues.

@RandyH 000 That's exactly what I'm in the process of doing. Tech Support emailed me this morning and told me they were unable to reproduce any of my issues and that other customers reporting the same issues had their's resolved when they installed the latest firmware update. Their conclusion: my unit must have some other hardware defect. We shall see...

@shric The kindest thing I can say is that Klipsch technical support leaves much to be desired. 😒 You said That would suggest there are no issues with TV's optical output or the optical cable. The only other possibility is the optical connection at the soundbar. Either the cable is not properly seated, or The optical input is defective. If Tech Support is unable to resolve the issue for you, they will tell you to return it to the retailer from whom it was purchased. Since I purchased mine seven months ago, not one of the dozen issues I reported has been resolved. I can no longer return mine so the best I can hope for is a warranty replacement. If I had to do this all over again, I would definitely look at a different brand!

@shric Yes, that's been my experience too but it's better than waiting weeks for an email response. Remember that many of the Klipsch staff are working from home. If you have searched the community for "BAR 48" you will see the many issues we are facing. All we can do is be persistent... If you learn anything interesting when speaking with Tech Support, please share with the rest of us.

@billybob I replied to shric's OP.

@shric Klipsch Customer service is slow in responding to new service requests. Register your product online. Open a service request online. Once you do so you will have the service request number, you can then phone in and talk to someone about it. You really need to update your firmware. Pay attention to the USB thumb drive size and how it is formatted. This video may help. The BAR 48 requires an HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel) An HDMI connection that doesn't provide an ARC won't work. For your digital connection: Connect the cable to the TV first. Make sure you see a light at the other end of the cable. Ensure the optical cable is firmly seated in the BAR 48. Ensure you have selected the digital source on the BAR 48. When I first got my BAR 48 I connected it to my Panasonic TH-50PZ800 TV via HDMI and got no sound at all and never did get it working. I didn't try a digital connection. I had been using a cheap Sony surround sound system for ten years without any issues (other than the sound quality).

@Bigdrago To the best of my knowledge, the product is not yet available. We'll have to wait until it is for answers to those kinds of questions.

@Frode D Thank you for posting this. I had no issues at all installing the first (v23) firmware update but my experience installing the latest (V30) update was was very similar to yours. This is the feedback I provided to Klipsch: For others reading this thread, these are the issues the V30 firmware update purports to resolve. I am very disappointed with these firmware updates. There have been issues getting the firmware installed. Some issues have been user related but others definitely have not. The one-line description of the issues the firmware claims to address are so vague that they are meaningless. After two firmware updates that attempt to increase the sound levels from the Surround 3 speakers the levels are still pathetic. I have reported issues six months ago that these firmware updates haven't begun to address! Let's keep posting our experiences. This appears to be the only way to keep abreast of issues BAR 48 owners are encountering. Not everyone will take the time to open a service request and Klipsch is unwilling to acknowledge let alone discuss issues that have been reported.

One of the recommendations from Tech Support is to return it to the retailer. They don't specifically say for a refund...😒 Of course the retailer doesn't have to accept returns, although that is the policy of some big box stores. The issue is that if you exchange it, the replacement it's definitely going to have all the same firmware defects and because of the many quality control issues that plague this soundbar there is a good chance the replacement may be no better. Please understand I'm not trying to be facetious. If you search these forums for "BAR 48" posts you will see this is exactly what happened to others who opted for a replacement.

I wish I knew... Klipsch won't even confirm a reported issue let alone discuss possible causes. I suspect it's a firmware issue but after two firmware updates that were supposed to resolve the issue one has to wonder.

If you haven't registered your product and opened a Tech support service request, please do. If they have revised the hardware to resolve any of the reported issues you'll have to do that anyway if you want a warranty exchange. The two firmware updates for the BAR 48 each claim to improve the sound levels from the Surround 3 speakers. I have noticed some improvement when listening to Dolby Digital 5.1 content but the speakers still appear to be dead when listening to mono/stereo content with the ((SUR)) enabled.

Thanks for posting... I have experienced something similar. It sounds more like a "tweet" that lasts about a half a second and repeats a few times. This happened after updating to the latest firmware but only a couple of times. I opened my first service request last December and so far have reported a dozen issues. So far, none have been resolved and I have had no feedback that engineering has even looked at them. While a tech support service request is the only way to proceed, don't hold your breath. Please let the rest of us know if you get any results.