Jumping onto this topic as I am experiencing the same problem. What’s especially vexing, for me, is that when I first got the bike, the SRAM Force AXS was practically silent, through all gears – it was amazing to ride. Over the course of the next few days, though, it got progressively louder, the sort of grinding noise that comes with a dirty chain (though I keep the chain clean and lubed, at all times).
At this point, when in the large chainring, the smallest 4 cogs on the cassette are shockingly loud, to the point where I don’t want to use them. This is on a updated Force cassette that already has the “stealth rings” installed.
My LBS has been less-than-stellar in its initial response: “it’s loud, but it’s fine / it’ll break in (I have almost 400 miles on it) / there’s nothing we can do”. I called back a week later and told them it was unacceptably loud and they needed to start warrantying stuff and trying to make it quieter.
I almost want to see if there’s some mythical “SRAM Master Technician” in my area and take it to them, in the hopes they have techniques or tools or knowledge that my LBS doesn’t.