Hi.  The fact that the sound is L/R inverted is not the real problem.  The real problem is that the sound that should be at the front is at the rear.  The people speak in front of you and the dialogue comes from behind you.  You just don’t put the soundbar at the back.

Sure it is not the best experience. However, I have no other choice.

I have no problem with the source of the sound, just the L/R inversion.

Is there a real solution for people with the same constraints / projector ?

Sorry but this is not a compromise, it is just wrong.  Of course you are entitled to set up however you wish but I cannot see Sonos investing effort into resolving the subsidiary issue.  

Y9u say you have no other choice.  What sources are you playing and how does the sound currently get to the soundbar?

It looks like you also have the height channels blocked on one side.  If I were in the same situation, and placing speakers in the front of the room was not an option, than I would not use an expensive soundbar like the Arc.  Use a cheaper soundbar, possible one that allow you to switch or takes analog RCA inputs so that you just switch the left and right channels via the wiring.  The only thing you can do with the Arc is flip it over.

The Android TV team of developpers took into consideration that the internal speakers should be reversed when the projectors are able to detect a 180° flip. So this exists for the Android TV system, however it is not a manual button (since I would prefer not to change, because I need a double inversion, so not an inversion at all).

I found on internet many and many people what were looking for this feature. Any moderator could transfer my request of feature if none exists ?

The room is too small, i cannot put anything in the front. This not requires big efforts into developpement, only some lines of code (I am developper but I cannot modify the Sonos Firmware). For purists, this may be hard to ear the needs of the rest of the world. I only need this feature for TV (projector), i’m just using HDMI, nothing exotic. This has no importance with music.

The height channels have 2cm on the top, but this is not my issue. The music sound is good, because there is no importance with left and right. I only have trouble with TV (projector). Thank you for your advice regarding a cheaper soundbar (but it don’t matter here). I thought about fliping the Arc it over… maybe Sonos could do better to match with people needs.

It’s very common for projectors to be mounted upside down on the ceiling, so it’s not surpirsing for the 180 flip to be required.  It makes zero sense to use a soundbar, particularly one with height channel atmos speakers to the rear of the room.  I don’t see it as a simple code option either since you aren’t talking just about left and right channels, but the height and side firing speakers as well. Then there is trueplay  tuning.

2 cm  is well below with recommended clearance.  You likely aren’t using the height channels at all, so maybe that’s why you don’t see it as an issue.  You seriously are wasting the Arc by using it this way.  You would be better off selling it and getting a soundbar or sound system that fits your needs better, which would definitely be cheaper.  If you insist though, and your projector has RCA outputs, get a RCA to optical converter, then use Sonos optical to HDMI-ARC dongle to feed the Arc.  You can flip the left and right channels in the wiring.  You may introduce a bit more delay with this method though.

in your image I see what looks like a SONOS FIVE. If this FIVE is part of a pair or surrounds, you may want to invert L/R for the pair. At least this L/R will then agree with ARC.

I believe the device on the top shelf is the projector. I thought it was a Five at first too.

The inverstion is pretty simple. It’s like counting from 9 to 0 rather than counting from 0 to 9. In the code, you must have pointers (one per speaker) that takes the opposite pointers… So more or less 10 lines of code to apply the left / right reverse. I am not asking for spacial effects, only for a basic inversion, not more.

I'm not a purist and I am not here to djudge about Atmos or whatever. For music, this is perfect. But this could be improved for videoprojectors with rear installations.

Thank you for your both solutions (that are trickies but ok) :
- Using 2 adaptors
- 180° flip of the Arc

Like previously said, the developers of AndroidTV have implemented an automatic solution for position. This could be setted if we had an option (a simple button) to invert the Left and Right channels, not an automatic way.

I am here to explain the need for the Sonos team. Not to defend the soundbar position. If Sonos want to ear the need, a lot of people would be happy. Otherwise, I am going to request the feature on Android TV that only users for this system could use.

Turn the Arc upside down. You’ll benefit from the height channels firing into your ears. 

Come to think of it, why not use headphones instead and dispense with the Arc? 

You may not care about spatial effects, but you have a soundbar that handles spatial effects.  I know you think it’s a simply change, but I think it would get rather complicated in a hurry.   I don’t how tuning is applied, but it would have to be inverted to, or maybe not depending on whether tuning was done before or after you ask for the the channels to be inverted.  And the atmos audio signal, which has metadata for location, would have to be inverted along the horizontal axis.

You can’t compare video projectors inverting an image to an atmos capable soundbar inverting the audio it receives, especially since the audio will sound bad after the inversion, do to location of soundbar, after your done.

The Sonos solution for this would be use a Sonos amp and reverse the passive speakers.  Maybe even use mono mode so that it doesn’t matter.

The transformation is a simple mirror. The special effects are exactly the same, inverted in the mirror.

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

Even that is perhaps better than having the TV/Projector sound coming from behind - I think seeing a person speaking on screen, out in front, with their voice coming from behind, would be quite disorientating. I would perhaps go the whole hog and turn the Projector upside down too, to really confuse the senses.

Reported. You and your 23.400 replies… great community here.

Could you let more interesting people to chat ? Not you. Thanks.

It’s not as bad as you might think.  I have an outdoor TV setup where the speakers are behind me, and I don’t really find it all that confusing.  It’s not ideal, but since the speakers were there long before the TV, the wires are buried, and I want to keep audio in the yard rather than facing the neighbors, that’s how it will stay.  I’m honestly not even sure if the L/R orientation is correct, honestly.

But it’s amp with 2 passive speakers in an outdoor environment, not a soundbar with atmos capabilities.

You are making assumptions about how Sonos works.  Regardless, Sonos is very unlikely to ever do this, since it’s not a highly desired feature, and it would allow users to use the Sonos speakers in a way that will have it perform terribly….which doesn’t sell more speakers.  

And again, it’s not like Sonos doesn’t have other products that fit your needs better.  You could use an amp as you suggest.  You could even use a Beam or Ray, which are better sized for your small space, flipped over that would not have messed up height channels in the process. Even the Sonos logo would appear right side up.

It’s not that Sonos is missing a feature, it’s that you’re using the wrong tool for the job.

It has been many years people are asking for this feature. 

Can Sonos review this feature seriously ? @Corry P @Sotiris C. 

We don't need perfect sound, we need perfect compatibility.

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

Less than 10 requests over the course of 4 years?  I think you have your answer.

Hi @Julien75013 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Keep the ideas coming!

Thank you for the moderation measures.

I didn't mark this topic as resolved, since it isn't. Surprised to see that you solved it by yourself.

Hi @Julien75013 

The questions you asked were:

“Solved” implies there’s an issue. There isn’t. I marked my answer as the Best Answer because it was the best answer on the thread to the questions you asked.

It's an arbitrary choice on your side, your interpretation. Strange community here, that is sufficient to it-self, even if it don't solve anything. I consider my question as an real issue. It can be not a problem for you, since it isn't installed at your home. But this is an issue for me. I would rather marked as unresolved since nothing could resolve the issue at present.

Hi @Julien75013 

I meant the Beam is performing exactly as designed, so there isn’t an issue. But you have made a feature request, which is what you were asking how to do.

This is not a Beam. Whatever you have in a room, it could reverse the entire room. Like a mirror. So if you have only one ARC, it should be able to reverse the ARC (or the Beam). It also could works if you have many speakers.

I ignore how the feature is transmitted to the team. Everything is opaque, there is no transparency. Marked it solved is also unclear, it could be interpreted as “ we don’t need to see this thread anymore “, whereas the need still exists, the demand is still unsolved.

You may change your point of view if you were in my place.

As I am not a Sonos employee, I am free to say that the need for this is shared by a tiny number of users, all of whom are trying to use their Sonos in a way that it is not designed for.  Some may want it to accommodate a setup which is a travesty of a surround system.   Even if this is a simple change (which I doubt}, why should Sonos devote a single minute of scarce development time to a change that encourages misuse of the product?  

The suggestion has been passed on.  My prediction is that this will never see the light of day or get anywhere near it.  And quite rightly so.

10 lines of code, more or less. Every person who doubt about it, knows nothing at all.

It’s like, routing a phone number to another… just a transfert, like the channels L / R.

It is more a war between jurists, patents and google ; but not a problem of time.

The world is changing, but the purists are not. However, the earth is no longer flat.