Sonos era 300 wall mount upside down

Hi Corry,

At what wall mount height would one begin experiencing diminishing Atmos returns? If, as most state, ear level is optimal, but not possible for my setup, would an inverted mount a foot from the ceiling deliver better height effects than mounted non-inverted three feet below in a room with a 9 foot ceiling? Thanks in advance. 

Actually is it better to have them up side down at mid wall (behind the listener) so to have the upper driver shooting direct to the listener ears

OR

have them normal position at half height of the same wall (behind the listener) so that the center driver shoots to the ceiling than back to the listeria ears?

OR in normal position and at listers ears hight?

Hi @learnmedia

I suspect this will vary depending on individual rooms, somewhat. I’m afraid I don’t have any specific figures for you. As mentioned, we’d always recommend a non-inverted setup for the best Atmos rendering.

Hi @flybyme 

I don’t think you’d ever want the up-firing speaker pointed at the listener, nor would you want the centre driver pointed towards the ceiling. I think I may be misunderstanding you, but the third option seems the most sensible.

Sorry Corry,

I wrote it wrong:

I ment "upper driver and not "centre" driver!

So ,ideally , you suggest to position them at ears level height with upper driver ponting up

But what about positioning them at more or less 40/50 cm above the listener ears still having the upper driver facing up?

In this case the sound from the upper driver has less distance to bounce on the ceiling and come.back to the lister ears..

in this case will the.listener loose in volume or sound quality coming out from the side drivers or not ?

Hi @flybyme 

It was partly my misunderstanding too - if inverted, the up-firing speakers would indeed point roughly at the listener.

40/50cm of additional height shouldn’t be a problem, though it will become more of a problem the closer the speakers are to the listener as the angle between the two increases in severity. So, as long as you can locate the speakers so that they are behind the listener to a significant degree, a little extra in height will be fine. This horizontal distancing will also help with the rendering (bouncing) of the height channels.

I don’t think this would affect the audio quality, no.

I hope this helps.

Hi Corry,

Thank you for your reply. I believe you may have answered my question here. I realize I didn’t provide enough info about my setup/room previously. My 300s are mounted non-inverted 2 ft. above ear level and 3 ft. below the ceiling. However, the wall is 6½ feet behind the listening position providing some of the horizontal distancing you mention. 

Peace,

aj

Thanks for the info

Unfortunately my sofa is directly against my back wall and it is difficult to get the speakers at head hight so i am thinking maybe up high inverted would be best for me.

Are there any setting to change for this set up?

Ta

NCW 

Hi @ncw1978 

No setting to change - the Era 300s have accelerometers that will inform them that they are inverted.

Thanks again hopefully will be getting the speakers early next week according to dispatch so I can post how I get on. 

I have my new 300’s and they are good and an improvement on the ones but don’t think the inverted mode for home theatre system isn't implemented properly as it is not as immersive as I would like and the sound still comes from the speaker and not all around.

Hopefully this will improve soon as I really like where they are aesthetically.

I was waiting for an answer to this question but decided to bite the bullet and just buy two Era 300s to replace my Amp powered Mirage Omnisat rear surrounds.  I think the reason there are not of a lot of answers on this forum to this question is because the speakers are very heavy, and you have to actually mount them to test the sound from below the ceiling.

I think they sound great mounted inverted below the ceiling (my only option because the couch is against the wall).  I had them lower when I was testing them, and they were too loud because they were so close to the ears. The Atmos Experience is much fuller just because sound is being produced in so many directions.  I don’t know if height audio would be more mesmerizing if the speakers were properly placed three feet behind me, but either way the sound is much more immersive than with my Omnisats.

I have bitten the bullet and moved the speakers down and put them in the recommended orientation and the sound placement sound so much better.  

Has the software been updated to fully support the speakers inverted? 

Do you have any photos of how you’ve mounted them?

I’m in a very similar situation to @ncw1978  and @T800Model101. My couch is against the back wall where I currently have my Sonos One SLs mounted about 4-5 feet above the listener’s ears and about 1- 1.5ft from the ceiling. Seems my only option is to invert. I’m wresting with 2 questions:

1. Is it worth the ~$900 to upgrade from One’s to Era 300’s in general?
2. Is it worth, given the mounting location, to upgrade and will i notice an improvement? Our living room is rather open concept with our kitchen, so while the listening area is mostly the living room couch area, the space is large due to the kitchen which effectively doubles the listening area. I also have a One on the kitchen counter to improve audio when streaming music.

I think it is definitely worth it.   The surround is very powerful.  Before upgrading, I had a nice setup with passive Mirage Omnisats connected to a Sonos Amp as surrounds mounted in the same location where the Era 300s are now mounted.  The Omnisats, like inverted Era 300s, project sound downward.  The Era 300s were a slight but noticeable upgrade.  I went to a friend’s house who has Ones as surrounds at ear level, and the difference between the Ones and mounted inverted Era 300s was like night and day.   I’d imagine (but have not confirmed) that One’s mounted at ceiling level would not sound nearly as good as One’s at ear level, hence my answer. 
 

As for the open layout, I have a somewhat open layout between my living room and dining room. When watching TV sitting on the couch, the open layout does not make a difference because the Era 300s are above you.  I have a Sonos one and a Symfonisk picture frame on the other end of the room I group with the Arc and Era 300s when listening to music. 
 

hah, i didn’t know this existed, pretty cool. Is audio output/quality similar to a One?

Thanks for all your feedback. I guess I’ll have to cough up the $800 for some Era 300’s. At least I can utilize Sonos’s 15% upgrade program.

pic from kitchen area looking towards tv. 
 

Hey community, not to beat the dead horse to death. However, I have a similar situation with  a large open concept living room, dining room kitchen. I have 9 foot walls, but then a 8/12 pitch up to about 14’. See pics below. My thought is to put them on the wings at about the 7 foot height, mark (see the left side by the two picture frames). The thought is to move the pictures and put them as I mentioned anywhere from 6 to 8 feet. my wife won’t let me put the stands behind the couch 😏

So,  to invert or not to invert, that is the question??? Thinking not, as  the top driver facing up will bounce off the pitch and come back down - but then again, I’m hearing other threads say it sounds really good inverted, but it may be too directional  

What  say you pros?