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Era100 as surrounds. What happens if they are unplugged?

  • 27 December 2023
  • 7 replies
  • 149 views
B
  • BJR
  • Contributor I
  • 3 replies

Hello ya’all

I ordered two Era 100s as I wanted to add rear surrounds, and I have Arc and Sub gen3 currently.
Although for sure it would be ideal to keep the two Era100s all the time, I will have to unplug them while they are not in use and store them away and just use Arc and the sub. As far as I understand, the Era100s will only receive signals for the rear channels if they are set as surrounds, but what will happen to Arc if I unplug Era 100s without unpairing them from Arc and store them away? Will Arc lose sounds that were assigned to Era 100s?
Appreciate your advice!

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Best answer by BJR 28 December 2023, 04:32

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7 replies

melvimbe

I’m pretty sure the answer is yes, you will lose sound intended for the rear speaker.  When you bond the rear speakers to the Arc, you’re setting up that network connection and establish what audio channels should be directed at what speaker.  When the speakers are disconnected, then the Arc won’t just automatically reroute  audio channels to side firing speakers to compensate.  It will just keep attempting to send audio to your surround speakers till they are active and back on the network.

 

Danny
B

I see. Looks like I need to unpair everytime. Thanks for the help!

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

We have a pair of Play 1s as surrounds for our Arc and don’t always have them powered on. We don’t really notice much difference in the Arc and Sub’s sound with them on or off. We put a light on the power cord to help us tell as they are mounted too high to see the LED.

I’d try it both ways to see which you prefer but even with the Surrounds Bonded but powered off you won’t have a bad sounding setup.

Ken_Griffiths

@BJR,
I’m not entirely sure of the outcome for each individual audio codec, music and TV audio, but I assume you will just use the switch that’s available in the Sonos App to toggle off the Home Theatre Surrounds as mentioned in this link below, before first powering-off the Era’s… I assume the Soundbar will then perform as designed without the rear channel audio. I think the thing is to try these things and see what happens and if you encounter issues, you may have to first unbond the surrounds instead, which can take about 30s longer to do (give or take).

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/change-surround-audio-settings

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Next time I have that room powered up I’ll have to give the “just powered off’ versus “disabled in the App” sound a listen to see if I can hear a difference.

B

@BJR,
I’m not entirely sure of the outcome for each individual audio codec, music and TV audio, but I assume you will just use the switch that’s available in the Sonos App to toggle off the Home Theatre Surrounds as mentioned in this link below, before first powering-off the Era’s… I assume the Soundbar will then perform as designed without the rear channel audio. I think the thing is to try these things and see what happens and if you encounter issues, you may have to first unbond the surrounds instead, which can take about 30s longer to do (give or take).

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/change-surround-audio-settings

Thanks so much for the detailed solution with the link! I will definitely try that!

 

B

We have a pair of Play 1s as surrounds for our Arc and don’t always have them powered on. We don’t really notice much difference in the Arc and Sub’s sound with them on or off. We put a light on the power cord to help us tell as they are mounted too high to see the LED.

I’d try it both ways to see which you prefer but even with the Surrounds Bonded but powered off you won’t have a bad sounding setup.

That is also very good to know! Thanks!

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