Hi 

I suggest you return the Beam2 and Era 100’s and purchase an Arc which in the US is $98 less. The Arc will produce an expanded sound experience. Whether or not it will be enough depends upon your ear.

The soundbars do not support external left and right front speakers.

This is a common request, perhaps SONOS will offer this capability in the future. My preference would be to offer a center channel only soundbar that contains all of the processing functions, supporting surrounds, SUB, and ERA 300’s or ERA 100’s as front left and right.

A center channel only soundbar would be the same as a center speaker I’d think?

Thanks for your suggestion AjTrek1. I have tried the Arc but I have come from a 5.1 system with discrete speakers with a really nice front sound stage. While a nice sound bar the Arc is still narrow in comparison.

Thanks also buzz. Because I’m completey new to Sonos and had heard really good comments about flexibility I was sure that satellite fronts would be possible as satellite rears would be possible. I spent some days getting familiar with the Sonos system configurations before realizing this was not going to work out. I even tried setting the Eras up in a different room from the beam as a stereo pair and then grouping the two rooms. But that introduced slight delays and they were not quite in sync with each other.

This is my request to Sonos.

The Beam used by itself has the processing power and currently does simulate all 4 surround speakers. Front left and right speakers and the rear left and right. The Beam is by default is the center speaker.

Sonos currently allow you to use 2 Eras as rear speakers. It is only a software extension and update that would also allow 2 Eras as the front two speakers. The front two are already separated and sent to left and right drivers in the Beam itself.

The Beam would then mainly operate as a center speaker and it is already setup to be one. The front left and right within the beam could still operate in balance with the Era front left and right.

I can’t see this as a big job and fits perfectly with current configurations. It doesn’t conflict with any other requirement and can simply revert back to the current Beam front Left and Right if not required. This would allow a true 5.1 system.

PS. It has just occurred to me that I could get into the Beam and  take the internal signals that drive the Beam Front left and Right speakers and bring them out in cables to the Era aux inputs. I really shouldn't need to do this.

The Beam doesn't "simulate" the front left/right speakers.  It actually has left and right speakers, which is the very definition of a soundbar.

@rodt

How things are at the moment I see two options for you…

1. taking a Sonos amp and using it with passive speakers of your choice 
2. a group of two rooms as you already tried - be aware that the grouped stereo Eras will result in some sort of channel mix of center and front channels if you use 5.1 signal, but this also could sound ok- to avoid the delay/echo you mentioned, use the „tv dialogue sync“ option in Beams room options. Set it to about 3 and the delay will be gone. 

Yes, I’m aware of this. I did wonder about using the word simulate for the front when writing it.

I think it was made clear though by my comment “The front two are already separated and sent to left and right drivers in the Beam itself.“ Also in the PS I talk about taking the signal from the two Beam internal front speakers.

Thanks for your comment though jgatie, as you say the fronts aren’t simulated.

Thanks for your suggestions.

1. Passive is good but do tend to be much larger. I’ve come from a true 5.1 system using passive speakers and I’m wanting to downsize.
2. Appreciate your comments about channel mix. I’m still trying to get familiar with all the Sonos options and their effects. Thanks also for the tv dialogue sync suggestion. I will check all this out.

For practical acoustic purposes yes, but in the SONOS context this front central speaker would have all of the processing and wireless links necessary to deliver audio to the other speakers in this surround Room. Maybe this central unit could contain height speakers necessary for ATMOS, but ERA 300’s in the front and rear would do a better job. If there were no height speakers in the central unit, mounting options would be relaxed. Currently, ARC should not be mounted below the TV, such that the TV blocks the up firing speakers. And, if the central speaker would be mounted above the TV (still not recommended) the audible consequences would not be as severe.

Thank you all for your replies and interest.

What is frustrating here is that allowing the Beam (also Arc) to have separate front and rears has no downside. As with the rears if they are not required it reverts back to the beam internals that already exist.

Also, what a great selling point for Sonos, “If you want to expand the surround effect you can add extra front and rear satellites”

How could I elevate this request so that Sonos are aware of it? I’m not sure how well they monitor the forum for requests.

My guess, not knowledge, would be that the Sonos forum moderators monitor all of these threads, and provide suggestions, request, and the like to the Project Manager/development team as a précis, rather than pointing the team members to the thread to read the request itself. At least, that is what I had folks doing when I was running a team. Nothing worse than losing a team member into the black hole that forums are…

To my surprise I found a person on YouTube ‘tearing down’ a beam to do exactly what I was suggesting in my previous request.

He is wanting to expand the sound stage so he is extracting the front and left line out signals from the Beam.

quote

“ it sound really really good after i did line out hack for left and right channel. “

He wouldn’t have to do this if Sonos allowed seperate front and left speakers in their sound bars.

This will not work as the aux input will have the same delay you experienced when you attempt to group 2 rooms together.  The delay is there to accomodate for sending audio wireless between two rooms(physical rooms).  When you bond rear speakers, they are connected over 5 Ghz with much smaller delay.

I get why you see this as a slam dunk for Sonos, but there is also the reality that Sonos would need tuning for this setup in all the various combinations that consumers might want setup.  As well, we don’t know that the Beam (or other ssoundbars) are capable of sending audio to two additional devices, or if it would be acceptable to just not have surround speakers as you intend to.  Also, I don’t think consumers want to spend $450 on a Beam only to use it as a center channel speaker.  It might also make your Beam no longer atmos capable.

I’m not against the idea, and would probably set it up myself.  I don’t think it will happen though, and I’d rather Sonos come out with a dedicated center channel speaker to do this, rather than drafting a soundbar into the role.

Sonos tear down videos are nice entertainment. This one in IMO is ridiculous.  

When one buys a Sonos soundbar one should know what it’s designed to do, it’s limitations and how it works. The Sonos sound bar is no different from any other soundbar on the market with L/C/R channels. They are all contained is a single enclosure.

If the sound stage isn’t to your liking then return the Sonos product and invest in a separates sound system with left, center and right channel boxes.

If Sonos is going to produce a system that has separate Left, Center and Right channel boxes… they will. At present that type of setup via Sonos is not available. If and when Sonos does make such a system I’ll be the first in-line (so to speak) to invest.

In the meantime until Sonos gives us a separates system you people need to stop all the ridiculous alchemy as shown in the video. You can’t make a silk purse from a sows ear.

If you don’t understand the meaning of the last statement…I’ll steal something from Star Trek… “Your inventiveness is futile”

With the exception of that Peter guy, Sonos YouTube videos are worse than useless.  Full of bad advice and misinformation.  

Thanks for this comment. It worked and I could adjust the delay out. (there are some nice video/audio sync tests on YT). I didn’t leave it setup that way because as you said the mix wasn’t right.

Good points. I understand there maybe side issues from Sonos doing this. But there may also not be. It would be really nice to get a reply directly from Sonos about this.

A dedicated center speaker would be great, I was just hoping that allowing the Beam to do this would be more likely to happen.

I’m not saying that the Sonos Beam it isn’t to my liking, I think it is an excellent as a soundbar solution the the full system. But I’ve just come from a full size 5.1 system.

Just thinking that if I add a couple of Eras to front right and left it would expand the front sound stage and make it even better.

Could be. I also found Peter Pee to be really helpful though.

Have I understood this correctly?

Hey, look! I’ve got a wireless soundbar which sounds fantastic. The developers spent hours tuning it, matching amp electronics, speakers and enclosure - that’s a part of why the soundbar cost as much as it did.

It’s so good that I’ve ripped it apart, removed some of the speakers from the enclosure, ruining the work the developers had done. I’ve run lengths of wire so I can put the speakers somewhere else - and they are no longer sonically matched with the enclosure they were made for.

So now I have a ruined soundbar with wired speakers attached to it. I call this “progress”. 
 

Or am I missing something? 

@nik9669a 

ymmd

If I was suggesting that I remove the Beam front speakers and wire in the Eras your comment would be fair enough, but I’m not. All the above comments about Beam mods are purely to illustrate the ends that some are going to provide separate front speakers. What I’m wanting is for Sonos to allow separate fronts as an option to the surround expansion as they allow separate rears to expand the sound field.