fives or era300 with my arc

Hi

If you are considering adding the speakers as rear surrounds with the Arc to achieve full immersion with Dolby Atmos movie content (and stream select music tracks encoded for Atmos) then you must purchase the Era 300’s. The Sonos Five’s do not support Dolby Atmos.

The Era 300’s can also be set to deliver full stereo when used as surrounds when playing stereo music with the Arc. The listener will be placed in the center of the music experience. The Era 300’s will auto switch back to surround mode for movie content.

If you are looking to add speakers as a standalone stereo pair and are not concerned with Dolby Atmos for music then the Fives are the best choice IMO. However, the Era 300’s as a pair will play both stereo and Dolby Atmos encoded music. The stereo sound with the Era 300’s (IMO) offers a near Sonos Five listening experience with slightly less low end.

Note: Neither the Era 300’s nor the Five’s when used as surrounds can be used as an independent stereo pair.

I don’t have either but how would the 300s and a Sub-mini compare to the Fives?

That setup (IMO) would be spot on to the Fives. I have the Era 300’s bonded to a full size sub. The reason it’s a full size sub is because I removed it from a room with dual subs that really didn’t need both. Otherwise I would have chosen a sub mini. 

Merci AjTrek1 pour ta réponse claire 

Je vais donc acheter pour compléter mon arc deux era 300 plus polyvalentes que les fives 

Je pense aussi compléter par un sub pour avoir avec les era autant de basse que les fives .A votre avis le mini sub sera t il suffisant ? Merci

Thank you AjTrek1 for your clear responseSo I'm going to buy two era 300s to complete my bow, more versatile than the five.I'm also thinking of adding a sub to have as much bass with the Era as with the Fives. In your opinion, will the mini sub be sufficient? THANK YOU

Thank you AjTrek1 for your clear responseSo I'm going to buy two era 300s to complete my bow, more versatile than the five.I'm also thinking of adding a sub to have as much bass with the Era as with the Fives. In your opinion, will the mini sub be sufficient? THANK YOU

The sub mini will work as an excellent setup with the Era 30O’s in stereo pair. One more question…

Please clarify if you will be using the Era 300’s as a standard alone stereo pair or as rear surrounds with a Sonos soundbar? The application is different as I tried to communicate in my original response but may have been lost in translation 😉.

With the mini sub, the arc and the 2 era300s, the ideal for me would be to be able to switch from a stereo configuration to a dolby home cinema configuration thanks to a modification to be made on the Sonos application
but if I understood correctly this is not possible, is it not?

There is no ‘easy’ way to do this, no. It can be done, but it’s both time consuming, and breaks any TruePlay settings you may have. Basically, you’re setting up your speakers as ‘new’ each time. 

It’s a shame. So I configured it as a home theater with the eras at the back. I hope that the sound will also be correct for musical listening. In this case do you think that the sub is really necessary unlike stereo listening where it would have provided a plus

I’d set up the surrounds in the settings for the room as Full, rather than the default ambient. 
 

Any Sonos speaker system gets better with the addition of a Sub, either the mini or standard version.