Question

How do i change the left and right channel on the playbar?

  • 17 April 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 2590 views

Hi,

I have a kind of special setup with my Sonos Playbar since i am using a projector and the soundbar i mounted underneath it/above the couch where you sit to watch movies.

Since the playbar is mounted under the projector, i have turned it so the sonos/grey bar is turning up so the cables run up toward the projector. But this makes it so when you sit in the couch facing the wall where movies are projected the left sound comes from the right of the playbar and vice versa. I know that there is a accelerometer in the playbar the adjust the left/right channel depending on how the playbar is turned, but as i cannot turn it around (because of how the cable management is set up, and how the speakers inside the playbar are placed with a slight angle (for now they face downwards so the viewer get the sound and not my ceiling)), how do i adjust this manually so the left sound is comming from the left speakers in playbar and vice versa for right?

IF this is not possible to do manually/only with the accelerometer and turning the playbar around, i would have to say it seems like a major design flaw in the software of the system.

Kind regards.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

3 replies

There's no means of reversing the channels manually. The accelerometer does so automatically when the PLAYBAR is wall-mounted below a TV (i.e. cables exiting downwards).

A major design flaw? It depends on your point of view. 'Front and centre' home theatre channels are designed to be heard from, well, front and centre.
Thanks for the reply ratty, I hope Sonos will implement a feature to do this in a future update, I have read on other Sonos forums that other people also would like this feature, even if the playbar are place on the same wall as their TV, their setup do not allow them to have the playbar placed under the TV with the cables going downwards from the TV but up and behind it which equals the left and right also being reversed, and as some people might have a shelf etc. above their TV they cannot put the playbar over the TV and have the rotation of Sonos player auto calibrate the audio channels with the accelerometer. Which leads me to thinking that its a pretty bad design flaw in the software, that most likely could be looked into and enable for manually adjust the audio channels to your left/right preferences according to your setup/limitations of your setup.

Kind regards.
With any arrangement where the PLAYBAR is wall-mounted in front of the listener, whether beside or behind the TV (yuk) the channel orientation will be correct. The proportion of people who'd want to place a PLAYBAR over the back of their head must be tiny. The acoustic performance would inevitably be severely compromised with such an arrangement.

I'd challenge the statement that it's a design flaw. A design decision maybe, not a flaw. Remember that Sonos strive, wherever possible, to minimise the number of choices a user has to make when installing, configuring and operating the system. It needs to 'just work'.