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Only two of the four side-firing speakers of Era 300 are playing when used as surrounds with Beam (Gen 2)

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 1, 2025
12 replies
1014 views

I have Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and two Sonos Era 300s as surrounds. I know that front-firing speakers are disabled when Era 300s are used as surrounds. However, in my case, only the outwards facing side speakers are playing. There is no sound coming from the inwards facing side speakers. I tried to remove and add surrounds in the app multiple times and it made no difference.

When tried Dolby Atmos sound test (available in Dolby Atmos from Apple Music or Tidal), both left and right surround and left and right surround channels were played played by the same side-firing speakers of Era 300s.

Do you have it the same?

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Sorry, I meant both left and right surround and left and right REAR surround channels were played by the same side-firing speakers of Era 300s.

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Best answer by Jamie A

@Jamie A Thank you for your response, I really appreciate it.

I am aware that Era 300 uses channel virtualization, but it still surprises me that the left and right side drivers, which face inwards (i.e., toward the other Era), seem to play nothing (even after Trueplaying). When I put my ear directly next to the top-facing driver and outward-facing side drivers (both the treble and mid-bass drivers) I can hear sound clearly. However, when I put my ear directly next to the inward-facing side drivers, there is no sound coming from the treble driver. I can here something from the mid-bass driver´s position, but I believe it is just sound leakage (due to the construction of Era 300) from the other side´s mid-bass driver, as the sound is much quieter and a bit muffled.

Is there any difference in virtualization when Era 300s are paired with Arc or Arc Ultra instead of Beam (Gen 2)?

Could you please recommend a movie scene to test the use of inward-facing side srivers? It would be great if Sonos integrated a demo and/or soundcheck feature for the surround system in the app.

I can’t find anything that directly states there is a difference, but due to the amount of speakers/drivers the Beam has versus the Arc, I would assume some virtualization is different, but that would likely be the side channels over the rears. This is what I have from our internal documentation regarding ‘no audible output from the inner channels of the Era 300 when bonded as surrounds’:

“The inner speaker (tweeter + woofer) on the Era 300 surround system stays active when connected to any Sonos soundbars that support Dolby Atmos (like Arc Ultra, Arc, and Beam Gen 2). This inner speaker mainly handles surround audio, but some of these sounds are also sent to the upward-facing tweeter with the rear height channel.

The inner speaker is quieter than the upward-facing speaker because sound travels directly to the main listening area from the inner speaker, while sound from the upward speaker takes a longer, indirect route. The choice to share rear surround audio between the inner speaker and up-firing speaker was made to improve the immersive and environmental quality of the rear surround sound stage.”

So from this information, the inner speakers are designed to be active but quiet. Because of this, it may explain why it’s quieter and muffled sounding when you listen directly to that side. Though I’d recommend sitting in your normal listening position and testing the system that way, instead of trying to listen to one part of the device.

I don’t have a home theater system myself, but generally any action movie will do as they tend to use the surround channels more often; such as any Marvel movie, Lord of the Rings, Saving Private Ryan, etc. If you still feel something is wrong however, then definitely reach out to support to discuss with them, but from the documentation this would be the intended performance.

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Jamie A

Sonos Staff

Hi @Julian Kupka,

From what I’ve been told by the team, the Era 300s should be placed facing the wall your TV is on, not directed towards the viewer position. The overall shape should be a box position rather than a triangle, if that makes sense. Due to the design of the Era 300 having speakers on all sides, facing them parallel to the wall is the ‘correct’ orientation (though nothing is stopping you directing them towards the listening position).

I hope this helps!

S

Snoomuffin

Enthusiast II

Just listened carefully and it's a bit strange.
My Era300 is almost the opposite of yours. The inner speakers (those towards one's listening position) are subdued and the bass is more prominent, the outer ones are very clear in sound and have a higher treble. The upward speakers are very weak but sound comes out of them.

Have you tried turning up your surround speakers/Era300 mine is at +2 for music.

I almost only use Airplay because I think their App is a bit slow and sometimes not so stable.

Try watching this Youtube regarding placement of Era300.

How to position your Sonos Era 300 for best result

@Peter_254

It’s not almost the opposite of my situation, I have it similarly as you.

The inner speakers are subdued - I can’t hear the tweeter and the mid-bass driver is very faint. Since the inner tweeter isn’t playing, it generally feels like the bass is more prominent on the inner side (since the higher frequencies are completely missing).

In my case too, the outer speakers are clear, the reason being that the outer side has also tweeter playing, so the full frequency range can be heard.

The upward speaker has only tweeter (there is no mid-bass driver facing upwards), which is why the sound feels kind of weak, as it lacks the lower frequencies.

Thank you for the video on positioning of Era 300´s as surrounds. I follow Peter Pee and have seen this video. It makes complete sense to me what Peter is saying, that the surround speaker should be directed towards the main listening position. As I mentioned, this is the standard setup for surround speakers. However, on the official Sonos pictures, the Era 300s are always pointed perpendicularly to the wall with the TV. In the official Sonos video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vG0PlcpUmg), however, surrounds are pointed towards the main listening position. That’s why I asked @Jamie A if Sonos has any internal documents stating how the surrounds should be directed. Due to the virtualization of respective channels done by Era 300s, the standard directional rule might not apply.

This has been an ongoing “issue” with many sonos users. There was a massive thread in here called “era 300 silent rears” which was closed down after it got out of hand with comments. Reddit also had a massive thread about it as well.

Sonos users are upset at the change Sonos did to the 300’s. The inward firing tweeters are EXTREMELY quiet and sounds like there’s a gap within the sound environment from the back. The upward firing tweeters actually take over the inward tweeters, so the rear effects route to the height channels instead of the inward firing which is really strange. It’s been confirmed by sonos as “normal” behavior. Originally, this wasn’t the way era 300’s operated - Sonos for whatever reason thought it would be a good idea to “lower” the volumes tremendously in the inward tweeters and have the height channels take over rear effects as well as height.

so no you are not crazy with what you are experiencing. Many people thought and still think this was not a smart move from sonos.

Moderator Edit: Combined thread and reply.

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