Hi everyone. We are a long time Sonos family that has slowly evolved over time with our home theatre. We started with a Playbar and have added a SW plus two Ones. We recently purchased the Arc and after a lot of research upgraded to the 300s. Here’s our observations:
- Our “theatre” is in our basement and has 8-9 foot ceilings with a 65” OLED that supports eARC. The room is a rectangular shape which puts limits on where we can place speakers. We have our 300s on stands behind out couch facing directly forward. They are about a meter behind our couch and 2.5 meters apart.
- We noticed a nice improvement each time we upgraded or added speakers.
- With the Arc and Ones we generally had good Atmos effects. This is likely due to the height of the ceiling plus our location from the Arc (7 feet back).
- With the Era 300s we have gone from good Atmos to very good Atmos effects. We can now clearly hear overhead sounds going in all directions including diagonal. It is not overwhelming or detracting. I have the height setting at +6 and surrounds at +4.
- For 7.1 we have noticed a BIG improvement with sound coming from a much wider area. We are no longer able to specifically notice where surround sounds are coming from leading to a more immersive experience.
- For 5.1 we have noticed the same improvement as the 7.1 level.
- For regular stereo (2.0) we have also noticed an improvement with the sound coming from a wider area.
- Music sounds better although the big difference is with Atmos music. We don’t listen to a lot of Atmos music, so this is a nice feature but not a selling point.
- Dialogue remains very easy to hear even with all of the surround sound channels firing.
Overall, we have noticed an improvement with all types of media. 7.1 and 5.1 were the biggest surprises.
I’m happy to answer any questions that folks might have.
Charles
P.S. We did use Trueplay via an iPhone 13. Due to the shape of the room the 300s cannot be placed symmetrical behind the couch. However, Trueplay did a very good job of balancing them.