We have 20 foot high flat (not vaulted) ceiling. We have the Arc with 2 Era 100. The sound is terrible. It echoes and we can’t understand people talking in movies, the news, etc. Music doesn’t seem to sound too bad. Should we get the Beam or the new Arc? I called support line twice and both just read from a script and can’t tell me what we can do or buy to fix this.
First, can you confirm whether you have the Eras bonded as surrounds, as part of a single room with the Arc, or set up as a stereo pair in a separate room and grouped with the Arc? If the latter, separate that stereo pair and then Add Surrounds in the Arc room.
I can’t really tell, but are those the ERA 100’s on the top shelves in the picture? If so, they need to be put behind and the the side of the main viewing area and configured as surrounds.
https://www.dolby.com/about/support/guide/speaker-setup-guides/5.1-virtual-speakers-setup-guide
https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/add-surround-speakers-to-a-sonos-home-theater
First, can you confirm whether you have the Eras bonded as surrounds, as part of a single room with the Arc, or set up as a stereo pair in a separate room and grouped with the Arc? If the latter, separate that stereo pair and then Add Surrounds in the Arc room.
The 2 100’s are together in one group with the Arc. You can see them on each of the top book shelves in my pic
The 2 100’s are together in one group with the Arc. You can see them on each of the top book shelves in my pic
There’s two concepts here, Grouping and Bonding. Grouping is done as follows:
https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/group-and-ungroup-rooms
It is dynamic, and each grouped room will play the same source. For TV sources, the grouped room will have a 75ms lag, causing an echo, which is why it is not recommended to group speakers with a TV source when they are in the same room.
Bonding is a semi-permanent link that allows each speaker to play a discrete channel. You can bond two like speakers as a pair to play in stereo, or you can bond two with a soundbar to be surrounds. Subs are also bonded to a speaker, speakers, or a soundbar surround system.
If you want a bonded surround system, your Era 100’s should be behind and to the sides of the main listening position. Then follow the instructions in my link above to add them as surrounds. If you do not want to use them as surrounds, I suggest you skip grouping them with the soundbar for TV sources, because the echo you are hearing cannot be eliminated, unless you want lip sync issues.
Thank you. I removed them from the group and it’s a bit less echo but the echo is still there.
First, can you confirm whether you have the Eras bonded as surrounds, as part of a single room with the Arc, or set up as a stereo pair in a separate room and grouped with the Arc? If the latter, separate that stereo pair and then Add Surrounds in the Arc room.
The 2 100’s are together in one group with the Arc. You can see them on each of the top book shelves in my pic
Try playing just through the Arc. If that still seems to echo it might be down to the room’s acoustics.
Do you have access to an IOS device, and have you run Trueplay? (The full, walk around the room waving your arm around version?)
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