Contributor I

Question

Arc Ultra + Era 100 Surrounds

302 replies
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Arc Ultra and Era 100’s

Anyone else have this setup and noticing that the Era 100’s as rears are doing less work with the Arc Ultra when compared to the standard Arc? I’m barely noticing any audio coming from the rears even with the surround volume turned up to maximum. I swapped my original Arc back with the Era 100 surrounds and tested the same Atmos movies on the Arc and the Arc Ultra, and there is a significant difference/reduction in the signals being sent to the Era 100’s in the rear channels with the Arc Ultra. Increasing the “TV Level” setting for Surround Audio in the Sonos app increases the front surround volume coming from the Arc Ultra but the signals coming out of the ERA 100 rears are almost non existent.

Is this behavior the result of how the Arc Ultra processes surround channels, and should be considered normal operation?

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Z

Zorro88

Enthusiast II

Hi @cmathis91

Yes - this was addressed (explained) while I was off on holiday, mostly on the Reddit Office Hours event

My apologies that it was not posted here too.

I hope this helps.

Hi Corry,

thank you for your reply, but this statement feels like a joke to us. Apparently some experts at Sonos have not understood the problem at all and are trying to present the issue as normal. Sorry, but this makes me angry inside. How can it be that with 5.1 surround the rear channels are mixed to the front? This fact is completely ignored. It seems that I will have to sell the Arc Ultra and install my old Beam Gen 2. Luckily I still have it in storage. I'm so disappointed at the moment from Sonos.

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @Minhlong & @Zorro88

Honestly, I have wondered about that myself. Most of the explanations of what is happening appear to be related to Atmos. I have asked for clarification on this matter, but I am unlikely to receive any this year.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

C

cmathis91

Contributor I

@Corry P Thanks for the update! Like the other posters, I’m frustrated that “5.1” seems to be getting lost communicating across teams but will wait to hear what they come back with.

T

Tim_

Lyricist I

The best way for me to summarize the Arc Ultra + Era 100: It's an equation where the result is less than the sum of its parts.

I came from a Beam Gen 2 with Era 100s. I could very easily tweak the 100s to be louder and had a fantastic surround experience with it.

Bought the Arc Ultra as an upgrade. The soundbar by itself is phenomenal. Truly. Completely different league than the Beam Gen 2.

However, paired with the 100s, the Beam was better. Fullstop. I could adjust the surround level and that would make the 100s louder or quieter. Super simple and exactly how it should be.

Setting them up as rears for the Arc Ultra was an incredibly underwhelming experience. Increasing the surround sound increases the Arc Ultra MORE than it does the 100s. There is effectively no way for me to control the volume of my 100s relative to that of the Arc Ultra. And that's very disappointing.

I do understand what Sonos was/is trying to achieve, since the Arc Ultra is fantastic and supposed to help with surround.

What I don't understand is why the REAR channel sound from a soundbar in FRONT of me gets priority over the REAR speaker BEHIND me. Just typing this out feels wrong.

Being completely unable to adjust this to my liking is unfortunately making me enjoy this system much less than I expected.

Why don't you just give us the option to increase the Era 100 volume separately from the Arc Ultra? This is a standard feature for surround systems for many many years. We are talking about a 1.500 bucks system here... I want to love your products, Sonos, but you are making it a bit difficult recently.

G

Gavalar

Enthusiast II

Hi,

My issues with the Arc Ultra and the 300’s are as follows…

Front width play the Arc Ultra side channels and outside 300 channels.

Side channels play the same as above, I.e the Arc Ultra side channels and the 300 outside channels.

The rear channels, you guessed it! Play from the Ultra side channel and the SAME side channels on the 300’s (not the rears).

Atmos front height channels play on the Ultra and the 300’s heights channels. The rear height channels also play on the Ultra’s height channels and the 300’s rear channels.

it should all be independent, I.e. the ultras side channels play front width channels.

The side channels should play the era 300 side channels.

the rear channels should play the era 300 rear channels.

The atmos height channels front and back should play separately.

The OG Arc did 7.2.4 perfectly. The Arc Ultra does 5.2.2 and it’s a mess!

Sonos was meant to develop fully functioning products before release, LOL to that!

Sonos said they were looking to have this fixed this year, which I really doubt.

I only had the OG Arc for a few months, but should have kept my Beosound Stage. It was faultless…

W

Woglinde

Enthusiast I

Hi @cmathis91

Yes - this was addressed (explained) while I was off on holiday, mostly on the Reddit Office Hours event

My apologies that it was not posted here too.

I hope this helps.

Hi Corry,

thank you for your reply, but this statement feels like a joke to us. Apparently some experts at Sonos have not understood the problem at all and are trying to present the issue as normal. Sorry, but this makes me angry inside. How can it be that with 5.1 surround the rear channels are mixed to the front? This fact is completely ignored. It seems that I will have to sell the Arc Ultra and install my old Beam Gen 2. Luckily I still have it in storage. I'm so disappointed at the moment from Sonos.

I really hope they continue to work on it beyond the answer they gave.

I dont understand why there is any need for “surround” from the front, ESPECIALLY when you have rear speakers.

S

stevetsanders

Lyricist III

Received the arc ultra yesterday and this is happening for me with one SL surrounds.

arc ultra
sub 4
one SL surrounds

any 5.1 rear content content gets over taken by (I assume the upmixing of) the front speakers of the arc ultra. I’d much prefer 5.1 content to play rear signals only on the rear speakers I set up. Didn’t have this problem with beam gen 2.

F

Fennec104

Lyricist II

Hi,

I was using a Arc, Sub3 and two Symfonisk as surround and the result was AMAZING. I upgraded to the Arc Ultra to get a better dialog clarity (the only thing my previous setup was lacking a bit) and immediately I heard something was very wrong.

Surround speakers were almost muted, and pushing the surround volume in the setting was only making the sound from the Arc Ultra louder, completely messing spacialization.

Trueplay (the "basic one") made no difference for this issue.

I then made a lot of testing, using various sources and test files, and discovered that the issue completely disappears with Dolby Atmos, were I get a perfect spacialization. On the other hand , any 5.1 content is wrong (rear sound coming from the Arc Ultra). Even with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1.

This sounds like a routing / decoder issue of some sort.

The net result of my 1000€ upgrade is that I can't enjoy my content anymore, and since a few months now 😭

Tldr: 5.1 content is broken with Arc Ultra and Symfonisk rears, Atmos is OK, and I had no issues with a regular Arc.

M

Minhlong

Enthusiast I

Hi,

I was using a Arc, Sub3 and two Symfonisk as surround and the result was AMAZING. I upgraded to the Arc Ultra to get a better dialog clarity (the only thing my previous setup was lacking a bit) and immediately I heard something was very wrong.

Surround speakers were almost muted, and pushing the surround volume in the setting was only making the sound from the Arc Ultra louder, completely messing spacialization.

Trueplay (the "basic one") made no difference for this issue.

I then made a lot of testing, using various sources and test files, and discovered that the issue completely disappears with Dolby Atmos, were I get a perfect spacialization. On the other hand , any 5.1 content is wrong (rear sound coming from the Arc Ultra). Even with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1.

This sounds like a routing / decoder issue of some sort.

The net result of my 1000€ upgrade is that I can't enjoy my content anymore, and since a few months now 😭

Tldr: 5.1 content is broken with Arc Ultra and Symfonisk rears, Atmos is OK, and I had no issues with a regular Arc.

Exactly the same for all of us

Sonos techs will answer : it is "by design"

C

Chagn

Lyricist III

I recommend write to ceo@sonos.com (email) and refering to the thread. Senior Member Customer Experience Team should give a correct answer.

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Arc Ultra and Era 100’s

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