Headliner I

Answered

Ceiling Mounting ERA 300's

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Just read a very helpful thread on ERA300’s ceiling mount Vs In ceiling …..

I have the same issue. Probably easier than the OP on that thread. We have a rectangular room. But with a large triangular corner in glass. Long story, looks nice etc but not ideal for placing speakers.

The front viewing wall is perfectly symetrical and has just been rewired so TV, sound bar and other components are perfectly centered as is the viewing settee. The viewing settee has a left hand and right hand 2 seater settee perpendicular to the main viewing settee.

So everything is front is peachy. But the rear means the ERA 300 RHS would be over the arm if wall mounted. Not ideal. The LHS one not a problem.

Can use floor stands but I’m thinking ceiling mounted on a Flexson and use SW in app to invert the sound? The flexson appears have a long reach such that it could be in a proper position in line with the Arc Ultra.

This is the Flexson ceiling mount in question. not the prettiest but maybe works.

Install is no problem. The room is hacked and channelled to bits so that RJ45, power and decent audio cable runs to each position …. center, LHS F, RHS F, High level LHS F, High Level RHS F, rear LHS and rear RHS. I can easily run feeds into the ceiling and the whole room will be replastered and decorated. So a full hand of options is open to use …. save the unbalnced wall mount.

Question is, which is the best ….. floor mount or can I get away without loss with ceiling mounts?

This is the Flexson …

This is the decent symetrical wall with TV central and all the connections 1st fixed …. Not pretty but ...

This is the problem wall ….. with a double glass door eating up 25% of the wall mounting….

Floor speakers could work. Seen some nice Oak ones but loose cables are a bit Meh and prone to hyperactive grandkids. Ceiling ones are zero problem to install but would it be as good?

Would appreciate any input whilst we are at the dusty, painful chop at phase of work.

….. and from another angle

This sort of floor stand looks nice (the cosmetic is also a part of this …. trying get the lot done in white and oak) but unsure if it’s good from an audio point of view …. not sure just sitting on a wood plinth is optimum?

https://audiochic.co.uk/products/sonos-era-300-speaker-stands-140-900mm-pair?srsltid=AfmBOopaEVX3--OPyMf75aHvRsKp1LO7lrGHzz6k5SI12uXefbMp8pKO

AjTrek1Answer

Nice looking stands. I’d follow the height measurements as the Sonos Era 300’s shown in the link.

On another note I prefer the minimalist aspect of the Sonos stands. I have a set of Black and White and they (stands) disappear into the room aesthetics. 😊

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/sonos-era-300-stand-pair

Thanks for sharing that. They stand a little higher than I imagined at 957mm but not a problem. And they do look good in the white and at a lot lower price point. Must say it had escaped me that Sonos suplied these.

We have a load of white and oak in the room so either could work nicely.

FYI, regarding speaker wires (power cord)….they actually are embedded in a grove that runs the length of the support pole and exits at the base of the stand.

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.

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Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

Is it too soon to start Era-1000 rumors?

Floor-standing, multi-driver (like the 300) Atmos and a built in Sub.

Supports a four speaker Room, a Pair or a single speaker.

Optional TV connect box that creates a low-latency 5 gHz Room net like a soundbar.

AjTrek1

Is it too soon to start Era-1000 rumors?

Floor-standing, multi-driver (like the 300) Atmos and a built in Sub.

Supports a four speaker Room, a Pair or a single speaker.

Optional TV connect box that creates a low-latency 5 gHz Room net like a soundbar.

Seriously 😂😂😂

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

Seriously? Well I'd buy four.

On the other hand I might be trolling for a web-scraping AI bot to pollute it's data.

A

attacama40Author

Headliner I

Era-300 Pairs are awesome, I have two Rooms with them, one alone and one with a Sub 4. You really notice when a track is stereo or Atmos. For music I'm liking them better than my HT Room's setup. You won't regret that option.

Both sound great but trying to put a Sub in the kitchen for the second Pair resulted in some spousal input.

The best back story for that is “I got them cheap off ebay” …. I have got away with this strategy for the subs for kitchen, downstairs bathroom, landing and hall …. however that ruse ran out of stream about 3 years back when I got caught red handed on with a new Sonos delivery via UPS!

And it’s always easier when the room in question is decorated and refurbished … the analysis tends be more subdued and mellow … if you time it right 😉

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

The kitchen would have been nice but my "extra" Sub and a displaced Pair of Play 3s now sound great in the garage. Hand-made speaker cloth dust covers for all, and a hefty surge suppressor keep them happy there.

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attacama40Author

Headliner I

At last we have a room finished (lot of work) and ready for the fun stuff … the Sonos bits!

The W6 Wallpaper in position with zero connect and working a treat, lighting and data all in place and indeed speaker stands all sorted.

But!!!!! Guess who calculated the gap between wall cover/stand and TV and now has a monting issue for the Flexson Arc Ultra wall bracket? Ahem …… picures tell a thousand words …..

So the gap between shelf and base of TV is narrower than originally planned …. best laid plans.

The Flexson will of course not fit with those plates in the center. Is anyone aware of any alternative mounts that would fit either wide of the wall plates and project off the wall a suitable distance?

I would imagine sitting the Arc on the shelf to be accostically a no-no downwards firing speaker wise but interested in opinions. Or is there a stand that can be shelf mounted and raise the bar a short distance up?

We have the capabilities to fabricate something but of course a known and off the shelf solution would be better.

And these shots show the finished layout (and issue) and also the speaker stands that we went with in the end. Very nice quality and finish but hardly ‘kid proof’ :-)

AjTrek1

The Arc nor Arc Ultra have “downward” firing speakers. They gave upward (height) firing speakers. Bottom-line if they fit on the shelf-like structure below the TV there should be no problem. The only concern I see is how to get the HDMI cable connection to the TV and power so as not to have those connections exposed aesthetically.

Are the speaker stands for surrounds or other Sonos speakers?

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.

A

attacama40Author

Headliner I

How is it possible to be the bringer of the best news and the worst at the same time?

AjTrek, thanks for confirming about the AU positioning, that’s great. But then the bad news …. you are horribly right (in the best sense of course) that I have missed the HDMI port on the infrastructure side!!!!! 😕

Tell you, what, it never matters how much I plan, I always miss something. This room is wired up (in the more traditional sense) for a 7.2 system (hard wiring on the data/audio & power side), Dolby Atmos (in the more recent formats) and of course Sonos …. which in reality we have gone for. But I have indeed missed the HDMI port for the AU!

Fortunately, it could be worse. Behind that LG W6, although it is wireless (and working incredibly well in that way) we did feed 2 x fiber data, 1 x RJ45, 8 x 240 outlets and most importantly, 2 x fiber HDMI cables … the ones with removable head units, and 2 x draw wires through an ‘in ceiling’ conduit and a couple of cable access panels.

Does not stop it being a monumental ****** up. The surgery required is relatively simple …. drill down at a deep angle behind the finished wall and very carefully excavate a 45mm back box without damaged that very pricey wall covering. it can be done but duh …. what dullard!

This is the rear of the set when orginatingly drafted out and prior to hanging the set ….

Then when I ‘should’ have released all was not as should of been ….

You can see the fiber HDMI’s there on the LHS mid point. But I have a fear that they may not be long enough …. I can’t remember how much slack is on the other end …. I think we ‘should’ be OK. Soon to find out!!!!!

The alternative is to open up the hole that the RJ45 cable occupies and route the cable into that but will look a bit bodge.

Think we will bite the bullet and fit a Hamilton CFX faceplate and a Euro module HDMI unit which could (if long enough) allow an HDMI connection behind the TV. Hopelly Sonos will not be overly sensitive to HDMI cable connections.

Also hopefully, Sonos plays well with directional fiber HDMI cables. Can’t see why they wouldn’t but famous last words. I doubt a wireless HDMI solution would work. I believe there are ways to use RJ45 cables and of course we do have 2 of those at the point of connection but I know less about that as an option.

One thing is for sure, get this bit of surgery wrong and I have to replace a 1.4 meter wide length of the fancy satin wall covering which doesn’t thrill me much.

All that aisde, I owe you a beer for pointing my poor planning and prep out. That would have been much worse had the box arrived, I got all excited and then realised the error 😁

EDIT: Just realised, I didn’t explain where the HDMI goes. The LG W6 is a fully wireless set, there are no cables at all bar a power feed. So the Sonos AU cable (the one I cleverly failed to fit) will run behind the set, into a conduit, over the ceiling, down the wall, out of an access plate to what LG call their ‘Zero Connect box’ which looks like this….

This link below explains all about the wireless side of things …. found it when looking for the picture above

https://www.ecoustics.com/news/worried-wireless-4khdr-video-lgs/

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