Ceiling Mounting ERA 300's

One comment, without getting too deep into your questions.

I’m unsure of your abbreviations. What is RHS and LHS? You should spell out your abbreviations, in all cases, first. Are they Right Hand Surround?

What you may be  misunderstanding is Sonos doesn’t provide for any device that allows a separate center/right/left speakers for the front of a home theater. This has been covered in many, many threads, but the only center/right/left home theater devices are the speakers included in the Sonos soundbars. There is no option to use the soundbar only as center, and you can’t extract right and left from it, either. 

 If you choose to use a Sonos Amp to drive your own speakers, there is no way to get a center speaker separate driven, you have to rely on the ‘faux/interpolated’ center signal which is created by the two front speakers driven by the Amp.

Era 300s as rears can be bonded to either a Sonos soundbar up front (and you’d need to confirm compatibility, I don’t recall offhand if they work with the PLAYBAR or PLAYBASE, but it should be listed on their sales page, likely under their FAQs), but not added as surrounds to another company’s system. When forced into using the line in connection, they’d be subject to the 75ms delay for audio processing, and be essentially useless. And, of course, another company’s signal across a CAT-x cable would be unreadable by the Sonos. 

Finally, a Sonos system only allows a single pair of surrounds, not multiples, so they have, in their software, no concept of ‘High’ or not. Just right and left surrounds. 

Sonically, it really is up to your ears as to whether a floor mount or ceiling mount is better. I do happen to be a fan of Flexson as well, but Sonos ‘recommends’ floor mounts for rear surrounds. If you chose to move forward with Sonos on your build, I’d test positioning of the speakers by temporarily placing them on ladders, to see which ‘height’ you prefer. Once you’ve determined that, you can purchase your desired mounts, either floor or ceiling. 

Hi there. 100% agree and get what you are saying. The extra positions are in purely for future planning not actual usage.

So the room rewire is putting power and data (and indeed audio cable) to every position a traditional home cinema would have done.

The room previously had this and ran off an old school top end Pioneer AX10i AV unit and a pile of B&W 805’s and 801’s  …. in the traditional effects LHS, RHS (apols abbreiviaion is Left hand side and right hand side rather than left hand surround …. so old school L, C, R, LS, RS, Rear Surround Left, Rear Surround Right, sub woofer, center. 

But they are only fitted (or refitted) for potential future options, not to support the new approach for that room with Sonos. That will be as you say, ARC Ultra at front and two x ERA 300’s (or hopefully ERA 500’s later year if rumours prove to be accurate) ….. although we have a very large Sonos environment, this room has zero Sonos so it’s a nice blank page.

The purchase plan will be 2 x SW Gen 4, 2 x ERA 300 and ARC Ultra and AMP currently. 

Apologies poorly explained my side. Equally all those positions have RJ45 Cat 6 and in addition, fibre to the TV area. 

It’s overkill but means it never needs touching again and can support anything Sonos may come out with or any other company for that matter. There are even spare ceiling positions rolled in but again they are unlikley ever be used.

I also keep rolling the Sonosequencer app and configurationdiscussion arround in my brain and although it may not occur I’d like to keep the option open.

But the limitations are on back wall away from the TV where the pure dynamics of the room mean we cannot wall mount ERA 300’s …. we can floor mount or ceiling mount and I wondered about the limitations / benefits before crashing ahead with a decision.

As it goes, we will wire up for either option. As you can see the room is destroyed anyway so it’s not a great deal of work to wire up for both.

Solid advice about trying the listening positions for the ERA300’s and indeed that pretty much confirms the way forward to wire up for both. And agree that Flexson are solid products … we have a good few Flexson products in the configuration. I also found some nice hand made stands but sitting them on a flat wood base I wondered if that compromises the sonic abilities of the ERA300 concept?

The 300 works fine on a desk or table so a wood base should also be fine. 

You might want a stand for appearance, but not necessary. 

Super stuff, that’s good news. Thanks for confirming.

Given the number of speakers and units in those things, I assumed they might be firing something downwards. But this is good to know. 

The ‘paper based’ design had them on walls and indeed I have 4 Flexsons here for that purpose. But it’s only when you start turning laser lines on and get MPT’s and impact hammers out that you see the difference between paper and the physical reality 😁

I actually like the designs of some of the floor stands but at the same time we are trying keep floors as clear of clutter as possible. We have one of these robot vacuum things which to my surprise are astonishingly good but need a fairly clear deck to work off.

Ceiling would in one sense be a more practical option but then as a kid magnet, what seemed better be off the floor may well have attraction as a swing for a particular somewhat hyperactive 5 year old! 

Consider the option for a near flush ceiling mount and inverted 300s.

Beats kids playing and heads of taller folks banging.

What purpose does the Sonos Amp serve?

And this would work without compromising the sound balance? Would certainly improve the room functionality.

I think maybe I’ve been following the positional suggestions to closely. Is good to understand that it can be used more flexibily than I’ve been trying to do. 

Apologies, more confusion on my part …. the AMP is not specifically for that room, it’s located there but feeds an adjacent office.

Sonos supports inverted mounting, see the user manual for details.

It isn't going to be as good as ear level but better than any other option.

I have a 300 Pair, mounted too close (inches) from the ceiling, sitting on my kitchen cabinets and aside from the height driver being a bit masked they sound great. I've had Play 5s, Play 1s and Ones up there to compare. The Play 5s were pretty good, better stereo image while seated at the table, but the 300s more evenly fill the room and sound better when standing under one or the other while cooking.

100%. In my efforts to document fully it becomes a confusuion. 

But essentially the layout could be considered a standard (traditional) 9.1 or 7.1 wired system with the TV central.

No, they will not all be used of course, just the center for soundbar, and rear L & R for ERA 300’s. But we are wired for any eventuality that Sonos may or may not wheel out. 

So although the pictures make it look over complicated, that is what it is. 

My concern was the positioning of the rear ERA 300’s which is becoming more comfortable now and indeed we have wired for ceiling or floor and as suggested up thread, we can test both essentially and see what best result shakes out.

Glad you are getting closer to a desired arrangement. Just a word of caution….

Mounting surround speakers in the ceiling is typically an all time solution meaning there’s no going back without bringing in the painter again 😂.

Also, any seating arrangement is typically fixed in order to maintain the best surround affect. So hopefully, there’s no one in the home who likes to change the seating every 6 months to a year 😂.

A rear wall mount might be the better solution to avoid kids and clumsy adults 😂. That also depends on how far the rear wall is from the main seating area. Thus my suggestion to submit a BEV showing measurements and the approximate seating.😊

That’s all I have. Best of luck with your Sonos!

Thanks. Yes I think I am. The dilema now (the every year dilema but this year rumoured to be a big Sonos HW release year) is whether to wait and see what is delivered, wait until a 25% sale, or just jump in and but now 😀 …. mind as you will see from the photos, we have a month or two’s worth of plastering and cosmetic rebuild until we ready to switch on and watch Balde Runner 2049. Oh that and the TV to go in there (LG W6) is not yet released in the UK.

OK…but what is the Sonos HW release rumor…is that short for “hardware” or something else you envision 🤔

Folks have been waiting for their dream hardware release, many of them for several years now.

Sale? 

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/promotional-offers

25% through June 21, 2026

I keep reading about ERA 500’s …. apparantly there is some form of design registration muted that suggests an ERA 500 unit. 

Potentially no substance whatsoever but who knows? Also a similar thing with a new pair of headphones if I rememeber rightly.

And hopefully (and I have seen zero to this effect) … some return to the Pinewood concept. That’s just me hoping on that last one.

Yes we have a similar offer on certain products and groups of products here as well.

The reality is that the room rebuild needs a couple of months of work before we actually need anything in place …. maybe (just maybe) some new products arrive … either way we can wait a bit. And the TV which I believe is available your side of the water (LG W6 Wallpaper) in 77” form, is yet to have any realise date here. 

I suspect these will be October/November purchases for us here in reality. No big issue in reality. 

I've been asking for the Era-500 since I got my first 300. Fun to think of what it could include.

The three channel, L/R/C Amp, to serve as an upgrade to a soundbar for TV use.

Zero interest or response from Sonos, which could mean nope or next week.

Very few leaks about future products, fewer official announcements. 

I’ve certainly seen no ‘official’ rumors about an Era 500, only speculation / requests from users.