Enhance Your Sonos Home Theater

I wasn’t actually asking how Dolby Atmos works… I was saying is adding two more Era 300s going to magically find sound that isn’t already being heard. The answer is no.

Just how immersive do you need from a mass market consumer audio system? If you want full immersion, get a Dolby Atmos cinematic professional to fit a non-Sonos system.

(Satisfying a very niche audience with the investment needed to ensure four surrounds work seamlessly is unlikely to delight shareholders.)

Find sound, as you say, no, but more speakers/locations might improve the Atmos ability to position sounds where the artist intended.

From the first link:

There is a limit of 32 objects total (including bed channels) that can be transmitted over HDMI to an AVR, soundbar or TV. 

Traditional multichannel audio is utilized in Dolby Atmos; these channels are referred to as “Bed” audio. Bed configurations can range in width from Stereo to 7.1.4.

The Arc Ultra provides 9.1.4, the 300s I can't find a similar number for, alone or bonded to an Ultra.

So possibly adding two speakers to the sides of the listening space could add to Atmos location imaging, how much would be interesting and how the improvement versus intruding on the room's space traded off. As above, the bandwidth and processing power issues would have to be considered too. Probably most important, would it be profitable for Sonos to develop, produce, sell and support this.

Since I couldn't even find spots for a single pair of 300s it is not an option here.

Let’s look at what we know and don’t know.

We know:

The ability to add more speakers to a HT setup exists, because the API is being used by 3rd party apps to add separate fronts.

The ability to add more speakers to a HT setup was planned, because leaks of the streamer box feature set included adding more speakers.

Both the streamer box and the features leaked were shelved, or the streamer was shelved and features like adding extra speakers were never brought to market.

The current buffer of -30ms is right on the edge of perceptibility for lip sync problems (around -45ms average).

We don’t know:

What other speakers besides separate fronts are allowed in the API.

What other measures were tried, i.e. CEC video sync, in the streamer box to allow a larger buffer with no lip sync problems (Note: this would mess up things like gaming), and were they successful.

Reason(s) why the streamer was shelved, which may or may not include the inability to reliably support more wireless speakers/channels.