era 100 placement

The Beam alone already includes the center, front left, and front right channels. So adding the Era 100s in front with the Beam is unnecessary. But this can still be done by grouping the Era 100s with the Beam in the Sonos app. It will sound ok while streaming music, but you will probably experience a slight audio delay from the Era 100s when playing TV audio.

You do not want to add the Era 100s as surrounds and place them in front as this will result in audio that is supposed to be heard behind you being played in front of the room.

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply! 

Another question,  if a pair up the era 100s with the beam for home theater setup when listening to music or audio books will all 3 speakers work? Or can I set up the era 100s in a different location on the app, but installed in the same room and play all at the same time, how will it sound? I have no choice and I'll find a way to install the era 100s. Thanks again 

When set up as surrounds, you have a choice for music source playback:

Ambient - Surrounds are subtle, with lower volume

Full - Surrounds play at full volume along with the fronts

Just to be pedantic on my part, you can only ‘bond’ or ‘group’ the Era speakers to the Beam.

• If you ‘bond’ (not pair) the Era’s to the Beam, they each  become rear TV left/right channel surrounds, linked over an ad-hoc (fast) 5Ghz wireless connection direct to the Beam - All three products will play in sync for TV and Music audio and all become displayed in the Sonos App as one Sonos room.
• If you ‘group’ the Era’s (either standalone or stereo paired) to your Beam, the Beam will use a (slower) 2.4Ghz wireless (or wired) connection to your network router and the Era’s will also use a wired, 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz WiFi connection provided by your router. In this setup, the music audio will play in perfect sync, but the ‘grouped’ Era’s will have a delay of 75ms, or more, when playing TV audio - So if all are in the same physical room, you may (‘likely’) notice an echo with the audio output from your TV. The Beam will show in the Sonos App as one Sonos Room and the Era’s will show as a separate Sonos room if stereo paired, or will show as two separate rooms if both Eras are used standalone… (so that’s 3 Sonos rooms including the Beam).

If ‘bonding’ the Era’s to the Beam then do not use them out in front and next to the Beam.. always set them behind the listener as they handle the TV rear channels. In this configuration all can be used for ‘full’ or ‘ambient’ music audio playback too.

If ‘grouping’, you can use the Era’s out in front next to the Beam for music audio, but I would recommend ungrouping them when playing TV audio because of the sync/echo issues mentioned.

Hope that now makes sense to you.

You all are awesome! Going to pick up the era 100s later today. Thanks for this great forum and the detailed responses. Glad I made the choice to go with Sonos.