turn on the front driver if I decide I'd like more stereo surround... for instance if we are having other families over with kids running around where we don't need the center of the room focused experience. Many people across the internet have asked for this feature because it would help.
If you are looking for more stereo sound from rear surrounds - you can simply switch the surrounds over from Ambient to Full audio for Music. If you want a similar thing for TV audio then there is ‘TV Level’ slider control in the App to balance/adjust the front/rear channels audio output too.
I ‘think’ you may even go onto find that you will NOT need the front Era 300 tweeters, but here’s some links for you to glance at in the meantime whilst waiting for your new system to arrive.
I understand why they disable the front firing speaker on the 300s when they are surrounds. I have no desire to return to the quad days when you could actually hear information from the rear speakers. All I want them to do is make the stage bigger which is what they do if set up properly. Like good stereo speakers they should just disappear allowing the presentation of the movie or music sound more natural.
I listen to music in the same seat as when I watch TV or a movie. I’m not likely to turn my chair 180 degrees to listen to music through the 300s so I listen to music with the Music Playback setting set to Full and it sounds just fine. Would I prefer 5 Era 300 speakers for music & movies….Yes, but that’s not likely to happen.
Sonos could probably allow you to turn on the front driver of the 300s if desired and I would probably test that to see what it sounds like. I’m sure after that test I would turn them off again. The best surround I ever had was using dipole speakers to each side of the sweet spot. They were wired out of phase to avoid direct sound firing at the listener. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
turn on the front driver if I decide I'd like more stereo surround... for instance if we are having other families over with kids running around where we don't need the center of the room focused experience. Many people across the internet have asked for this feature because it would help.
If you are looking for more stereo sound from rear surrounds - you can simply switch the surrounds over from Ambient to Full audio for Music. If you want a similar thing for TV audio then there is ‘TV Level’ slider control in the App to balance/adjust the front/rear channels audio output too.
I ‘think’ you may even go onto find that you will NOT need the front Era 300 tweeters, but here’s some links for you to glance at in the meantime whilst waiting for your new system to arrive.
Thanks for the resources! Does the toggle from Ambient to Full activate the main center driver in the Era 300 for music? If so that would solve the problem... everything I have read and from what tech support said there is no way to activate the center chanel unless you reconfigure the system separately and not part of a HT. If it only makes the other drivers louder without activating the center driver, then it unfortunately doesn't solve the problem of a speaker with an unused and effectively useless main driver.
turn on the front driver if I decide I'd like more stereo surround... for instance if we are having other families over with kids running around where we don't need the center of the room focused experience. Many people across the internet have asked for this feature because it would help.
If you are looking for more stereo sound from rear surrounds - you can simply switch the surrounds over from Ambient to Full audio for Music. If you want a similar thing for TV audio then there is ‘TV Level’ slider control in the App to balance/adjust the front/rear channels audio output too.
I ‘think’ you may even go onto find that you will NOT need the front Era 300 tweeters, but here’s some links for you to glance at in the meantime whilst waiting for your new system to arrive.
Thanks for the resources! Does the toggle from Ambient to Full activate the main center driver in the Era 300 for music? If so that would solve the problem... everything I have read and from what tech support said there is no way to activate the center chanel unless you reconfigure the system separately and not part of a HT. If it only makes the other drivers louder without activating the center driver, then it unfortunately doesn't solve the problem of a speaker with an unused and effectively useless main driver.
Not sure if Full activates that driver or just increases the volume level. I’ll stick my ear in there to find out. Interesting idea though.
I am also wondering now with the release of the new Arc Ultra and its motion woofer, will the same thing happen that if I was to pair a sub with it would the motion woofer be disconnected just like the era 300 front speaker being disconnected when you add them as surround sound speakers. Anyone know the answer to this?
Hopefully when using the Arc Ultra with a Sub the crossover would be set at a lower frequency level than it would be with the Arc due to the lower frequency capability of the Arc Ultra. Don’t know how smart TruePlay is.
Well True play didn’t seem to be taken into consideration with the era 300 and disabling the front speaker so it will be interesting to see how it plays out with arc ultra.
In case anyone is wondering, I never received a reply from the Level II support supervisor who said they would send me a reply from the Level III support following our hour and a half conversation. I received great customer service when I made my home theater preorder, but not impressed since trying to get answers from technical support. Still on the fence about proceeding with my preorder.
I did listen with my ear right against the front of a 300 surround. With the Music Playback set to Full the front driver is still disabled. I think this is how it should be. Don’t want direct sound from the surrounds. Their purpose is to make the stage larger. Quad is dead for a reason. Does anyone remember QSound? Now that was a surround stage created with two speakers. Not sure why that was not more popular.
It would be nice to have a simple way to change the 300s from surrounds to a stereo pair. Not sure Sonos will ever make that an easy process.
Well thats the point people should have the option, some want it some don't and as for music there should be a way to enable the front speakers, it’s completely wasted on music play back.
Well thats the point people should have the option, some want it some don't and as for music there should be a way to enable the front speakers, it’s completely wasted on music play back.
Yes. Forgot to state that an option to activate the front speaker would satisfy all user options. Will Sonos listen? Don’t know.
Well thats the point people should have the option, some want it some don't and as for music there should be a way to enable the front speakers, it’s completely wasted on music play back.
Yes. Forgot to state that an option to activate the front speaker would satisfy all user options. Will Sonos listen? Don’t know.
Well they don’t seem to be listening sadly
. It would be better to give user an option and similar to the heigh volume adding a front volume and control the volume.