era 300 central speaker off when connected to beam

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I just took beam 2 plus sub mini with 2 was 300. The 300’s of surround sound did not have the central speaker active and therefore any dialogue is not played by them. Really disappointing result. You have suggestions? Thank you

t

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G

GuitarSuperstarAnswer

Lead Maestro

When the Era 300 is used as a surround speaker, the front-facing driver is disabled. This is by design. Even if the front-facing driver was enabled, dialog still would not play from the Era 300. Dialog is usually only played through the sound bar in a home theater setup. This is also by design as the person who is speaking on the screen is usually speaking in front of you, not behind you.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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jgatie

the clear feeling is that I have bought a Ferrari but that it can only go like a city car…

is possible add two era100 as a stereo pair to have more lively dialogues? Can they work together well with era 300 beam and sub mini?

You already maxed out the number of speakers you can have in a home theater. Surround speakers of any kind do not produce any dialog unless it is coming from off screen. It's not the speakers, it's the very nature of surround sound. As stated, if you expect any surround speaker to improve dialog, you are going to be very disappointed. You need to change your expectation.

Also, the clear feeling is you are expecting something which isn't possible. It has nothing to do with Ferrari surround speakers or city car surround speakers, neither one can do what you expect. Also, you just may have the settings wrong on your TV. Did you check those settings as advised above?

106rallye

To stay within your anology: you’ve bought the base model Ferrari and want to use as a submarine. A surround system is what is says on the tin: to be used for surround. Rear speakers will do surround sound: helicopters flying away, applauding audiences, birds in a park, exploding bombs, that kind of thing. Expecting them to play dialogue (that is placed on the front speaker by the sound engineer), however fitting to your situation, will lead to disappointment, as you experienced. This disappointment is not caused by Sonos, but by your expectations.

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Romeo17Author

Contributor I

I think this could be helpful

Airgetlam

Perhaps it would be better for Sonos to make two physical speakers, each with different number of drivers, and use one type for surrounds, and the other type for standard speaker use.

The number of people who seem to want a muddier soundstage is interesting to me.

Bruce

jgatie

Perhaps it would be better for Sonos to make two physical speakers, each with different number of drivers, and use one type for surrounds, and the other type for standard speaker use.

The number of people who seem to want a muddier soundstage is interesting to me.

It’s a phenomenon I’ve seen in A/V audio for years, “I paid for all those drivers, I want them all in use at all times, no matter how bad it sounds!”. Right in line with the “I should be able to use as many speakers as I want, no matter how bad it sounds!” meme.

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