era 300 front driver clarification

I’d assume it has something to do with the necessary sound envelope needed when those specific speakers are in that use case.  Probably a decision by a sound engineer, who thought the sound stage was muddied, but I’m just guessing. 

Hi @Optimeist 

During product testing, it was determined (by our engineers and our test audience) that things sounded better with the front-facing drivers disabled in a surround setup - this is the only reason we’d ever take such action.

However, the response from customers after launch was such that we (in the community) felt it best to turn the feedback into a feature request. The request saw significant support from our customer base, and was forwarded to our product team.

That’s where my knowledge of things ends. If we do add an option whereby the front-facing drivers can be enabled by user choice, it’s very likely that it will be added without pre-announcement - neither I nor you will be informed prior to the feature being released.

Please note that this is not to say that the feature will be added - the reasoning for the current behaviour still stands.

I don’t know how long it takes for a feature request to be turned into a functioning feature, but my guess is that it takes a while, especially if we have other things to contend with that are considered higher priority, so even if it does get added, it may take a while yet.

Sorry I can’t give you more to go on.

I hope this helps.

Hey @Corry P thanks so much for the reply and info, I really appreciate it!

Just to be clear, I have no issue with the front drivers disabled in a surround / spatial situation.  If given the option, I would leave them off as I trust your engineers and testing (and it kind of just makes sense).

My issue is when I play regular non-spatial music (currently any music on spotify), which I do a lot on those same living room 300s.  Are you saying your engineers and test audience thought regular music sounded better with the front drivers disabled?  I would think not, but please correct me if I am wrong.  

Thanks again!

This is a valid point. If the front driver is only used for music then… why not enable it for music when the surrounds are playing music, even if only for the ‘full stereo’ option. 

Hi @Optimeist 

The only messaging I could find on the matter is:

“When used in a surround configuration, audio is disabled in Era 300's forward-facing drivers for optimal surround sound performance.”

To me, this implies the decision was made to prioritise surround audio. I suspect (but definitely do not know) that the drivers used are selected when the Eras are added to the Arc, not when a source is selected to be played.

I’ll see if I can get more info to share with you.

I suppose one argument could be that as surrounds the Era300s are sometimes quite close to the listener. They’re not really suited for near-field. Perhaps having the front-facing driver active detracts from the desired wash of surround sound.

Thanks Corry for investigating, I really appreciate it!  

@ratty That is the best explanation I’ve heard so far and in my case they are fairly close, although if I’m playing music I may not be sitting on the couch and might be doing other things in the room or adjacent rooms, walking around, etc. so in that case might be nice to have the extra oomph?

I don’t want to disparage either group, but I observe two groups of listeners with respect to the purpose of surround. One group prefers that the surround speakers provide ambience and the other wants to be constantly smacked in the back of the head with “events”. I tend to be the former. One of my favorite films, with respect to use of surround, is not an action film, but there is very effective use of ambience. In city scenes you are aware of the subtle “streetscape” and emergency traffic a few blocks behind. You may not be overtly aware of these sounds, but if the surround is disabled, the scene collapses. Those who want constant, aggressive surround activity would be disappointed. New to surround listeners tend to want to want the surround to be aggressive and will immediately notice that the ERA 300 center speaker is not barking at them and assume that there is a fault. Evidently, the SONOS design crew is in my group.

Perhaps there should be two settings for surround output. My group would prefer “natural” vs “aggressive”. I wish that I could think of a pair of words for the other side. “Wimpy” and “natural” come to mind, but both pairs reveal my bias.

I get your point and I am personally in your camp, but this thread is talking about front drivers when playing stereo music. 

And this is why I will likely. never buy a pair of Era 300s. I listen to digital music in stereo (2.0) and multichannel (5.1). Some of my TV watching is in stereo, some in multichannel, and some with Atmos -- with the realization that I cannot get full Atmos without the 300s. 

I am uninterested in giving up the stereo and the multichannel I get from the Ones in favor of an Atmos based system that chokes 2/3 of what I listen to. The Arc system can automatically switch from stereo to multichannel to Atmos, depending on what signal I am sending to it. A simple software switch for the Era 300s could do the same thing, allowing me and others here to utilize the full potential of the Arc system.

Too bad that Sonos won’t/can’t offer us that option. As I said, unless this is changed, I will likely never buy the 300s.