Era 300 inner drivers not working as advertised

​@superlollo 

For clarity, given your subject line is different to the previous subject line [originally the complaint was ‘the rear driver is silent’ but your complaint is that ‘the inner drivers are not working as advertised’ and is not therefore a direct continuation], it might be helpful if you summarise how the inner drivers were advertised to work (i.e. how the marketing and descriptions said they were meant to operate, with links if possible) and how you are seeing them operate. 

It will save people reading through the mud-slinging of the closed thread and allow people to input.

Can’t find a button to edit the OP, so I’ll just add a quick summary here:

How things used to work:

Before Arc Ultra was released, when Era 300s were used as surrounds the following was happening in atmos and 7.1 content:

• Height channel was being output from the upward firing driver
• Surround channel was being output by the outward facing drivers
• Rear surround channel was being output by the inward facing drivers
• Front facing driver has always been off for surround setups

This was also advertised by Sonos with a video where a VP was describing how the driver array of the Era 300 worked. Video has been taken down from Youtube by Sonos shortly after it was linked in the previous thread. Pretty suspicious if you ask me. You can still finds tons of mentions of this in various reddit threads from the past

How things are CURRENTLY working:

• Height channel is being output from the upward firing driver
• Surround channel is being output by the outward facing drivers
• Rear surround channel is being output by the upward facing driver
• Inward facing drivers are silent. TBH there is some very very very faint noise coming from the inner woofer, the inner tweeter is 100% silent.
• Front facing driver has always been off for surround setups

TL;DR: sounds that are supposed to come from behind you are now coming from the ceiling. 

Now Sonos wants us to believe that this is by design...and if they are being honest then their “design” totally goes against any dolby atmos recommendations and defies common sense as well.

I find it quite cynical that the og thread was closed down because of one person's interruptions, surely the posts that broke guidelines should of been deleted, not the entire thread, now the whole forum has a liberal spraying of similar posts, the issue and sentiment isn't going away and needs addressing..

Moderator edit: The thread was not closed due to the actions of one person, but due to those of many.

I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if this had all been planned (the posts that were clearly made to provoke a reaction, so that it could be used as an excuse to close the thread) to try to sweep this problem under the rug

Hi ​@superlollo 

If that were true, I would not have invited you to open another thread.

Please be aware, however, that you are now off-topic for this thread - it is about “Era 300 inner drivers not working as advertised” and not about why other threads were closed. And, in addition, it is against the T&C’s of this site to discuss moderator actions. I recommend that you stick to the stated topic of your own thread to avoid further closures.

You can find the Terms and Conditions that you agreed to when signing up to this site at https://en.community.sonos.com/site/terms.

Ok thanks, we will keep waiting for the promised update in this new thread

Hey Corry. Do you know if there’s been a recent change to how the 300’s function when used as surrounds. After the most recent update, several Sonos users on Reddit are reporting that the inner mid woofer is now producing sound presumably to represent the rear surround channel. If this is true, then that is great news!  Starting with enabling the mid woofer makes sense since mid and lower tones are less directional than the higher tones produced by a tweeter. 
 

I know that the last thread went a bit sideways at the end but wanted to thank you for your involvement on this concern. 

Hi ​@rboard 

No changes that I am aware of, no. Which in itself make me wonder how much of what was initially reported was due to flawed testing methods and confirmation bias. We will probably never know.

Regardless of people testing with Dolby Atmos test tones, everything from the rear driver is coming out of the hight tweeter now where as before you would hardly hear it (only when height effects are present) so I hope we will know and they are rectified ASAP as they really don't sound anything like they did...

I don't hear any difference 

I’m getting sound out of the inner woofer but not the inner tweeter. The odd thing is that when I play the Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 test tone file, I get the exact same sound from the 300 for both the surround side and surround rear channels.  I get a moderate amount of sound from the inner woofer, a moderate amount of sound from the height tweeter, and a lot of sound from the outer woofer and tweeter.  I swapped back and forth between the test tones for the surround side and rear channels and they sound exactly the same with my head right next to the speaker.  Those 2 channels are being addressed by the speaker in the exact same way. 

Hi! Also waiting for a fix for this issue. Rear audio should come from ERA300 inner side array like it was with regular arc and era 300 until Ultra days. I dont get full rear surround that i was getting with samsung q990D and also arc + era 300.

surround processing is currently 5.1.4 not 7.1.4 as it used to be before Ultra.

Can we atleast get an explanation(not marketing bs) from tech team? Are we somehow running out of real channels with arc ultra processing unit? Real 9.1.4 is totally doable with this driver array and now we just have front and side surround with some height.

One day we’ll get a response from Sonos. Maybe..

Corry, deep down do you really feel an answer will actually come from Sonos at some point or are we all just wasting our time? 

Hi ​@Snoomuffin 

With the recent loss of some staff, the current position and timing on our getting messaging out to you is unclear right now. One thing I can absolutely guarantee is that you have been heard - we have been listening to your feedback!

Whether continued discussion of all this is still worthy of your time is up to everyone involved - we have heard the complaints and have taken note. There may well be some emotional benefit from sharing your grievances with others experiencing the same while the causes of them are still on-going - I’m certainly not going to tell you not to talk about it.

Regarding the specific point mentioned in the title of this thread regarding the inner drivers, they do work, but are deliberately kept much quieter than other drivers - due to their proximity to your ears, they are in a position to be heard much more loudly than any other drivers in the setup and are kept at a reduced gain level as a result. ​@Rhonny makes a sound point in their reply - we did not “advertise” the working of the inner drivers in any particular way, so the exact phrasing of this thread title is a little ambiguous as a result.

I hope this helps.

I’m currently auditioning both the Sonos Arc Ultra/Eros 300 & sub 3 (I already owned the sub) against the Sony Bravia Theater Quad coupled with the Sony SW5. My use case is almost exclusively movie & TV watching. Surprisingly, despite the 4 speaker array of the Sony and widely touted Sony 360 spatial sound mapping, I found little difference in the spatial imaging. In fact, to my surprise, I felt the arc had a slight edge in this area as well as a more convincing Atmos height effect. Additionally the Sonos sub had a clear edge over the SW5. In the case of the quad, each front speaker sits alongside of my 77” LG OLED, so the separation is not huge. The phantom center channel of the quad, although good, is not quite as anchored as the true center channel of the Arc ultra. Left-right imaging is very close, probably as a result of my locating the Sony’s front speakers on either side of the TV. My room has high ceilings and the den itself is not large. 
 

Now with that said I’m aware of the rear driver issue for the Eros 300s and I heard it in test tracks. However in actual movie watching, I find the issue much less discernible. As others have mentioned, I’d certainly like to see this issue addressed or at least give the user options. At this point I’ll probably keep the Arc ultra and return the Sony. But Sonos, please fix the issue.