Era 300 inverted surrounds

Hey Corry.

Kind reminder :)

Hi @gentrylord 

Thanks - I’ve actually kept this tab open the whole time to remind me, but the lead engineer that I was going to pick the brains of is now down as off sick. I still plan to ask him in particular - straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were.

Hi @gentrylord 

I did hear back, but I did not get much more information than was already made available. Progress is definitely being made, however - although there is no planned release date yet, I think I can get away with saying it does look like it will be in the first half of this year. Of course, this may be subject to change after a testing period, so please don’t take it as definite.

In regards to the channels swapping, my assumption, as above, is that it hasn’t yet been addressed in software, and that other users who have already inversion-mounted their Era 300s simply did not notice - meaning, presumably, that it still sounds fairly good. I don’t see how this wouldn’t be taken care of once full support comes.

I hope this helps.

Hi @Corry P,

thank you for your feedback.

I reckoned. I did call Sonos support but they couldn’t solve it too. They could see, that the Eras were recognized as upside down, but that is about it. I reconnected them three times, delete and reset all speakers completely with no effect. 

Then I’ll guess I have to wait :)

And yes, other users simply haven’t noticed it.

I’ve been following all your conversations regarding the inverted position of the era 300’s. I am also looking forward patiently for any info on software update concerning issue that I too am having. I’m in the same situation with having to install these speakers on a wall behind me. Please keep us updated on any info with regard to this. It seems to be a little too long for this to be unresolved due to the nature of the speakers design and of course the cost of the speakers.

I have definitely noticed the loss of channels upside down!

Guess I’ll also be waiting :)

I purchased two Era 300s on 1/31/2024 as replacements for two 1SLs surrounds and mounted them inverted to the wall behind my sofa. I can confirm with a 7.1.4 audio test I downloaded that the Era’s left and right channels are inverted as well when upside down. However, the improvement over the 1SLs is significant. Also, during a movie, it is very hard to tell the difference. The channel inversion becomes a bit more noticeable in PS5 games when enemies are behind you (if that serious about gaming, use some quality headphones). I look forward to the updated software to correct the left/right channels when inverted, but overall very satisfied with upgrading to the 300s. 
 

P.S. I can also confirm that the Era height speakers fires directly down on me, which sounds much better than the Arc that bounces the height off the ceiling. Note that I ran true play and it ran just fine; it did not pick up or notice that my speakers were inverted and did improve the sound dynamics  I then adjusted both height level and surround level volume to my liking and now my room truly feels like movie theater sound. 

Note after some extensive testing with downloadable Atmos trailers and Atmos movie scenes, the reason I can’t tell the difference in the inverted left/right Era side channels is because I don’t think sound engineers are putting a lot of time into separating those channels too often. I can hear the difference between the height channels and side channels. However, I think the sound engineers appear to put their efforts toward placing the sound in the back left or back right speaker and height for each rather than breaking down to the back left (left & right channel) and back right (left & right channel) with height for both as well. Either that or the software that sound engineers use to blend the separate left&right channels for a single back speaker does it in a way that it hardly becomes noticeable. I think video games do sound placement automatically which is why a bit more noticeable there. 
 

In summary, I know technically inverting the 300s are inverting the left/right channel as well, but for watching movies, it is extremely hard to tell the difference. Plus the downward firing height channels are simply amazing relative to upward bouncing. 

Does anyone at SONOS know when trueplay tuning will be available for inverted ERA 300’s? This is very frustrating for me as I recently upgraded from Play:1 to ERA 300 rears on a ARC. They are inverted due to being mounted too close to the ceiling for standard installation. When I contacted support because trueplay kept failing they didn’t understand why and kept blaming it on wireless interference even though I told them my Era 300’s were inverted. They had me test trueplay multiple times and it failed at the very last step every time. Trueplay was only successful when they had me remove the ERA 300’s from that zone. Seems like they didn’t know about the inverted Era 300 trueplay limitation.

Hi @Nate S 

I can’t give exact dates, but I’ve been told it will be soon - in the first half of this year, hopefully.

This, I think, is the first time I’ve heard of TruePlay not completing just because Era 300s had been added, however - perhaps a reboot of the Arc will help.

See this post for an example report of someone successfully completing TruePlay, even with Eras inverted:

I hope this helps.

The trueplay worked for me with the inverted 300s and I did a few times. I even downloaded a sound decibel app to balance the sound just the way I want. Depending on where you hold your phone during tuning, you can get certain speakers to be louder or quieter.