Era 300 or play5 for my home theatre

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In my small living room I currently have a beam gen 1, two play5’s and a gen 2 sub. In another room I have two era300. Would it be sensible to swap the 5’s for the era’s or is it best to leave as is. Was also wondering if it would be worth upgrading the beam to the latest version. Any advice would be appreciated.

Stanley_4Answer

Grand Maestro

Upgrade to the Beam Ultra, the Beam gen 1 can move to another TV or it is a pretty decent stand-alone speaker for another room. Worst case gift or sell it.

Play 5s aren't great as surrounds, the sound is great, but compared to the cost it doesn't pay back well. The only exception is if you do a lot of streaming in Full Mode and want the Room really full of sound but with poor stereo imaging.

Upgrading the Beam and moving the 300s to surround duty will make a huge improvement to your home theaters sound, particularly Atmos and free up the Play 5s for use where they would be used closer to their full abilities, two mono Rooms or as a stereo Pair.

If you are going to have access to Atmos music adding more 300s as an Atmos Pair would be really tempting. Again, relocate the Play 5s where they make the most sense.

Schlumpf

Virtuoso

@gnmilne

With Beam 1 you won’t be able to use the Era300 as surround speakers.
https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/surround-sound-guidelines-and-limitations?product=beam-gen-1

But I definitely can recommend the upgrade to Beam Ultra. And (especially if using Dolby Atmos) this combined with 2 Era300 as surrounds imho will be a great home theater system.
Also I personally like the Play5 (Gen2 I think) much more as a music stereo pair.

Ralf

Stanley_4Answer

Grand Maestro

Upgrade to the Beam Ultra, the Beam gen 1 can move to another TV or it is a pretty decent stand-alone speaker for another room. Worst case gift or sell it.

Play 5s aren't great as surrounds, the sound is great, but compared to the cost it doesn't pay back well. The only exception is if you do a lot of streaming in Full Mode and want the Room really full of sound but with poor stereo imaging.

Upgrading the Beam and moving the 300s to surround duty will make a huge improvement to your home theaters sound, particularly Atmos and free up the Play 5s for use where they would be used closer to their full abilities, two mono Rooms or as a stereo Pair.

If you are going to have access to Atmos music adding more 300s as an Atmos Pair would be really tempting. Again, relocate the Play 5s where they make the most sense.

G

gnmilneAuthor

Contributor I

Thanks for the advice, looks like a no brainer.Hunt starts for a beam ultra deal 👍.

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