Era 300 rear driver is silent (with Arc Ultra)

You know if someone could actually explain the logic behind the “decision” why they did what they did to the era 300 many of us would not care just like the front firing speaker being disabled - this makes sense.

but now who knows if this bug, or in Sonos’s eyes this “feature”, will ever get fixed because they are doubling down and contradicting themselves about the era 300 functionality. Still debating on whether I should just return my system or not…

Yeah. It's odd that they didn't make the announcement before the implementation. Also it just seemed to happen when the ultra was released/installed for most of us where they could seemingly sneak it in without anyone noticing. I'm tempted to return the ultra and go back to my regular arc while I still can. Who knows what other features/functionality they will disable and then call intentional... In my case one side of my room has a big gap (20ft) between the speaker and a wall so this change has definitely thrown off the balance for the surround sound. 

The problem affects the era 300s when use as surrounds it doesn't matter if it's an arc or arc ultra. We probably won't hear anything back from sonos team until next year

Check out the pinned comment with the official Sonos reply. Losing functionality = working as intended.

Asked for comments on the Dutch Sonos community. 
I hope the “feature request will be taken into consideration.

Don’t hold your breath. People have been submitting “feature request” for enabling the front driver since last year. Instead of adding that option they did the opposite: they stealthily disabled another working tweeter (if their narrative is to be believed that it was an intentional design choice different from last year’s, and that it’s not a bug).

I can at least understand the logic behind disabling the front firing tweeter.

disabling the rears is just stupid. Why would I want to hear a door close from the ceiling if it’s right behind the character. 

Whats noticeable is that now all my atmos tracks sound like 5.1 surround because majority is coming from the sides surrounds (not including the height channels).

So really this system sounds like a 5.1.4 system. 

There are obviously mixed feelings about the above answer regarding the rear surrounds and Atmos sound in general. I for one am enjoying my Arc Ultra + Era 300’s + Dual Sub 4’s in my main media room measuring 20 ft Long, 18 ft Wide and 8 ft High. I recently watched Twisters and really enjoyed the sound effects of a tornado moving around and overhead. 

I also have an Arc Ulra + Era 300’s + Sub 4 in my Great Room that is sunken but open to Kitchen area. The total footage is 20 ft Long, 36 ft Wide and 15 ft High. Watching Twisters in that space is less impactful but still offers decent surround effects.

My point is that the Atmos “bubble” (if you will) created in my main media room is quite different with more impact than in my Great Room. I would suspect that if your space is more open then you may not get the full Atmos experience as would be in a more confined space.  

Many will probably respond (if so inclined ) that everything sounded different before the above statement was presented regarding the inside drivers of the Era 300’s not firing. Although I have to wonder if the perceived missing audio is due to someone having run a sound test that exposed the silent drivers and by the power of suggestion it’s now a problem wherein before it wasn’t. In short sometimes “not knowing” propagates “bliss”. 

Please understand that I by no means intend to infer that the missing sound is all in one’s head (so to speak). However, I have to wonder if one’s space has been taken into consideration when evaluating the sound of the Arc Ultra + Era 300’s and Sub(s)...silent inside Era 300 drivers or not?

Edit: If you decide to respond to my comments (in that you disagree) I ask that you please remain civil. There are community members who have been known to go “off the rails” when someone like myself has a different viewpoint than the implied majority.

​@AjTrek1 I wonder if the sound in your great room would be closer to your media room if the Era 300s were used to their full capability. 🤔 

I hear you. However, given the answer above who’s to say that full potential is to have the inside drivers active rather than silent based upon what the engineers think is the optimum setting for now. 🤔 At this juncture it’s a conundrum until (if) Sonos decides to reevaluate their decision. Maybe a community petition for a 2nd beta would push the reevaluation. That’s a BIG maybe given that the App is the primary focus at present.

I’d like to Dolby to weigh in as well..

Also I am watching Jurassic park on 4k disc (UB820 helping with conversion) and I am getting multichannel 7.1 PCM.

The rears on the era 300’s are silent but the heights and side surrounds are active. Thought maybe 7.1 would at least play through the rears, but nope. 

AjTrek1 wrote:

There are obviously mixed feelings about the above answer regarding the rear surrounds and Atmos sound in general. I for one am enjoying my Arc Ultra + Era 300’s + Dual Sub 4’s in my main media room measuring 20 ft Long, 18 ft Wide and 8 ft High. I recently watched Twisters and really enjoyed the sound effects of a tornado moving around and overhead. 

I also have an Arc Ulra + Era 300’s + Sub 4 in my Great Room that is sunken but open to Kitchen area. The total footage is 20 ft Long, 36 ft Wide and 15 ft High. Watching Twisters in that space is less impactful but still offers decent surround effects.

My point is that the Atmos “bubble” (if you will) created in my main media room is quite different with more impact than in my Great Room. I would suspect that if your space is more open then you may not get the full Atmos experience as would be in a more confined space.  

Many will probably respond (if so inclined ) that everything sounded different before the above statement was presented regarding the inside drivers of the Era 300’s not firing. Although I have to wonder if the perceived missing audio is due to someone having run a sound test that exposed the silent drivers and by the power of suggestion it’s now a problem wherein before it wasn’t. In short sometimes “not knowing” propagates “bliss”. 

Please understand that I by no means intend to infer that the missing sound is all in one’s head (so to speak). However, I have to wonder if one’s space has been taken into consideration when evaluating the sound of the Arc Ultra + Era 300’s and Sub(s)...silent inside Era 300 drivers or not?

Edit: If you decide to respond to my comments (in that you disagree) I ask that you please remain civil. There are community members who have been known to go “off the rails” when someone like myself has a different viewpoint than the implied majority.

Sonos employee + chatGPT

lol. I’m certain ​@AjTrek1 is not chatGPT, for various reasons (nothing personal, sir, but I am amused). And Sonos employees are required to use accounts that identify them as such. 

Some are happy they get noise I guess.

Dolby, and their pesky specs, less so maybe.

Reading all of that above, assuming it's true (and Sonos appear to be saying so and hiding previous comments to the contrary) it's incredible but not really surprising anymore.

I’m sure that if we can do an A/B testing, or if you are very familiar with a specific content or scene that you have replayed a hundred times that it’s ingrained into your brain how the rears are supposed to sound for that moment, then I bet you will definitely notice the difference.

But the problem is, at least with how I use my setup, it’s hard to notice it right away because I don’t play 7.1.4 Atmos content all the time. I do a mix of streaming content (Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney Plus, etc.), music via Spotify connect, YouTube app, etc. Even if you play Atmos movies, in those movies themselves they don’t always use all surround channels for the entirety of the movie.

Anything I said above though doesn’t justify Sonos’ decision to dismiss a bug as a design intent. Why not be transparent about this new design? Why hide the video from last year? Why not give a sensible explanation (they did last year and that made sense).

If it is intentional I am expecting a detailed, in-depth technical explanation on the Sonos blog to explain the reasons why.  I'm not convinced at all how this could be more accurately immersive than what was happening before but I'm open to reason.  

It's great that people think their set up sounds amazing as is, my Era 300 surrounds sound good as well.  However, the point is they could sound even better, if this change was reversed. 

I think Sonos is saying the way they've set it up is the better way…...

Well if it’s inaccurate, placing sounds above rather than behind I would say that’s a problem not a “feature”

Why take a feature away that was working fine before the Arc Ultra?  Is the problem the arc ultra has more channels dedicated to it, and there is none left for the Era 300’s Rear channels?

I think the bigger overall issue is that the behavior has changed since many of us early adopters had purchased the system… and the changes are what “Sonos thinks this is best”.

Nowhere in the advertisements or literature states Sonos will change what you paid for without your permission, despite how it affect the usage of your purchased product. The updates are being pushed out, your system changed forever, and you find out after the fact.

To me, it would be no different if I bought a performance sports car and one day I drove it and it no longer performed the same due to an update the manufacturer thought was “better”. If things worked for me, it should stay that way.

Just like optional computer updates, there should be at a minimum a description of an “optional” update to change behavior if you want that change. Bug fixes are one thing and should be mandatory, but operational changes and functionality updates should be optional, with FULL TRANSPARENCY of the changes in advance of an automatic update… or at least the option to fall back to the state where it functions best to where it worked best for you previously. There shouldn’t be a penalty say for someone who has a Great Room or Vaulted Ceiling configuration in their home, because some engineer tested in a 12x12x8 boxy living area and based the code change as to how it sounds “better” there.

My 300s used to sound much better with just the Arc and before the latest updates.

I did a blind test for family members in my great room between my $3,000 Sonos Utlra (before I returned it), Sub 3 and Era 300s system vs a $200 Vizio Soundbar, Sub and Surrounds with Top Gun Maverick, Jurrasic Park and John Wick setting the volumes Dolby Test tones and a DB meter for accuracy of sound volume and surround levels... and asked them which had the better sound experience….

4 of 6 adults all picked the Vizio surround saying it felt like they were wearing headphones. When I switched back to my Arc and swapped the Era 300s with my Era 100s for surround …. all 6 picked the Sonos.

Its just my humble and personal opinion, but at the price point especially, functionality updates should be optional and fall back possible to what I paid for and how it worked at that time, not forced on me after I can no longer return the product.

This 100% for me also. If it sounds better in the test rooms/setups they have then give us a chance to see what is best for our specific setup. Instead they just force the updates/possible bugs onto us and hope we are happy with the results.

However after more thorough testing I have been able to get the 300s to play out of the inner sides with this test file - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-ENZuPSOCRP-RfN6yrWzcAQZnPmY31MG/view?t=5 found through this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/hometheater/comments/11qqv95/surround_sound_test_files_in_almost_every_format/. If you download more of the atmos test files maybe you will find others that allow the 300s to play out of the inner woofers also. I did have to download the files to a pc and connect them to my soundbar through e-arc to get them to play correctly. ​@dominiklei ​@Snoomuffin and others if you have a chance to test some of these files and please post your results. For me this is still a step backwards as this means that usual sources will not provide any sound out of the inner woofer of the 300.

I haven’t tested yet, but how would these test channels be any different than the dolby atmos disc I have that offers the same configurations for testing? 

Not sure. Someone that is a lot smarter at this would have to clarify why certain files would be different. It seems to have some different locations from 7.1 and other test files that I have tried and that could be the reason. This is a definite change from the previous behavior though. 

Well for one thing - I tested multichannel 7.1 PCM last night and can confirm rears are still disabled and going through the height channels. 
 

doesnt make any sense to me