Enthusiast II

Era 300 rear driver is silent (with Arc Ultra)

393 replies
25030 views

First things first. This is not a rant. This is an expalation of a problem, which reduces the experience in 3D audio a lot. For background: I'm a sound engineer and music producer and I don't wanna sound arrogant, but I know what I'm talking about. (I'm a really nice and funny guy :D)

So lets get to the problem then :D

NO I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE FRONT FACING DRIVER

for better understanding watch this VIDEO

This bug appeared the moment I switched the Arc with the Arc Ultra. Before I made the switch I was on the 16.1 app and firmware. So I don't know if the Ultra causes the problem or the app/firmware. Before the switch everything was running as it should.

So, since there is not much of a topic around this, I'm curious if I am still one of a few who have this bug or one of a few who noticed it.

I made this post in Reddit, but not everyone is on Reddit and the more people know, the faster Sonos can work on it. Reddit discussion

I didn't saw any review which mentioned it.
As you can see in the video, the rear driver is completly silenent when the Era 300's are paired with the Arc Ultra. Also Truplay isn't "sweeping" the driver either. (Timestamp 0:44)
So the mesurement isn't right.
First I thought it could be a feature instead of a bug, but it doens't fit the Dolby Atmos recommendations like this. You won't get sound from "behind" your seating position.
And I remember Sonos self promoted it how it should work, where the rear driver is playing.

DOLBY ATMOS LAYOUT

Sound from side driver/channel should boucing off your side walls, rear driver/channel bouncing off the back wall of your seating position and height channel obviosly bouncing off your ceiling. Thats why you should position them facing forward. At the moment you don't get the immersion that sound is coming from behind you, since the driver is silent.

I tested every setting, played the Dolby Atmos testfile (MKV [TrueHD Atmos] and MP4 [EAC3 + joc Atmos]) from different sources (TV Plex app, Nvidia Shield, from a USB through TV) Same result everytime.

If someone could test this behavior and can confirm this, it would be very nice. Sonos can't fix something they don't know and if most people doens't recognize doens't mean something isn't wrong.

Currently I'm running app version 80.12.04 (Android) and 80.12.03 (iPhone) and firmware version 81.1-58210.
If you don't have this problem, what version are you running?

And last but not least: IF this ever getting fixed, the experience with Arc Ultra and Era 300 will be much better! I love my Sonos products soundwise and Arc Ultra is sounding really good, but it could be much better.

Have a nice day

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Pinned Reply By Jamie A

Hi all, thank you all for your patience.

I was going to post at the same time as Keith on Reddit, however I wasn’t able to. I see that the link to the reddit post has already been copied here, but just to confirm what you've already discovered, this is expected behaviour as explained by our audio team.

I’m happy to forward any questions and feedback you have, as well as forward this as a feature request.

The side tweeters on the Arc Ultra are “overpowering” the bonded rear surrounds.
Side channels are virtualized by both the Arc Ultra and Era 300’s. While you can use “Surround Audio” features to dial in the sound level of your preference there are a few important things to keep in mind:

Surround TV Level and Music Level Slider Behavior: The surround level sliders adjust the sound level for both the Arc Ultra and the surround channels equally. This is the intended behavior.

Using Surround Distance Setting to Adjust Rear Sound Levels: The surround distance setting can be modified to influence the output level from the rear speakers relative to the sound bar:

Setting it to “Less than 2 feet (0.6m)” reduces the volume from the rear speakers.
Setting it to “More than 10 feet (3m)” increases the volume from the rear speakers.

Perceptible Differences: While the surround distance slider adjusts the levels equally for both the Arc Ultra and the surround speakers, testing has indicated that listeners may perceive differences in the sound from the listening position, as described above.

Impact of Trueplay: The surround distance setting is disabled when Trueplay is active, as Trueplay automatically corrects for this. To adjust the surround distance, Trueplay must first be disabled.

There is no audible output from inner woofers when Era 300 is bonded as rear surrounds.
This is by design. The rear speakers are designed to disperse sound throughout the room, rather than directing it to the listener exclusively.

The Era 300 plays rear channel audio through its height array.
This, too, is by design. The Era 300’s DSP (Digital Signal Processing) leverages either the rear height tweeter OR the outward-facing tweeter/woofer to create the intended sound experience. Because of this, when you play the Dolby test track, you might notice that rear height channel as being active during rear-channel playback. This is expected.

Edit: Modified the wording on the 2nd and 3rd bolded points to closer match the wording in the app.

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Spaxx24

Trending Lyricist II

Just another user here with the same problem. Using test files the rear channel is coming through the height driver. Ive reset, ungrouped, regrouped, re true played. Nil effect. I’m not overly pissed off, but would like an official response from Sonos to know they're working on a fix. We have after all, (our choice, I know), spent a lot of money on this.

They already responded in this channel

S

superlollo

Enthusiast II

Just another user here with the same problem. Using test files the rear channel is coming through the height driver. Ive reset, ungrouped, regrouped, re true played. Nil effect. I’m not overly pissed off, but would like an official response from Sonos to know they're working on a fix. We have after all, (our choice, I know), spent a lot of money on this.

They already responded in this channel

i’d prefer something more “official” and with a deadline

S

Spaxx24

Trending Lyricist II

Just another user here with the same problem. Using test files the rear channel is coming through the height driver. Ive reset, ungrouped, regrouped, re true played. Nil effect. I’m not overly pissed off, but would like an official response from Sonos to know they're working on a fix. We have after all, (our choice, I know), spent a lot of money on this.

They already responded in this channel

i’d prefer something more “official” and with a deadline

Yeah you wont get any deadline :D

D

da3wilson

Lyricist III

Just another user here with the same problem. Using test files the rear channel is coming through the height driver. Ive reset, ungrouped, regrouped, re true played. Nil effect. I’m not overly pissed off, but would like an official response from Sonos to know they're working on a fix. We have after all, (our choice, I know), spent a lot of money on this.

They already responded in this channel

i’d prefer something more “official” and with a deadline

Yeah you wont get any deadline :D

But they could send out something official saying we are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. They have a record of all 300 registered owners and could quickly email them. Since the CEO has said they are all for transparency and his email is always available.

S

Spaxx24

Trending Lyricist II

Just another user here with the same problem. Using test files the rear channel is coming through the height driver. Ive reset, ungrouped, regrouped, re true played. Nil effect. I’m not overly pissed off, but would like an official response from Sonos to know they're working on a fix. We have after all, (our choice, I know), spent a lot of money on this.

They already responded in this channel

i’d prefer something more “official” and with a deadline

Yeah you wont get any deadline :D

But they could send out something official saying we are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. They have a record of all 300 registered owners and could quickly email them. Since the CEO has said they are all for transparency and his email is always available.

Dont understand what difference it would make but sure, they have confirmed in this thread they are aware of the issue and since its degrading the performance for (probably) everyone with eras as surround ofc it is a priority.

D

da3wilson

Lyricist III

Just another user here with the same problem. Using test files the rear channel is coming through the height driver. Ive reset, ungrouped, regrouped, re true played. Nil effect. I’m not overly pissed off, but would like an official response from Sonos to know they're working on a fix. We have after all, (our choice, I know), spent a lot of money on this.

They already responded in this channel

i’d prefer something more “official” and with a deadline

Yeah you wont get any deadline :D

But they could send out something official saying we are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. They have a record of all 300 registered owners and could quickly email them. Since the CEO has said they are all for transparency and his email is always available.

Dont understand what difference it would make but sure, they have confirmed in this thread they are aware of the issue and since its degrading the performance for (probably) everyone with eras as surround ofc it is a priority.

For the people who bought them or the ultra and aren't on here or reddit. Honestly if I bought the ultra and my rear sound went missing without knowing it was a bug they were fixing I would just return what I could. I'm still tempted to return the ultra and go back to an arc because of this.

S

Spaxx24

Trending Lyricist II

Just another user here with the same problem. Using test files the rear channel is coming through the height driver. Ive reset, ungrouped, regrouped, re true played. Nil effect. I’m not overly pissed off, but would like an official response from Sonos to know they're working on a fix. We have after all, (our choice, I know), spent a lot of money on this.

They already responded in this channel

i’d prefer something more “official” and with a deadline

Yeah you wont get any deadline :D

But they could send out something official saying we are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. They have a record of all 300 registered owners and could quickly email them. Since the CEO has said they are all for transparency and his email is always available.

Dont understand what difference it would make but sure, they have confirmed in this thread they are aware of the issue and since its degrading the performance for (probably) everyone with eras as surround ofc it is a priority.

For the people who bought them or the ultra and aren't on here or reddit. Honestly if I bought the ultra and my rear sound went missing without knowing it was a bug they were fixing I would just return what I could. I'm still tempted to return the ultra and go back to an arc because of this.

People with Arc have the same problem.

dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

For the people who bought them or the ultra and aren't on here or reddit. Honestly if I bought the ultra and my rear sound went missing without knowing it was a bug they were fixing I would just return what I could. I'm still tempted to return the ultra and go back to an arc because of this.

As said above. It is the same with the Arc. My guess is that a firmware update causes it and now Arc and Arc Ultra having this bug. I'm curious if the beam with Era 300 having this bug, too. This setup doesn't make a lot of sense but for science it would be interesting haha

K

kenshinesca

Contributor I

I hope this would be a priority for them to fix for the Era 300 and Era 100 since I read a thread and they are having a similar problem with their inner driver not working. If I'm buying this for a surround setup and literally half the drivers aren't working that is pretty disappointing.

I didn’t know this was affecting the regular Arc as well.

dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

Yep. Confirmed it with multiple movies. I put my ear up to it and go an ear full haha! 🤷‍♂️ Someone else try this and try it with an Atmos movie. The inside drivers seem to be fairly passive so you don’t hear them with everything but they are 100% working. I also think the test app I have on my Apple TV isn’t very accurate because they definitely work on movies but not on the test app I have. All I care about is they are definitely working now with movies. 🤷‍♂️

If it’s not working with test files it’s not working with movies, sorry.

drivers are pretty close toghether, that’s why you think you can hear the dear channels during movies….and that’s why you say the sound coming out of the rear channel is “faint”

So I did some more testings and I get why people think their drivers work. As superlollo said: the drivers are pretty close together and thats why its sounding like its coming from them but they aren't functional at all.

I tested some Trueplay stuff and my best results are on Android. Advanced Trueplay on iPhone sounds really muddy (yes my mic is clean) and the bass is still not 100% correct in phase. Basic Trueplay on iPhone sounds better but same issue with bass. I guess it is because the first step on iPhone is to calculate the position. On Android you don't have this step and the best results I get from my Android device.

It is not the topic of the thread BUT I write it here, because they need to redo the Trueplay anyway when they fix this routing bug. Could someone test this aswell?

I know, it depents of the room but maybe this is another Sonos buggy thing.

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