Enthusiast II

Era 300 rear driver is silent (with Arc Ultra)

393 replies
25034 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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dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

@dominiklei Did that Sonos employee explain why the inside driver doesn’t fire when playing a non-Atmos 7.1 test tones audio track? The rear surround channel still plays from the top driver.

Same reason as with Dolby Atmos. It should give a (better with Atmos) 3D sound immersion.

Edit: In my opinion, the movie makers or audio engineer from the movie know what they do and Sonos don't need to "improve" immersion of movies and series.

If a car comes from behind, it shouldn't come from my ceiling 😂

A

AR_S34

Trending Lyricist I

Are Sonos support in Germany really trying to tell people that their 900 euro pair of rear speakers only work through 50% of the actual drivers and that’s the way it’s meant to be? what next playing all the audio through the top firing speaker only?

S

Spaxx24

Trending Lyricist II

Are Sonos support in Germany really trying to tell people that their 900 euro pair of rear speakers only work through 50% of the actual drivers and that’s the way it’s meant to be? what next playing all the audio through the top firing speaker only?

I think they missunderstood and thought he was asking about the common “front driver” “issue”

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

@dominiklei Did that Sonos employee explain why the inside driver doesn’t fire when playing a non-Atmos 7.1 test tones audio track? The rear surround channel still plays from the top driver.

Same reason as with Dolby Atmos. It should give a 3D sound immersion.

So according to them, the inside driver is never utilized when playing a 7.1 or Dolby Atmos audio track?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

Are Sonos support in Germany really trying to tell people that their 900 euro pair of rear speakers only work through 50% of the actual drivers and that’s the way it’s meant to be? what next playing all the audio through the top firing speaker only?

As I understood, he or his theam talked with the main team. But I don't know for sure.

Thats why I asked @Corry P a few post before.

dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

@dominiklei Did that Sonos employee explain why the inside driver doesn’t fire when playing a non-Atmos 7.1 test tones audio track? The rear surround channel still plays from the top driver.

Same reason as with Dolby Atmos. It should give a 3D sound immersion.

So according to them, the inside driver is never utilized when playing a 7.1 or Dolby Atmos audio track?

The inside tweeter doesn't play, yes. The inside midrange driver should work. I don't hear that, if they work, they are so quite, that I can't hear anything from them at my seating position.

S

Snoomuffin

Enthusiast II

Just logged in to mention that I’m experiencing the same issue—Arc Ultra with Era 300. This is unbelievable. It’s like buying a Ferrari and discovering it’s limited to 50 mph driving on 4 cylinders, because some engineers didn’t have time to activate the other four cylinders.

Well I have until mid January to return all this garbage. So I’ll leave some room for Sonos to redeem themselves - if at all - and correct the issue

dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

Are Sonos support in Germany really trying to tell people that their 900 euro pair of rear speakers only work through 50% of the actual drivers and that’s the way it’s meant to be? what next playing all the audio through the top firing speaker only?

I think they missunderstood and thought he was asking about the common “front driver” “issue”

No, he is talking what we are discuss in here.

Thats what he wrote (Translated in ChatGPT)

In summary, the behavior you reported aligns with the design conceived by Sonos, where the outer array of the Era 300 is louder than the inner array due to the positioning of the speakers. To ensure that both arrays are perceived as equally loud at the listening position, the inner array has a direct path to the listener, while the outer array's sound is indirect and reflected.

Additionally, the surround audio channels are mixed with the height audio in the upward-facing array. This enhances the sense of immersion in surround content and contributes to the creation of a comprehensive sound bubble, even with 5.1/7.1 content that doesn't include discrete height audio channels.

However, what he discribes is not what I'm hearing. So I don't know who gave him this information. He just delivered it to me.

dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

Just logged in to mention that I’m experiencing the same issue—Arc Ultra with Era 300. This is unbelievable. It’s like buying a Ferrari and discovering it’s limited to 50 mph driving on 4 cylinders, because some engineers didn’t have time to activate the other four cylinders.

Well I have until mid January to return all this garbage. So I’ll leave some room for Sonos to redeem themselves - if at all - and correct the issue

haha I guess it will take mid year, IF they are fixing it at all. I'm really pissed.

Loved my Sonos stuff and it is the best multiroom for me, but with that they f***** it up even more after the App launch. I personally never had a problem with the App tho, but most people had.

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct

S

Snoomuffin

Enthusiast II

Just logged in to mention that I’m experiencing the same issue—Arc Ultra with Era 300. This is unbelievable. It’s like buying a Ferrari and discovering it’s limited to 50 mph driving on 4 cylinders, because some engineers didn’t have time to activate the other four cylinders.

Well I have until mid January to return all this garbage. So I’ll leave some room for Sonos to redeem themselves - if at all - and correct the issue

haha I guess it will take mid year, IF they are fixing it at all. I'm really pissed.

Loved my Sonos stuff and it is the best multiroom for me, but with that they f***** it up even more after the App launch. I personally never had a problem with the App tho, but most people had.

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct

Yup exactly. Personally, the Bravia quad or just get the damn dragon at this point seem like way better options.

Hell, klipsch flexus 300 is supposed to release soon with DIRAC calibration.

good options out there compared to Sonos.

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