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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Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @lacerate

Thanks @Corry P

Any idea on ETA for a fix?

Sorry, but no - there never is.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

S

superlollo

Enthusiast II

Hi @lacerate

Thanks @Corry P

Any idea on ETA for a fix?

Sorry, but no - there never is.

I realize it’s impossible to have an exact date, but this is the sort of MAJOR bug impacting hundreds if not thousands of users and should be extremely high on the priority list.

I’m new to Sonos and I already had my fair share of problems (paid for express delivery, got the delivery one week late and with wrong products inside, took close to 3 weeks to get what I paid for….), but this should be fixed asap. It’s not a good look for new customers, possibly even worse for old one who already had to deal with the app fiascos that I read about and hoped were being fixed

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

I can understand the Sonos hesitation to post dates. Not saying I like it.

If they get bad press over a problem it eventually fades, if they miss a date they get a fresh round of roasting.

They do have their pending fixes site that is some help.

https://trello.com/b/4T9rbg8t/sonos-app-improvement-bug-tracker

dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

Hi @lacerate

Thanks @Corry P

Any idea on ETA for a fix?

Sorry, but no - there never is.

I realize it’s impossible to have an exact date, but this is the sort of MAJOR bug impacting hundreds if not thousands of users and should be extremely high on the priority list.

I’m new to Sonos and I already had my fair share of problems (paid for express delivery, got the delivery one week late and with wrong products inside, took close to 3 weeks to get what I paid for….), but this should be fixed asap. It’s not a good look for new customers, possibly even worse for old one who already had to deal with the app fiascos that I read about and hoped were being fixed

Exactly this.

And as we talking about rounting of drivers.

On the Ultra the "wide channel" for the marketing 9.1.x should just play the L/R also. I would give a so much wider soundstage and the "wide channel" in Dolby Atmos is rarely used so this 9.1.x markting is kinda unnecessary.

S

superlollo

Enthusiast II

I can understand the Sonos hesitation to post dates. Not saying I like it.

If they get bad press over a problem it eventually fades, if they miss a date they get a fresh round of roasting.

They do have their pending fixes site that is some help.

https://trello.com/b/4T9rbg8t/sonos-app-improvement-bug-tracker

don’t see anything about this era 300+ultra problem mentioned in that Trello board. See Lost of minor improvements tho. Seriously hope this is going to have precedence over “ui Fit and finish” lol

S

Spaxx24

Trending Lyricist II

I can understand the Sonos hesitation to post dates. Not saying I like it.

If they get bad press over a problem it eventually fades, if they miss a date they get a fresh round of roasting.

They do have their pending fixes site that is some help.

https://trello.com/b/4T9rbg8t/sonos-app-improvement-bug-tracker

don’t see anything about this era 300+ultra problem mentioned in that Trello board. See Lost of minor improvements tho. Seriously hope this is going to have precedence over “ui Fit and finish” lol

Isnt that Trello for the app. This isnt an app issue (most likely)

A

ainsley002

Renowned Enthusiast I

This is a problem on my Ultra/Sub/300s system as well. I await the outcome from Support.

J

jkossis

Enthusiast I

You’d think validating that the correct channels are being played through the correct speakers would be entry-level quality assurance for a surround-sound product. It’s pretty remarkable that Sonos continues to have very little rigor when it comes to quality assurance.

L

Lewdog129

Lyricist III

I have the same issues mentioned. I contacted Sonos support and submitted a diagnostic test to them when the sound on the Dolby 7.1.4 test should be playing out of the rear surround channel. The sound from the rear surround channel comes out of the hight tweeter as mentioned by OP instead of the inward facing tweeter/woofer pair on both Era 300 units. I even switched them over and reconnected them to my system and the same issue persists. It is worth noting here that the outward facing side of the Era 300s plays the test sound for the left and right surround speakers as normal in tandem with the Arc Ultra’s side facing tweeters.

For clarity, I am referring to speaker configuration here Dolby Home Theatre Speaker Guide. The speaker position 6 is the issue. When testing this position for both speakers, the sound comes from the hight channel, number 8 on this set up document, instead of the inner driver pair on the Era 300. Sound from the rear surrounds seems to be routed to this driver for some reason. Number 5, left/right surround, works perfectly fine and has both the Era 300s and Arc Ultra’s side drivers activated to create this channel.

@Corry P would you be able to tell us when the Sonos team were first made aware of this issue? Understand that you can’t tell us when a fix for this will be implemented and I don’t expect it to be fixed soon, but would be interesting to know when Sonos was made aware of this issue as it drastically impacts the immersion and effectiveness of the surround sound. Can’t wait to get my system firing in all cylinders (drivers) again. Thanks for the support!

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @Lewdog129

I don’t have information on that either, but the Arc Ultra was released on 29th Oct 2024.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

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