Enthusiast II

Era 300 rear driver is silent (with Arc Ultra)

393 replies
24998 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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AjTrek1

@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.

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.

S

Snoomuffin

Enthusiast II

@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..

S

Snoomuffin

Enthusiast II

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.

S

superlollo

Enthusiast II

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

Airgetlam

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.

Bruce

S

sjw

Local Superstar

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.

K

krion

Trending Lyricist I

…..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…….

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).

C

Chiliuk

Lyricist I

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.

106rallye

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

K

kenshinesca

Contributor I

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?

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