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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G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

Yes this is a problem. I have been sharing dominiklei’s finding for the past week on Reddit and on the sonos community here.

i watched LOTR last night and sounds were just misplaced and it sounds really strange. This problem is affecting everyone I’m sure of it, but it is so subtle to notice that many just don’t even know they have a problem with their system.

Also wanted to mention the waveguide tweeters disable when era 300’s are connected so only the end tweeters of the bar fire. Disconnecting the era 300’s made the waveguide tweeters fire again but then turned off the end tweeters. Why the hell would this be a thing? All drivers should be firing to have ultra immersiveness - not ‘select immersiveness’

I own ultra, 2 sub 4’s, and era 300’s. The amount cash dropped on this system to only not work right out of the box is so glaringly bad.

they screwed this up so badly, and I’m starting to think they knew about this before release but chose to go to market anyways in order not to miss the holiday season. Really scummy if you ask me and it’s embarassing that after 5-6 weeks this still hasn’t been fixed

This is highly unlikely, especially after the app fiasco they have been dealing with and are still desperately trying to recover from to rebuild consumer trust. The last thing they want to do is create more problems with their speakers.

There is no excuse for these kinds of errors. But most users haven’t noticed this issue, so it is not a big surprise that this went unnoticed by the Sonos team. Even audio professionals/reviewers who have praised the system have failed to notice the issue. I remember when the Era 300 was first released, the Surround Audio level sliders didn’t work for months. Unfortunately, things like this happen.

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

dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

Yes this is a problem. I have been sharing dominiklei’s finding for the past week on Reddit and on the sonos community here.

i watched LOTR last night and sounds were just misplaced and it sounds really strange. This problem is affecting everyone I’m sure of it, but it is so subtle to notice that many just don’t even know they have a problem with their system.

Also wanted to mention the waveguide tweeters disable when era 300’s are connected so only the end tweeters of the bar fire. Disconnecting the era 300’s made the waveguide tweeters fire again but then turned off the end tweeters. Why the hell would this be a thing? All drivers should be firing to have ultra immersiveness - not ‘select immersiveness’

I own ultra, 2 sub 4’s, and era 300’s. The amount cash dropped on this system to only not work right out of the box is so glaringly bad.

they screwed this up so badly, and I’m starting to think they knew about this before release but chose to go to market anyways in order not to miss the holiday season. Really scummy if you ask me and it’s embarassing that after 5-6 weeks this still hasn’t been fixed

This is highly unlikely, especially after the app fiasco they have been dealing with and are still desperately trying to recover from to rebuild consumer trust. The last thing they want to do is create more problems with their speakers.

There is no excuse for these kinds of errors. But most users haven’t noticed this issue, so it is not a big surprise that this went unnoticed by the Sonos team. Even audio professionals/reviewers who have praised the system have failed to notice the issue. I remember when the Era 300 was first released, the Surround Audio level sliders didn’t work for months. Unfortunately, things like this happen.

And I don't get the feeling they are really trying to fix it soon. More like: yeah we will do it some time...

It is such a big deal imo. The Era 300 perfoming so much less than before.

I also don't get that not a single review mentioned it. Well I guess the most people are overwhelmed by the Arc Ultras performance in comparison to the Arc and just thinking that it sounds just different.

Really frustating. I'm not watching any Dolby Atmos content atm, because it is just a pain...

S

Snoomuffin

Enthusiast II

Yes this is a problem. I have been sharing dominiklei’s finding for the past week on Reddit and on the sonos community here.

i watched LOTR last night and sounds were just misplaced and it sounds really strange. This problem is affecting everyone I’m sure of it, but it is so subtle to notice that many just don’t even know they have a problem with their system.

Also wanted to mention the waveguide tweeters disable when era 300’s are connected so only the end tweeters of the bar fire. Disconnecting the era 300’s made the waveguide tweeters fire again but then turned off the end tweeters. Why the hell would this be a thing? All drivers should be firing to have ultra immersiveness - not ‘select immersiveness’

I own ultra, 2 sub 4’s, and era 300’s. The amount cash dropped on this system to only not work right out of the box is so glaringly bad.

they screwed this up so badly, and I’m starting to think they knew about this before release but chose to go to market anyways in order not to miss the holiday season. Really scummy if you ask me and it’s embarassing that after 5-6 weeks this still hasn’t been fixed

This is highly unlikely, especially after the app fiasco they have been dealing with and are still desperately trying to recover from to rebuild consumer trust. The last thing they want to do is create more problems with their speakers.

There is no excuse for these kinds of errors. But most users haven’t noticed this issue, so it is not a big surprise that this went unnoticed by the Sonos team. Even audio professionals/reviewers who have praised the system have failed to notice the issue. I remember when the Era 300 was first released, the Surround Audio level sliders didn’t work for months. Unfortunately, things like this happen.

this issue needs correction before the end of year. It’s been going on for over a month. The mis-routing of sound cripples the system and nullifies the “Atmos” label this system says it has. It is essentially “broken” for Atmos content. That should be concern enough a $2k-$3k system is gimped.

dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

I don't think it will be fixed this year... But it can't be such a big deal imo. Well, I'm not an app developer but a sound engineer and in my job it is just a click to route the channel to another. Even things like Dolby Atmos.

Lets see how fast Sonos is.

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

Soon would be good, but soon, when you are as deep in the rough as Sonos is on this update mess isn’t likely to be an option.

Like past issues, I’m sure Sonos will get it all sorted out at some point. Sucks to see them doing themselves so much damage but all they can do is fight through to a solution.

S

Snoomuffin

Enthusiast II

I don't think it will be fixed this year... But it can't be such a big deal imo. Well, I'm not an app developer but a sound engineer and in my job it is just a click to route the channel to another. Even things like Dolby Atmos.

Lets see how fast Sonos is.

I bet you anything that’s all that it is - just a click away from fixing…

S

String Maze

Lyricist I

I can confirm the same issue with my Arc Ultra system, fully up to date. The rear surround channels are firing from the upward firing driver. I don't think this was always the case with the Ultra or the Arc, but now I'm second guessing myself.

J

j5cent

Contributor I

Just tested this with Ultra, sub gen3’s, 300’s as rears. It’s a thing. I’m getting both (inside) surround and height audio out of the height driver.

Has Sonos addressed this at all or mention an acknowledgment of this issue?

L

Liderc

Contributor I

Having the same issue with my era 300s with my arc ultra, please let's get an update on this as to when we can expect a fix, this has badly hurt my system.

I hate piling on, because I haven't had many app issues, but this feels a little ridiculous. Spend another $1100 on the ultra from the arc and now my 300s are worse off.

Just feeling like a waste of time and money as this point, but I'll wait to hear from Sonos. I've submitted a ticket with my diagnostics.

Please try to get us some sort of update soon, thanks.

dominikleiAuthor

Enthusiast II

Just tested this with Ultra, sub gen3’s, 300’s as rears. It’s a thing. I’m getting both (inside) surround and height audio out of the height driver.

Has Sonos addressed this at all or mention an acknowledgment of this issue?

On regular 5.1 content the outside channel is playing trought the heights. on 7.1 and Atmos content the outside is playing right but inside channel is on heights.

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