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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
I have a Beam Gen 2 paired with some One SL’s before I got the Ultra and Era 300s. I just switched the system back to the Beam to test if the issue is only on the Arc and Ultra. I can confirm that, with the Beam Gen 2 paired with the Era 300s, the issue is still present with the Beam. So this issue is not just an Arc issue but a wider problem when they are set up as rear speakers. When unpaired and music plays on each 300 individually, all drivers work. So it’s definitely not a problem with both my 300s either.
Ok so it’s pretty much confirmed that all 300s used as surrounds have this problem, no matter what they are paired to
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
I have a Beam Gen 2 paired with some One SL’s before I got the Ultra and Era 300s. I just switched the system back to the Beam to test if the issue is only on the Arc and Ultra. I can confirm that, with the Beam Gen 2 paired with the Era 300s, the issue is still present with the Beam. So this issue is not just an Arc issue but a wider problem when they are set up as rear speakers. When unpaired and music plays on each 300 individually, all drivers work. So it’s definitely not a problem with both my 300s either.
The question is if they are never paired with the ultra do the 300s still have this issue. Is there a way to factory reset the firmware/revert and update and test with the arc or beam?
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
I have a Beam Gen 2 paired with some One SL’s before I got the Ultra and Era 300s. I just switched the system back to the Beam to test if the issue is only on the Arc and Ultra. I can confirm that, with the Beam Gen 2 paired with the Era 300s, the issue is still present with the Beam. So this issue is not just an Arc issue but a wider problem when they are set up as rear speakers. When unpaired and music plays on each 300 individually, all drivers work. So it’s definitely not a problem with both my 300s either.
The question is if they are never paired with the ultra do the 300s still have this issue. Is there a way to factory reset the firmware/revert and update and test with the arc or beam?
No they don’t have this issue when they are on their own. I tested this too during my unpairing of them from my Arc Ultra before I moved the system to my Beam for testing.
Ok so it’s pretty much confirmed that all 300s used as surrounds have this problem, no matter what they are paired to
Good to know. Damn that’s a lot.
This seems like a massive issue that isn’t even being officially addressed. Pretty disappointing to hear about this after purchasing a pair of era 300s on black friday. They still haven’t arrived, but once they do it sucks to hear they won’t function correctly. If this a bug everyone is experiencing, I think this has a lot to say about Sonos’s testing methods. To have an entire side of a driver be completely non functional is a crazy thing to miss in an update.
Hi @da3wilson
Sorry to hear that! We are aware of the issue and are investigating, but we have no estimate for when a fix might be put in place.
If you have not already contacted support about this issue personally, I’d encourage you to do so in order for us to gather data on the matter.
A reboot of the Arc Ultra and all connected satellites (surrounds and Sub(s)) may help.
I hope this helps.
@Nivek- If this really is a “massive issue” is debatable, but I can see that it would not be very nice to have installed expensive speakers that do not work as they’re supposed to. Sonos has picked up on it though….. I’d count the statement above as the problem being “officially addressed”.
@106rallye i think giving Sonos the benefit-of-the-doubt at this point is misguided. After the continuous missteps that have encompassed almost all of 2024.
It is a massive issue that a surround sound product is released without verifying that the correct channels are playing out of the correct drivers. That should be at the top of the list when it comes to regression testing.
I’m not giving Sonos the benefit of the doubt - I just pointed out that they acknowledged the problem, which was disputed above.
@106rallye i think giving Sonos the benefit-of-the-doubt at this point is misguided. After the continuous missteps that have encompassed almost all of 2024.
It is a massive issue that a surround sound product is released without verifying that the correct channels are playing out of the correct drivers. That should be at the top of the list when it comes to regression testing.
Totally agree that the issue is massive, we’re talking about tens of thousands of Era 300 users who are getting a wrong atmos experience. I’m amazed that so many people, including reputable Sonos youtubers like Peter Pee, haven’t noticed this. It’s noticeable in movies and it’s glaringly noticeable when playing test tunes (and a reviewer should do that)
@106rallye i think giving Sonos the benefit-of-the-doubt at this point is misguided. After the continuous missteps that have encompassed almost all of 2024.
It is a massive issue that a surround sound product is released without verifying that the correct channels are playing out of the correct drivers. That should be at the top of the list when it comes to regression testing.
Totally agree that the issue is massive, we’re talking about tens of thousands of Era 300 users who are getting a wrong atmos experience. I’m amazed that so many people, including reputable Sonos youtubers like Peter Pee, haven’t noticed this. It’s noticeable in movies and it’s glaringly noticeable when playing test tunes (and a reviewer should do that)
I have a pretty critical ear and it really isn’t that noticeable unless you sit really close to the surround speakers or are playing a test tones video and placing your ear right next to the inside driver. 99.9% of users who are using the Era 300s as surrounds aren’t going to use test tones to test their system. And it’s not like the rear surround audio is completely missing. It’s just being played out of a different part of the speaker.
I have been testing my Arc Ultra + Dual Subs + Era 300s setup pretty critically for the last few days and it still sounds great IMO.
But I agree that there is no excuse for the Sonos team to miss this. Things like this, and the app situation, show that attention to detail is not one of Sonos’ strengths.
@106rallye i think giving Sonos the benefit-of-the-doubt at this point is misguided. After the continuous missteps that have encompassed almost all of 2024.
It is a massive issue that a surround sound product is released without verifying that the correct channels are playing out of the correct drivers. That should be at the top of the list when it comes to regression testing.
Totally agree that the issue is massive, we’re talking about tens of thousands of Era 300 users who are getting a wrong atmos experience. I’m amazed that so many people, including reputable Sonos youtubers like Peter Pee, haven’t noticed this. It’s noticeable in movies and it’s glaringly noticeable when playing test tunes (and a reviewer should do that)
I have a pretty critical ear and it really isn’t that noticeable unless you sit really close to the surround speakers or are playing a test tones video and placing your ear right next to the inside driver. 99.9% of users who are using the Era 300s as surrounds aren’t going to use test tones to test their system. And it’s not like the rear surround audio is completely missing. It’s just being played out of a different part of the speaker.
I have been testing my Arc Ultra + Dual Subs + Era 300s setup pretty critically for the last few days and it still sounds great IMO.
But I agree that there is no excuse for the Sonos team to miss this. Things like this, and the app situation, show that attention to detail is not one of Sonos’ strengths.
it IS very obvious when playing test tones, the left/right surround sounds literally twice as loud as the left/right rear, which in turn sounds identical to the left/right rear height.
agree it’s not super obvious with movies
I wonder how it would sound when there is rear surround and height surround going off at the same time 
@106rallye i think giving Sonos the benefit-of-the-doubt at this point is misguided. After the continuous missteps that have encompassed almost all of 2024.
It is a massive issue that a surround sound product is released without verifying that the correct channels are playing out of the correct drivers. That should be at the top of the list when it comes to regression testing.
Totally agree that the issue is massive, we’re talking about tens of thousands of Era 300 users who are getting a wrong atmos experience. I’m amazed that so many people, including reputable Sonos youtubers like Peter Pee, haven’t noticed this. It’s noticeable in movies and it’s glaringly noticeable when playing test tunes (and a reviewer should do that)
I have a pretty critical ear and it really isn’t that noticeable unless you sit really close to the surround speakers or are playing a test tones video and placing your ear right next to the inside driver. 99.9% of users who are using the Era 300s as surrounds aren’t going to use test tones to test their system. And it’s not like the rear surround audio is completely missing. It’s just being played out of a different part of the speaker.
I have been testing my Arc Ultra + Dual Subs + Era 300s setup pretty critically for the last few days and it still sounds great IMO.
But I agree that there is no excuse for the Sonos team to miss this. Things like this, and the app situation, show that attention to detail is not one of Sonos’ strengths.
it IS very obvious when playing test tones, the left/right surround sounds literally twice as loud as the left/right rear, which in turn sounds identical to the left/right rear height.
agree it’s not super obvious with movies
Even when the Era 300s are working correctly, the outside firing drivers have always been louder than the inside firing drivers (when being used as surrounds). This has been my primary complaint with the speakers since the day they were released. I wish Sonos gave us the option to adjust the outside and inside driver levels separately.
Even when the Era 300s are working correctly, the outside firing drivers have always been louder than the inside firing drivers (when being used as surrounds). This has been my primary complaint with the speakers since the day they were released. I wish Sonos gave us the option to adjust the outside and inside driver levels separately.
At one point they had fixed the surround and rear surround not being the same volume but now it seems to be out of whack again unfortunately.
