Has the sonos team prioritized getting a fix out? It’s an easy issue to reproduce/replicate so I can’t imagine the engineers are completely dumbfounded on what the issue might be or have an idea of how bad this problem is to correct. 

To All

Reproducing the issue (assuming the engineers have done so) is only the first step to a resolution. Upstream and downstream affects of a fix must be taken into account so that the resolution of a specific issue doesn’t cause problems elsewhere. So be patient.

Yeah I don’t mean to be impetuous but my $3k system is broken out of the box. It’s tough not be frustrated. 

I understand your frustration, but Sonos is aware of the problem. They will fix it. But don’t expect it to be fixed on your preferred timeline. Meanwhile, enjoy your system. It still sounds great even with the rear surround audio playing from the wrong driver. Look forward to the day when the problem is fixed and the surround audio will sound even better.

Life is too short to get angry and impatient about ambient sound coming out of the wrong speaker driver.

Mmm thanks for downplaying my frustration. “Angry” - thanks for that. Appreciate your understanding our money went to something that doesn’t work correctly upon purchase. It will be fixed, sure. That is the equivalent of saying “I’m sorry” even though the damage has already been done.  All good - I have faith the sonos acolytes will produce a cure to this acceptable mistake. 

Update occurred today. Can’t test yet but someone else here can verify hopefully that this was the fix?

Doesnt mention anything about it on reddit so probably not

I just tested after upgrading to the new firmware, unfortunately the issue remains with the era300s.

Yeah I was able to check now. No update for era 300’s

Sonos announcing updates where you can now group speakers together another 65 ways while their £750 a pair surround speakers don’t work 

That is a wild exaggeration

Hyperbole

​@Corry P can you please give us an update? I know we’re not going to get a date, but can you get in touch with someone in the development team to see if at least the cause of the issue has been found or even if a Fix is planned?

Dnt worry about it. Going back to what the guitarsuperstar guy said to me - just chill out, relax, and enjoy your kick ass system that’s crippled. Sonos will fix it at some point in time, on no one’s timeline of course (they’ll get to it whenever) - so just listen to the system and have it soothe you with the $900 pair of broken surrounds.  It will resolve all your concerns. No need to bug sonos anymore - they know about it, so all is wonderful. Life’s too short to give a damn about what you bought. 

If they will even release that information to him.

It isn’t what you want to hear but forum posts aren’t likely to pressure any changes at Sonos, there have never been enough to impress the front office, even the usual crop of class action rabble rousing that never goes anywhere.

Sonos has screwed up before, they’ll do it again and fixes will appear as little surprises whenever Sonos feels they are ready for release. I have better things to do than fuss about things I can’t change.

Here is my take on it from a software engineer.
 

It is not what everyone, including myself, wants to hear but Sonos engineers probably did know about the bug with the era 300s and surround sound before they were released. 
 

It would have been flagged either by the engineers or by QC. The bug would have then gone up the chain of management and a decision made about if it’s a ‘showstopper’ or not and the impact of pushing back the release date of the arc ultra would have on the business. Also the likelihood of people noticing the bug before it is fixed. 
 

The bit that concerns me is why haven’t respected review companies like rtings done a review on the immersive setup. Also respected YouTubers like PeterPee haven’t mentioned it either. It’s either luck that they haven’t done one yet or other reasons……but how damming would an extremely poor review, which is what it would achieve currently, be for the company and its flagship product going forward. 
 

Full transparency - I am a Sonos fan boy and have been for years. I have a set of era 300s ready to setup for my new home cinema but am holding back until this issue is resolved. I am also lucky that I have not really experienced any of the app issues. 

I honestly think they just didnt notice. I didnt notice it until this thread (at first I didnt even read it proper and just tested that rear channels made a noice, so I thought everything worked, it wasnt until weeks later I read it again and realized it was coming from the wrong channel, and not being disabled 100%) and I downloaded the test files. I cant say I really even notice it during movies now even. Maybe I’m just a bad listener :) 

I got a feedback from Sonos support germany today. I just copy it.

• The Era 300 is designed to disperse sound throughout the room rather than directing it solely at the user.
• 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.
• When playing a Dolby test track, some customers may notice the rear height channel active during rear-channel playback. This behavior is intentional and part of the designed sound experience

I don't know what to think about that tbh.

​@Corry P is that true? because you said you were aware of the PROBLEM, but apparently it is a feature, not a but?

From experience in working in CS I would say this is most likely wrong. CS is usally great for solving normal problems, but when something is actually wrong on the product side it is useless

What I have noticed though is that when I for example watch a football game(real football ofc, not NA-soccer) sound does seem to come through the inner speaker.

can’t imagine this being true, why did they add the inner tweeter to the Era 300 if it’s never to be used?

​@Corry P can we have an official statement on this? Is this being recognized as a problem and is it actively being worked on by the developers?

I replied to the Sonos support, because that answer was really unsatisfying.
Here is a quick ChatGPT translation from german to english:
 

Unfortunately, this is not what I had hoped for, and I believe many other users won't be satisfied either.

This behavior of the Era 300 doesn't just occur with the Arc Ultra but also with the Arc Gen1 and Beam Gen2, where the balance suffers even more than with the Ultra. Moreover, it is technically incorrect, and the design of the Era 300 was never intended for this. As I mentioned during our first conversation, this wasn’t the case before, and if it was changed, as you said, with the launch of the Ultra, for the Ultra, why does it also affect the original Arc and Beam Gen2? Attached, you will find a photo illustrating how the Era 300 should function correctly and as Sonos has often described it. Photo

I fully understand that reflections are utilized, but a tweeter reflects much better than a midrange driver. That’s why the high channels in the Arc Ultra were switched from midrange drivers (as in the Arc Gen1) to tweeters. Disabling these in the Era 300 to have them reflect upwards is simply not correct and can cause disturbances in some movie scenes in the form of phase issues or distortions. This happens because, in the current setup, two signals or channels are routed through one Tweeter (the height tweeters).

When playing back 5.1 or 7.1 content, I can even understand this change. It’s a nice gimmick to also have 3D audio immersion. However, with Dolby Atmos, compressing two signals or channels through one Tweeter seems very problematic from a technical perspective.

It will be interesting to see some kind of response again. But personally in more inclined to "Trust" what Corey wrote before 

I just added something to the mail.

What is also questionable is why the inner side of the speakers, that is, the rear channel, is not measured during Trueplay. As a result, the desired volume of the midrange speaker cannot be measured at all in this case.
Somehow, the whole thing seems incomplete.

Additionally, an employee posted in the Sonos forum that Sonos is aware of a bug but does not know when it will be fixed. These statements don’t really match up.

Please fix this I just want my Era 300 as before, they performed so much better without this "feature" or bug or whatever. 

​@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.

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.