Era 300’s as front left & right (request)

S
Userlevel 3
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I was thinking how my Sonos Home theatre set up would sound with the Arc as a centre speaker and Era 300’s additional left and right.

I have the Arc, 2 x Sub Gen 3 & 2 x Era 300’s for the  rears. When listening to this set up, I can’t help hear that the Arc is the weak link in the set up. For example, listening to the Era 300s as a pair sound great for Spatial content, but the Arc alone just sounds empty IMO, 

Im wishing Sonos would add the ability to use the Arc as a centre and Era 300’s or 100’s as front left and right. I think this would be an awesome Atmos setup. 

47 replies

jgatie

Again, I curse that stupid YouTube video. 🙄

M
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Why?  It is working great for me.  The front sound stage with the grouped ERA stereo pair is much better and the Ikeas are adequate rears.  Tried it with some Atmos movies from AppleTV and the whole room sounded much better.

 

G
Userlevel 7

I just added two ERA 300s as group/room front Stereo Pair to my Gen2, Sub and Ikea rears.  AppleTV Movies and Apple Music Dolby Atmos sound fantastic with this set up.  No problem with the Beam center channel.  Provides height and wider sound stage to the Beam.  No major synch problem. Easy to adjust volumes in the app. 

 

I suggest this for all Beam 2 owners rather than buying an Arc and two era 300 rears.

 

Doesn’t this setup mix up the audio mix? Doesn’t the Era 300s in front play surround audio that should only be heard from the surround speakers behind you?

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

Why?  It is working great for me.  The front sound stage with the grouped ERA stereo pair is much better and the Ikeas are adequate rears.  Tried it with some Atmos movies from AppleTV and the whole room sounded much better.

 

 

I curse it because it encourages people to think it sounds good.  It doesn’t.  You lose directionality, you lose a distinct front sound stage, and no matter what anybody says, for TV sources the front Era 300’s are delayed, causing an echo.  The only way to get rid of the echo is to delay the audio, which causes lip sync problems.  So you may think it sounds good, but in reality it’s not even close to the way the source was mixed, and cannot be called real “surround sound”. 

Oh and by the way, you aren’t getting any real Atmos effects from your front Era 300’s when watching TV.  Grouped rooms with a TV source get stereo only.  

M
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Guitar,

 

I use the ERAs as a group front stereo pair.  From Apple TV, it play the Atmos front stereo sound not the rear.  The rear comes from my Ikeas with no problem.

 

jgatie

Guitar,

 

I use the ERAs as a group front stereo pair.  From Apple TV, it play the Atmos front stereo sound not the rear.  The rear comes from my Ikeas with no problem.

 

 

No, it doesn’t “play the Atmos front stereo sound.”  It plays plain stereo, with the rears mixed into the fronts. No matter if the speakers are Atmos capable or not, if you group a TV source with another room, it only plays a stereo mix of all the channels.  The supposed ability to play Atmos TV sources in a grouped room is yet another piece of misinformation in that video.

G
Userlevel 7

Guitar,

 

I use the ERAs as a group front stereo pair.  From Apple TV, it play the Atmos front stereo sound not the rear.  The rear comes from my Ikeas with no problem.

 

I’m pretty sure the Era 300s combine all of the audio data (front, height, and surround) and plays it out of the two speakers. If you don’t believe me, play this Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 test tones video on an iOS device and AirPlay it to the Apple TV. Listen to each test tone and see which channels play out of the Era 300s:

https://download.dolby.com/us/en/test-tones/dolby-test-tones_7_1_4.mp4

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

It’s useless to keep trying to convince people that using Era’s upfront grouped to a Sonos soundbar is not achieving separate left/center/right channels.  

For my money I wish a moderator would close this thread for future comments. Hi @Corry P  hint..hint😊

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

 

Have you tried this setup with an Apple TV feed to the Beam group.  It is not my imagination that the sound works well and at a minimum is as good as with no grouped upfront ERA stereo pairs. I can make fine adjustments in the combined “room” volume settings.  If I turn the Beam sound off, I can hear the Atmos effect in the front ERA Pair.

 

 

jgatie

AjTrek,

 

Have you tried this setup with an Apple TV feed to the Beam group.  It is not my imagination that the sound works well and at a minimum is as good as with no grouped upfront ERA stereo pairs. I can make fine adjustments in the combined “room” volume settings.  If I turn the Beam sound off, I can hear the Atmos effect in the front ERA Pair.

 

 

No, you think you hear the Atmos effect.  It’s a placebo.  You really want to hear it, so your mind thinks you hear it. 

I’ve just tested an Atmos source from a Roku Ultra into an Arc/Ones/Sub setup.  It played Atmos.  I then grouped in a fully Atmos capable Beam 2/Ones/Sub setup in the bedroom.  Not only did it not play Atmos, it didn’t even play surround.  As predicted, it played a stereo mix of all channels, with dialog and effects coming out of both the Beam and the rear surrounds, the rear surrounds being Ambient as set in the surround settings for music.  So not only did it not play Atmos, it didn’t even recognize the signal as a surround format, it saw it as a 2.0 stereo music source.

And that’s for a room which is fully capable of playing Atmos DD+ signals, something the Era 300’s cannot do.  Bottom line - You aren’t getting Atmos in the Era 300’s. 

 

ratty

Some people mistake an echo, due to the delayed stereo signal to the grouped pair, as atmospheric. 

jgatie

Some people mistake an echo, due to the delayed stereo signal to the grouped pair, as atmospheric. 

 

As we’ve seen countless times before, the mind hears what it wants to hear; science, specifications, and/or hardware capabilities be damned.  

jgatie

I’m pretty sure the Era 300s combine all of the audio data (front, height, and surround) and plays it out of the two speakers. If you don’t believe me, play this Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 test tones video on an iOS device and AirPlay it to the Apple TV. Listen to each test tone and see which channels play out of the Era 300s:

https://download.dolby.com/us/en/test-tones/dolby-test-tones_7_1_4.mp4

 

By the way GS, I tried this test file on my Beam 2 setup grouped to the Arc.  The Arc room played the individual channels as individual channels in the correct places.  The grouped Beam room played the Right Fronts/Surround/Height channels in both the Beam Right and Right Surround.  The Left Front/Surround/Height were played in the both the Beam Left and Left Surround.  The Center channel was played in the Beam and both surrounds.  Just as expected if everything was mixed to 2.0 stereo. 

@Mandyla, you really should try @GuitarSuperstar’s test file.  It will show you once and for all whether you are getting actual Atmos from your “front” Era 300s.  If the rear surround channels or the center channel  plays from the Eras, or the Atmos channels play from the front drivers in the Eras, you aren’t getting Atmos.  Give it a shot. 

M
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I hate to admit it, but after running the test from my AppleTV it became clear that you guys were right about no Atmos in front grouped pair. So the 300s are only very expensive radio speakers and very expensive surround movie speakers. I have them now as rears and I will use

my ikeas as front stereo pair as group. I found the front stage was slightly better with Bean and stereo pair. 

jgatie

I hate to admit it, but after running the test from my AppleTV it became clear that you guys were right about no Atmos in front grouped pair. So the 300s are only very expensive radio speakers and very expensive surround movie speakers. I have them now as rears and I will use

my ikeas as front stereo pair as group. I found the front stage was slightly better with Bean and stereo pair. 

 

Thanks for testing and following up.  Not going to pile on, except to say the publisher of that YouTube video should be ashamed for misleading folks into buying an expensive add on which doesn't do what he implies.

Please note though, the grouped "fronts" are still playing the fronts, center, rears, and heights.  That's not doing your actual rears, fronts, center and heights any good.  It's destroying any front to back directional cues, as well as muddying up the soundstage. 

M
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👍

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

So the 300s are only very expensive radio speakers and very expensive surround movie speakers. 

They are more than what you wrote. The Era 300’s will reproduce Spatial Audio which a plain stereo speaker of any brand cannot do. They also complete the full immersive sound field for Dolby Atmos movie content when used as surrounds with an Arc or Beam2. All said they will also act as regular surrounds for DD 5.1 audio. Also they are still respectively less expensive compared to a single or pair of Fives. 

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

C'mon sonos allow us to add more surrounds!! 

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Which would be your priority, more surrounds or more height channel speakers?

Having a four Amp setup with front and rear main and height channels would be nice.

Maybe a couple Five class for the front L/R and six 100 class for height/surround?

 

F

Ideally both!  But if we could use another pair of 300's for the front I would buy them right  now!!

M

Again, I curse that stupid YouTube video. 🙄

Haha. I'm new to sonus and that video had me "waste" money. It's been a few days imwith the 4 300s. I wish they would just support LCR for the 300s and Arc combo. I'm going I'm 90% sure I'm going to return my extra 300s and just wait for a much needed update. 

M

I was thinking how my Sonos Home theatre set up would sound with the Arc as a centre speaker and Era 300’s additional left and right.

I have the Arc, 2 x Sub Gen 3 & 2 x Era 300’s for the  rears. When listening to this set up, I can’t help hear that the Arc is the weak link in the set up. For example, listening to the Era 300s as a pair sound great for Spatial content, but the Arc alone just sounds empty IMO, 

Im wishing Sonos would add the ability to use the Arc as a centre and Era 300’s or 100’s as front left and right. I think this would be an awesome Atmos setup. 

I'm sure you've seen the "illegal" Sonus setup. I ended up buying all that for me to kinda like it because it's louder but not necessarily better. I'm hopefully sonus actually makes a change for more customization. With the equipment that I currently have, I would love to pair the Arc with Front L/R 300s, Rear 300s, in ceilings, and 2 subs. Being able to fully customize your system like that would blow the competition away or force more innovation. Sonos please read all this lol

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