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I am read a few contradictory answers to this so just wanted to double check here. 
 

I have just bought a set of Era 300s to replace the Ones that I was using as surrounds with my Arc and Sub. They are connected to WiFi and everything is working so far. 
 

I have read that connecting then via Ethernet will improve performance so was thinking about whether it would be worth it. 
 

And here’s where is gets confusing!
 

I understand that the Era’s don’t have SonosNet but I’ve read that they still connect to the Arc via a private WiFi connection directly with the Arc in the same way that previous surrounds did. Is that true? Or do they now just go via the home WiFi network? I could understand that Ethernet might be better in the second scenario but if it connects directly to the Arc via WiFi then there would be no point in Ethernet. 
 

So, if I use the Ethernet adapter on the surrounds will the WiFi on the Eras be deactivated and communication with the Arc be done via Ethernet. Or will the communication between the Arc and the Eras still be done via WiFi?

Hi

If the Era 300 is used as a standalone speaker or stereo pair WiFi is the default connection.

Ethernet can be used by connecting the Era 300 directly to your router if you are having trouble connecting via Wi-Fi. Requires an adapter purchased from Sonos. This connection method is not part of the SonosNet.

When a pair of Era 300’s are used as surrounds WiFi is not used as the Era’s receive information from the Arc or Beam-gen2 via the 5Ghz band via the applicable soundbar. 

OK, so this is what I thought. It uses a dedicated private WiFi network between the Arc and the surrounds just like the One did. 


In the app the Era 300 are set to WM: 3 presumably because they don’t do SonosNet. 

 

However, I have seen a few reviews now where they stated that the surround sound from the Era 300 was distorted and connecting them via Ethernet fixed it. How can this be true if the Era 300s are using the dedicated 5ghz WiFi connection directly to the Arc? Ethernet wouldn’t be used!

Sorry, but I can’t comment on your last paragraph. Maybe try contacting Sonos Tech support for answer.

That information in that last paragraph seems ludicrous to me, and there’s been zero postings in this forum to support it. 

My suspicion would be that these reviewers were experiencing some other issue (likely some sort of wifi interference ) but didn’t realize it. 

Here’s one of them - in the section called Setup:

https://cybershack.com.au/reviews/sonos-era-300-as-rears-to-the-sonos-arc-superb-dolby-atmos-7-1-4-review/

I’ve already stated my opinion. The reviewer doesn’t understand networking and Wi-Fi. 

Here’s one of them - in the section called Setup:

https://cybershack.com.au/reviews/sonos-era-300-as-rears-to-the-sonos-arc-superb-dolby-atmos-7-1-4-review/

I read that article too and immediately questioned that statement. 

“Before we get into setup, we will jump back to the Arc. The Arc is Wi-Fi 4 N – 2.4Ghz band only. The Era 300 is perfect as a standalone Wi-Fi 6 speaker (and stereo paired). But they can become quite distorted as rears to an Arc/Sub that use Ethernet to connect the Arc/Sub (as so many do).”– Ray Shaw

However, after re-reading a few times, my guess is since this reviewer already connect the Arc and Sub to ethernet then maybe they are recommending to do the same for the Era 300s. E.g., don't connect the Arc/Sub via ethernet and then connect the Era 300’s wirelessly. Maybe mixing and matching connectivity types wireless/ethernet might cause some distortion when components are grouped? 

I haven’t read the article, but I had issues with my Era 100 surrounds when I first bought them. 
 

I had my Arc connected via Ethernet and had Wi-Fi disabled. Since the Era 100 doesn’t have Ethernet built in, I connected them to WiFi. This resulted in some terrible audio that was choppy and distorted.

 

I kept my Arc connected to Ethernet but enabled WiFi so the surrounds could connect to the Arc. This fixed the audio issues (mostly).

 

I never have issues when listening to music, but some TV/movie scenes still sound choppy. I suspect it’s the WiFi, but I’m not entirely sure. I might try fully wired at some point. 

If there are wireless surrounds/subs you should never turn off “WiFi” on the home theatre master player. It disables the dedicated direct wireless connection for the surrounds/subs, forcing them to use a roundabout route. Latency spikes could then trigger intermittent dropouts. 

If the “Turn off WiFi” turned off just the WiFi it would be nice.

Instead it turns off the radio, messing up the needed 5 GHz link to the surrounds too.

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