Renowned Enthusiast I

Answered

ERA's 300 center channel not working if connected as surrounds to ARC/SUB

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
March 30, 2023
30 replies
6026 views

As i pointed out in my Dolby ATMOS TrueHD test file analysis. There is this weird behaviour, where ERAs center channel is not playing anything at all. Only speakers that are involved are upfiring ans side speakers.

This is also true for ATMOS music played via Apple Music or even Stereo music via Apple Music or Spotify. Center channel is just “dead”.

Is this intentional or a bug?

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Best answer by SarahN

Just to give this post a reply, Sonos have confirmed that in surround configuration, the front tweeter is not used.

It is only used when they/it is used for music playback outside of a HT set up.

Show previous replies

M

Maciunio PL

Lyricist II

ok so basicly, im at the day before getting second era 300 for my bedroom.

Question is - worth to buy and make stereo or not :)? cause o the front channels..

kickass outstanding or regret? I know its Sonos so its not a typical regret :-) I have already beam gen2, sub3 and 2x ones as a living room setup

The front-facing driver is only disabled when the Era 300 is used as a surround speaker. The front-facing driver is enabled when used as a stereo pair with another Era 300. Two Era 300s as a stereo pair sounds fantastic especially when playing music in Dolby Atmos.

thank you mate! ordering ;-)

R

RoninDevil

Avid Contributor I

This is disappointing, I doubt there there is not a way to sonos could tune the front speaker for use as a channel or to complement a channel in the home theatre set up. It’s not like nearly all other home theatre products don’t do this, top end Samsung soundbars have like a billion channels, slight exaggeration.
in any case sonos should allow a choice. There just feels like something wrong to spend a lot of money on something to have part of it disabled. Part of the cost is to cover the inclusion of that speaker, why am I paying for 12 drivers to only be able to use 10. If this is the case they need to sell a 10 driver model for home theatre use that are cheaper….. is it just me that this would seem logical to?

D

Dan011093

Lyricist III

This is disappointing, I doubt there there is not a way to sonos could tune the front speaker for use as a channel or to complement a channel in the home theatre set up. It’s not like nearly all other home theatre products don’t do this, top end Samsung soundbars have like a billion channels, slight exaggeration.
in any case sonos should allow a choice. There just feels like something wrong to spend a lot of money on something to have part of it disabled. Part of the cost is to cover the inclusion of that speaker, why am I paying for 12 drivers to only be able to use 10. If this is the case they need to sell a 10 driver model for home theatre use that are cheaper….. is it just me that this would seem logical to?

Absolutely, and I imagine that this thread just like the feature request will be closed to keep us from being able to make our voice heard. More folks keep on finding this out and complaining. Now there are a bunch of open boxes in Amazon in two different countries where I buy my stuff at least.

Very disappointing; especially not to hear any news from Sonos.

J

Joffy

Trending Lyricist I

Hi, I’m new to all this having purchased my Arc, Sub Mini and two Era 300s a fortnight ago. I’m very much learning and experimenting. My main problem is positioning of 300s as rears because my lounge has limited options. Immediately behind our two chairs is a bay window with large window sill. 300s could sit there but only be 2’ apart or 60cm so presumably not enough. So I think I may get some Ones for surround instead?

Main query though is re 300 front driver. Currently they are configured as surrounds and I understand that when watching Atmos movies that driver is off.
When I play Apple Music or Amazon Music via the S2 App ((no tv involved) but all components involved, is that front driver still disabled? Is the only way to play the 300s fully functioning as stereo speakers?

SarahN

Local Superstar

Hi, I’m new to all this having purchased my Arc, Sub Mini and two Era 300s a fortnight ago. I’m very much learning and experimenting. My main problem is positioning of 300s as rears because my lounge has limited options. Immediately behind our two chairs is a bay window with large window sill. 300s could sit there but only be 2’ apart or 60cm so presumably not enough. So I think I may get some Ones for surround instead?

Main query though is re 300 front driver. Currently they are configured as surrounds and I understand that when watching Atmos movies that driver is off.
When I play Apple Music or Amazon Music via the S2 App ((no tv involved) but all components involved, is that front driver still disabled? Is the only way to play the 300s fully functioning as stereo speakers?

Hi, I think from all accounts that using the Era 300s as surrounds demands proper placement much more so than the Ones or Fives. With Ones you just have to basically point them towards your seating position, or even behind you, towards the TV. I have 2 One SLs as surrounds and price not withstanding, I know for a fact my lounge is not optimised to use the 300s to their full extent as surrounds, so it would be a waste of money for me. I will have to stick with my One SLs.

Regarding using the 300s for music, if you keep them as part of your HT setup then the front driver will still be disabled for music. If you unpair them though and set them up as a stereo pair, then all drivers will be active.

Can you have too many Sonos speakers? 🤔 😆

R

RoninDevil

Avid Contributor I

From what I can tell, the answer is if the era 300’s are connected to a soundbar the front speaker is always off.

I find this very disappointing. Sonos disable lots of features when using a soundbar it seems. For the price you pay I don’t think this is good for consumers, full price paid should equal all features and it should be up to the user if they disable or not. That is just my view.

Sonos, if you are listening, enable the speaker… and the line in and Bluetooth too while you are at it. It’s a bit of a joke.

J

Joffy

Trending Lyricist I

Hi, I’m new to all this having purchased my Arc, Sub Mini and two Era 300s a fortnight ago. I’m very much learning and experimenting. My main problem is positioning of 300s as rears because my lounge has limited options. Immediately behind our two chairs is a bay window with large window sill. 300s could sit there but only be 2’ apart or 60cm so presumably not enough. So I think I may get some Ones for surround instead?

Main query though is re 300 front driver. Currently they are configured as surrounds and I understand that when watching Atmos movies that driver is off.
When I play Apple Music or Amazon Music via the S2 App ((no tv involved) but all components involved, is that front driver still disabled? Is the only way to play the 300s fully functioning as stereo speakers?

Hi, I think from all accounts that using the Era 300s as surrounds demands proper placement much more so than the Ones or Fives. With Ones you just have to basically point them towards your seating position, or even behind you, towards the TV. I have 2 One SLs as surrounds and price not withstanding, I know for a fact my lounge is not optimised to use the 300s to their full extent as surrounds, so it would be a waste of money for me. I will have to stick with my One SLs.

Regarding using the 300s for music, if you keep them as part of your HT setup then the front driver will still be disabled for music. If you unpair them though and set them up as a stereo pair, then all drivers will be active.

Hi Sarah and many thanks. Currently I have the 300s either side of my Arc on a two metre long sideboard so I can get a reasonable amount of separation of the 300s. I have been using them as a stereo/Atmos pair and like them very much. I tried them as surrounds in that position and realise that isn’t how to position them but I was curious. Sound isn’t bad to be fair but I lose to much when playing music through Arc, Era’s and Sub. Just too much happening and a lack of clarity for music. I’m not unhappy with Arc and Sub Mini for tv in all honesty but just wondering if adding two One SLs would make much of a difference? With their smaller size they could sit in the window or conceivably be wall mounted. Thanks again for your reply.

SarahN

Local Superstar

Hi, I’m new to all this having purchased my Arc, Sub Mini and two Era 300s a fortnight ago. I’m very much learning and experimenting. My main problem is positioning of 300s as rears because my lounge has limited options. Immediately behind our two chairs is a bay window with large window sill. 300s could sit there but only be 2’ apart or 60cm so presumably not enough. So I think I may get some Ones for surround instead?

Main query though is re 300 front driver. Currently they are configured as surrounds and I understand that when watching Atmos movies that driver is off.
When I play Apple Music or Amazon Music via the S2 App ((no tv involved) but all components involved, is that front driver still disabled? Is the only way to play the 300s fully functioning as stereo speakers?

Hi, I think from all accounts that using the Era 300s as surrounds demands proper placement much more so than the Ones or Fives. With Ones you just have to basically point them towards your seating position, or even behind you, towards the TV. I have 2 One SLs as surrounds and price not withstanding, I know for a fact my lounge is not optimised to use the 300s to their full extent as surrounds, so it would be a waste of money for me. I will have to stick with my One SLs.

Regarding using the 300s for music, if you keep them as part of your HT setup then the front driver will still be disabled for music. If you unpair them though and set them up as a stereo pair, then all drivers will be active.

Hi Sarah and many thanks. Currently I have the 300s either side of my Arc on a two metre long sideboard so I can get a reasonable amount of separation of the 300s. I have been using them as a stereo/Atmos pair and like them very much. I tried them as surrounds in that position and realise that isn’t how to position them but I was curious. Sound isn’t bad to be fair but I lose to much when playing music through Arc, Era’s and Sub. Just too much happening and a lack of clarity for music. I’m not unhappy with Arc and Sub Mini for tv in all honesty but just wondering if adding two One SLs would make much of a difference? With their smaller size they could sit in the window or conceivably be wall mounted. Thanks again for your reply.

I think adding 2 One SLs would be great. I love my 5.1 set up although it’s the Beam Gen 2 that I have, plus Sub mini and One SLs. I’m more than happy with that set up for both Atmos and 5.1 surround sound.

And again, from what I have read on here and Reddit, it seems that the Era 300s for music alone are better used as you are using yours now.

Can you have too many Sonos speakers? 🤔 😆

S

sdevilcry

Lyricist I

Did you guys noticed that in the surround settings on the sonos app, there is an option related to Music playing with 2 options:

Ambiant
complete

I just tried to set the complete and I have a lot more sound coming. I’ve also raised a bit the music level +6.

Does putting the complete option enabled the front speaker ? (I think it does)

R

RoninDevil

Avid Contributor I

It doesn’t activate the front speaker but it does make more music come out of them. In Ambient they just emit a bit of sound to complement the ARC. In complete, or full they are set to output all the music, they mirror what the ARC is outputting.

I assume this is different for Atmos which is object based.

in either case, from what I can tell, as long as the 300’s are connected to the soundbar the front driver will not work under any circumstance. Correct me if I’m wrong. Unless it is different when streaming from the service as opposed to HDMI from TV? But movies etc would still lack the front driver.

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