I currently have a Sonus Arc and Sub Gen3. At some point I am going to add my turntable using a Sonus Port. Before that I want to add surround sound by adding 2 x ERA 100’s on dedicated stands.
My lounge room is 6.5mtrs x 3.5mtrs. My TV is wall mounted midway on the long side of the room, with the Sonus Arc mounted onto the base of TV wall bracket . My settee/listening point is opposite to the TV -so about 3mtr away from the soundbar. The Sub Gen3 is in the corner of the room to the right of the TV.
Due to the layout of the room, the ERA 100’s can only be placed either side of the setee, either wall mounted or on stands. So one speaker will be no more than half a meter away from my head when sitting on the setee and the same for the person sitting next to me.
I have two questions;
1) Will I be able to use the ERA 100’s as surround speakers and as speakers when listening to music over Spotify? If not, what would I need to do to get the 100’s to work with Spotify
2) With the speakers being so close to me, will I be able to appreciate and hear the true effects of ‘surround sound’.
3) Will I be wasting my money buying the 100’s - should I just stay with my Arc and Sub or when considering the layout of the lounge, is there a better way of achieving surround sound?
Question
Expanding Sonos system with ERA100's
- Surround speakers are bonded to the sound bar. You’ll be able to use the whole ‘room’ to listen to music, but that requires both the surround speakers and the soundbar to play.
- personal judgment involved, I’d say yes, but your ears may say no. Try it and see. My recommendation is floor stands that can be moved around.
- The ‘best’ surrounds currently are the Era 300s. I have a pair set up in my living room. But in my bedroom, I use a pair of Era 100s, they’re great. I highly recommend surrounds, they add a dimensionality to the TV watching, but not all programs get a full 5.1 signal.
When used as Surrounds, but streaming music you have two options for sound, Full and Ambient. Full duplicates the front r/l channels, Ambient extracts a limited amount of audio from the front and sends it to the surrounds.
Swapping modes is easy so try both. I like Ambient for personal listening but with a group over Full fills the room better with a more even level of sound.
+18For future reference - the speaker manufacturer is called Sonos. Sonus is a different manufacturer.
A fairly common ‘auto-correct’ error….
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