If you think certain speakers are too loud, you may want to explore the EQ settings in the Sonos App, dial in your own personal preferences.

Struggling to understand why you guys miss this every time. We want a surround sound system for watching movies that then turns into a music system when listening to music using the same hardware. Which is kind of its main selling point for hardcore users. It’s just software, it really is. Not saying it’s easy but it’s just the software.

This needs to happen! A must have feature. I’m on the verge of returning them. 

UPDATE:

SONOS replied with an E-mail today, so just wanted to let u know guys.

I’m a member of the Escalation Team here at Sonos Support.
Your initial email has been shared with our CEO. Patrick, however, cannot reply to all the contacts he receives and as such a case was created in our customer care system and escalated to a Senior Technician to address your feedback.

Thank you for your feedback on our new products and your cooperation! I can tell you that our engineers are already aware of your community post, but I will make sure to bring your case to their attention as well. 

I can't promise when or if this will happen, but we love getting feedback from our customers! 

So basically, just a non-binding, canned reply? Great…. 
 

(Although thank you very much, Majo133, for sharing this.)

I am new to Sonos . Have just added 2 X ERA 300s to a fairly recently purchased Beam Gen 2 and a Sub  mini. So I have nothing to compare the 300s with, either for music or surround.

However,surely the real issue here is lack of a quick flip between Music and Surround. I can see that this would be difficult to provide for perfectionists because of the TruePlay issue. ( i have not yet been able to use TP yet because no IOS device and as I am set up as surrounds I have not been offered the Android route. At least I think that’s why I have not been offered. I am trusting that Sonos thought long & hard before coding  Surround mode as they have.  So ,to my mode , as i say, I think that leaves the lack of easy transfer between   modes as the issue. 

I was within minutes of ordering a pair of era 300’s to replace my play1’s as surrounds when I heard and read that the front driver doesn’t work when in surround mode. I feel Sonos should have brought that up before release but they talked about the six drivers in each 300 and how it produced spatial audio with Dolby Atmos. Sounded good if you subscribe to Apple Music and listen to only Atmos music and only watched movies with Dolby Atmos soundtrack but in the real world a lot of music and movies are not Atmos so having that front driver would be essential for a good soundstage. Also with non-Atmos material then only 4 drivers are working with the front and top firing drivers not working. So now we went from a 6 cylinder engine to a 4 cylinder 

Same here, after weeks of hesitating between Sonos and other brands I was getting ready to purchase tonight (arc + 2 era 300s like lots of people here), and this issue is a no-go. I too equally watch movies AND listen to music, and need this setup to work with both, which implies having the full range of what era 300s have to offer when playing music.

Perhaps many people holding off on their purchases, and as many people returning their 300s out of disappointment, will change the disappointingly generic answer OP received into a “wow ok this is actually something that we need to address, it’s a software thing and isn’t too big of a deal, gotta make it happen fast it’s hurting business, all hands on deck”?

I am agreeing to all of this. If not playing atmos content the Era 300 is essentially not even on. 1100 dollar setup should do a hell of a lot more then that. If this can't be fixed software side then sonos should be offering refunds. If they wait until the warranty period expires before addressing they are going to have a lot of pissed off LOYAL fans and for me that would break my trust of the company forever

The amount of people I’ve read (other forums too ie Reddit) going to send the 300s back due to this issue is worrying for Sonos and if I was them I would be onto this urgently and announcing that they are going to sort it to prevent the mass of returns. It can’t be a hard mod. Centre driver on/off toggle is a yes from me. 

I would also like to voice my disappointment in the Sonos Era 300s (paired with an Arc) when used for music.

I bought the 300s + official stands to replace my One surrounds. While listening to music they sound really thin – the sound just bounces out the sides and gets completely lost.

Everything just feels hollow and off, nothing sounds defined. You have to crank the volume and the surrounds right up (+8 & full) just to get any meaningful effect. That centre channel is really obvious when it’s not there for music and sitting in front of them – Sonos, please fix this.

It honestly feels like such a waste of money when the One’s (still on the back wall in a stereo pair) sound better and fuller playing music than two brand new 300s paired with an Arc.

My vote as well, kind of having buyers remorse now.  Please allow the option to turn on the center driver when using the 300 as surrounds.   I have my surround volume turned up to 7-8 to hear them.  

Indeed, nothing is confirmed yet, but this thread grown significantly and is viewed over 2k+ times, that i think SONOS is indeed looking into this.

Even if not everyone is here, voicing their opinion, there are probably many more users that are wondering the same thing as we are here.

The most baffling thing about this is that tech influencers / youtubers are acting like if this was not even an issue, looking at you Peter Pee, or did not even mention it in they “reviews”.

Following on from my earlier post, I've just had a friend come over, eager to hear the 300s. They said:

“It’s as though someone got two Ones, and instead of facing them forward, like normal. They put one aiming left and the other aiming to the right – so the sound comes out the sides instead of from the front where you listen.”

That pretty much sums it up for me too. They sound like speakers pointed in the wrong direction when used for music – thus why you have to crank them so hard.

Not just the possible returns that should bother Sonos’ sales department.

Got paid yesterday for some equipment I sold in order to purchase a pair of 300s to replace the SLOnes in my Arc-based system. I had planned, from last week, to place the order today, including two stands. Now I will wait to see if Sonos does something about this problem.

So far, nothing but “thoughts and prayers” from the front office. Oh, they may or may not listen to our complaints, but they do monitor what we look at on the site. They sent me an email explaining that I should “order now” because they might run out of stands soon. 

Come on, guys.

Sonos has a policy of not announcing future changes/enhancements, at least not until the plan is set in stone with an unchangeable release date.  I get why people want to know way in advance, but people are more disappointed when there are delays that they don’t understand, or assume that it’s got to be an easy fix they can roll out tomorrow, etc.

As far as the canned marketing email, they have no idea whether or not you care about the front facing driver setup.  I wouldn’t read too much into it.

Another support post here. Was about to buy them this weekend and thanks to this information I'm returning my stands from Amazon and waiting until this gets fixed!

Thanks!

Also, as others mentioned; this is not just about music but also about 5.1 content which is massive for gaming. Having directional it is a must. Many games also come with 7.1 support but using the middle driver to better transition from the side firing ones should definitely be an option for us to turn on/off as we please.

Come on Sonos, you can do better for a 1k usd pair of rear firing speakers…

Ps: To your product and Eng teams - focus on the table stakes first. Dolby Atmos may be great and what not, but most content is still encoded in 5.1/7.1 SPECIALLY for gaming. Plus, almost everyone uses your systems to listen to music and the sound bars suck at that (even the Arc). Thus the rears make a big part of it. Stereo content is here to stay, the system should be versatile and smart enough for all formats.

I’m not one to “read too much into it.” I just thought it was ironic. I fully realize they can’t fix -- or decide not to fix -- the problem overnight. I just hope it does not get overlooked. Music is important to me, especially since I took down a 5.1 component system to buy the Arc system. I do expect Sonos not to come close to my main audio kit, but I would, for the money, hope it comes reasonably close,

You got my vote.

I would love this feature. Whether automatically enabled (driver active when playing music with “full” selected) or available as an option (toggle in the app), I think this feature will make all Era 300 users feel further vindicated in their purchase of such a versatile speaker. 

Personally for me it's a miss and on day one I was confused if I have two defective units, as there was lack or hard to find communication on this matter. Everyone has different rooms, ears and preferences, so I would be very happy if I the user who spends the money could decide myself to turn on/off the center speakers. Why even advertise or showcase the center tweeter if its disabled by default if you pair them as surround!? Anyways, you got my vote and hopefully this matter will not take month to roll out as I’ve seen many others returning the Era 300s or waiting with their purchase until this is fixed.
Sonos, please listen to the people! 

Not only the front driver, but also right side of the right surround speaker and left side of the left surround speaker drivers when playing music.  When using Apple TV 4K to play atmos music, all five drivers are firing.  But not when using the sonos app.  Only the outermost drivers are firing.

+1

Please implement this +speaker level adjustments as thus far, the ERA 300’s are not as good as the Sonos One’s for gaming.

Honestly, I am stunned as to how a company like Sonos could not think about it when they are promoting the era 300 as surround speakers. I replaced my one SL pair with era 300 and if this issue is not fixed before the return window expires, they are certainly going back. I feel Sonos is beginning to feel that users are getting locked with their ecosystem and will not leave. Fix this Sonos. If you are even listening.