FEATURE REQUEST: Add option to enable "Center speakers" for the ERA's 300, if they are added as surrounds

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.