Home Theater system

OK…run the diagnostic and call Sonos Tech Support.

Regions: That is one of the things we users can't see and have very little information about.

Shouldn't (not can't) be an issue with new purchases but it can be a surprise if shopping the used market.

Wow… you could have been doing something more constructive 19 hours ago had you taken the advice of ​@Airgetlam rather spending time going back ‘n forth in this thread. 😂

However, all’s well that ends well. Enjoy your Sonos once you get the correct speaker 👍

I agree and that is a valid point, it's a good thing that it was purchased through the sonos store and I was able to provide them the PO# or I would be having a hard time getting it replaced. Interestingly the serial number indicates that it is a US version for some reason UK region though

True I could have, but then to say if I would have ever been able to interact a bunch of friendly and great people such as you. Thank you for all your contributions!

If you go to Settings-(HT room name)-Surround Audio-Music Playback is it set to Full.  If not Set it to Full rather than Ambient.  Now, from within the Sonos app, play a stereo track and see if it plays from both rear speakers.

The OP has already been informed by Sonos Tech Support that the speaker in question is not region specific to the OP’s system. Therefore it won’t connect. See original comment about five posts up. 😊

Thanks.  Somehow I missed that.  I think I sent a reply not noticing there were two pages.  
 

Why are there different regions assigned to Sonos speakers.  Does it have to do with what services are available in what regions?

Sonos hasn't said much about regions that I have found, usually just noting there were the problem.

Maybe not services, possibly radio operation and licensing issues?

The only thing I can imagine (since there is a cost in maintaining two production lines) is a difference in WiFi channels that it can/may connect to. 

That is a possibility. I also think it may have deeper implications such as the pirating of containers at port of departure and/or entry.  Not necessarily the entire container but specific products/components inside. That thwarts the black market that may try shipping/diverting stolen merchandise to other destinations than originally intended. 

Interesting conjecture. Certainly not impossible, but gosh, I hope crime isn’t that bad….

You’d be very surprised…so hold on to your seat…

There’s also a link below:

https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/transnational-organized-crime/cargo-theft

Cargo theft has always (well since the 1960s in my direct experience) learned early on that you shipped your household goods as cargo but anything with resale value got sent by the military post office.

Now with cellphones to document everything's location within a container it is even easier for the thieves to target just what they want. That is actually a good thing as it reduces collateral damage.

Commercial theft is even more lucrative now, with modern tools for the crooks.

Still leaning to the radio being the issue, looking at a rules and frequencies matrix you can't easily build a single product to fit all regions. You can build a single physical product that has hard controls (locked firmware) if you can prove to the regulators that the lock will prevent use outside the allowed range of frequencies and rules. That of course opens a can of worms if you can reload the operating system with one of your choosing and reconfigure the radio to use any internally available options regardless of local rules.

Chipsets that handle ‘all’ the frequencies are probably twice (or more) the cost, and in aggregate, it likely is cheaper to run two lines. 

I think the WiFi argument was used by Sonos on this community when someone with a mixed set up had the same complaint as OP. Since the search function on the community seems to actively prohibit a user finding anything worthwhile, I did not bother looking for the thread.

A quick look at WiFi modules didn’t find any that didn’t support the full frequency range within each band, they leave disabling the frequencies/channels not allowed to be used to the containing device manufacturer.

Can’t do it on Sonos of course but on my Linux devices I can load a module control driver that allows me to select any of the channels. I do get a pop-up warning if I pick one not universally available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels

For 2.4 gHz there are channels 1 to 14 available, 12, 13 are restricted in the US and usually not enabled to ease device certification, 14 is not allowed.

For 5 gHz there are channels 32 to 177 available, 52 to 144 are under DFS restrictions, 169 to 177 are restricted to indoor use only, within set limits.

I’m not finding specifics but I seem to recall Support was supposed to be able to do something remotely to assist folks with region issues.

The forum search AI is helpful: (as are the links it provides here)

AI Answers

Summary about “region” on Sonos

• Sonos devices and services can be affected by region settings and regional differences in radio/channel availability, which can cause cross‑region incompatibilities between devices (for example, US vs EU device channels) (cross-region compatibility).
• Snipped non radio text
• There are community discussions and guidance about setting the Wi‑Fi/region for Sonos devices if needing to adjust regional settings for functionality (Setting the WiFi region).

Note: The documentation provides partial information on this topic.

If one Era 300 works on its own but goes silent when added as a surround, the first thing I'd check is whether both surrounds are properly assigned as a stereo pair and bonded to the Arc Ultra in the Sonos app. Also try removing the surround setup completely and re-adding both Era 300s from scratch — Sonos occasionally gets confused during the bonding process, especially after firmware updates.

Uhhhh, no.  Surrounds should not be “assigned as a stereo pair”.  In fact, if they are stereo paired, you need to separate the pair before they can be bonded as surrounds.

Are people reading this thread? While opinions are appreciated you should Read the Best Answer rather than commenting on the latest post 😂