placement of era 300 in my tiny space opened on a large one, couch against wall

Hi ​@turbalf 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

If you are happy with doing so, I’d definitely recommend pulling the sofa out a little - wherever the surround speakers end up, they need to behind your head rather than be basically the same distance from the TV as you.

I think the use of wall mounts would prevent anything behind the sofa (like speaker stands) from bumping into your rear wall with repeated human collapses onto the sofa, and they’d also take up a little less space. You want the rear surrounds to be at head height, or close to it, so don’t put the mounts too far up the wall.

A wooden panel may well help with the acoustics as you suggest, though I cannot say for sure, and yes - one surround would be perhaps too close to the feature wall.

Although, the more I think about it, the more I think that your feature wall should be your TV wall, and that you’d either want a 2-seat sofa or to have the three-seater pulled back (or even at a rakish angle) so you can still get in past the wall. It looks like doing this would put your backs to the natural light source, though. If you did this, stands would be the best option for your surrounds, I feel. This would let the surrounds be further back from your seated position, giving the system space around you to fill with sound. This setup would also give the Arc Ultra a symmetric positioning, allowing it to utilise bounces off walls on both sides to fully render the Atmos soundscape. I suspect the rather enclosed nature of this orientation would enhance the Atmos effects.

As always, it’s up to you to figure out where to compromise. I recommend doing what you can to try different options either without spending on mounts or stands immediately, or do all your testing within the 45 day Money Back Guarantee period and return what you don’t end up using for a refund.

Importantly, have fun finding out! I hope this helps.

Hi Corry, thanks for your answer !

I thought about moving the TV on the featured wall, it clearly would improve the acoustics for the arc, not so much for the surround because one would still be on the side of an open space.
But I am not ready to do this for several reasons, like it would ruin this nice wall, and even a 2 seat couch would close the space, plus I need 3 seats when I have my daughters.
The era 300 on stands would be on the way between kitchen and living room, like the power cords.

I have a better room for a home cinema but I was kicked out to install the play room of my daughters, I’ll get it back when they will grow up a little more in a few years :)

In the meantime I’ll follow your first advice and move a little forward the couch and use wall mounts for the era 300.

I’ll try to put a temporary wood panel and do some listening tests to figure out if it improves the effects of the era 300, and maybe give a try for the arc too, if it does I’ll find a way to add a permanent little piece of wall/panel, a sliding glass panel etc… depending of budget !

Just another question, for the era close to the wall, what is more important : keep the minimal distance with the wall or put maximum distance between the 2 era 300 ?

Thanks a lot !

Hi ​@turbalf 

Yeah, I figured most of that would be an issue. Worth sticking out there though. One last thought on the subject - An “L” shaped sofa, perhaps?

I would say that as long as the surrounds are on either side of you, getting a little space between that one and the feature wall is probably more important than getting the space between them right, but I recommend testing both options and comparing.

You are most welcome!

Hi there, nice surprise today, my sonos order arrived one day in advance :)

So I did the setup and the truplay, just some cable managment left but not a big deal.
Just too bad youtube don’t make atmos to try some demos !

As told before, I know this isn’t the perfect accoustics, but better than nothing :)

Now I am wondering …. sub mini or the big brother ? In front on the TV wall or behind the couch ?
My TV space is only 2.50m x 3.30m, not even 10 square meters, but open on a much larger space (open space that don’t need bass).

I am wondering if the era 300 are ok parallels to the wall, I think yes, if I angle them the side effets will bounce anywhere else than in my ears as I am very close to the era 300.

Time will tell !
Thanks :)

Sub 4, or two, under the couch laying flat on one side.

Unfortunately the sub 4 doesn't fit under the couch :(

How much does it miss by? Couch risers are an option, I don't use them for a Sub but for bad nees and  being tall.

there are only 6cm under my couch, so 10cm minimum missing…

even if I do that, there will be another issue : I often eat in front of TV and my table (on the photos) is already too low, so no spacers :)

I could put a sub 4 (or a mini) behind the couch (don’t mind cables on the photo, I’ll handle that) :

I could put a sub mini inside my TV bench, it would fit :

Thanks :)

Hi ​@turbalf 

Looks fantastic!

Have you watched a (big!) movie yet? I watched Dune Part 2 on Tuesday with only the Arc Ultra playing, and the bass that the Arc Ultra can produce on it’s own is literally unbelievable, given it’s profile, and very respectable even if you don’t take the profile into consideration. It’s very capable of filling that space you have. As a result, I am not convinced that you would be able to hear a Sub Mini being added, but a Sub 4 would definitely be more than noticeable. I’ll let the others here do the recommendations, however, as they have heard the differences and I have not.

I would be wary of putting a Sub or Sub Mini inside the TV bench - I can only presume that it would make things rattle (any doors, for example). The spot where that small stool sits would be a handy place for one, or perhaps between the Era 300s?

I looked the other day - there are surround sound test videos on YouTube, and they are in surround sound format, but I think you may need a Premium subscription to receive the surround sound formats - don’t quote me on that though.

I hope this helps.

Hi ​@Corry P , thanks !

I didn’t watched a big movie yet, I have my young daughters this week, but I could use my sonos ace :)

I had my previous sub in tha space in the TV bench and I didn’t have any issue, but if as you say the mini won’t make a big difference, it might be the sub 4 ( or a second hand sub 3), in that case it would go just in the middle or the era 300, just behind my listening spot.

It would be between the wall and the couch on one side and between the feature wall and the chest of drawers on the other side, so the bass would go up directly in my ears, might be nice :)

I am asking myself if I should close the space behind the couch, like a bar, but what if I put a sub… would the bass still go through ?

Thanks !

Hi ​@turbalf 

Bass is very difficult to locate audibly, so any position for a Sub should be fine in audio terms, as long as you are not occluding the unit - but even with the door/front open, I would assume that enclosing a Sub in a unit like that would diminish (or at least alter) the sound. To what degree, I don’t know.

I would assume, however, that if you were to put a Sub between the surrounds and place a shelf or similar above it, that would occlude the sound - at least a bit. Probably less that having it in the TV bench. There are sliders to adjust, however, so I would assume it would be ok, but proof is in the pudding, as they say - the only way to know for sure is to try it and see.

I am not a sales person and there’s no commission to be had, however, and that is a fairly enclosed space - my honest recommendation is to try out a movie with your current setup and only consider a Sub or Sub Mini after trying the Ultra with Loudness on and the Bass level turned up (not at first - try a flat EQ before turning things up!). Although I have not watched them with my Ultra yet, I know that “Deadpool and Wolverine” has truck-loads of bass in the “grave” scene at the start, and “Saving Private Ryan” has lots of tanks rumbling throughout, if you’re less inclined towards Sci-Fi/Marvel.

I hope this helps.

Just a thought :)
On most sofas, the bottom of the sofa is covered with a piece of fabric and there is actually quite a lot of space up to the springs/cushions themselves.
If you have the courage, you can tilt the sofa up and just check under the fabric in a corner. I'm almost 100% sure you can easily have your Sub lying under the sofa.

I also have my challenges with placing my Era300 there are not many options and not an optimal solution at all. My sofa is in a corner. My Sub is placed at the end of my sofa in another corner and have never had challenges with the sound from my Sub.

I wouldn't buy a Sub mini but a "real" Sub ;) I love my Sub Gen2. and it just gives so much more depth to movies. I'm not getting my Era300 until tomorrow so currently I have "only" my Arc Ultra and Sub. The first movie I tested the Ultra on was actually Deadpool and Wolverine. At first without my Sub and then with my Sub.

There's no doubt that the Ultra delivers a lot of bass and it performs really, really well, but once you connect a Sub you can easily hear and feel that it was missing.

Sorry for the long text :)
I can take a few pictures later, some before and after of my Era300 :)

I'd say behind the couch too, not in the cabinet or it and any contents are going to rattle.

​@Peter_254 

Thanks for the idea, I checked and no room to make under my couch, I think that the sub will go behind when the time to make myself a treat :)

Hi there,

I finally decided to close the space behind my couch, mostly for aesthetics (I’ll do it this we), so I moved my sub 4 next to the TV, in the left corner :
 

I don’t have many options so not really the luxury to choose the placement :
 

My only options would be sub facing me like it is now or turned 90 degrees, or move it closer to the wall, but it might be too enclosed betwen the featured wall and the TV bench.

Of course I ran truplay again :)

The next evolution would be a smaller TV bench so I could add a second sub in the right.

See you guys !

Hi there,

I finally decided to close the space behind my couch, mostly for aesthetics (I’ll do it this we), so I moved my sub 4 next to the TV, in the left corner :
 

I don’t have many options so not really the luxury to choose the placement :
 

My only options would be sub facing me like it is now or turned 90 degrees, or move it closer to the wall, but it might be too enclosed betwen the featured wall and the TV bench.

Of course I ran truplay again :)

The next evolution would be a smaller TV bench so I could add a second sub in the right.

See you guys !

Regarding the next evolution as you put it. I don’t think a sub on the right would look terribly bad even with the slight protrusion. Unless you are concerned that your daughters and/or guests would compound a possible safety hazard.

I’d try sitting at 45 degrees, one edge in the corner and the other facing the center of the room.

Mine was happier there than sitting against either side wall or sitting out from the corner, going from side to side.

Hi there, a lot of work happened here !
I decided to close the gap between my couch and my rear wall, with ikea modules and a wood tablet.

I put one big tablet on the side to play the role of a wall for my second era 300.

And to make it useful, I put a second one to build a book shell.

Now I have surround effects on both sides !
I could do the same in the front to close space for the arc, but it would be ugly and I think that with surround, the arc may no fire so much side effects than without.

Pretty happy with the result, may not perfect for sound but still a good compromise.
See you guys !

Hi ​@turbalf 

As my friend would say, “that looks minted!”

I hope you have dimmers on all those lights though!

Thanks !

Yes I can dim all lights, program zones etc… hue magic !