sonos era 100 and arc ultra no rear sound with tv or youtube

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
August 7, 2025
17 replies
993 views

Hi. Ive recently bought a sonos arc ultra and a pair of sonos era 100. I set them up, use true play and works amazing with hbo, netflix all in sorroud etc. but the 2 era100 do not work when Im watching youtube or tv. I understand that youtube is not 5.1 but still i want to hear sound from behind my coach. Anybody know how to set it up?

thanks

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Best answer by Corry P

Hi @Dieguito

Welcome to the Community!

We do, in fact, already “up-mix” all TV stereo sources to surround sound. This does not mean that you will hear all the audio that comes from the front out of the rear speakers too - some sounds will come from the rear while the majority of the sound will come from the front.

It is possible that you won’t even notice the effect depending on what is playing and the quality of what is playing, and the level will be low - it’s more to bring the soundstage forward a bit rather than to emulate true surround sound. If you place an ear close to one of the rear speakers you will hear some audio.

There is no way to adjust the effect short of adjusting the surrounds level for TV audio (Settings icon » [room] » Surround Audio » TV Level), and there is no way to have the same audio play from the rears as from the front - the only way to do that would be to have them in a separate “room” in the app and grouped with the Arc Ultra.

I hope this helps.

Show previous replies

T

travelator

Lyricist II

TV and streaming work very differently in Sonos. In TV mode the sound is played as presented to Sonos. In streaming Stereo sources Sonos offers two surround modes, Ambient and Full where some or all of the main channel sound is passed to the surrounds.

I use Amazon Music on a Firestick with my Arc and and the Atmos sound is fantastic, I really notice when an Atmos track ends and a stereo one starts.

Sorry I don't know anything about Tidal or their TV app, maybe someone else has a suggestion,

I guess it makes sense that the Arc Ultra doesn't know what kind of audio it's receiving—whether a movie in stereo or stereo music so... I guess it's only normal it omits the rear channels. Still, it would be cool if it had the option within the app to tell it that the TV is currently playing music, so the rears could also be used in YouTube, etc.

T

travelator

Lyricist II

It often depends on the installed TV app, as well. Some of them offer multichannel sound streams, often accessed by setting options on the app, or subscription types with the streamer. Older or non-updated apps on TVs don’t offer anything other than stereo sound.

Good point. It's a 2025 TV with Google TV, so it should be up to the task...I'll make sure the apps are they're up-to-date and tinker with the settings. On my phone, Tidal supports Atmos tracks, but perhaps the app for Android TV doesn't have the same features, I'll have to check the settings, thanks for the tip!

Airgetlam

Certainly worth checking the TV for updates, too. I think sometimes they also update the apps.

Bruce

Corry PAnswer

Sonos Staff

Hi @Dieguito

Welcome to the Community!

We do, in fact, already “up-mix” all TV stereo sources to surround sound. This does not mean that you will hear all the audio that comes from the front out of the rear speakers too - some sounds will come from the rear while the majority of the sound will come from the front.

It is possible that you won’t even notice the effect depending on what is playing and the quality of what is playing, and the level will be low - it’s more to bring the soundstage forward a bit rather than to emulate true surround sound. If you place an ear close to one of the rear speakers you will hear some audio.

There is no way to adjust the effect short of adjusting the surrounds level for TV audio (Settings icon » [room] » Surround Audio » TV Level), and there is no way to have the same audio play from the rears as from the front - the only way to do that would be to have them in a separate “room” in the app and grouped with the Arc Ultra.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

That is very interesting, in several years of use I've never noticed sound from the Surrounds when playing a stereo TV source. Ambient Mode streaming music is quite obvious.

I'll have to look into this a bit more here.