Sonos Era 300 Drivers Not Working

T
Userlevel 3

 

I know that the front tweeter is disengaged when the Era 300s are set up as rear speakers in a surround sound configuration (which needs to be changed for stereo music playback)  but a big issue I have is when playing regular TV only one of the two side tweeters are working. And the tweeters that are working on each speaker are the ones pointed out and not in towards my listening/sitting position. This seems backwards. I’ve tried to set it up three times with no change. Is this correct??? 

Also there has to be a way for the front firing tweeter to be used when playing stereo music. For stereo music I much prefer the sound of my ones as rear speakers and it’s not even close. It also seems like my SUB is outputting a lot less sound as well since I added my era 300s no matter if I’m playing a movie or listening to music. Can someone at Sonos address this? I appreciate any help as when they are playing Dolby Atmos content they are amazing for music and movies. 

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32 replies

S
Userlevel 3
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Removing them and adding them as surrounds again has fixed the issue. Now I get sound from all 5 drivers when playing stereo music. Must have been a bug.

S
Userlevel 3
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Thanks all 5 drivers work fine with Atmos content. I tried the Dolby Labs tracks on Apple Music too and yes all 7.1.4 channels work as they should. 
 

With stereo music from Apple Music only the outside facing two drivers on the 300’s are producing sound. The inner two and top firing driver are not. 

Is that expected behavior when using the 300’s as surrounds or a bug? I will try removing them as surrounds and reattaching again to see if that fixes it if they are meant to. 

F
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

I just posted the below in another thread but found this specific thread afterwards so will post the same thing here as I see this was a topic raised >2 months ago.

I just upgraded my Play 1 surrounds (paired with an Arc + Sub) to the Era 300’s a couple days ago so haven’t had a chance to fully test out everything (time for such things is hard to come by when you have a 13 month old baby in a NYC apartment). 

I know the front drivers are disabled when using them as surrounds, which I’m fine with as I have them right behind my couch and always felt the Play 1’s sounded too in my ears given proximity. When I play Atmos music everything sounds pretty great and it’s a nice upgrade with all 5 other drivers firing.

When playing non-atmos stereo music from Apple Music however I notice only the 2 outer firing drivers on each of the 300’s are used. The inner facing side and top firing drivers are not used at all. So only 2 of the 6 available drivers are used. 

Is this a design decision by Sonos or is this not expected behavior? I suspect it’s the former but would like others to confirm theirs behave the same. I’m assuming the idea is to emulate a right and left speaker but why not have the other drivers utilized? After all doesn’t the Arc still use the upward firing and other drivers to spread the stereo sound around? Not sure why the 300’s wouldn’t do the same.

Hello Starlan,

 

have a better look, it seems weird.

I uese them as surround and:

-never the center front driver is activated (hope they will implement this option on the next SW update)

-the lateral and upper driver are firing althougt with non Atmos music.

Try the “Atmos sound test” you can find on line….

 

Keep us up dated.

Good luck

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +3

I just posted the below in another thread but found this specific thread afterwards so will post the same thing here as I see this was a topic raised >2 months ago.

I just upgraded my Play 1 surrounds (paired with an Arc + Sub) to the Era 300’s a couple days ago so haven’t had a chance to fully test out everything (time for such things is hard to come by when you have a 13 month old baby in a NYC apartment). 

I know the front drivers are disabled when using them as surrounds, which I’m fine with as I have them right behind my couch and always felt the Play 1’s sounded too in my ears given proximity. When I play Atmos music everything sounds pretty great and it’s a nice upgrade with all 5 other drivers firing.

When playing non-atmos stereo music from Apple Music however I notice only the 2 outer firing drivers on each of the 300’s are used. The inner facing side and top firing drivers are not used at all. So only 2 of the 6 available drivers are used. 

Is this a design decision by Sonos or is this not expected behavior? I suspect it’s the former but would like others to confirm theirs behave the same. I’m assuming the idea is to emulate a right and left speaker but why not have the other drivers utilized? After all doesn’t the Arc still use the upward firing and other drivers to spread the stereo sound around? Not sure why the 300’s wouldn’t do the same.

F
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Correy (from SonoS) has replied that:

-they are aware of customers complaining

-they have not enabled that front drivers because after several tests they decided that the sound “when paired in couple in a surruond system” is better without the central driver

-they are not sure, at the moment, if they will up date the SW so to give us the choice to enable it.

 

As you a listen more to music than Amtos movie/music and I would really like to have that central driver enabled.

 

They give us 2 options:

-return the ERA300 and wait to see if they will make that up date

-keep it like this…

 

WOuld be apreciated they have listened to our request and announce that they will up date it ( so we do not need to send back the speakers)….

N
Userlevel 1

Still, when is listen to music it auto stops the inside and front firing speakers?! Thats not the way you should experience music. 

 

If youre watching a atmos movie they sound great. When playing atmos music onze de outer drivers work as for normal music too. 

I think this is a Total scam. 

They could use the inside firing speakers to create more depht in sound, make the transition between the even smoother, fade out on de left side inner speakers, en fade in on the right inner tweeters and to the outside again. This would create a so much beter sound stage. 

Or Atleast give us the option to use all of the drivers also when using them as surround speakers. It shouldnt be that hard. They made the choice to turn them off, now make the choice to turn them on again. 

I think its a pretty ** move. I payed for the whole Package not Just one side of it. 

They should update this asap. Many forums and video's can be found complaining about this issue, make it like the highest priority in order to keep the premium sonos feeling 

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

F
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Hi @flybyme 

Would be very appreciated if they could tell us:

-we will enable the front driver with a SW update soon (and people that have purchased them could keep them instead of returning them)

I don’t know if this decision has been made yet.

-we think the sound is better as they are

We do. After extensive testing, it was determined that the sound was better with the front-facing driver not working while in a surround configuration.

- we can't solve this issue with just an SW update.

We can, but as I said, I don’t know if that decision has been made as of yet. What’s more, it will take some time to turn a feature from something that just happened into something that can be configured as an option in the app.

Come on SonoS , lots of people here are waiting a reply/ please do understand us and do another extra mile customer service...please!

I hope this goes some way to answering your questions.

 

Thank you endeed Corry.

Would be really great having the “center driver” enabled when listening to music and not in “TV audio” when in surround mode.

We really hope this feature will be implemented  and announced soon.

 

thanks for the fast reply ;o)

 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @flybyme 

Would be very appreciated if they could tell us:

-we will enable the front driver with a SW update soon (and people that have purchased them could keep them instead of returning them)

I don’t know if this decision has been made yet.

-we think the sound is better as they are

We do. After extensive testing, it was determined that the sound was better with the front-facing driver not working while in a surround configuration.

- we can't solve this issue with just an SW update.

We can, but as I said, I don’t know if that decision has been made as of yet. What’s more, it will take some time to turn a feature from something that just happened into something that can be configured as an option in the app.

Come on SonoS , lots of people here are waiting a reply/ please do understand us and do another extra mile customer service...please!

I hope this goes some way to answering your questions.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
F
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

They should make this a high priority . Just replaced my ones for era300 as surround speakers, but this sounds worse than the ones.

€1000 for this? Never expected this from sonos. 

Outside tweeters only work, front disabled by default  😆 

Movies are cool, but even with the Apple spatial audio it is terrible comparing with ones. 

Give us the option or do something about it please.

 

Kind regards

But still.....no reply from SonoS…

Would be very appreciated if they could tell us:

-we will enable the front driver with a SW update soon (and people that have purchased them could keep them instead of returning them)

-we think the sound is better as they are

- we can't solve this issue with just an SW update.

 

Come on SonoS , lots of people here are waiting a reply/ please do understand us and do another extra mile customer service...please!

N
Userlevel 1

They should make this a high priority . Just replaced my ones for era300 as surround speakers, but this sounds worse than the ones.

€1000 for this? Never expected this from sonos. 

Outside tweeters only work, front disabled by default  😆 

Movies are cool, but even with the Apple spatial audio it is terrible comparing with ones. 

Give us the option or do something about it please.

 

Kind regards

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @sidereal1 

Thanks for understanding, and for your feedback on the speakers - all feedback, good and bad, is very important to us.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
S
Userlevel 4
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@Corry P 

 

Thanks for getting back to me. I appreciate your efforts, as a Sonos employee, to help users and provide what clarity you can. 

 

I also appreciate the situational context from which you're operating, as an employee. I'm sure it's tough. 

 

I will want to share, and hope it gets run up the flagpole:

 

Including this pair of 300s we own 17 Sonos speakers throughout our house. We're big supporters. 

 

I am returning these. They're not worth a thousand bucks. They clearly weren't ready for release when they were dropped at the end of Q1. The non-working drivers were withheld from consumers - (curiously unmentioned by tech reviewers who had units to review prior to the embargo being last-minute lifted).

 

Considering they were released anyway, coupled to the lack of organizational acknowledgement & transparency around whether fixing them is even in the works, I'm left with a really bad impression of Sonos as a company. 

F
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

When playing NON Atmos music on a HT System with 2 ERA300 , will the option “highter the surround” volume compensate the not enabled “central driver”???

Other question:

SonoS in aware of these “compalints” but do not gives us any information on “if” they will take considerations or less?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @sidereal1 

I can’t really answer any of those questions, though I understand your concern over the period in which you can return your items. All I can recommend is that if you are not satisfied with the Era 300 as they are at present, return the products for a refund and perhaps come back to them at a later date.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
S
Userlevel 4
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@Corry P 

 

Thanks Corry, that definitely changes my expectation. And I appreciate that. Appreciate you cleaning up the other thread. Sorry for my part. 

 

Do you think Sonos as an entity will issue any statement acknowledging these performance issues and outlining an approach to solutions?

 

As a separate question, and just generally speaking, while I know I'm not alone in some of these strange behaviors, is it a very small cohort of users having these experiences, or is it broader user base?

 

The reason I ask is, if it's a rare phenomenon than it will be harder to diagnose the causes and rectify, and there's less incentive to dedicate significant resources to it.

 

I want to make sure my return window doesn't close if there's no official statement of position, acknowledgement of issues, or rough timeline of expected full functionality.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @sidereal1 

I think there has been a lack of information and managing expectations toward you from our side of things. Your case has been escalated internally, however not for the sake of a call back to you. What is being done is that the information you’ve provided will be looked into together with the information from other customers to form a thorough understanding of what’s going on (this is the escalation).

This issue you’re experiencing is not something that can be solved over the phone. I believe it may require a software update, in which case all we can do is wait. In case there is indeed something you can do yourself, you will receive a call or at least an email with further instructions.

With all that said I’m sorry for the misunderstanding, and you should not expect a call back from us at this point. I’ve also let our teams know about this to make sure that we set the right expectations going forwards.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
S
Userlevel 4
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@Corry P 

Hi Corry, 

Thanks for getting back with me. I saw your message in the other thread from this morning. 

 

I have disconnected and reconnected the 300s as surrounds without it bringing the additional drivers back. (no upper or inside tweeters [or center obviously] when playing music, including Atmos music from Apple music via the Sonos app).

 

All drivers work normally when watching movie content.

 

In the stereo paired configuration for music I don't have inward facing tweeters. All other drivers work. I've unpaired and repaired then as stereo pairs without it correcting the issue. 

 

I had a 2 hour phone call with tech Thursday afternoon. I understand I should receive an email from tier 3 to set up a phone appointment. It's now Monday afternoon, (east coast time, GMT -5). 

 

What's the usual timeframe to hear from tier 3?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Mattymoo1 & @sidereal1 

If either your inside- or outside-facing tweeters do not seem to play, I recommend removing the Surrounds from your Home Theatre device and adding them back on again. Settings » System » [room of HT] » Remove Surrounds

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
M
Userlevel 3

Same story here. I do have an ARC, 2x Sub (gen.3) and replaced 2x One’s with 2x Era 300’s (as surround speakers). Any non-ATMOS input signal (e.g. DD 5.1, DTS 5.1, DD 2.0 pro logic II) will only use the outward facing tweeter on the Era 300’s. So effectively only 1 of the 4 tweeters will be in use for anything non-ATMOS. That is the reason why they sound so underwhelming with non-ATMOS content. While I understand SONOS’ reasoning that the center tweeter should be disabled, for me the bigger issue is that the inward facing side tweeters are also disabled. SONOS should simply have the surround signal be assigned to both side tweeters for a wider soundstage (similar to a Dipole Surround Speaker). One could call it upsampling from 5.1 to 7.1, but with DTS 5.1 this is standard practice to repeat the surround signal to the extra rear surrounds anyways. Except the Era 300 does not do that either. That also explains while the surround level slider in the app only affects the outward facing tweeter. In short, non-ATMOS surround playback with the Era 300 is like using Sonos One’s (also 1 active tweeter only) being angled away from your listening position. I really hope there will be a firmware fix or option to make the Era 300 more usable for non-ATMOS content in a surround set-up.

S
Userlevel 4
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Thought I'd come back here and update. 

 

It's 2 days later and I haven't received an email from Sonos to set up an appointment with tier 3 tech support, as I was told would happen.

 

I've moved my 5s back into my home theatre setup as surrounds. I put the 300s in another room for music listening, stereo paired & connected to a sub mini. (In this room the 300s replace a pair of 1s).

 

Here's my experience:

5s as rears:

In the HT setup I played Dolby Atmos mixed music through the Sonos app. The 5s are set to “full” for music & "+3”, but they still sounded muted. I then played the same track directly from Apple music via airplay, (hence no Atmos, but stereo mixed). Then the 5s were louder and fuller, in keeping with their settings in the Sonos app. This is better than relying substantially on the arc for playing music, for obvious reasons. 


I watched an episode of Star Wars Andor. They were fine as rears, what I was used to before buying the 300s. But they lacked the directionality and ability to represent object movement that the 300s did as rears.
 

300s as stereo pair with sub mini:
I played the same track through the Sonos app in Dolby mixed. The front tweeters and the upward firing tweeters are now working, but the inside tweeters are still not working. Both woofers work. 
 

I then played the same track directly from the Apple music app, thus no Dolby. It sounds different in stereo mix, but I have the same amount of drivers firing: all but the inside tweeters. 

 

So regarding the 300s playing music:

 In stereo configuration I get 5 out of 6 drivers working, (the inward tweeters aren't working),

 

In HT as surrounds I get 3 drivers working, the 2 woofers and the outside tweeter. The center, upper, and inner tweeters do not work. Even in Atmos mixed music. 

 

And I've gotten no follow through from Sonos tech support. 

 

J

Are you using them as surrounds with an arc?

Yup

 

Moderator edit: removed quoted spam link

A

Are you using them as surrounds with an arc?

J

I have exactly the same problem, that the inner tweeter is not firing for 5.1 content. I would have assumed that the inner tweeters are used for rear left / right. And that the outer tweeters reflect sound off the wall to simulate side left / right. Is that assumption wrong?

E
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

I'm having the same issue. 

 

Working fine for movies.

 

Playing music, through the Sonos app or direct from services, Atmos mixed or stereo, only the woofers and outside tweeters working.

 

No front tweeter, (per Sonos’ intention), no upper tweeter, no inside tweeter.

 

Per Corry’s suggestion above I called technical support today for 2 hours. Tier 1 couldn't find anything. Tier 2 tech support couldn't. Now I'm told to expect an email to set up an appointment for a call with tier 3 tech support. 

 

I'll go through with it, but I'm really unsatisfied with this product. 

 

From the secretly disabled front tweeter, (they still haven't openly addressed it - or responded to their customers’ dissatisfaction), to this. This product wasn't ready for market. Sonos did start presale and get them out the door right at close of 1st quarter though, which is good for them I guess. 

 

Have a lot of Sonos products in our home. These are going back. 

I agree with the overall slant of your comment but I don't think it's fair to say that it's Sonos’ intention for the front facing tweeter to not work. They wouldn't have even put a speaker there if that were the case. It seems like they probably got some bad feedback from beta testers, who might have less than ideal setups and as a result Sonos over corrected, or just applied a sloppy quick solution. 

S
Userlevel 4
Badge

I'm having the same issue. 

 

Working fine for movies.

 

Playing music, through the Sonos app or direct from services, Atmos mixed or stereo, only the woofers and outside tweeters working.

 

No front tweeter, (per Sonos’ intention), no upper tweeter, no inside tweeter.

 

Per Corry’s suggestion above I called technical support today for 2 hours. Tier 1 couldn't find anything. Tier 2 tech support couldn't. Now I'm told to expect an email to set up an appointment for a call with tier 3 tech support. 

 

I'll go through with it, but I'm really unsatisfied with this product. 

 

From the secretly disabled front tweeter, (they still haven't openly addressed it - or responded to their customers’ dissatisfaction), to this. This product wasn't ready for market. Sonos did start presale and get them out the door right at close of 1st quarter though, which is good for them I guess. 

 

Have a lot of Sonos products in our home. These are going back. 

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