Skip to main content

I have a Sonos Arc and Sonos Sub. I bought a pair of Sonos Era 300 for surround sound in my home theater. I can barely hear the Sonos Era 300 speakers when used as surround sound for watching TV. I played around with positioning speakers, adjusting speakers' settings, Sonos TruePlay tuning. Nothing changes the home viewing experience. What am I doing wrong or did I have unrealistic expectations?

First, make sure you are getting Dolby 5.1 or Atmos.  This is shown on the Now Playing screen.  If you are, the speakers are not all going to be playing at all times like you hear for music.  Surrounds don't repeat the fronts, they are for ambient noises and directional cues.  You aren't going to hear dialog on the surrounds unless it is off screen.

As a definitive test, play an action movie.  There's good use of surrounds in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.  If that's too intense, try the battles scenes in the first Avengers movie.