Sonos era 300 wall mount upside down

Hi Corry,

At what wall mount height would one begin experiencing diminishing Atmos returns? If, as most state, ear level is optimal, but not possible for my setup, would an inverted mount a foot from the ceiling deliver better height effects than mounted non-inverted three feet below in a room with a 9 foot ceiling? Thanks in advance. 

Actually is it better to have them up side down at mid wall (behind the listener) so to have the upper driver shooting direct to the listener ears

OR

have them normal position at half height of the same wall (behind the listener) so that the center driver shoots to the ceiling than back to the listeria ears?

OR in normal position and at listers ears hight?

Hi @learnmedia

I suspect this will vary depending on individual rooms, somewhat. I’m afraid I don’t have any specific figures for you. As mentioned, we’d always recommend a non-inverted setup for the best Atmos rendering.

Hi @flybyme 

I don’t think you’d ever want the up-firing speaker pointed at the listener, nor would you want the centre driver pointed towards the ceiling. I think I may be misunderstanding you, but the third option seems the most sensible.

Sorry Corry,

I wrote it wrong:

I ment "upper driver and not "centre" driver!

So ,ideally , you suggest to position them at ears level height with upper driver ponting up

But what about positioning them at more or less 40/50 cm above the listener ears still having the upper driver facing up?

In this case the sound from the upper driver has less distance to bounce on the ceiling and come.back to the lister ears..

in this case will the.listener loose in volume or sound quality coming out from the side drivers or not ?

Hi @flybyme 

It was partly my misunderstanding too - if inverted, the up-firing speakers would indeed point roughly at the listener.

40/50cm of additional height shouldn’t be a problem, though it will become more of a problem the closer the speakers are to the listener as the angle between the two increases in severity. So, as long as you can locate the speakers so that they are behind the listener to a significant degree, a little extra in height will be fine. This horizontal distancing will also help with the rendering (bouncing) of the height channels.

I don’t think this would affect the audio quality, no.

I hope this helps.

Hi Corry,

Thank you for your reply. I believe you may have answered my question here. I realize I didn’t provide enough info about my setup/room previously. My 300s are mounted non-inverted 2 ft. above ear level and 3 ft. below the ceiling. However, the wall is 6½ feet behind the listening position providing some of the horizontal distancing you mention. 

Peace,

aj

Thanks for the info

Unfortunately my sofa is directly against my back wall and it is difficult to get the speakers at head hight so i am thinking maybe up high inverted would be best for me.

Are there any setting to change for this set up?

Ta

NCW 

Hi @ncw1978 

No setting to change - the Era 300s have accelerometers that will inform them that they are inverted.