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Surround Sound Sound Set up

  • 17 December 2023
  • 5 replies
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D
Userlevel 2
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I have recently set up my surround sound using 2 ERA 300’s,  1 Arc and 1 Sub.

During the set up it asked if I wanted to group the above speakers all with the same room name which I did.

Question 1.  If I had not grouped as 1 room name, would I still had been able to set up as a complete surround sound set up?

Question 2.   In this set up, Am I able to play music and just select the two ERA 300’s or do I have to play music through all of surround sound speakers?

Question 3.  Now that I have added the ERA 300’s as surround speakers, can they be switched to a stereo pair if I was to change the set up so that they had their own room name.

Question 4.  If they had their own room name, would I be able to switch back to the complete Surround sound set up when I watch TV?

Thank you in advance.

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Best answer by John B 17 December 2023, 11:18

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5 replies

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
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I have recently set up my surround sound using 2 ERA 300’s,  1 Arc and 1 Sub.

During the set up it asked if I wanted to group the above speakers all with the same room name which I did.

Question 1.  If I had not grouped as 1 room name, would I still had been able to set up as a complete surround sound set up?

No. You have to bond all components of a surround system together.

Question 2.   In this set up, Am I able to play music and just select the two ERA 300’s or do I have to play music through all of surround sound speakers?

You have to play music through all. There is an option to give full, rather than ambient sound from the surrounds.

Question 3.  Now that I have added the ERA 300’s as surround speakers, can they be switched to a stereo pair if I was to change the set up so that they had their own room name.

Yes, several steps needed so it is rarely done but it is possible.

Question 4.  If they had their own room name, would I be able to switch back to the complete Surround sound set up when I watch TV?

Yes, but again several steps needed.

Thank you in advance.

 

J

Hi.  I doubt that you were asked if you wanted to “group under one room name”, at least not in those words.

To have a proper, multichannel surround set up, you use the “Add Surrounds” command in the Arc settings.  I Sonos terminology, this is referred to as “bonding”, not “grouping”.  When surrounds are bonded, they become part of the Arc “room”, and just play the streams sent to them by the Arc.  This set up will give you surround sound including Dolby Atmos audio (provided other conditions are met.

For music you can elect to have FULL audio from the surrounds or AMBIENT audio (essentially nothing).  You can’t just play from the surrounds, but you can get something like it by using the slider in the Arc settings to boost the surround volume relative to the Arc.

If instead you merely “group” the speakers, this just plays music in sync, and TV audio not quite in sync.  The speakers retain separate ”room name” identities.

The two setups require the system to be configured in completely different ways.  The only way to switch between the two setups is to remove and re-add the surrounds as required, including Teueplaying if you use Trueplay.

D
Userlevel 2
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Within the Sound Sound set up, do the two ERA 300s act as a steroid pair or two independents when used to play music?

buzz

Before you can add the 300’s to ARC as surrounds, you must “Remove Stereo Pair” for the 300’s.

J

Before you can add the 300’s to ARC as surrounds, you must “Remove Stereo Pair” for the 300’s.

But, nevertheless, music plays in stereo from the surrounds, when the source is stereo.  So you get “dual stereo” from the front and rear.  When  Sonos shows that it is playing Dolby Atmos music, each speaker is playing its part in that.

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