Skip to main content
Avid Contributor I
Apr 18, 2026 1:56 PM UTC

What are people's view of the Era 300s as surrounds

Hi, I have a first generation Arc a gen 3 sub and two Era 300s in my living room. The Era 300s are set up as surrounds but I regularly unbond them for music and don't think they sound great as surrounds.

They seem just too quiet and I find I have to push all the levels up to max to get any real impact.

For music they are way better just as a stereo pair.

I don't think there is anything wrong with the speakers I just don't find the implementation to be great. It bothers me no end that Sonos won't let me enable the centre channel. in my room it would be better the centre than the far side channels.

I also wish there was a music mode for the Eras so that they can be set to just those for music, unpairing is ok but it plays havoc with my room setup in the app and Alexa.

I do love Sonos and have speakers in every room but am just disappointed with this setup. I kind of just lived with it until now but it appears other brands are making some interesting stuff. The LG Soundsuite is looking interesting as can add soundbar, front speakers and rears etc with no disabling of channels.

What do others think. Do we think Sonos will respond by allowing more options? I imagine their speakers will still be better but they seem a bit held back at the minute?

Opinions will be interesting.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

26 replies

106rallye
Jun 25, 2026 11:49 AM UTC

When did Sonos supposedly change this?

Translate
Lyricist III
Jun 26, 2026 6:11 AM UTC

The best I the best I could find that is described,https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/s/FAOdG5ofLb

Translate
Lyricist III
Jul 30, 2026 11:59 AM UTC

watch this video from 3.20

 

Translate
106rallye
Jul 30, 2026 7:50 PM UTC

From your linked Reddit post: “The signal processing and driver behavior for Era 300 has remained the same since its launch last year.”

If I understand Peter Pee, what changed was that the volume of the inner Atmos driver on the 300 could not be adjusted, With 15.6 it can be adjusted. Is this your problem?

Translate
Lyricist III
Jul 30, 2026 9:28 PM UTC

Then you weren't paying close attention to where Peter points out where all the separate channel-specific come/came from. This is no longer the case; the explanation for that starts at 3:20 in the video.

Translate
jgatie
Jul 30, 2026 10:09 PM UTC

Nothing is "channel specific" in an Atmos system.  Nothing.  Content is room specific, and every room is different.

Translate