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

A lot is dependent on how the ERA 300 surrounds are set up in the room.  Mine are around 7 feet behind me on stands away from the side walls.  They sound great with Dolby Atmos music & movies.

It’s true the front driver is not active when the 300s are set up as surrounds.  A number of folks in this community have complained about that.  I personally don’t want to hear anything coming directly out of the surround speakers.  
 

I have created several Dolby Atmos playlists in all genres.  When I listen to Atmos albums to see which ones I want to add to a playlist if I hear sound directly coming out of a surround that album is rejected.

My favorite genre is classical orchestral music.  Most Dolby Atmos albums of orchestral music are mastered correctly.  All the surround ERA 300 surrounds do is make the stage much larger as it would be if you were at the concert.  Other genres can be all over the map with the Atmos mastering.

I don’t think it will ever be easy to change the two 300 surrounds into a stereo pair then back to surrounds.  I do know when Surround Audio in settings for the surround room is set to Full stereo music sounds pretty good.

i agree that the surround steering should allow for the addition of L/R front speakers.

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

Are you maybe expecting to much? Shouldn’t surrounds just be there at the right time? Like subwoofers.

They should but these seem a bit too weak without all the speakers active.

For example, if you put your ear right up to them you can hear detail, background talking etc. But there seems no point that noise being there if you can't hear from the normal sitting position.

I'm starting to think that Sonos had the edge for a long time but other companies are catching up. I may sell my stuff and try Lg, their new setup seems to allow you to do whatever you want with the speakers and have more. I have loved cinema for 5 decades so the dream is to get it in my home.

I think sonos is going to need to adapt. It's a shame because there are just a couple of things I feel I am missing from the experience.

If you want loud sound from your surrounds you are pretty much discarding what Atmos brings to the room. I never hear my surrounds outside of test tracks.

Having the front driver enabled for Atmos is also going to disrupt the Atmos experience. Building a sound-field for Atmos is very similar to building one for stereo, a key point being you don't want to hear the speakers.

Back in the 70s discreete Quad provided that sort of listening experience and it got old quickly. Most moved on to a surround design where the room was enhanced, far less a gimmick and much more pleasant to listen to long term. Better electronics gave us 5.1 and now Atmos, bringing us closer to a live listening experience, and less of a "mommy look what I can do" sonic trick.