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Any way to use only up-firing speakers? (for calibration/testing/placement)

  • 29 March 2023
  • 9 replies
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Userlevel 3
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I would lovee to be able to test only the up firing atmos speakers on my arc and new era 300s, and even better toggle between each speaker to test alignment. I’m not aware of any way to do this, but curious if anybody might know? Or is this something sonos would need to develop for it to work?  

 

Curious if I could somehow mix a track that would only play through the atmos oriented portion of the speakers, even if just like rain or test sounds.

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Best answer by Corry P 31 March 2023, 10:14

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9 replies

Userlevel 7
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Hi @eatzaylove 

Please register your interest by posting on the link @melvimbe provided above.

Beta tests changes rather than make them, so I don’t think they’d be the ones to contact, no.

 

Userlevel 3
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Hi @eatzaylove 

Yes, the centre driver of the Era 300 is silent when configured as a surround speaker, by design.

Hey Corry,

That’s really unfortunate to hear. I’ve tried playing the era 300’s in a stereo configuration and it sounds, much, much better than when paired as rears in a surround system. I’m not sure whether it’s just the missing center tweeter (though it is my belief) or if there are other software based decisions that cause this, either way it’s pretty bothersome. Is there a way to escalate this for resolution? I signed up for the Sonos beta program years ago and have the beta team’s email address, would they be the best group to contact?

 

Thanks!

Userlevel 7
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Hi @eatzaylove 

Yes, the centre driver of the Era 300 is silent when configured as a surround speaker, by design.

Userlevel 7

 

Download test tones here (play from USB connected to TV): 

https://www.demolandia.net/cinema/dolby-demo-trailers-hd/page-10.html

Hmm concerningly actually, I excitedly posted this to reddit and somebody noticed their center speakers don’t play anything on the Era 300s. I’m noticing the same with the dolby tests, music, 5.1 video content. When set as a surround my era 300’s only use left, right, and atmos speaker with no sound at all coming from the center @Corry P do you know if this is expected? It seems like it could be a relatively huge glitch? 

 

btw, thank you for marking this as a feature request and thoughts earlier! I missed responding in my excitement to test out the test tone files

 

Hmmm.. 🤔

I’m not convinced that the test tones are actually meant for sound bars like the Arc and now the Era 300’s. The test configurations show separate speakers firing from stationary positions to create the Dolby Amos “bubble”. 

  • LF
  • C
  • RF
  • LR
  • RR
  • OHL
  • OHR

As the configurations expand additional Side and OH speakers are added. Which again makes me believe the test tones are not designed for Sonos.🤔

Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Download test tones here (play from USB connected to TV): 

https://www.demolandia.net/cinema/dolby-demo-trailers-hd/page-10.html

Hmm concerningly actually, I excitedly posted this to reddit and somebody noticed their center speakers don’t play anything on the Era 300s. I’m noticing the same with the dolby tests, music, 5.1 video content. When set as a surround my era 300’s only use left, right, and atmos speaker with no sound at all coming from the center @Corry P do you know if this is expected? It seems like it could be a relatively huge glitch? 

 

btw, thank you for marking this as a feature request and thoughts earlier! I missed responding in my excitement to test out the test tone files

Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Download test tones here (play from USB connected to TV): 

https://www.demolandia.net/cinema/dolby-demo-trailers-hd/page-10.html

This is AWESOME and exactly what I was looking for. I threw it on my plex server and it works like a charm. TYTYTY

Download test tones here (play from USB connected to TV): 

https://www.demolandia.net/cinema/dolby-demo-trailers-hd/page-10.html

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @eatzaylove 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

I would lovee to be able to test only the up firing atmos speakers on my arc and new era 300s, and even better toggle between each speaker to test alignment. I’m not aware of any way to do this, but curious if anybody might know? Or is this something sonos would need to develop for it to work?

There is currently no way to do this, but I can see how it could be useful. Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Keep the ideas coming!

Curious if I could somehow mix a track that would only play through the atmos oriented portion of the speakers, even if just like rain or test sounds.

I don’t see why this wouldn’t be possible, but the software needed to do so may be professional-grade and therefore very expensive. Google would be your friend here (or chatGPT-enhanced Bing!), as there could just as easily be free software that can do it.