Enthusiast I

Answered

Era 100 4 speakers in one room

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
March 29, 2025
16 replies
1601 views

I have a pretty basic question for you guys..

I have a sterio pair of Era 100s in a rec room. I am considering a second pair in the room for better coverage at lower volumes. Following the APP build the 4 can be controlled by setting up a "room" but my only concern would be any delay between the 2 pairs. I have an Orbi mesh system that covers the house well so I'm sure both pairs will be on the same satellite so I'm not expecting an issue there but only concerned with the 2 pairs in the same room.

What are your thoughts about this?

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Best answer by nik9669a

Music will play to grouped rooms in sync. Just set up Room1 and Room2 each as a stereo pair. You can then create a named group, or just group/ungroup them as and when it suits you. Choose your room, start streaming music to that room, then group in the other room. Or select the grouped rooms and start streaming to the group. Whichever way, music will be sync’d.

Show previous replies

Airgetlam

I think the ‘Zones’ feature was a ‘pro’ feature, designed for restaurants and similar installs that was easily ported to the public side of the system, and made available to us unwashed masses. It seems ideal for lots of ‘rooms’ that are single point speakers. Not necessarily ideal for every system, but it is functional for the intended use. For those of us who use stereo setups, there are other methods, as you suggest.

Bruce

N

nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

The issue with two sets of stereo speakers in a room is which to set as “left” and which as “right”. Because folk can move around, they could find themselves hearing the two “left” channels rather than a left and right. I suspect that’s why zones (a Pro feature) only supports mono speaker configs.

I’m not sure how Five or Era 300 would fare, as a single speaker can play stereo sound?)

AlwaysJamminAuthor

Enthusiast I

So few perfect sound stages.…

Sorry, couldn't pass it up. Ah the good old days.

W

wds0001

Prodigy I

FWIW, I have a large rectangular room with multiple speakers, and have found that with guests, the stereo setting is not ideal. We find it much better to group the four rooms in mono. The sound coverage for a large space is much more immersive, since people are rarely in the stereo sweet spot anyway.

W

wds0001

Prodigy I

To add, it gets really weird with older stereo mixes, such as the Beatles, when all of the vocals come out of the left speakers, and the instruments come from the right. Just doesn’t work if you are hearing only half the track in an entertaining situation.

melvimbe

The issue with two sets of stereo speakers in a room is which to set as “left” and which as “right”. Because folk can move around, they could find themselves hearing the two “left” channels rather than a left and right. I suspect that’s why zones (a Pro feature) only supports mono speaker configs.

I’m not sure how Five or Era 300 would fare, as a single speaker can play stereo sound?)

The Era 100 also plays stereo as a single speaker. From the ‘Zone Guide’ it does mention that the Era 300 plays stereo, but nothing on Sonos Five or Era 100. I suspect the note is to show that you can’t play atmos music with the Era 300 when in ‘zone mode’, but it’s not really clear.

Danny

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