Contributor I

Answered

Setting up ERA 300 with ARC

16 replies
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Hello

I am a Sonos ARC user, which I only use with the TV.
I am interested in complementing the equipment with a pair of ERA 300 with the intention of integrating them with the ARC with the double intention of adding surround speakers for home theater, but, above all, to listen to music in stereo. In my humble opinion, ARC as a stand-alone speaker, does not seem to me to stand out to listen to music. I think it lacks spatiality.

The problem is that, after having asked to technical support, they tell me that I can configure the pair of ERA 300 as surround speakers of the ARC or as a pair of independent stereo speakers, but not have both configurations defined at the same time. The solution they propose is to configure the ERA as surrounds of the ARC and listen to music with this configuration.

The question I would like to ask is if anyone has integrated a pair of ERA 300 with an ARC, and what results do they offer when playing music. I have not yet tried to listen to music with Dolby Atmos with the ARC, since I do not have sources with this music format yet..

Another possibility would be to install the ERA simply as a pair of stereo speakers, without connecting to the ARC, but then, it would not add surrounds when watching movies.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestion.

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AirgetlamAnswer

This situation is not unique to the Era speakers, it has always been the case with all surround speakers in the Sonos environment. A similar all of the other threads with this same concern, the best option is to go in to the controllers settings for the Arc’s room, and set the surround speakers to play in ‘full’ mode, rather than ‘ambient’, so they function as normal stereo speakers, rather than merely support for the Arc.

Many of us have found the switching of speakers from normal ‘music’ duty to surround duty to be somewhat onerous, and even more so as you lose any TruePlay tuning you may have done in either room. It can be done, it just ends up being tedious, most likely due to the substantial changes in the nature of connections between a surround (child) speaker and a normal (peer) speaker’s connection.

My personal solution was to buy a second pair that now flank my Arc for music only purposes. The surrounds are surrounds only.

Bruce

AirgetlamAnswer

This situation is not unique to the Era speakers, it has always been the case with all surround speakers in the Sonos environment. A similar all of the other threads with this same concern, the best option is to go in to the controllers settings for the Arc’s room, and set the surround speakers to play in ‘full’ mode, rather than ‘ambient’, so they function as normal stereo speakers, rather than merely support for the Arc.

Many of us have found the switching of speakers from normal ‘music’ duty to surround duty to be somewhat onerous, and even more so as you lose any TruePlay tuning you may have done in either room. It can be done, it just ends up being tedious, most likely due to the substantial changes in the nature of connections between a surround (child) speaker and a normal (peer) speaker’s connection.

My personal solution was to buy a second pair that now flank my Arc for music only purposes. The surrounds are surrounds only.

Bruce

B

buzzingfrog

Contributor I

I preferred setting up Era 300 stereos and grouped them the with the Arc. This is not the optimal solution but I assume provides a better end result than setting them up as “full” modded surrounds as proposed. But I expect Sonos to provide a software update to set up Stereo+Center speaker setup for those who prefers a simple - no rear surround speaker setup

Music is my choice, life follows

N

nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

I preferred setting up Era 300 stereos and grouped them the with the Arc. This is not the optimal solution but I assume provides a better end result than setting them up as “full” modded surrounds as proposed. But I expect Sonos to provide a software update to set up Stereo+Center speaker setup for those who prefers a simple - no rear surround speaker setup

Done this way, there is a delay from the speakers grouped with the Arc which results in a kind of echo effect. It must also muddy the sound, as the Eras play 2.0 stereo as the Arc plays 3.0 or Atmos sound. I’m surprised you find that acceptable.

B

buzzingfrog

Contributor I

I preferred setting up Era 300 stereos and grouped them the with the Arc. This is not the optimal solution but I assume provides a better end result than setting them up as “full” modded surrounds as proposed. But I expect Sonos to provide a software update to set up Stereo+Center speaker setup for those who prefers a simple - no rear surround speaker setup

Done this way, there is a delay from the speakers grouped with the Arc which results in a kind of echo effect. It must also muddy the sound, as the Eras play 2.0 stereo as the Arc plays 3.0 or Atmos sound. I’m surprised you find that acceptable.

I did not notice an echo nor a lag but redundant uses of drives which I would prefer a logic to share the roles between center and the stereos. But a native solution is needed for such setup.

Music is my choice, life follows

106rallye

There’s no “center” in Sonos, other than the middle speakers in a Sonos soundbar. Sonos does seem to find extra speakers to the side of a soundbar superfluous. I tend to agree with them.

G

Garymv

Lyricist I

I currently have the latest Arc and SL surrounds.Can I add the ERA surrounds ? Would it benefit my sound?

jgatie

I currently have the latest Arc and SL surrounds.Can I add the ERA surrounds ? Would it benefit my sound?

Add? As in have both Era 300 and One SL as surrounds? No. You can swap out the Era 300s for the One SLs, which will give a definite benefit for Atmos, but for regular 5.1, the reviews are mixed.

G

Garymv

Lyricist I

So the ERA300's would be a definite upgrade on the SL's?

jgatie

So the ERA300's would be a definite upgrade on the SL's?

As I said, for Atmos sources the reviews say they are an improvement. For regular 5.1 and music, the reviews are mixed, leaning towards they are worse due to the disabled forward facing driver.

G

Garymv

Lyricist I

I think I'll leave it the way it is , thank you 👍

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