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I have been meaning to get the Sonos era 300 pair, for my living and entertaining area. The intention is to use the pair and a sub as a speaker system for parties and hosting majorly, I also have a separate TV area where I can shift the era’s as surrounds whenever required.

Now, I have two options for placement, attaching design drawings for the same below, since the entertaining area doesn't have too many walls, I am struggling a bit with the placement. I will also buy a sub to give the era's more oomph when throwing parties.

It would be a great help to get some opinions before finalising the drawing with my designer.

I am also attaching a third drawing which gives area specifications, it's an L-shaped room that is 30 ft x 11 ft 6 in (if only including the entertainment area) the living area extends in that L shape adding another 11 ft

PS

I will be wall-mounting both speakers.

 

I have a few questions regarding the same -

  1. I am more inclined towards the second placement since in the first placement speaker one is right next to the main entry of my house, I feel it'll be too odd to have a speaker wall mounted on your side just as you enter, as well as most of my sitting and bar area is towards the other end, where I want majority of the sound throw to be, but as you can see in the drawings, the second placement has a distance issue between the speakers, I was wondering if trueplay will help?

  2. ** I wanted to know if the era 300s work as a group rather than a stereo pair, meaning that instead of playing distinct left and right audio, they play the same exact audio like grouped speakers instead of stereo speakers, the second placement might be more fruitful in that situation.

  3. Will a pair of Fives be a better option considering the shape and room space and overall volume for throwing parties? I feel the era 300’s might fill the room better because of their capabilities to throw sound all around rather than a more directional sound of the fives. please let me know

  4. I have been hearing a lot of banter with the app issues, I am planning to buy next year, is the app really a pain with the amount of money Ill be spending?

Please help!

 

PLACEMENT 1

 

PLACEMENT 1

 

PLACEMENT 2

 

PLACEMENT 2

 

AREA SPEC

 

 

 That’s a tough one.  Not a fan of true open architecture.  You will not likely want to switch the 300s from stereo music listening to surround duties then back to stereo listening.  There is no easy way to do that.  
 

 If your intention is to sit in a sweet spot, close your eyes and listen seriously then the 5s in stereo would be the way to go.  It doesn’t sound like that’s your intent so the 300s more diffuse sound would work better.  Yes, grouping might be better for that less specific listening environment, but the SQ gains from getting the right channel stuff out of the left speaker and visa versa should be taken into consideration.
 

 After you figure out the best placement through experimentation just set the 300s up as surround speakers and play music through that surround system.  
 
 That is how I use mine.  Dolby Atmos music is awesome played through a surround system consisting of the Arc - Sub - 300s.  I know there aren’t that many releases in Dolby Atmos, but the library is growing.  You, of course, need to subscribe to either Apple Music or Amazon Music Unlimited to get Dolby Atmos music.


Hey! Thanks for replying MoPac. 

Yeah, my intention is majorly more diffused sound than directional. As well as the bluetooth connectivity of the era 300 is a huge plus, specially when hosting other people. 

I am not sure if the surround system would utilise the era 300’s enough for music. I have another separate TV room, where I might go for an arc or beam gen 2, I was hoping Ill keep the sub there most of the times, and move it to the entertaining space only when I have people over.

Exactly how difficult is it to move speakers from different rooms in the app? because buying everything dedicated to separate rooms will really add up my cost. My plan was to buy a soundbar for the TV room, and keep shifting the sub and era 300’s if and when required. the max I might go would be to buy era 100’s as surrounds to keep the era 300’s fixed, but even then Ill have to shift the sub once in a while. not sure if the era 300 pair alone would fill the sound up, specially when Ill have people.


 Moving the Sub from one Sonos room to another Sonos room would not be seamless.  You would have to execute the Remove Sub function in the Sonos app then the Connect a Sub function for the other Sonos room.  Not sure how long that takes and not sure if that would introduce connection problems I keep reading about in this community.  The same process would need to be done for the surrounds.

 Keep in mind if the 300s are bonded as surround speakers Bluetooth is disabled.

 The 100s would work well in a smaller room.

 Look into the “coming soon” Arc Ultra.  Sounds like maybe a sub is not even needed; just a rumor.  If you’re doing surround in both the Entertaining Area & Living Area the Arc Ultra might work in the Living Area.


 Moving the Sub from one Sonos room to another Sonos room would not be seamless.  You would have to execute the Remove Sub function in the Sonos app then the Connect a Sub function for the other Sonos room.  Not sure how long that takes and not sure if that would introduce connection problems I keep reading about in this community.  The same process would need to be done for the surrounds.

 Keep in mind if the 300s are bonded as surround speakers Bluetooth is disabled.

 The 100s would work well in a smaller room.

 Look into the “coming soon” Arc Ultra.  Sounds like maybe a sub is not even needed; just a rumor.  If you’re doing surround in both the Entertaining Area & Living Area the Arc Ultra might work in the Living Area.

wouldn’t the era 300’s be enough to cover the whole L shaped space?


 Moving the Sub from one Sonos room to another Sonos room would not be seamless.  You would have to execute the Remove Sub function in the Sonos app then the Connect a Sub function for the other Sonos room.  Not sure how long that takes and not sure if that would introduce connection problems I keep reading about in this community.  The same process would need to be done for the surrounds.

 Keep in mind if the 300s are bonded as surround speakers Bluetooth is disabled.

 The 100s would work well in a smaller room.

 Look into the “coming soon” Arc Ultra.  Sounds like maybe a sub is not even needed; just a rumor.  If you’re doing surround in both the Entertaining Area & Living Area the Arc Ultra might work in the Living Area.

wouldn’t the era 300’s be enough to cover the whole L shaped space?

 In my case yes.  I’m not much of a “head banger” so I have never really pushed any of my audio speakers that hard.  If you like it loud the 300s might do just fine.

 My surround room Arc-Sub-300s can get pretty darn loud.  I listen to a lot of orchestral music in Dolby Atmos.  The dynamic range is off the charts.  I can be listening to a piece that begins very calm and quiet then BAM!  It knocks your socks off.

 If you are going to put the 300s on the wall think about how high up you place them and what direction you point them.  If they are ear height and facing into the room someone at a party could be close enough to one of the speakers to get too much direct sound.  Also they obviously need to be near an outlet.  Maybe the Move 2 speakers are too small for your usage case, but the fact they are battery powered would be easier to work with.  They can’t be bonded with a sub or used as surrounds.  


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