Hi,
I was considering the SONOS stands for the era 300 pair. However My ceiling is 10ft. Are these stands too tall? I currently have one sitting on a low surface and it sounds amazing. Getting a second.
Also it was recommended in their instructions to put it 8-10ft a part. I was originally hoping 4.5 ft guess this will be too short.
Any advice? Should I go for the regular stands. Will I still have good immersion from Atmos Music?
Best answer by AjTrek1
It’s not listed on the Sonos sales page. Have you called Sonos Support to discuss it? Why does the package weight make a difference?
I have to import. No SONOS dealer in my country. So shipping weight matters if Simeon is bringing it for me for a fee
You’ll also want to add 1-2 lbs per stand for packaging.
This is not a knock on anyone in this post. JMHO.
I think the term “immersive” is somewhat overused or in some cases out of context.
If I’m using a single Era 300 the music is going to be more “in my face” when seated dead center to the speaker say 6 - 8 feet away. If I add a second Era 300 and position them 6 feet apart and my listening position is dead center between them at 6 -8 feet away the sound is less impactful to my face. However, the sound stage is wider which may give the impression that I’m getting less than with a single speaker.
Immersion is going to be impacted by the quality of the recording as well as stereo vs Dolby Atmos (spatial audio) not to mention the room and its furnishings. In some cases TruePlay can be an improvement regarding a single speaker vs a stereo pair or the opposite.
Finally, immersive may not be the proper descriptive term 🤔
So I just setup my second era 300 as a pair. I moved the first speaker into a stereo right position. They are currently sitting on two metal ikea computer tables. However I am noticing less immersion than a single speaker… does that make sense? Or is it the positioning? It’s sitting a little higher than usual but not as high as the stands would be.
That does seem unusual. When the single 300 was used where was it positioned? Is the stereo pair closer to the front wall than the single 300 was? Were you listening to Dolby Atmos at the time?
Yes I was listening to ATMOS tracks via Sonos app.. the single speaker was positioned lower than the current setup. and center. stereo pairs are closer to the side walls now since they are spread apart 8ft. There’s about 8” on either side as recommended. They are each angled slightly to the middle.
Height is always going to have minimal impact when compared to positioning for stereo. For Atmos height channels it matters a bit more.
Are you setting the 300s up as two points of an equlateral triangle with your listening position at the third?
Did you run Trueplay, quick or full, to adjust the 300s to the room?
Stereo or Atmos content?
Both my 300 Pairs work very well, wasn't as impressed when Grouped, the more even sound didn't offset the positioning loss.
Height is always going to have minimal impact when compared to positioning for stereo. For Atmos height channels it matters a bit more.
Are you setting the 300s up as two points of an equlateral triangle with your listening position at the third?
Did you run Trueplay, quick or full, to adjust the 300s to the room?
Stereo or Atmos content?
Both my 300 Pairs work very well, wasn't as impressed when Grouped, the more even sound didn't offset the positioning loss.
roughly equilateral triangle this is next to my bed as was the earlier single speaker. They are angled inward. I did run the advanced true play tuning. content is Atmos I have them playing on app. I felt like the artist was singing at me when I played on the single speaker. Now somewhat. Not as intense as before.
That 8 inches is not recommended, that is the minimum that will function.
I tried 3 feet in on one Pair, decided 4 feet gave a better Atmos image even though my seating positions is now technically too close. Other Pair is space constrained but still 2 feet in from the side walls.
Angled in is controversial for stereo, maybe for speakers that lack horizontal dispersion, somthing that Sonos doesn't suffer from. For Atmos angling the 300s disrupts the side channels imaging, I'd avoid doing that.
Depending on the track you shouldn't get the in your face feeling, the artists should appear to be coming from specific locations. This is an old argument, one I remember (I'm old) when the audiophile bunch were telling us stereo was awful and only mono was acceptable.
+19Height is always going to have minimal impact when compared to positioning for stereo. For Atmos height channels it matters a bit more.
Are you setting the 300s up as two points of an equlateral triangle with your listening position at the third?
Did you run Trueplay, quick or full, to adjust the 300s to the room?
Stereo or Atmos content?
Both my 300 Pairs work very well, wasn't as impressed when Grouped, the more even sound didn't offset the positioning loss.
Height is always going to have minimal impact when compared to positioning for stereo. For Atmos height channels it matters a bit more.
Are you setting the 300s up as two points of an equlateral triangle with your listening position at the third?
Did you run Trueplay, quick or full, to adjust the 300s to the room?
Stereo or Atmos content?
Both my 300 Pairs work very well, wasn't as impressed when Grouped, the more even sound didn't offset the positioning loss.
roughly equilateral triangle this is next to my bed as was the earlier single speaker. They are angled inward. I did run the advanced true play tuning. content is Atmos I have them playing on app. I felt like the artist was singing at me when I played on the single speaker. Now somewhat. Not as intense as before.
The ERA 300 pair will not focus a singer as well as the Sonos 5 pair will. The side & up-firing drivers in the 300 tend to affect laser focused imaging. A normal pair of correctly set up speakers, particularly two way stand mounts, can laser focus a singer to the point where you think he or she is in the room.
What the ERA 300 pair does really well is give you a larger stage. Particularly with Dolby Atmos music the stage can be enormous. I listen to a lot of modern orchestral music in Dolby Atmos. The size of the orchestra when using Dolby Atmos compatible speakers is more realistically large.
I did some adjusting, had them facing forward instead of angled. And after checking with Sonos on Instagram. I decided to pull it closer than far apart. Since my room is not huge like a living room. The Sonos era 300 manual says 8-10ft but the placement tips on the app said 5-10ft so then I asked them which is correct. They said both are and that it depends. Now it sounds very good. Definitely better than one era 300.
I bought an an ANKER usb-c to 3.5 cable. However it doesn’t work with the era 300. Do I need the Sonos one specifically?
Which way does the Anker go? Is it 3.5mm to USB-C, or is it USB-C to 3.5 mm? They don’t usually go both ways.
Which way does the Anker go? Is it 3.5mm to USB-C, or is it USB-C to 3.5 mm? They don’t usually go both ways.
That’s the issue. Valid point thanks. Gotta see if I can find one.
Not that I’ve looked around at all, but all I’ve ever seen is the Sonos that ‘goes’ the right way. Can’t be true, of course, but it does seem like 99% of what’s common out there is the ‘wrong way’. Glad it pointed you in the correct direction ;)
Once you find one going the right way make sure that the internal chips are supported by the Sonos firmware.
Seriously, skip the pain and just get the Sonos device.
It will work and you won't hear "we don't support that" if you ever have to call support.
Got the stands. They are super tall. But did improve the sound overall. Does anyone know if when in stereo pair the era 300s disable any parts of the speaker?
+18Sonos only seems to do that when you bond Era 300's to an Arc (Ultra) or Beam (Gen 2).
+19 I believe the front drivers are disabled when the ERA 300 pair are bonded as surround speakers. That makes sense as you really don’t want to hear any sounds coming directly from a surround speaker.
I can’t say for sure if any driver is affected by the bonding of two ERA 300 speakers in stereo mode. I would think nothing is changed when used as a stereo pair.
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