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Arc Ultra + Era 300 (without Sub 4)

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Hi everyone.I'm building a Sonos system for my TV room. The TV is large (a 77-inch OLED Panasonic), but the room is quite small (about 13 square meters). Initially, I wanted to limit myself to just the Arc Ultra soundbar, but then, after researching online, I became curious about adding a pair of Era 300s.I tried moving the sofa about 20 cm away from the back wall, and I think I could fit the pair of Era 300s in this space (between the wall and the sofa), on their dedicated stands. It's not ideal for the room's design, but at least, since they're not wall-mounted, everything is reversible. So, to my question: the room is small, and I'm not looking for realistic explosions and extreme bass: could a system like the one described work very well, or would the overall sound be unbalanced, with a sort of "hole" in the low-frequency region? To be clear, would I be building a castrated system?My problem isn't budget, but rather a concern about not saturating a rather small space.Thanks, Roberto.

P.S. I hope I created this post correctly, since it's my first.

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naim135Author

Trending Lyricist I

Many new to surround users expect to be constantly slapped in the back of their head by surround — else they didn’t get their money’s worth.

That's not my case, though. I'm just asking to understand how the Sonos system works. In fact, I'm worried about the excessive "invasiveness" of the effects. I'm a fan of high-end two-channel systems, I certainly have a very different approach to the TV audio system, a different listening philosophy.

This photo of my audio system explains it better

Airgetlam

I think you’ll find the ‘invasiveness’ to be non-existent, but if you feel it’s too much, you can certainly adjust the volume of the surrounds in the room settings.

Bruce

AjTrek1

@naim135

You are correct…you are complicated 😊

Just to clarify….the Arc Ultra IMO (and I own three) as a stand-alone speaker or setup with Sub and surrounds will never give you the discrete two channel audio; that you seem to be accustomed to, as evidenced by your photo. Nice setup BTW.

The Arc Ultra is designed to act as right/center/left as most soundbars do along with the other special produced it can produce. The low-end produced by a news broadcast is not distracting IMO. In fact I never notice it as adding something extra. What the sub does do is relieve the Arc Ultra of low-end duties which when watching a news broadcast allows better focus on dialogue. However, your ears may be more sensitive to low-end sounds.

My listening system for discrete two channel audio consists of two Sonos rooms:

Sonos Five’s x 2 (Streaming, NAS and CD via line-in)
For vinyl a Pro-Ject Carbon Black Sonos Edition mated to a Cambridge Alva Duo Pre-Amp into a Sonos Amp driving Definitive D7 Bookshelf speaker and Sonos sub.

For Dolby Atmos music

Era 300’s x 2 with Sub *

To close…the gist of my post is to advise you not to purchase an Arc Ultra surround system expecting discrete two channel audio. If you are seeking an immersive movie experience that can also double as a music system then by all means buy the Arc Ultra with Sub and surrounds

* On occasion I may listen to two channel audio due to location but IMO not as good as my Five’s

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.

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naim135Author

Trending Lyricist I

To close…the gist of my post is to advise you not to purchase an Arc Ultra surround system expecting discrete two channel audio.

Of course, that's not my expectation, otherwise I'd use a pair of Genelec mini monitors that I already own. What I want, for example, is to be able to watch Netflix series while enjoying 5.1 and Dolby Atmos sound, and above all, a good midrange center channel that delivers warm, well-present dialogue. My Panasonic has decent built-in audio (compared to the average TV), but I find dialogue a bit "backward" and nasal. My previous TV was a Pioneer Kuro KRP-500, which had substantial speakers on either side with a delightful midrange, and I've never felt the need to add an external system, as I did with the new Panasonic.

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