Thank you, Peter! I have an Arc+Sub and 2 Fives. I recently changed the Fives for the Era 300 following your recommendation and I do agree the surround sound is much more "spatial" and balanced. I can no longer tell the sound is coming for one particular direction. But I'm not completely sold for music. While listening to the remastered version of The Dark Side of the Moon I did enjoy it more with the Fives than with the Era 300. Maybe I need to reposition or recalibrate them better, and thanks for the tip that adjusting the surrounds does not adjust the rears. Sonos definitely needs to add that new feature. There's no chance I will return the era 300 but I might go back and forth until I make my mind. I'm using the Fives as stereo speakers ATM and they are amazing.
Hi Duilio thanks for the contribution! I am using the ERA 300s directly facing forward. It might not be the best yet as I have not had the time to try different angles and positions. I am dying to try the inverted wall mounting point higher than MLP but that needs to wait. I feel also that using the ERA 300 as surrounds and the Fives as pure music speakers in stereo is a great decision. The fives are just rock solid stereo performers. The Era 300 might still require Atmos tracks to sound its best.
Peter, ypu deserve more followers and Sonos really should be paying you to be a Brand Ambassador! If I do finally give up my Dolby Surround Receiver (Denon) and B&W speakers and go for a Sonos setup, then you will have contributed to me making that decision. BIG thanks! 😊
Hi Peter, thanks for this update! I just update my arc, surrounds one and the Gen 3 sub to 15.3 The bass sound is completely gone! Before I was blown away at +1 bass volume level. Now I have to set it almost to +10. The update destroyed my Sonos setup.
Hi Peter - am an old Singaporean over several decades ago but now in the uk - I have to applaud you as others have done for your balanced methodical reviews with technical backup . As far as I know , you are the only one to follow this mode of reviewing with wireless audio . Yes I do have a wired music and surround system ( all separates ) . In my case the separates are still the main ones ( man cave ) but the ecosystem of Sonos works brilliantly in having pretty decent sound throughout the house wirelessly . Keep up the good work 👍🏻
Great job as always! I have a Sonos Arc, two Fives, two Era 300s, and a Sub Mini. My focus here is about music listening. I’ve spent the last several DAYS A/B testing between the ERA 300s (with the Sub Mini added) vs the two Fives. What I’ve found is that for MUSIC fidelity and imaging the Fives are superior. The Era 300s get harsher and harsher the louder you play them and their STEREO imaging is quite inferior to the Fives. The Fives can’t do Atmos. But the amount of newly released Atmos music available is so sparse. And the remix of older tracks into Atmos is very hit and mix in terms of quality. And the elephant in the room is will Atmos really catch on as a music format or turn out to be another 3D TV type fad technology. If Atmos MUSIC was all that, I think we’d be seeing every high end speaker manufacturer talking about it and talking it up and teasing about a new line of their speakers featuring this technology. But we’re not. So…back to tried and true high fidelity stereo. I’ve had high end gear for years. Sonos isn’t an audiophile’s product of choice. But it’s darn good. And for their price point…the Fives rock.
For music, the Era 300 doesn't even use the centre or up-firing drivers unless the music is Atmos encoded, which seems crazy especially if in 5 years everyone's forgotten about it (remember 5.1 surround album mixes?) Surely Sonos could implement a Pro Logic style virtual Atmos simulator so those drivers don't go to waste once my Apple free trial expires? I'm starting to wonder if I've totally wasted my money...
Great video Peter, I’ve got two Era 300’s as rear surrounds with an Arc and a Sub mini. I have them mounted on the wall behind my couch on the official Sonos era 300 wall mounts. Besides being able to swivel the angle of each rear about 15 degrees towards my main listening position, they allow you to swivel the angle of the speaker’s fixed position so that I can move where the upward firing speaker hits the ceiling. I found this to be an extremely underrated feature of the Era 300 wall mounts. It’s made huge difference in getting the perfect height effects for my MLP
I’ve found for my room setup having the center channel of the 300s aimed towards my main listening position when used as surrounds makes for a more immersive experience. Really my main gripe is still Sonos refusing to add support for DTS:X. I’m hopeful that will change by the time Disney+ adds their IMAX enhanced audio.
That works for me too, but in my case my room is bigger and about 20x20 feet so the 300s are 9 feet away from my MLP, angling the 300s slightly towards my MLP sounds better and I believe the height channels are correctly angled towards the MLP. I think it depends on each person's setup.
To get the best experience you need to play imaginary snooker and figure out how you can bounce/reflect sound from each driver towards your listening position. So like you’ve suggested, if you’re lucky to have the Era300’s behind your listening position angling them in will bounce sound around the reflective surfaces behind and to the side of you which is why I believe the Era300 magic isn’t really an Atmos thing specifically. It’s more the fundamental driver dispersion design which is why using Era300’s even for regular 5.1 gives a much more cohesive/360 sound stage front to back of the room. Sonos should have given us cheaper speakers like this to bounce sound around from day one when the ARC was released. All the Bluetooth/line-in, front driver and any other bells and whistles are simply disabled in cinema config. So Sonos could have made a fantastic cost effective cinema solution much sooner.
Another great video Peter. Looking forward to seeing the full sound analysis. One thing- Sonos is actually recommending you turn to the rears speakers slightly towards the seating position -which seems to go against a lot the other recommendations. I reached out to support and they reconfirmed. Personally ….it does seem to sound a little better with the eras angled but still want to hear your opinion.
It might be different for everyone. And my room is really small so it might work for me in this case. I can imagine if there is a lot more space to the rear their recommendation might work better.
Excellent Video as usual!! Was waiting for your approval to update my system. This video also answered my last video’s questions. Thank you once again Peter 🙏🏼
15:44 - Not sure whether anyone commented here already but try The Doors "Riders on the Storm" - I think the storm/lightning FXs are clearly evident with the 4 height channels - also try Elton John's Rocketman and David Bowie's Space Oddity
I'm watching this as I consider adding a pair of ERA 300s to my very recently purchased (2 days ago) Sonos Arc and Sub Gen 3. EDIT: After reaching 13:06 in your video, I'm most definitely getting a pair of Era 300s this week, rather than a pair of ONE SLs (or even Era 100s) I'd also considered. And I'm even more pleased to hear your impression of how a setup like mine, after adding the Era 300s, handles both regular stereo music as well as ATMOS music. Thanks, Peter!
You’re welcomed. I also just spent quite a bit of apple HomePods and I wanted to love them but the quality of sound is very inconsistent from them. And after an update the bass from the HomePods seem to be gone. Sigh.
@@PeterPee Well, then I'm certainly glad I did NOT end up getting the HomePod! Thanks! Sorry you had to be the guinea pig tester, but you saved me money!
Thank you for your time in explaining all of this. I just feel like the whole Atmos branding, when it comes to soundbar controlled systems is a marketing scheme. If you’re relying on bouncing sounds off of walls and ceilings you aren’t getting true Dolby Atmos. You’re getting a gimmick. Being asked to pay a thousand dollars for rear surrounds by sonos was a major oversight. They should have at the very least offered a cheaper Atmos branded speaker at a lower price point. For instance, if the 100 had a single upfiring tweeter, it would have sold like hotcakes. Atmos fanatics everywhere would be asking their friends if they can hear the awesome height channels bouncing off the ceiling; and just like with the ARC, the answer would be “not really”.
Great video u covered most of the things i agree with. I have noticed that night mode is an as prominent as a used to be since the update . I can barely tell a difference now when it’s on, lastly I would like to also be able to adjust the heights on the surrounds independently from the arc.
Interesting after installing the Era 300 as my surrounds my TV surround is also at +4. I find this to “tighten up” the sound stage and give me a very good theatre immersive feel
Great review as always, the suggested updates for 15.4 when it comes would be really beneficial, I changed my era 300s to stereo pair grouped with my arc and sub as I play a lot of music and it sounds so much better with forward driver enabled vs surrounds. For movies it also sounds great, I had to increase the arc vocal delay to max to avoid echo, also can't control grouped speakers from tv remote which would be another great update if sonos can do that.
@@alland92 I just have then in a group, arc and sub as 1 item and the eras as a steteo pair as the other , then you can control volumes on app. The only other thing is I turned up the group audio delay to max 5 on the arc/sub that got rid of any lag/echo.
So I just bought the era 100's as surrounds for my arc and sub, but thinking I may need to return them for era 300's for surround. It's a smaller living room, but do you think that's overkill, or should I stick with the 100's?
Hi Pete I have been following all the forums online etc. but no one seems to know but surely it is possible that Sonos will give us the ability at some point to turn on the front driver if only for music. I have Arc, Sub and Eras 300 surround but feel I’m missing out on the centre channel for music. I see there is an update waiting would we be lucky to find it in there? Or in your opinion is this an option Sonos will never release. Many thanks for your work on the channel.
Hi Peter, do you know by any chance if the surround settings for era 300s still only adjust side surround and not rear ? Or has this been changed in an update
Great video Peter. In our room one of our rear surrounds would be far from a side wall while another would be very close. Would Trueplay be able to make this setup work with Era 300s and the Arc? We currently use Ones and are happy.
Hi Peter, would it be possible if Sonos allowed it to use three or two Era 300’s to replace the arc as the central speaker? I’m loving some Dolby Atmos music, with the Era 300’s, but the weak point in my home theatre set up is the Arc; it just can’t play music! I have taken out the 300’s to test as a stereo pair and they sound awesome for Dolby Atmos, but prefer my fives to listen to Stereo Mastered music. If Sonos would allow users to replace the Arc with Era 300’s I would go out and buy these in a heartbeat. It wouldn’t compete with the Arcs pricing either; oh just imagine?
Another fantastic piece Peter thanks. Another question re placement of the 300 please. Have you had a chance to compare low level traditional placement for bouncing Atmos vs high level ‘upside down’ mounting for direct down firing Atmos? If so any thoughts? Thanks
I have the arc 2 subs and Era 300, my room is connected to my kitchen so I don’t have a back wall, my question is can I will mount the era 300 if so what height should I mount them.
Great explanation of the 300's driver schemas' for the layperson, Peter! I can add that according to Sonos (in their Sonos Community posts, and AVS) the inner and front drivers function as you state, by design. Sonos engineers felt the current state you describe here sounded best for the Surround configuration, and did not concern themselves with the number of drivers firing or not firing. Obviously, the quieter drivers are then used in a fuller capacity for a front facing stereo use case (though my experience with the inner drivers did not change much in that configuration). As time moves forward, I suspect there will be iteration of how the algo or brain distributes sound-to-drivers with the 300s. Major S2 UI overhaul, anyone...😃
I think it might make it too hard to configure for the average non enthusiast user. So I always think that Sonos should have a pro lock in the app. If you apply for a pro installer lock, you can open up more settings that most average users won’t care about.
@@PeterPee Good point! I really struggled in fall of '21 in knowing all was set up correctly for my $2,045.00 - 5.1"2" Arc / Sub3 / Pair One SL configuration...until I found you my dear friend!
Hi Peter! Great video as always! I always look forward to your Sonos related content 🙂 Just wondering have any of your subscribers mentioned about intermittent popping and crackling from their Era300's or Era100's?
@@PeterPee Hi Peter. I’m getting these intermittent pops even when playing through the apps on the tv, example Netflix as well as when streaming music via the Sonos app. Others are experiencing this similar problem as reported extensively in the forum : en.community.sonos.com/speakers-229128/sonos-era-300-static-pop-sound-6881431?sort=dateline.desc#comments
Very good video Peter. Anything special with Era 300 in stereo configuration? Acting as front and side Chanel? Also try artist Jean-Michel Jarre song Oxygen 4 and 5, Wold class surround sound.
Question - i know that the Sonos ARC , Sub and 5, Ones all use the Sonos net if configured as one system. The ERA 100 and 300 with Wi-Fi 6 now doesnt need to rely on the 5ghz Sonos network to connect to an ARC as surrounds. Is there performance and sonic advantage to connecting ONE of the two ERA 300s in if they are configured as surrounds? Or better wire both to Ethernet or simply leave them wireless?
Dear Peter Pee, I still keep my Sonos system Arc, Sub Gen 3, and pair of One’s, and not interested to buy Era 300 because the price is costly and waiting probably for the end of this year or may waiting for Era 500, who knows!? Anyway, do you recommend to update all the speakers to 15.3 or just keep with the old update 14.20? Is there any issue with the new update 15.3 considering to my Sonos system Arc, Sub Gen 3, and pairs of One’s? Thank you very much with your hard work and highly appreciated.
Good evening Peter I follow you a lot you're a Sonos guru 🔝 You always do a great job for people like us who are not very knowledgeable about music 😅 A tip for movies: what settings do you recommend for a living room of about 11-12 square meters, with arc+sub gen 3+ 2era 300 configuration as surround positioned behind the sofa. Thank you very much!
I hope you test the ET’s rear surrounds mounted near the ceiling upside down and give the settings as well. I have high vaulted ceiling’s. Thank you for all you do.
I have my play3 rears 40cm from ceiling and my sockets a around that hight, so the era300 upside down would be better. Yet waiting for the mounting clips.
hi guys, for typical condo living room. Beam GEN 2 or 2x ERA 300? I never had a professional sound system before, previously only using tv speaker. lol
Excellent video but I now have a doubt. I will be upgrading from Play 3 rears to Era 300 and positioning them behind the couch. However, behind them there will a dining area and on the right a large glass window and on the left open kitchen -> this means that the rears and side might not bounce against the side and back walls and thus Era 300 will not make sense for me. I might need to get AirPod Max with Apple TV to experience full Atmos?
@@PeterPee thanks for this. What do you think about the bouncing? Would it be better to put the Era 300 2-3 meters back in the corner of the room tilted towards the listening position?
Hey Peter I know it’s totally off topic, but I just managed to equip my Sonos arc with a new wall mount and I was wondering if you would still recommend „disabling“ the magnet?
Hi Pete Great analysis as usual -keep up the good work I haven't got the 300 yet but would one 300 fit in between two rear Sonos 1's to give a spatial sound with the Arc and gen 3 bass ?
Appreciate all the videos Peter! And yes totally understand that you need more time than dedicated channels to get videos out, but funny that you still make better videos than them 😉 When you release a new ultimate setup/setting video, can you add 7.2.4 settings? Lastly, interesting video I think would be "best upgrade" for people with arc+sub+ones. This would be Sub vs Fives vs 300s. See a lot of folks with differeing opinions on the forums on this path and would love to hear your take! But of course I'll be happy with any of the content haha. Many thanks for what you do and keep it up! Quality 👌
Thank you again Peter, I have Arc, Sub and 2 Era 300 as surround set up, quick question, so when you are adjusting the height level on your Sonos apps, does it actually also adjust the height channel for both Era 300 or only on the Arc. Can you place the Era 300 below ear level for surround set up (sound like a stupid question hahaha).... Thanks and have a great day ahead. BTW Happy Holiday!
Hello Peter ! What would be your recommendation to add to my beam 1 between 2 era 300 or 2 era 100 + sub mini? For listening spotify and enjoy Netflix. Thank you very much
salut peter , j’ai un sonos arc et un sub gen 3 , je compte m’acheter des surround mais j’hésite entre une paire de sonos five ou les era 300 , le choix et très difficile , mon utilisation c’est beaucoup pour le cinéma et les jeux vidéo. merci d’avance pour ta réponse super vidéo
Peter, On the Sonos Community forum, Sonos recently responded to a post about the rear surround level issue with this reply: "We have been unable to reproduce this issue with Atmos playback on Arc and Era 300s. I would encourage you to remove your Era 300 surrounds from your Arc and add them back again" I have removed and re-added the Era 300s as surrounds and still experience the problem. Has the problem been fixed for you?
I’ve bought a pair of 300’s for upgrading my surround system with arc, 2xsubs and 2xOnes by replace the backchannel speakers with wall mounted upside down 300’s. What is the best placement wrt ceiling distance for this config? Btw still waiting for wall mounts on order.
Oh wow. That’s my next layout. I want to try them. Not sure yet but I think leave about 2-3 feet between the base of the speakers and your ear level while seated seems to be sensible.
One more -> The Era 300 should be facing the TV frontally or should be lightly titled towards listening position? Sonos images and website seem to suggest the latter.
Yes. Sonos is suggesting the latter. I suggest you follow their recommendation and try mine after if that still doesn’t do it for you. I am in a small room backed up to the wall and find that suits me well.
Hi Pete, thanks for all the great work you do. I just picked up an Ikea Picture Frame speaker and sounds amazing. I ran into an issue as it keeps cutting out and stops playing from the group. Any possible ideas to whats going on? Maybe I got a lemon.
I had that problem with the ilea symbolism bookshelves. Turned out they were too far from the access point. The wifi radio doesn’t seem to be very powerful there. Not sure if they use the same SoC as the play:1s.
@@PeterPee when you say access point do you mean the router (I got new router by the way)? The frame is in the same room and my Arc, mini sub and play:1's I think I might've just got a lemon.
Still have two One’s as surrounds (Arc and Sub3) but airplay is now dead and in Sonos app it says Arc+?+?+?. Crap update. Never had problems after update regarding connection
I feel the sound bubble to be finicky in my situation…I find that all little adjustments make me lose the height channel, right now I have them on the stands right behind my head maybe 2-3 feet to the sides and the height effects are actually incredible, not impressed by the side soundstage though, I feel like leaning forward on my couch makes the sound more impressive but moving the speakers back a bit from the couch changes nothing, and makes me lose the height effect…this definitely sounds amazing but needs some tweaking
Hmmm. Interesting observation. I would want to know about whether you’re angling the speakers towards your seating position. Also, any walls to the rear and sides?
@@PeterPee they are facing forward, there’s a wall on the left and on the right a wall with a window and a couch , distance is about the same to the walls, and unfortunately there’s also a pillar between them a small one though that I don’t feel affects the back sound at all.I also think for some reason that unplugging the speakers and plugging them back in results in a bug where I don’t feel the effect at all even though I’m on the same position, like any speaker I feel a lot of this can and will be tweaked by software , I also agree with you that I don’t think like the forward facing tweeter is needed the effects are very strong as they are. Edit: I was actually thinking now about what you said angling them…maybe if I do that the height effect will be pointed towards me more and I won’t lose the sides
… a interesting fact is, that the ERA 100 and ERA 300 work only in a WM:1 Wlan network, even if you use the Boost. But when you connect the speaker and the Arc for surround sound, they work in a WM:0 Lan network, because the Arc manage them via the Boost. And we know: the WM:0 is much more stable. Obviously you need the WM:1 network for connecting via bluetooth - a feature that disappears when using the ERAs in a surround setup.
I mentioned this when the specs of these era speakers were initially released. They would not connect to the wireless mesh. This can be troublesome and cause drop out issues for those of us with a high number of sonos devices.
You are by far the best speaker reviewer on the planet. I have the Arc, Sub Gen3, and two Sonos Five speakers in a stereo cabinet. The Fives are in front of me just below the Arc in a cabinet. Since most music we all have is still non Atmos and non Spatial, I have held off buying the Era 300s for a rear surround setup. My question is, how can I add the Era 300s in the rear, in surround mode and ambient music playback, but keep my Sonos Fives that are in front of me in surround mode full music playback, and have the Era 300s in ambient mode at the same time?
You can’t pair more than one set of surrounds to the arc. So you’re out of luck. But best to set up two rooms. One for the arc and era300 as surrounds. And the other room with the fives are stereo. They will make the best of your situation. And thanks for showing appreciation!
@@PeterPee Just to clarify, I would assign the Sonia Fives to a different room in the app, but they would physically be in the same room as the rest of my equipment and all speakers would work at the same time with that setup?
@@billmulvihill8452 yes, your Ark as one system with surrounds. And then a stereo system of your Five. Run both systems at the same time in the same physical room. I do the same but with Ikea speakers and a Beam, fantastic surround. Try Jean-Michel Jarre, Ocxygen 4 an 5, the best surround I have Herald.
I'm wondering how they sound just as surround without the atmos? Is it worth the upgrade? Will it still be better experience I used the Arc now and 2 sonos one and a mini sub.
Funnily enough I have been thinking about this topic while watching Harry Potter this evening with my kids. IMO the ERA300 is the missing link for Sonos Cinema configurations full stop... I have the ARC, 2 subs and upgraded from Play5's to Era300's for rear surround. Even while watching the older Harry Potter movies in DD5.1 this evening, I have been impressed by how much better the soundstage works as one cohesive unit now. It's simply the first time I have thought the Sonos solution in cinema configuration really compete's against more traditional Cinema separates. Even with the Play5's as rears I also thought of Sonos as a convenient cinema solution if you're already in the Sonos Eco system, but never a really good cinema solution. The Era300's have changed that for me now. So it's not just about ATMOS. The dispersive nature of the speaker drivers in a design like Era300's simply creates a more realistic 360 sound stage front to back of the room. It's only a shame they didn't bring out dedicated rear surround speakers sooner which would have been cheaper as they don't need (in fact Sonos disable) all the extra bells and whistle in cinema configuration. I am lucky to have approx 2m space behind my listening position to the Era300 surrounds and the ARC is 5-6m in front. So it's a large room, but works great. I guess the more immersive nature of the Era300's makes the ARC (front) soundstage seem wider too because they are creating a better 360 sound stage overall. The Era300's are certainly worth trying. Perhaps get them direct from Sonos using their upgrade program for 15% off an Era300 "Set" and free returns still if you don't like them in your own setup. Have fun experimenting anyway.
Hey Peter, great video again. I posted about the surround sliders issue on Reddit weeks ago and I can’t believe they still didn’t fix it in this update. There is no way the issue is intentional. Also, do you still suggest tilting an Arc up in the back if you sit further from your Arc? Worried if it has an impact on the side surrounds on the Arc when paired with 300s. Waiting patiently for the best settings video! Are you going to include 2 Subs in it? Anyway thank you again for all that you do!
Yes. Will be my dual sub setup. Like the ultimate setup. Haha. With the era 390 I don’t believe there is a huge need to tilt the Sonos arc anymore. Cos there will be extra heights channel near where you are sitting!
@@PeterPee Sweet! I’m running the ultimate Sonos setup, too. Previously had two Play:5 gen2 as my surrounds. Can’t help but want the absolute best when going Sonos hahah. Would you happen to know the angle of degrees the upward firing speakers on the Arc? I’m trying to visualize where my channels are aimed to get a better idea.
Actually I am pretty sure it’s not the most ideal for soundstage. As in the heights channel will be grossly exaggerated but it’s what I want to hear at the moment. Haha.
Can anyone comment on their experience with replacing their rear 1's with the ERA 300s? I want rear Atmos but not having any front driver has me a bit concerned.
@@PeterPee I initally bought a pair of ERA 300's to use as a stereo pair just for music in a second room. They were great for the music, but when, out of interest, I tried them in my main TV room to replace the Play One rears with Beam Gen 2, and Sub Gen 3, the sound was taken to a whole new level that left me realising that there was 'no going back', the 300's had to stay as rears, and I'll likely pair up the Play One's with a mini Sub for the music in the other room!
Hmmmmmm... It might be a good time for Sonos to enable profiles for speaker sound settings, so I can quickly tap my phone (quick option inside the volume area) between movie and music setups rather than going in and changing it every time I change what im listing too. I often change between the two. Also, Pete, can you recommend any 3rd party stands for the ERA300? I can buy a whole new speaker if i buy the Sono's stands, thats the only thing holding me back right now honestly. That 1k investment becomes 1400 plus tax in canadian coins, i cant see myself spending that much on stands only :(
For what it's worth I got the same traditional speaker stands Pete has used in the last couple of years (Kanto SP32PL) when I bought Play5's as rear surround speakers. My Era300's have gone straight onto the same stands. Yes they are simply using their own weight to sit on top of the stands in the corners behind my listening position which makes them about neck/head height while watching movies, but they still give me the most convincing 360 soundstage I have yet experienced in a Sonos movie setup.
Why does your patron say $138 USD per month? I interpreted that as only having one patron tier and it costs $138. You can actually do any dollar amount, right??
Hi Peter, The Sonos five have tow tweeters for Sterne feeling. Is it posible that the next Update will make the Sonos five a better rear speaker with greater bubble?
Hey Peter! Great job as usual, but this time I can’t understand your explanation regarding the side and rear drivers angling… it implies the left and right ERAs are different, which they are not.
I can’t find any videos that talk about the fact that the era 300 turns the the from driver off when connected to the arc. It’s really putting me off getting a pair. Are you tubers scared of sonos or something!
sonos sell you speakers that have issues then you spend 6 months trying to get them to work properly dont get it, same with my sub gen 3 update update update should not sell stuff thats not right
Thanks for looking out for us ❤
Thank you, Peter! I have an Arc+Sub and 2 Fives. I recently changed the Fives for the Era 300 following your recommendation and I do agree the surround sound is much more "spatial" and balanced. I can no longer tell the sound is coming for one particular direction. But I'm not completely sold for music. While listening to the remastered version of The Dark Side of the Moon I did enjoy it more with the Fives than with the Era 300. Maybe I need to reposition or recalibrate them better, and thanks for the tip that adjusting the surrounds does not adjust the rears. Sonos definitely needs to add that new feature.
There's no chance I will return the era 300 but I might go back and forth until I make my mind.
I'm using the Fives as stereo speakers ATM and they are amazing.
One question: do you have the Era 300 at a diagonal angle or completely straight compared to the TV and your seating position?
Hi Duilio thanks for the contribution! I am using the ERA 300s directly facing forward. It might not be the best yet as I have not had the time to try different angles and positions. I am dying to try the inverted wall mounting point higher than MLP but that needs to wait.
I feel also that using the ERA 300 as surrounds and the Fives as pure music speakers in stereo is a great decision. The fives are just rock solid stereo performers. The Era 300 might still require Atmos tracks to sound its best.
Peter, ypu deserve more followers and Sonos really should be paying you to be a Brand Ambassador! If I do finally give up my Dolby Surround Receiver (Denon) and B&W speakers and go for a Sonos setup, then you will have contributed to me making that decision. BIG thanks! 😊
Thanks for your trust. I’d rather not be tied to Sonos so I can still be honest in my opinions. :)
@@PeterPee yes please don't.
And thank you for what you do.
Dziękujemy.
Thank you Janusz!
Hi Peter, thanks for this update! I just update my arc, surrounds one and the Gen 3 sub to 15.3 The bass sound is completely gone! Before I was blown away at +1 bass volume level. Now I have to set it almost to +10. The update destroyed my Sonos setup.
Hi Peter - am an old Singaporean over several decades ago but now in the uk - I have to applaud you as others have done for your balanced methodical reviews with technical backup . As far as I know , you are the only one to follow this mode of reviewing with wireless audio . Yes I do have a wired music and surround system ( all separates ) . In my case the separates are still the main ones ( man cave ) but the ecosystem of Sonos works brilliantly in having pretty decent sound throughout the house wirelessly . Keep up the good work 👍🏻
Great job as always!
I have a Sonos Arc, two Fives, two Era 300s, and a Sub Mini. My focus here is about music listening. I’ve spent the last several DAYS A/B testing between the ERA 300s (with the Sub Mini added) vs the two Fives. What I’ve found is that for MUSIC fidelity and imaging the Fives are superior.
The Era 300s get harsher and harsher the louder you play them and their STEREO imaging is quite inferior to the Fives. The Fives can’t do Atmos. But the amount of newly released Atmos music available is so sparse. And the remix of older tracks into Atmos is very hit and mix in terms of quality.
And the elephant in the room is will Atmos really catch on as a music format or turn out to be another 3D TV type fad technology. If Atmos MUSIC was all that, I think we’d be seeing every high end speaker manufacturer talking about it and talking it up and teasing about a new line of their speakers featuring this technology. But we’re not. So…back to tried and true high fidelity stereo. I’ve had high end gear for years. Sonos isn’t an audiophile’s product of choice. But it’s darn good. And for their price point…the Fives rock.
Personally, I think Atmos is a way to get people to subscribe to music plans . I do have to say it sounds amazing on a Single Era 300
For music, the Era 300 doesn't even use the centre or up-firing drivers unless the music is Atmos encoded, which seems crazy especially if in 5 years everyone's forgotten about it (remember 5.1 surround album mixes?) Surely Sonos could implement a Pro Logic style virtual Atmos simulator so those drivers don't go to waste once my Apple free trial expires? I'm starting to wonder if I've totally wasted my money...
@@duprie37 I returned my Era 300 for two Era 100's so they sound good all the time.
Thanks!
Thank you!
Thank you Peter. You are a gem for the Sonos community
Great video Peter, I’ve got two Era 300’s as rear surrounds with an Arc and a Sub mini. I have them mounted on the wall behind my couch on the official Sonos era 300 wall mounts. Besides being able to swivel the angle of each rear about 15 degrees towards my main listening position, they allow you to swivel the angle of the speaker’s fixed position so that I can move where the upward firing speaker hits the ceiling. I found this to be an extremely underrated feature of the Era 300 wall mounts. It’s made huge difference in getting the perfect height effects for my MLP
I'm having to wait till July for the rear mounts.
@@drewh1956 absolutely worth the wait in my opinion. Very well designed and sturdy. Not sure if other brands mounts have same swivel range.
Aw man... I now have a very good reason to splurge on those and actually drill holes into my new partition wall....
I’ve found for my room setup having the center channel of the 300s aimed towards my main listening position when used as surrounds makes for a more immersive experience.
Really my main gripe is still Sonos refusing to add support for DTS:X. I’m hopeful that will change by the time Disney+ adds their IMAX enhanced audio.
I did consider moving my setup to a bigger room to try out different positioning options but it’s too big of an effort for now.
That works for me too, but in my case my room is bigger and about 20x20 feet so the 300s are 9 feet away from my MLP, angling the 300s slightly towards my MLP sounds better and I believe the height channels are correctly angled towards the MLP. I think it depends on each person's setup.
To get the best experience you need to play imaginary snooker and figure out how you can bounce/reflect sound from each driver towards your listening position. So like you’ve suggested, if you’re lucky to have the Era300’s behind your listening position angling them in will bounce sound around the reflective surfaces behind and to the side of you which is why I believe the Era300 magic isn’t really an Atmos thing specifically. It’s more the fundamental driver dispersion design which is why using Era300’s even for regular 5.1 gives a much more cohesive/360 sound stage front to back of the room. Sonos should have given us cheaper speakers like this to bounce sound around from day one when the ARC was released. All the Bluetooth/line-in, front driver and any other bells and whistles are simply disabled in cinema config. So Sonos could have made a fantastic cost effective cinema solution much sooner.
They should at least give you the option to turn on and off the center channel
Another great video Peter. Looking forward to seeing the full sound analysis. One thing- Sonos is actually recommending you turn to the rears speakers slightly towards the seating position -which seems to go against a lot the other recommendations. I reached out to support and they reconfirmed. Personally ….it does seem to sound a little better with the eras angled but still want to hear your opinion.
It might be different for everyone. And my room is really small so it might work for me in this case. I can imagine if there is a lot more space to the rear their recommendation might work better.
I love summary at beginning! Still I watch whole video when I have time but summary is best thing! It is a signature of your channel! 👍
Excellent Video as usual!! Was waiting for your approval to update my system. This video also answered my last video’s questions. Thank you once again Peter 🙏🏼
You’re welcome! And thank you for your kind contributions towards channel building!
Perfect, ty I just got my era 300s and paired with arc and sub gen 3... ty for your input and look forward to more tips!
It’s really quite a killer combo. I have never been happier with my setup!
15:44 - Not sure whether anyone commented here already but try The Doors "Riders on the Storm" - I think the storm/lightning FXs are clearly evident with the 4 height channels - also try Elton John's Rocketman and David Bowie's Space Oddity
Pete, Thanks for the review of the 15.3 update,
Great instructional vid ! Looking forward to your next video for sound levels recommendations for my 7.2.4 setup. Thanks
Thanks for your support and patience!
I'm watching this as I consider adding a pair of ERA 300s to my very recently purchased (2 days ago) Sonos Arc and Sub Gen 3. EDIT: After reaching 13:06 in your video, I'm most definitely getting a pair of Era 300s this week, rather than a pair of ONE SLs (or even Era 100s) I'd also considered. And I'm even more pleased to hear your impression of how a setup like mine, after adding the Era 300s, handles both regular stereo music as well as ATMOS music. Thanks, Peter!
You’re welcomed. I also just spent quite a bit of apple HomePods and I wanted to love them but the quality of sound is very inconsistent from them. And after an update the bass from the HomePods seem to be gone. Sigh.
So I am very happy that I am able to rely on the Sonos arc with era for music.
@@PeterPee Well, then I'm certainly glad I did NOT end up getting the HomePod! Thanks! Sorry you had to be the guinea pig tester, but you saved me money!
Thank you so much for this great review I was really looking forward to someone to do this
Thank you for your time in explaining all of this. I just feel like the whole Atmos branding, when it comes to soundbar controlled systems is a marketing scheme. If you’re relying on bouncing sounds off of walls and ceilings you aren’t getting true Dolby Atmos. You’re getting a gimmick. Being asked to pay a thousand dollars for rear surrounds by sonos was a major oversight. They should have at the very least offered a cheaper Atmos branded speaker at a lower price point. For instance, if the 100 had a single upfiring tweeter, it would have sold like hotcakes. Atmos fanatics everywhere would be asking their friends if they can hear the awesome height channels bouncing off the ceiling; and just like with the ARC, the answer would be “not really”.
Great video u covered most of the things i agree with. I have noticed that night mode is an as prominent as a used to be since the update . I can barely tell a difference now when it’s on, lastly I would like to also be able to adjust the heights on the surrounds independently from the arc.
Thank you very much for your videos, I thoroughly enjoy them
Thanks for your very fervent support!
Thank Pete. I learn so much from your videos
You are welcome!
Another quality Video, keep them coming!!!
Interesting after installing the Era 300 as my surrounds my TV surround is also at +4. I find this to “tighten up” the sound stage and give me a very good theatre immersive feel
Great review as always, the suggested updates for 15.4 when it comes would be really beneficial, I changed my era 300s to stereo pair grouped with my arc and sub as I play a lot of music and it sounds so much better with forward driver enabled vs surrounds. For movies it also sounds great, I had to increase the arc vocal delay to max to avoid echo, also can't control grouped speakers from tv remote which would be another great update if sonos can do that.
How do you group Them as a stereo pair to the sonos arc and sub? I have the same system
@@alland92 I just have then in a group, arc and sub as 1 item and the eras as a steteo pair as the other , then you can control volumes on app. The only other thing is I turned up the group audio delay to max 5 on the arc/sub that got rid of any lag/echo.
I think I'll try this but for Atmos content does it still work??
Thanks for your hard work Peter 😀
Thank you for the test tones. 2 out of 4 work on my Samsung Q90T while for Amaze and Nature the audio does not work on the Samsung media player.
Thanks for the update!
Welcome!
Thank you for your time.
So I just bought the era 100's as surrounds for my arc and sub, but thinking I may need to return them for era 300's for surround. It's a smaller living room, but do you think that's overkill, or should I stick with the 100's?
go for the 300
Hi Pete I have been following all the forums online etc. but no one seems to know but surely it is possible that Sonos will give us the ability at some point to turn on the front driver if only for music. I have Arc, Sub and Eras 300 surround but feel I’m missing out on the centre channel for music. I see there is an update waiting would we be lucky to find it in there? Or in your opinion is this an option Sonos will never release. Many thanks for your work on the channel.
Hi Peter, do you know by any chance if the surround settings for era 300s still only adjust side surround and not rear ? Or has this been changed in an update
Great video Peter. In our room one of our rear surrounds would be far from a side wall while another would be very close. Would Trueplay be able to make this setup work with Era 300s and the Arc? We currently use Ones and are happy.
Hi Peter, would it be possible if Sonos allowed it to use three or two Era 300’s to replace the arc as the central speaker? I’m loving some Dolby Atmos music, with the Era 300’s, but the weak point in my home theatre set up is the Arc; it just can’t play music!
I have taken out the 300’s to test as a stereo pair and they sound awesome for Dolby Atmos, but prefer my fives to listen to Stereo Mastered music.
If Sonos would allow users to replace the Arc with Era 300’s I would go out and buy these in a heartbeat. It wouldn’t compete with the Arcs pricing either; oh just imagine?
Another fantastic piece Peter thanks. Another question re placement of the 300 please. Have you had a chance to compare low level traditional placement for bouncing Atmos vs high level ‘upside down’ mounting for direct down firing Atmos? If so any thoughts? Thanks
I have the arc 2 subs and Era 300, my room is connected to my kitchen so I don’t have a back wall, my question is can I will mount the era 300 if so what height should I mount them.
Great video. You're the best!!! Thank you.
Peter, are you aware of the Static pop sounds in the Era300 & Era100?
Hey Peter! Thanks for the insights of the new ERA speakers. Do you have any insights of a newer FIVE release? or in development?
Great explanation of the 300's driver schemas' for the layperson, Peter!
I can add that according to Sonos (in their Sonos Community posts, and AVS) the inner and front drivers function as you state, by design. Sonos engineers felt the current state you describe here sounded best for the Surround configuration, and did not concern themselves with the number of drivers firing or not firing. Obviously, the quieter drivers are then used in a fuller capacity for a front facing stereo use case (though my experience with the inner drivers did not change much in that configuration). As time moves forward, I suspect there will be iteration of how the algo or brain distributes sound-to-drivers with the 300s. Major S2 UI overhaul, anyone...😃
I think it might make it too hard to configure for the average non enthusiast user. So I always think that Sonos should have a pro lock in the app. If you apply for a pro installer lock, you can open up more settings that most average users won’t care about.
@@PeterPee Good point! I really struggled in fall of '21 in knowing all was set up correctly for my $2,045.00 - 5.1"2" Arc / Sub3 / Pair One SL configuration...until I found you my dear friend!
Hi Peter! Great video as always! I always look forward to your Sonos related content 🙂
Just wondering have any of your subscribers mentioned about intermittent popping and crackling from their Era300's or Era100's?
It wasn't specific to Eras. There were some popping that users have experienced with the Apple TVs.
@@PeterPee Hi Peter. I’m getting these intermittent pops even when playing through the apps on the tv, example Netflix as well as when streaming music via the Sonos app. Others are experiencing this similar problem as reported extensively in the forum : en.community.sonos.com/speakers-229128/sonos-era-300-static-pop-sound-6881431?sort=dateline.desc#comments
Very good video Peter. Anything special with Era 300 in stereo configuration? Acting as front and side Chanel?
Also try artist Jean-Michel Jarre song Oxygen 4 and 5, Wold class surround sound.
Question - i know that the Sonos ARC , Sub and 5, Ones all use the Sonos net if configured as one system. The ERA 100 and 300 with Wi-Fi 6 now doesnt need to rely on the 5ghz Sonos network to connect to an ARC as surrounds. Is there performance and sonic advantage to connecting ONE of the two ERA 300s in if they are configured as surrounds? Or better wire both to Ethernet or simply leave them wireless?
Dear Peter Pee,
I still keep my Sonos system Arc, Sub Gen 3, and pair of One’s, and not interested to buy Era 300 because the price is costly and waiting probably for the end of this year or may waiting for Era 500, who knows!? Anyway, do you recommend to update all the speakers to 15.3 or just keep with the old update 14.20? Is there any issue with the new update 15.3 considering to my Sonos system Arc, Sub Gen 3, and pairs of One’s?
Thank you very much with your hard work and highly appreciated.
Good evening Peter I follow you a lot you're a Sonos guru 🔝 You always do a great job for people like us who are not very knowledgeable about music 😅 A tip for movies: what settings do you recommend for a living room of about 11-12 square meters, with arc+sub gen 3+ 2era 300 configuration as surround positioned behind the sofa. Thank you very much!
I hope you test the ET’s rear surrounds mounted near the ceiling upside down and give the settings as well. I have high vaulted ceiling’s. Thank you for all you do.
I have that idea in mind too.
I have my play3 rears 40cm from ceiling and my sockets a around that hight, so the era300 upside down would be better. Yet waiting for the mounting clips.
hi guys, for typical condo living room. Beam GEN 2 or 2x ERA 300? I never had a professional sound system before, previously only using tv speaker. lol
I already watched Thais video and I remember you suggested the settings you are using with sonos 300! What are?
Excellent video but I now have a doubt. I will be upgrading from Play 3 rears to Era 300 and positioning them behind the couch. However, behind them there will a dining area and on the right a large glass window and on the left open kitchen -> this means that the rears and side might not bounce against the side and back walls and thus Era 300 will not make sense for me. I might need to get AirPod Max with Apple TV to experience full Atmos?
The AirPod max is a stereo and to be honest I don’t get any sensing of heights at all with that setup.
@@PeterPee thanks for this. What do you think about the bouncing? Would it be better to put the Era 300 2-3 meters back in the corner of the room tilted towards the listening position?
Can I get great surround only using 2 era 300s and a second gen Beam ?
Hey Peter I know it’s totally off topic, but I just managed to equip my Sonos arc with a new wall mount and I was wondering if you would still recommend „disabling“ the magnet?
Thanks so much for the video. How far is everyone putting their era 300s from their main listening position? Trying to get it perfect. Thanks
Mine are 3 meters appart from each other.
Facing the tv directly.
About a meter away diagonally from my ears.
Hi Peter, is the normal type c to 3.5mm adapter can be used with the era300??
Can i connect a pair of era 300 and era 100 to arc at the same time
Hi Pete
Great analysis as usual -keep up the good work
I haven't got the 300 yet but would one 300 fit in between two rear Sonos 1's to give a spatial sound with the Arc and gen 3 bass ?
No it won't. You will need to replace the Play:1s.
I will start saving then .....
Appreciate all the videos Peter! And yes totally understand that you need more time than dedicated channels to get videos out, but funny that you still make better videos than them 😉
When you release a new ultimate setup/setting video, can you add 7.2.4 settings?
Lastly, interesting video I think would be "best upgrade" for people with arc+sub+ones. This would be Sub vs Fives vs 300s. See a lot of folks with differeing opinions on the forums on this path and would love to hear your take! But of course I'll be happy with any of the content haha.
Many thanks for what you do and keep it up! Quality 👌
Thank you for you lovely support!
Thank you again Peter, I have Arc, Sub and 2 Era 300 as surround set up, quick question, so when you are adjusting the height level on your Sonos apps, does it actually also adjust the height channel for both Era 300 or only on the Arc. Can you place the Era 300 below ear level for surround set up (sound like a stupid question hahaha).... Thanks and have a great day ahead. BTW Happy Holiday!
Subirás un video sobre cuál es la posición idónea para los era 300?
Hello Peter ! What would be your recommendation to add to my beam 1 between 2 era 300 or 2 era 100 + sub mini?
For listening spotify and enjoy Netflix.
Thank you very much
salut peter , j’ai un sonos arc et un sub gen 3 , je compte m’acheter des surround mais j’hésite entre une paire de sonos five ou les era 300 , le choix et très difficile , mon utilisation c’est beaucoup pour le cinéma et les jeux vidéo.
merci d’avance pour ta réponse super vidéo
So when you add the 300 to the arc, do you have to set the height channels to the same height? Thank you
Peter,
On the Sonos Community forum, Sonos recently responded to a post about the rear surround level issue with this reply:
"We have been unable to reproduce this issue with Atmos playback on Arc and Era 300s. I would encourage you to remove your Era 300 surrounds from your Arc and add them back again"
I have removed and re-added the Era 300s as surrounds and still experience the problem. Has the problem been fixed for you?
I’ve bought a pair of 300’s for upgrading my surround system with arc, 2xsubs and 2xOnes by replace the backchannel speakers with wall mounted upside down 300’s. What is the best placement wrt ceiling distance for this config? Btw still waiting for wall mounts on order.
Oh wow. That’s my next layout. I want to try them. Not sure yet but I think leave about 2-3 feet between the base of the speakers and your ear level while seated seems to be sensible.
What is your surround setting for music. Full or ambiance?
One more -> The Era 300 should be facing the TV frontally or should be lightly titled towards listening position? Sonos images and website seem to suggest the latter.
Yes. Sonos is suggesting the latter. I suggest you follow their recommendation and try mine after if that still doesn’t do it for you. I am in a small room backed up to the wall and find that suits me well.
Hi Pete, thanks for all the great work you do. I just picked up an Ikea Picture Frame speaker and sounds amazing. I ran into an issue as it keeps cutting out and stops playing from the group. Any possible ideas to whats going on? Maybe I got a lemon.
I had that problem with the ilea symbolism bookshelves. Turned out they were too far from the access point. The wifi radio doesn’t seem to be very powerful there. Not sure if they use the same SoC as the play:1s.
@@PeterPee when you say access point do you mean the router (I got new router by the way)? The frame is in the same room and my Arc, mini sub and play:1's I think I might've just got a lemon.
Still have two One’s as surrounds (Arc and Sub3) but airplay is now dead and in Sonos app it says Arc+?+?+?. Crap update. Never had problems after update regarding connection
Which is better as surround sound? Era 300 or Sonos fives?
Thank you
This update has done something to my Night Mode and now I cannot use it. I’ll contact the technical service tomorrow to see if they can fix it.
It only works for TV content ya. If you are using Music it won't turn on.
Ah man, do you have those coveted Era 300 stands?! Nice!!!
Hi @Peter Pee, do you know of any solution which can help me mount Sonos Era 100s on Sonos One mounts?
No adaptors that I am aware of now.
@peter pee The problem is that the Era100 and 300 emit plop and crackle noises....
Peter, would it be possible to replace the Sonos Arc with 2 Era 300s? ( total of 4 Era 300s) I want to avoid having an ugly soundbar under my TV.
No, the Eras have no HDMI inputs.
I feel the sound bubble to be finicky in my situation…I find that all little adjustments make me lose the height channel, right now I have them on the stands right behind my head maybe 2-3 feet to the sides and the height effects are actually incredible, not impressed by the side soundstage though, I feel like leaning forward on my couch makes the sound more impressive but moving the speakers back a bit from the couch changes nothing, and makes me lose the height effect…this definitely sounds amazing but needs some tweaking
Hmmm. Interesting observation. I would want to know about whether you’re angling the speakers towards your seating position. Also, any walls to the rear and sides?
@@PeterPee they are facing forward, there’s a wall on the left and on the right a wall with a window and a couch , distance is about the same to the walls, and unfortunately there’s also a pillar between them a small one though that I don’t feel affects the back sound at all.I also think for some reason that unplugging the speakers and plugging them back in results in a bug where I don’t feel the effect at all even though I’m on the same position, like any speaker I feel a lot of this can and will be tweaked by software , I also agree with you that I don’t think like the forward facing tweeter is needed the effects are very strong as they are.
Edit: I was actually thinking now about what you said angling them…maybe if I do that the height effect will be pointed towards me more and I won’t lose the sides
… a interesting fact is, that the ERA 100 and ERA 300 work only in a WM:1 Wlan network, even if you use the Boost. But when you connect the speaker and the Arc for surround sound, they work in a WM:0 Lan network, because the Arc manage them via the Boost. And we know: the WM:0 is much more stable. Obviously you need the WM:1 network for connecting via bluetooth - a feature that disappears when using the ERAs in a surround setup.
I mentioned this when the specs of these era speakers were initially released. They would not connect to the wireless mesh. This can be troublesome and cause drop out issues for those of us with a high number of sonos devices.
You are by far the best speaker reviewer on the planet.
I have the Arc, Sub Gen3, and two Sonos Five speakers in a stereo cabinet.
The Fives are in front of me just below the Arc in a cabinet.
Since most music we all have is still non Atmos and non Spatial, I have held off buying the Era 300s for a rear surround setup.
My question is, how can I add the Era 300s in the rear, in surround mode and ambient music playback, but keep my Sonos Fives that are in front of me in surround mode full music playback, and have the Era 300s in ambient mode at the same time?
You can’t pair more than one set of surrounds to the arc. So you’re out of luck. But best to set up two rooms. One for the arc and era300 as surrounds. And the other room with the fives are stereo. They will make the best of your situation. And thanks for showing appreciation!
@@PeterPee
Just to clarify, I would assign the Sonia Fives to a different room in the app, but they would physically be in the same room as the rest of my equipment and all speakers would work at the same time with that setup?
@@billmulvihill8452 yes, your Ark as one system with surrounds. And then a stereo system of your Five. Run both systems at the same time in the same physical room. I do the same but with Ikea speakers and a Beam, fantastic surround. Try Jean-Michel Jarre, Ocxygen 4 an 5, the best surround I have Herald.
@@bengtkarlstrand9264
Thank you for your answer!😁
So now its an issue Peter? Didn't u state its a feature in your previous video? :)))
Thumbs up.
Had no clue they deactivated the center driver when in surround. Seems like a waste.
It’s may seem like it is, but once you experience it in a surround setting you won’t miss it.
I think it might be good cos it is less of a distraction. The surround is probably smoother for this reason.
I'm wondering how they sound just as surround without the atmos?
Is it worth the upgrade? Will it still be better experience I used the Arc now and 2 sonos one and a mini sub.
Funnily enough I have been thinking about this topic while watching Harry Potter this evening with my kids. IMO the ERA300 is the missing link for Sonos Cinema configurations full stop... I have the ARC, 2 subs and upgraded from Play5's to Era300's for rear surround. Even while watching the older Harry Potter movies in DD5.1 this evening, I have been impressed by how much better the soundstage works as one cohesive unit now. It's simply the first time I have thought the Sonos solution in cinema configuration really compete's against more traditional Cinema separates. Even with the Play5's as rears I also thought of Sonos as a convenient cinema solution if you're already in the Sonos Eco system, but never a really good cinema solution. The Era300's have changed that for me now. So it's not just about ATMOS. The dispersive nature of the speaker drivers in a design like Era300's simply creates a more realistic 360 sound stage front to back of the room. It's only a shame they didn't bring out dedicated rear surround speakers sooner which would have been cheaper as they don't need (in fact Sonos disable) all the extra bells and whistle in cinema configuration. I am lucky to have approx 2m space behind my listening position to the Era300 surrounds and the ARC is 5-6m in front. So it's a large room, but works great. I guess the more immersive nature of the Era300's makes the ARC (front) soundstage seem wider too because they are creating a better 360 sound stage overall. The Era300's are certainly worth trying. Perhaps get them direct from Sonos using their upgrade program for 15% off an Era300 "Set" and free returns still if you don't like them in your own setup. Have fun experimenting anyway.
Good to know 😊
Hey Peter, great video again. I posted about the surround sliders issue on Reddit weeks ago and I can’t believe they still didn’t fix it in this update. There is no way the issue is intentional.
Also, do you still suggest tilting an Arc up in the back if you sit further from your Arc? Worried if it has an impact on the side surrounds on the Arc when paired with 300s.
Waiting patiently for the best settings video! Are you going to include 2 Subs in it? Anyway thank you again for all that you do!
Yes. Will be my dual sub setup. Like the ultimate setup. Haha.
With the era 390 I don’t believe there is a huge need to tilt the Sonos arc anymore. Cos there will be extra heights channel near where you are sitting!
@@PeterPee Sweet! I’m running the ultimate Sonos setup, too. Previously had two Play:5 gen2 as my surrounds. Can’t help but want the absolute best when going Sonos hahah.
Would you happen to know the angle of degrees the upward firing speakers on the Arc? I’m trying to visualize where my channels are aimed to get a better idea.
Hey Peter, the heights at +10 doesn’t negatively affect your overall sound too much?
Actually I am pretty sure it’s not the most ideal for soundstage. As in the heights channel will be grossly exaggerated but it’s what I want to hear at the moment. Haha.
Can anyone comment on their experience with replacing their rear 1's with the ERA 300s? I want rear Atmos but not having any front driver has me a bit concerned.
Let’s hear it from others with some experience with the era 300. I personally didn’t find a problem with they.
@@PeterPee I initally bought a pair of ERA 300's to use as a stereo pair just for music in a second room. They were great for the music, but when, out of interest, I tried them in my main TV room to replace the Play One rears with Beam Gen 2, and Sub Gen 3, the sound was taken to a whole new level that left me realising that there was 'no going back', the 300's had to stay as rears, and I'll likely pair up the Play One's with a mini Sub for the music in the other room!
What height should the stands be for the era 300?
Head level if you can
Hmmmmmm... It might be a good time for Sonos to enable profiles for speaker sound settings, so I can quickly tap my phone (quick option inside the volume area) between movie and music setups rather than going in and changing it every time I change what im listing too. I often change between the two. Also, Pete, can you recommend any 3rd party stands for the ERA300? I can buy a whole new speaker if i buy the Sono's stands, thats the only thing holding me back right now honestly. That 1k investment becomes 1400 plus tax in canadian coins, i cant see myself spending that much on stands only :(
Oh yes. That’s the thing that’s stopping me too. The original Sonos stands look good though. Let me snoop around what’s available in the marketplace.
@@PeterPee está la opción de Sanus también.
For what it's worth I got the same traditional speaker stands Pete has used in the last couple of years (Kanto SP32PL) when I bought Play5's as rear surround speakers. My Era300's have gone straight onto the same stands. Yes they are simply using their own weight to sit on top of the stands in the corners behind my listening position which makes them about neck/head height while watching movies, but they still give me the most convincing 360 soundstage I have yet experienced in a Sonos movie setup.
I picked up the Sanus adjustable stands and they’re solid. 🙌
@@kirbykracklemusic i bought 2 sanus stands for my play fives Gen 2, the stands are a high quality stand, would definitely recommend sanus.
So when are the front firing drivers working actually?
When they are used in stereo pair. For music. Not configured as surrounds.
Why does your patron say $138 USD per month? I interpreted that as only having one patron tier and it costs $138. You can actually do any dollar amount, right??
Yes yes. You can do any amount. I think the $138 refers to what I’m getting in total.
Sonos arc have only 5 CH? It's a little poor no?
Love this shit and these vids.
Hi Peter,
The Sonos five have tow tweeters for Sterne feeling. Is it posible that the next Update will make the Sonos five a better rear speaker with greater bubble?
Unlikely. They won’t jeopardise the era 300 sales.
@@PeterPee but it should bee the same for the era 100. or do you think that there will bee either no function for Atmos?
15.3 makes my sub mini hit much harder
I tried that after but didn’t feel that it was putting out stronger bass. But to be fair I only tried it paired with the picture frames.
Hey Peter! Great job as usual, but this time I can’t understand your explanation regarding the side and rear drivers angling… it implies the left and right ERAs are different, which they are not.
No they are not physically different. But when you set them as left and right, they behave differently.
Okay got it 👍
ORDERING ERA300's! Sorry for yelling (Not sorry).🍻
Go for it!
I can’t find any videos that talk about the fact that the era 300 turns the the from driver off when connected to the arc. It’s really putting me off getting a pair. Are you tubers scared of sonos or something!
❤
new speakers too expensive and come with problems
We are waiting for the Settings 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Arc, Era 300 Rear, 2X Subs.
sonos sell you speakers that have issues then you spend 6 months trying to get them to work properly dont get it, same with my sub gen 3 update update update should not sell stuff thats not right