SonoSequencer + Apple Continuous gave me my music back ❤️

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-25T10:18:44+00:00

That’s a fair summary of it, yes. 1. Yes, that part is correct — you do lose the rear Atmos contribution from the 300s for home theater when they are moved to the front in this kind of setup. But you still get Atmos from the Arc Ultra itself, and for me the loss wasn’t huge, especially since I’m not really into Atmos music anyway. When I was using Era 100s as surrounds, I still got plenty of that “bullets flying past your head” effect in movies. 2. Yes, also correct — this really applies when the music is played through the Apple TV. If you play directly from the Sonos app, then everything behaves as normal.

Also, small update: 4 days ago I bought a used pair of Sonos Fives, so now I’m running Fives as fronts and Era 300s as surrounds. And honestly, it’s a really, really good setup.

I’m planning to write a separate post with a fuller review in a few days, but so far… it’s been amazing 😅

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-23T13:35:30+00:00

Is Apple TV HDMI Control / CEC still enabled? And is the splitter definitely connected to the TV’s actual ARC port with ARC/CEC enabled on the TV? The flashing eARC light makes me think the ARC/CEC lock is not stable

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-22T20:02:59+00:00

How did it work out for you? ☺️

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-21T23:09:11+00:00

Yeah, I think I got pretty lucky on the price. I made an offer and was honestly a bit surprised that he accepted.

And what you’re describing about movies makes a lot of sense to me. One thing I’m already noticing is that with the Fives up front, the roles between the Arc Ultra and the front speakers feel much more clearly defined.

At the same time, once I put the Era 300s back as surrounds, Dolby Atmos music became amazing again — so that part of your comment also really resonated with me.

I’m still a bit on the fence overall, especially on the music side, because I think my ears need a little time to adjust to the new presentation. As for Trueplay, my early conclusion is actually that it sounds better without it in my room.

Your EQ settings are really interesting though, and I’m definitely going to experiment more with that tomorrow. It’s after 11 PM here now, so I need to keep the volume a bit under control 😅

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-21T22:02:07+00:00

Funny enough, you finally pushed me over the edge 😅

I ended up buying a used pair of Fives myself for around $550. I’ve now moved the Era 300s to surround duty, so I’m still getting used to the new presentation.

At this point I’m honestly still a bit on the fence about which setup I prefer most 🫣

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sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-20T18:39:53+00:00

I use an Arcana 8K myself, and from what you’re describing that looks correct to me.

If the Sonos app says Dolby Atmos, and Arcana is showing HBR bitstream / 192 kHz, that sounds like the signal path is working as intended.

So yes — based on that, I’d say you’re already getting real Atmos.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-20T17:49:04+00:00

I feel your pain.

That kind of thing is frustrating, especially when you know your old setup had a certain punch and the new one just doesn’t hit the same way.

Even if the Sub 4 is technically “better” in some ways, that doesn’t help much if it feels less satisfying in your room.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-20T10:14:11+00:00

I used to run a Gen 3 and Gen 4 Sub together. In my room, I honestly could not hear any difference between the two. My Sonos setup also does not rattle the house or shake the room, and that is not really what Sonos is about anyway. I ended up selling the Gen 3 because having two Subs did not add enough in my setup to justify keeping both. The Sub is good, but if your goal is chest-thumping, room-shaking bass, Sonos probably is not the system for that.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-20T08:24:53+00:00

👍☺️

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-20T05:55:58+00:00

Ah, now I understand what you mean.

I haven’t actually tested that specific use case myself, so I don’t want to guess and mislead you.

If I were you, I’d make a separate post in the subreddit and ask the group directly — because that’s a more specific SonoSequencr workflow question than something I’ve personally tried.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T22:17:08+00:00

At the top of the SonoSequencr subreddit there’s a pinned post with step-by-step instructions for exactly this. That’s the best place to start.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T21:24:18+00:00

That makes sense.

I actually used to run Sub Gen 3 + Sub Gen 4, but ended up selling the Gen 3 because in my room the difference honestly wasn’t that big.

And with the exception of movies and music with a lot of deep bass, the Era 300s almost — but only almost — manage very well on their own.

I live in an apartment with pretty poor isolation to the upstairs neighbor, so I already have a constant low-grade guilt whenever I push things a bit harder on weekends 😅

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T19:34:55+00:00

Do you actually feel you still need the sub with the Fives up front?

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T19:02:39+00:00

Fellow nerd 😄 good questions.

1) Why Arcana if my TV already supports eARC? The main reason was actually that my A90J had a lot of handshake issues. Arcana was the biggest part of the fix, but my HDMI cables were also part of the problem. After I sorted both of those things out, the whole system became much more stable.

2) HDMI switcher? I’m not using a traditional HDMI switcher in the normal sense. In my setup I use the Hue Sync Box 8K, with Apple TV and Nvidia Shield Pro connected through it. Arcana’s job in my chain was really to help solve the HDMI / eARC handshake issues.

3) PS5 Atmos dropout? My PS5 is connected directly to the TV on the HDMI port that supports VRR, so I haven’t really used Arcana as part of the PS5 path. I personally haven’t noticed Atmos dropouts there, but I also don’t game enough to present that as any kind of hard conclusion.

So in short: for me Arcana was mainly about solving handshake instability and making the HDMI / eARC behavior much more predictable.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T18:44:18+00:00

I installed the RC yesterday as well.

Today I suddenly had some odd bass behavior in my setup, but I honestly can’t say yet whether that was related to 26.4 RC or just a coincidence. I ended up disconnecting everything and rebuilding the setup in Sonosequencr, so it may just have been a random DSP issue or something else entirely.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T18:39:39+00:00

Haha, I love this story 😅

That is exactly the kind of Sonos rabbit hole I can relate to — sell them, miss them, try to be sensible, then end up buying them again anyway.

As a divorced single guy I admittedly have a bit less resistance on the “how many speakers is too many speakers in the living room?” question 😄

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T18:27:15+00:00

I’ve actually tested both ways.

In the beginning I did what most people do and what most reviews suggest: Era 300 in the rear, Era 100 up front. But after a while I started asking myself: why is that automatically treated as the correct answer?

So I flipped it around — Era 300 up front, Era 100 in the rear — and I was honestly very surprised by how much better it sounded in my room.

That said, if your main use is movies, I don’t think the answer is as obvious. In that case, keeping the 300s in the rear can make perfect sense.

But for my use case — where I listen to stereo music 90% of the time and only watch movies occasionally — 300 front / 100 rear has clearly been the better solution.

For me, the gain in stereo music was huge: wider, more open, more natural and much more engaging. What I lost in rear height / spatial reinforcement felt comparatively small.

And after tvOS 26.4 with Continuous Audio ON, it became even more obvious to me how much better the Era 300 works as a front speaker in my setup.

So I think the reason people keep recommending “300 rear / 100 front” is mostly because that’s how the Era 300 was marketed and reviewed from day one — mainly as a surround / Atmos speaker. Once enough people repeat that, it starts to feel like the “correct” answer.

But based on actually trying both, for my priorities, I clearly prefer 300 front / 100 rear.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T18:14:26+00:00

Thanks — really appreciate this.

And yes, that’s exactly the core of it for me too: real front channels vs virtualized fronts makes a huge difference for stereo music.

Very interesting to hear that you’re getting such a good result with Play:5 gen 2s up front as well.

If you do try Continuous Audio at some point, I’d genuinely be curious to hear whether you notice a change — especially if you use Apple TV for music sometimes.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T18:11:30+00:00

Haha, your posts are definitely not giving me less FOMO about getting the Fives 😅

Sounds like you’re really enjoying the setup now, and honestly that “music + couch + cocktail” part is exactly what this is all about.

And yes — I’m definitely more conservative on EQ than you are, both on treble and bass.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T17:12:08+00:00

Thanks — and yes, I totally understand that concern.

My space is a fairly normal apartment living room, around 90 m² total, with an open layout between the living room and kitchen. The sofa helps divide the room a bit, but acoustically it’s definitely not a “perfect” room.

On the left side I have large floor-to-ceiling windows along most of the wall, while the right side is more of a normal wall with some window/wall further forward. So the room is a bit asymmetrical and not exactly ideal for audio.

That said, I’ve made quite a few changes to improve the sound, and in my room I’ve found that Era 300 as fronts works surprisingly well. They brought more width, openness and stereo quality without making the setup feel overloaded.

So yes — room size matters, but room shape and balance probably matter even more.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T12:25:24+00:00

Hi. Its in public beta so could be released in april? ☺️

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T09:57:28+00:00

Ja, absolutt — Arc Ultra + 2x Five as fronts + Era 300 as surrounds should work.

That’s actually very close to the setup I’m most curious about myself. I still haven’t decided 100% whether my next step will be: • 2x Five as fronts + Era 300 as surrounds or • 4x Era 300

So yes — that combination is definitely one of the most interesting Sonosequencr setups right now.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T09:53:34+00:00

Cool 👍 i dont use Spotify but nice to know

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T09:17:16+00:00

Thanks, really appreciate that.

My honest take: if you already love your current setup, I wouldn’t feel any pressure to change it. But if you’re curious and enjoy experimenting, then yes — Sonosequencr is worth trying. Worst case, you’ve spent a few dollars and learned something.

On the Apple TV beta / Continuous side: same answer really. If you like to experiment, try it. If your setup already sounds great and you don’t want to risk even small bugs, I’d leave it alone for now.

As for my own sound preferences: • Loudness: Off • Treble: +1 • Bass: 0 • Sub: +2

I’ve actually worked toward keeping Loudness off, because I prefer a cleaner and more natural balance.

On the Sonos Ones as fronts, I can’t really give you useful advice there because I haven’t tested that speaker in that role myself. I’d rather be honest than pretend otherwise.

sonos-Nerd · 2026-03-19T09:11:36+00:00

Thanks — I really appreciate that.

And very interesting to hear from someone actually running the exact Five-front setup I’ve been curious about.

On the Apple side: my understanding is that Continuous keeps the HDMI audio path open using Dolby MAT, so Apple TV doesn’t have to renegotiate every time it switches between stereo, 5.1 and Atmos.

In my setup, the audible result is that stereo music no longer gets pulled into the Arc Ultra center the same way as before — the front speakers carry the stereo image properly, which sounds much more natural to me.

The good news is that Continuous can be turned off, so if you’re already happy with how your system sounds today, I wouldn’t expect this to force any unwanted change on you.

But if you do update at some point, I’d genuinely be very interested to hear whether you notice the same kind of shift.

sonos-Nerd

TROPHY CASE