Sonos has been extending its family of products for years, but now they’re aiming to evolve it. They’ve just announced the Era 100 and Era 300 which will begin shipping on March 28, but are already up for order.
These two new speakers represent a new entry-point with the Era 100 replacing the Sonos One and the Era 300 being a higher-end speaker that is designed for Spatial Audio. Yes, the latest mixing that’s been adopted by streaming services like Apple Music or Amazon Music Unlimited, and found in products today like AirPods Pro, Google PixelBuds Pro, and the HomePod.
We’re unpacking what you need to know about both, and sharing some first impressions as we’ve heard the Era 100 and Era 300.
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Sonos Era 100: What You Need to Know
Let’s start with the new entry point for a home speaker for Sonos. The Era 100 is a new take on the classic, well-reviewed Sonos One. Rather than standing as a tall-ish rounded square, the Era 100 embraces curves with a rounded oval design that’s a bit taller.
The extra space here let Sonos pack a larger punch with audio inside. Underneath the grille are dual-angled tweeters, a woofer that is 25% larger than Sonos One, a custom waveguide for pushing out sound, and a faster processor. All of this comes together for a speaker from Sonos that can deliver stereo without the need to purchase two.
During our demo the Era 100 sounded good with a wide soundstage that let elements of a track be heard. Notably the larger woofer didn’t overpower bass, but when you crank up the volume it ensures the bass matches and packs some oomph. Tracks by Lizzo and Post Malone sounded great. For $249, it sounds about how a $250 speaker should and we’d say in-line with that of One. We’ll need to do proper testing in our space as well as side by side to see the exact improvement.
In addition to improving the sound, Sonos is including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity on the Era 100, and the Era 300. It’s a change for the brand and will give you another option for playing music asides from the Sonos app for Android or iOS. Apple’s AirPlay 2 standard for casting audio from an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K, or Apple Watch is still here.
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There is also a USB-C port on the back which will work two separately sold dongles. One provides just an audio in, while the other provides that line-in and an ethernet port. There is also a switch on the back that will mute the microphones and physically disconnect them. Like other Sonos speakers the rest of the buttons live up top, the change here is a new slider for adjusting volume.
That about wraps up the Era 100 and from our hands-on time, it seems like a speaker that pushes what the One accomplished further with crisper, richer sound that can fill more of a space. It keeps the essential traits of a Sonos speaker like operability within the ecosystem but also expands to make it easier to achieve playback. We do wish that Sonos would have gone beyond the single USB-C port for an audio jack in and an ethernet out of the box.
Sonos is taking orders now for the Era 100 at $249 in either black or white and will begin shipping to customers on March 28.
Sonos Era 300: What You Need to Know
Unlike the Era 100 which has a clear product it is replacing, the Era 300 is a new category of speaker from Sonos and is designed for playing “Spatial Audio”. It does this in a $449 speaker that comes in the standard Sonos black or white, but has a unique, oval design that lays horizontal on a surface, like a table or countertop.
The Era 300 pushes sound out in nearly all directions with waveguides directing it toward the front, out the top, to the left, and to the right. It is not pushing it everywhere like a HomePod though. Sonos also packed a ton of hardware inside the 300: six digital amplifiers, four tweeters, two woofers, and the same processors as in the Era 100. The tweeters are also set inside with one center out the front, two to the left and right, and one out the top. The woofers inside the Era 300 are angled out the rear to have most sides covered.
All of these come together to broadcast sound out the proper left and right for a stereo experience, but also upwards towards the ceiling for proper spatial audio. With this, the goal is a more immersive listening experience that places sound around you. This way you can feel as if you’re in the room with an artist and in my brief listening session, the Era 300 did sound excellent. It could provide a loud sound that didn’t necessarily muddy, but rather hit with crisp, clear notes.
Related: Apple HomePod (2nd Gen) Review
You might be asking how you get Spatial Audio content on the Era 300. At launch on Mar. 28, Dolby Atmos Music from Amazon Music Unlimited will be supported. Other supported services are to be announced except for Apple Music, Spatial Audio support will arrive later in 2023.
Sonos also worked to make sure the Era 300 worked fine for non-spatial content. With those tracks you still get a clear separation of stereo, with left and right. For movies, you can pair two Era 300s together with an Arc or Beam (2nd Gen) for a full 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos listening experience. It’s costly, but these act as true multi-channel left and right speakers.
Classic to the Sonos expectation, you can adjust the EQ--bass, treble, and overall volume--from the app. Trueplay is still here and only for the iPhone, but a new version of this called QuickTune will use the microphones built-into the Era 300 (and the Era 100) to customize the mix for your room. Sonos did say that old TruePlay which requires an iPhone and to wave it around your room will still provide a better sound.
Just like the Era 100, this boasts the new interface on the top with the volume slider and classic buttons for control on the device itself. There is also a USB-C port on the back and physical switch for disconnecting the microphones.
The Era 300 isn’t the new top of the line speaker for Sonos, rather it’s more or a higher-end, upper-echelon speaker that is designed for Spatial Audio and immersive listening. The Sonos Five is still around at $549, $100 more, with a 3.5-mm input, Wi-Fi, and a boatload of audio hardware for a true stereo experience. It’s also quite a bit larger.
We’re just as eager to spend some more time with the Era 300, as we are with the Era 100, to see how it stacks up and how it sounds. Both against other Sonos speakers, in conjunction with other Sonos products, and with competing speakers like Apple’s HomePod.
If you’re already sold though, Sonos’ Era 300 is up for order now at $449 in black or white and will ship from March 28.
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.
