Sonos has two new speakers to reveal, the Sonos Era 300 and Era 100.
The Sonos Era 300 speaker is a totally new high-end speaker that Sonos has designed with features that deliver a truly spectacular immersive listening experience thanks to support for spatial audio, while the Era 100 is essentially a remastering of their extremely popular Sonos One speaker which now offers stereo support from a single unit.
We’re excited to discover that both speakers come with Bluetooth support.
There’s good news for Android users too because both the Era 300 and Era 100 come with an improved Trueplay tuning experience that doesn’t require an iOS device.
Both speakers feature a more intuitive user interface including a capacitive volume slider, Sonos Voice Control, Apple Airplay 2 support, and expanded Trueplay to automatically adjust the speaker’s sound to match a space’s acoustics.
The Sonos Era speakers also follow Sonos’ new design philosophy, which promotes energy efficiency. The speakers are made of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic. As a result, the white color option for the Era 300 and Era 100 now has a bit of a warmer color tone. The speakers also use less than two watts of power consumption when idle.
Additionally, the speakers are built to last for years. Both speakers are serviceable and can be disassembled using screws for easier repair.
Sonos Era 300
A highlight of the Sonos Era 300 is its spatial audio feature, which Sonos has made possible by implementing a unique speaker design architecture. To that effect, the Sonos Era 300 sports an elegantly cinched hourglass design, which isn’t just aesthetically pleasing, but it has been designed so that every angle, proportion, and perforation enhances the direction and dispersion of the sound so that it truly surrounds you.
The Era 300 features Dolby Atmos, which enhances the delivery of surround sound using six digital amplifiers and two woofers that enable 360-degree audio transmission. By combining these software and hardware features, the Era 300 provides listeners with authentic sound that accurately conveys the artist’s original intention. Amazon Music and Apple Music spatial audio content will both be supported.
For an even more immersive experience, Sonos says users can pair two Sonos Era 300 speakers with the Sonos Arc or Sonos Beam soundbars. Furthermore, the Sonos Era 300 has multiple microphones that enable voice control even in a noisy environment.
The Sonos Era 300 will be available for sale starting from March 28th, 2023, in a choice of Matte Black or White for $449.
Sonos Era 100
The Sonos Era 100 builds on the success of the Sonos One speaker. Although it is quite similar in appearance to the Sonos One, the Sonos Era 100 has new hardware and software features that help it to now deliver stereo sound from a single speaker, and even deeper bass.
Like its predecessor, The Sonos One is a compact, sleek, and affordable speaker with impressive sound quality for its size and price point. In contrast, Sonos says the Era 100 will deliver much richer and crisper sound using two angled tweeters and a larger mid-woofer.
Sonos recommends that users pair the Era 100 speaker with another Era 100 speaker to create a more immersive audio experience.
The Sonos Era 100 will also be available from March 28, 2023. It will cost $249.
First impressions
Sonos says award-winning artists and engineers tuned both speakers to ensure they deliver an immersive listening experience, and we believe it. We listened to a demo of both the Sonos Era 300 and Era 100 and were blown away by the immersive sound coming from them. The speakers are able to replicate the feeling of being surrounded by live music.