After months of speculation and leaks, Sonos has finally officially unveiled its new multi-room speakers: the Sonos Era 100 and Era 300.
Unsurprisingly, the audio tech brand today unveiled two desktop speakers: the Era 300-compatible Spatial Audio and the mid-range Era 100, which is a direct replacement for the venerable Sonos One.
And we tested them both – read our first impressions in our Sonos Era 100 hands-on review and Sonos Era 300 hands-on review.
The Era 300 features an unusually shaped dual-angle frame that houses six Class-D digital amplifiers, six heavy-duty drivers, two subwoofers, and four tweeters, allowing sound to radiate forward and upward, as well as to the left and to the right. .
In addition to being able to create a spacious stereo, the Era 300's tweeters can reflect sound off walls and ceilings, enabling the device's calling card feature to support Dolby.Immersive Atmos Spatial Audio.
For an even bigger soundstage, the Era 300 can be paired with Sonos Arc soundbars as rear speakers to create what appears to be a very powerful and indeed expensive Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 home theater setup. .
There's a completely new user interface, with a capacitive volume slider, as well as dedicated skip and play controls, and a Bluetooth button for pairing devices with the speaker. Sonos Voice Control and the Alexa assistant are on board again, though Google Assistant support is conspicuously absent, likely due to the longstanding legal dispute between Sonos and the search engine giant.
Privacy-conscious users can temporarily disable their voice assistants by tapping on the new speech bubble control or completely disconnecting power from the built-in microphone by sliding a switch on the back of the device.
There's also one of the most extensive network connectivity options we've seen on a Sonos device, with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi for lossless streaming, Apple AirPlay 2, and USB-C line-in all installed.
Unlike the Sonos 5, there's no dedicated 3,5mm input, but the Era 300 can be connected to other audio devices, such as turntables, via a Sonos line-in adapter sold separately. with an auxiliary cable.
As always, Sonos's Trueplay setup feature is built in, which measures room acoustics and automatically adjusts the EQ to optimize the output for the space, while Sonos claims the Era 300's overall sound was tuned and tuned by a host of renowned audio experts. , including Coldplay engineer Emily Lazar and mixing specialist Manny Marroquin, who has worked with Alicia Keys, Kanye West and John Legend.
another new age
The more compact and conventional Era 100 was also announced today.
The cylindrical speaker is slightly deeper and wider than its predecessor, the Sonos One, and can now deliver a stereo soundstage thanks to an angled dual tweeter arrangement within the taller housing, while a 25-inch high-mid woofer Larger % offers enhanced bass.
Although the Era 300 doesn't support spatial audio, it does have a similar range of connectivity, with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Airplay 2 streaming support, as well as a similar USB-C line-in setup.
The Sonos Era 300 is priced at €449/€449/€499/AUD€749, while the Era 100 is priced at €249/€249/€279/AUD€399. Both speakers are available now on the Sonos website and will launch on March 28, 2023.
For more multi-room audio gear, check out our best wireless speaker lists - opens in a new tab and our best smart speaker lists - opens in a new tab.