With the Era 300, Sonos enters the era of spatial audio

The arrival of the new Sonos speakers was no longer a secret to anyone, as rumors and leaks have been legion lately. So here is, officially this time, the new Era 300 and Era 100 which herald the beginning of a new era at Sonos.

Era 300: the speaker that wants to put you center stage

Brand new concept at Sonos, the Era 300 is a sedentary speaker with an atypical design and acoustic architecture. It was developed with the aim of offering the best possible immersion thanks to a particular design allowing it to emit in four directions at the same time in order to sublimate the tracks mixed in Dolby Atmos. Thus, the Era 300 integrates no less than six loudspeakers: two midrange/bass loudspeakers directed on each side, and four tweeters directed towards the front, the top, the left and the right of the enclosure. Its atypical design in the shape of an inverted hourglass (or VR headset) has also been designed to immerse the user in his music as well as possible. Thus, all the loudspeakers except the one placed on the front face are slightly inclined in order to create the most immersive bubble possible.

At its launch, the Era 300 will be compatible with tracks mixed in Dolby Atmos present on the Amazon Music and Apple Music platforms. It will also be possible to stream tracks in Apple spatial audio on the Arc and Beam (Gen 2) soundbars from March 28th.

Beyond this original look and promises of sound immersion, the Era 300 marks a real turning point in Sonos’ philosophy. Building on its experience with the Roam, Sonos has finally decided to offer Bluetooth connectivity to its sedentary speakers! The wifi obviously always responds, as do the AirPlay, Spotify Connect and Sonos multiroom network protocols. Be aware, however, that Dolby Atmos content can only be transmitted via wifi and not via Bluetooth.

Not content with offering expanded connectivity, the Era 300 is equipped with a USB-C port on its back, in order to connect a turntable or any wired audio device using a USB-C/mini-jack adapter. sold separately. With this connection, the possibilities are multiple; one can imagine adapters with RJ45 socket, RCA input or even HDMI…

The other good news for owners of an Android smartphone is the deployment of a new version of TruePlay, Sonos’ proprietary calibration system, which is now accessible regardless of your allegiance. This new system is based on the internal microphones of the speaker and no longer on the microphones of the paired iPhone to analyze the listening room. Nevertheless, the use of the microphones of the iPhone is always possible for the devices under iOS, and would offer a better result.

With this Era 300, Sonos is therefore tackling Apple and its HomePod (2nd generation) head-on in the field of sedentary speakers designed to enhance content mixed in Dolby Atmos. The Era 300 is certainly more expensive, but it is also more open and seems more powerful, the comparison between the two promises to be very interesting.

Available in black or white, the Era 300 will be released on March 28 at a price of €499, an intermediate position between the powerful Sonos Five at €599 and the new Era 100 launched at €279.

Era 100: Sonos gives a facelift to the One, its bestseller

Presented alongside the Era 300, the Era 100 is much more modest than its counterpart, both in size and number of speakers, and has the heavy task of replacing Sonos’ bestselling speaker: the Sonos One. The philosophy remains the same: to offer many features as well as a rich and powerful sound reproduction, all in a compact design.

On the first part, the contract seems fulfilled because the Era 100 includes all the features listed for the Era 300, apart from Dolby Atmos compatibility. We therefore find the new version of TruePlay, Bluetooth and wifi connectivity, the USB-C port on the back, compatibility with the Sonos app and the native integration of Sonos Voice Control and Alexa assistants.

Regarding the sound component, Sonos has completely redesigned the acoustic architecture of its one-piece speaker. Equipped with two inclined tweeters, the Era 100 now offers stereophonic rendering, whereas it was monophonic on the Sonos One. In addition, the bass / midrange speaker is 25% larger than that embedded in the Sonos One. The Era 100 thus promises to offer fuller bass and a warmer sound.

Despite a more muscular sound architecture than the Sonos One, the Era 100 has remained compact by displaying dimensions of 18.3 x 12 x 13.1 cm, which is still more imposing than the 16.2 x 12 x 12 cm from the One. The Era 100 also adopts a new round design, reminiscent of the Sonos Move. The control panel is always positioned on top of the enclosure.

Also available in black or white, the Era 100 will be released alongside the Era 300 on March 28 at a price of €279, or €50 more than the Sonos One.

Speakers that are more respectful of the environment

During the presentation event, Sonos informed us that they had gone all out to reduce their environmental footprint. Speaking of packaging, the packaging of these speakers is entirely made of recycled paper, just like a good part of the plastic elements making up the speakers, which are also recycled.

Sonos also says it has drastically reduced the power consumption of its new speakers, especially in standby mode. That’s because most Sonos speakers don’t turn off and always stay alert for easy on-the-fly music playback. A real abyss in terms of power consumption, which should be reduced somewhat with these new speakers. However, we would have liked Sonos to go a step further, by offering the possibility of completely turning off its speakers.