Sonos Era 300 In-Depth Review - Should YOU Buy It? [2023]

Sonos has taken the wraps off its new era range of speakers with the new smaller era 100 replacing the rather popular but now long in the tooth Sonos one but inarguably the bigger launch is the new era 300. it improves on the Sonos one by every measure and will likely find the same success and popularity among Sonos customers but does the Sonos era 300 have what it takes to be this year's best speaker let's find out before we deep dive into this video just a brief heads up I added a link with the most updated price and more information in the description box below in terms of pricing the era 300 is priced at 449 while the era 100 will cost 249. back did the era 300 is priced at the higher end with Sonos calling it a premium smart speaker to distinguish it from the smaller cheaper Aero 100 on its website it's a change of tack for Sonos since it spent most of 2022 focusing on more affordable fare like the ray sound bar and sub mini subwoofer that pricing also puts it higher than the era's closest smart speaker rival the Apple homepod 2 which costs a greater 299 dollars it also puts it just under the Sonos 5 which Remains the flagship speaker at 549 nevertheless as will detail later on in this video the era 300 is an entirely different speaker from the Sonos 5. but Sonos has hinted in a press briefing that they expect new customers to opt for the era 300 over the five for its various features the era 100 meanwhile replaces the Sonos one speaker which is currently 220 dollars and comes in at a slightly higher cost than the outgoing one but it has plenty more features to justify the extra outlay so what does the new Sonos Airline actually offer Sonos hopes these devices will start a new chapter for the company hence the name era so it should only be fitting that they score to bold new look that being said the era 300 is the more striking looking of the two devices its cinched hourglass design is unlike any other speaker we've seen and houses the unusual acoustic architecture and arrangement of drivers needed to deliver that Divine spatial sound the center driver provides vocals and Lead instruments two custom drivers for full room coverage two woofers one on each side and an upward firing Tweeter to reflect sound off the ceiling for spatial audio and custom wave guides for greater audio dispersion and a more expansive Sound Stage pretty cool right but we're only just getting started it also has a new control pad including a capacitive volume slider dedicated Skip and replay controls and a Bluetooth button for pairing a device while the design breaks away from sonos's other products the company is still sticking with its traditional black and white color options and a matte finish for both the era 100 and era 300. the Aero 100 has a more traditional cylindrical design close to the Sonos one it's more rounded has a cleaner Grille wrap around and is about an inch taller the era 100 is designed for stereo sound as opposed to the ones mono output back to the Sonos era 300 interestingly in terms of features Sonos has gone for compression drivers for the most part which are much harder to integrate well into small home friendly speakers than standard Dynamic drivers because they require an extra structure to shape and amplify their sound but they can be more efficient and easier to steer for proper directional sound and lower Distortion when done right here there's a forward firing compression driver then one up firing driver at a roughly 10 degree angle and two side firing drivers one left one right also at around 10 degrees moving on there are two side firing woofers facing left and right in a force opposing configuration this means they play the same audio and can be driven hard for Rich bass without the speaker dancing towards the edge of the furniture with Dreadful cheer the vibrations of the two drivers cancel each other out even so a processing platform with four gigabytes of RAM Powers the thing helping to get the Dolby Atmos positional effects from the drivers you've also got Bluetooth 5.0 and a USB C port and you can connect an adapter to the ladder that enables 3.5 millimeter line in or ethernet Wi-Fi 6 is here too Sonos says that an upgrade to Bluetooth 5.2 will come in the future moving on in terms of sound quality the era 300 truly delivers first music is absolutely crammed with detail yet it seems to still be able to punch deep for bass notes without overriding the finer points anywhere else in the mix treble floats sweetly and voices in the mid-range come through the Sound Stage clearly and naturally but more importantly this is all happening in what may be the most well dispersed Sound Stage I've heard from a single speaker stuff that should be Central comes from the speaker unit yes but everything else has space to swarm around including nearly feeling like they're coming from your sides at times even when it doesn't get that far the sound is so wide and so tall moving on sound positioning isn't just limited to steering things far left and right to be clear instruments can be placed just around the era 300 speaker too nevertheless right now the only way to get music to play on the era 300 is from Amazon music via the Sonos app that means if you're using tidal or apple music for spatial audio playback you'll be missing out that being said Sonos says that support for Dolby Atmos in apple music is coming but didn't say when putting the music playback aspect aside there's also big news for AV fans the Sonos era 300 can be used as Dolby Atmos surround speakers delivering multi-channel rears for the first time these can be used in conjunction with the Sonos Arc and beam Gen 2 sound bars and sub to create a maximum 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos home theater experience for the 100 guys the era 100 can be used as rear surrounds minus any Atmos action and are compatible with a wider array of Sono sound bars The Arc beam gen 1 Gen 2 and the entry-level Ray with that in mind you'll be more impressed trying the prior in a home theater setup with the Sonos Arc and Sonos sub Sonos describes that as a 7.1.4 system whereas every previous Sonos surround system has been 5.1.2 amps that said the biggest issue with the Sonos Arc compared to the very best Dolby Atmos sound bars is that its height effect isn't that impressive but when you add the two extra speakers from the era 300 that changes the height effect becomes clear and dynamic shifting forward and back or side to side as the film needs the movement of sounds around the rear channels is a dramatic change too individual parts of the audio steer so much more neatly and precisely between the two rear speakers but the rears also hand sounds back and forth with The Arc sound bar more seamlessly creating something much closer to the feeling of being surrounded by speakers on all sides rather than having one in front and two behind overall sonos's mission to give home listeners a taste of the Dolby Atmos Music Experience in the studio is an exciting one the era 300 and to a lesser extent the new era 100 is a bold move from the company that feels fresh and confident personally speaking I think everyone needs to get a pair of these in their house ASAP even so I'm most excited by their home theater performance no question assuming that the era 300 still disperses stereo tracks as convincingly left and right as it does with Dolby Atmos I could see this being one of the best value speakers for music lovers with a little space to spare you could put one of these on a single set of shelves with one of the best turntables connected over its lining adapter and I think you'd have a hell of a setup that fits in the corner of a room the angular design however while clearly necessary may put some people off it comes across as more techy than the simple cylinder of the Sonos era 100 but that doesn't matter to me the Sonos era 300 is without a doubt my most anticipated launch of the year for more information check the link in the description box below thanks for watching and we'll see you all in the next video foreign

Channel: Best Choice Review

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Id: c8OGOVcX92M

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023