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Hi all,

Today we introduce Era 300: an unmatched spatial audio experience with Dolby Atmos for listeners and creators alike.

Era 300

Unprecedented for a single compact speaker, Era 300 boasts six powerful drivers that direct sound left, right, forward and upward, delivering a breakthrough audio performance featuring Dolby Atmos that places listeners at the very heart of their movies and music.

  • Designed for spatial: Era 300 wraps its beautifully complex acoustic architecture in an elegantly cinched hourglass design, with every angle, proportion and perforation enhancing the direction and dispersion of sound to truly surround you.

  • Surreal surround sound: Era 300 is the brand’s first speaker that delivers multi-channel surround sound when used as home theater rears. Movie fans can pair two speakers with Arc or Beam (Gen 2) to create a supercharged Dolby Atmos experience that draws them deeper into the action.

  • Deep music industry collaboration: Sonos worked closely with its community of leading artists and creators - including Sonos Soundboard members - to meticulously fine-tune Era 300 so listeners can enjoy sound straight from the studio that’s true to the artist’s intent. 

Era 300 from the back

 

Premium, responsible design that keeps everyone in mind

Building on Sonos’s timeless acoustic-driven design aesthetic, Era 100 and Era 300 are responsive to the challenges facing our environment—and better for everyone who interacts with our designs, featuring a bold new UI and innovations that will help them last longer, use less energy and make use of recycled materials in each product. 

  • More sustainable sound: Era 100 and Era 300 are made with post consumer recycled (PCR) plastic and packaged in 100% sustainably sourced paper, while also engineered to reduce power consumption with under two watts idle power consumption and a new advanced sleep function.

  • Built to last: Designed to live in your home for years, both speakers are built for serviceability by reducing the use of adhesives and transitioning to screws for easy disassembly and repair.

  • Bold, new UI: Era 100 and Era 300 feature an intuitive new user interface, including a new capacitive volume slider for simple control that complements quick and private control of your music with Sonos Voice Control, the Sonos app, Apple AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth®️.

  • Upgraded connectivity: Stream all the audio you care about using WiFi or Bluetooth, and directly connect other audio devices such as a turntable using an auxiliary cable and the Sonos Line-In Adapter.

  • Expanding Trueplay to more listeners: Using the microphone array in Era 100 and Era 300, Trueplay optimizes the sound for the unique acoustics of your space with just a tap in the Sonos app. Available to both Android and iOS users.

Era 300 will be available for pre-order on sonos.com today, and globally starting March 28 2023 for $449USD, £449, €499 and $749 AUS. For more information, please visit Sonos.com

Read the full press release for Era 100 and Era 300 here.

So if you have two Era 300’s paired with a sub for a really nice Atmos listening experience and you are streaming the same music to other non spatial audio enabled Sonos zones at the same time does the signal just revert to stereo for the zones that can’t handle it? 

I would imagine the overall stream reverts to stereo, which is similar to how Amazon Music Dolby Atmos works when the Arc is grouped with a non-Atmos capable speaker; it changes to stereo when grouped.

As the Era 300 will not support SonosNet, when used as surrounds will they still make a direct wireless connection back to the Arc or Beam Gen2, or will surround traffic be over WiFi as well?

Can you use Era 300 (or for that matter, Era 100) as surround speakers for an Amp connected to a TV or projectors? The Shop FAQ only mentions sound bar compatibility.

Can you use Era 300 (or for that matter, Era 100) as surround speakers for an Amp connected to a TV or projectors? The Shop FAQ only mentions sound bar compatibility.

Era 300 requires an Arc or Beam (Gen2). Era 100s can be used as surrounds with an Amp.

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/surround-sound-guidelines-and-limitations

Can you use Era 300 (or for that matter, Era 100) as surround speakers for an Amp connected to a TV or projectors? The Shop FAQ only mentions sound bar compatibility.

Era 300 requires an Arc or Beam (Gen2). Era 100s can be used as surrounds with an Amp.

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/surround-sound-guidelines-and-limitations

Thanks for the link; however, interesting that it doesn’t note the Era 100 incompatibility with the Playbar and Playbase.

This is about the specs that I was expecting in given the links.  I was hoping to see a set of 2 Era 300s and a Sub mini, but don’t see it.  I would assume these can be bonded as a room?   It’s the sub mini perhaps not fit for atmos audio?

You can bond Sub Mini with Era 300’s, yes.

When the Era 300s are used as surrounds with the Arc or Beam (Gen 2), is it considered a 5.1.4 or 7.1.4 setup? What specific channels do the side-firing drivers of the Era 300 play when playing a 7.1 or 5.1 audio track?

7.1.4

Together with Arc’s side-firing speakers, the Era 300’s will virtualise side channels for a 7.1 track. 

What is the price of this cool device?

Era 300 will be available for pre-order on sonos.com today, and globally starting March 28 2023 for $449USD, £449, €499 and $749 AUS. For more information, please visit Sonos.com

Can you use Era 300 (or for that matter, Era 100) as surround speakers for an Amp connected to a TV or projectors? The Shop FAQ only mentions sound bar compatibility.

Era 300 requires an Arc or Beam (Gen2). Era 100s can be used as surrounds with an Amp.

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/surround-sound-guidelines-and-limitations

Thanks for the link; however, interesting that it doesn’t note the Era 100 incompatibility with the Playbar and Playbase.

Oh, I didn’t realise the Era 100s weren’t compatible with the Playbar and Playbase as surrounds!

My assumption would be as the Amp is S2 only they would work as surrounds with it, but the support pages need greater clarity around this.

Looking on a post on Reddit it seems these new speakers won't work on Sonosnet like the portable ones. That could be an issue for some? 

With the Era series we are slowly moving away from SonosNet as modern home networking is getting so great that SonosNet’s 2.4GHz network is simply too slow for the demands in data throughput we are starting to see.

As the Era 300 will not support SonosNet, when used as surrounds will they still make a direct wireless connection back to the Arc or Beam Gen2, or will surround traffic be over WiFi as well?

They will make direct connections to the Arc/Beam just as with previous surround speakers. 

Given that the Era 100 and 300 have USB-C ports (which are digital), wouldn’t it be possible to connect these speakers to a TV ARC port using a HDMI-USB-C cable?  The Sonos 5s only had an AUX line in which is never ideal because of audio lag.  

To Sonos:  A lot of people live in apartments with only 1 living room where they watch TV and listen to music in the same room.  Some prefer to prioritize music for audio more than movies.  That is why many like to use their stereo speakers also for their TV.  It shouldn’t be difficult.  Sound bars are nice enough for TV but will never deliver the sound stage of a dedicated 2 stereo speaker set up for music.  

Looking on a post on Reddit it seems these new speakers won't work on Sonosnet like the portable ones. That could be an issue for some? 

With the Era series we are slowly moving away from SonosNet as modern home networking is getting so great that SonosNet’s 2.4GHz network is simply too slow for the demands in data throughput we are starting to see.

So why not up gun the SonosNet radios and network to match? With home automation increasingly putting more demand on the network, would the imperative to shift Sonos onto its own mesh be greater not less?

Given that the Era 100 and 300 have USB-C ports (which are digital), wouldn’t it be possible to connect these speakers to a TV ARC port using a HDMI-USB-C cable?  The Sonos 5s only had an AUX line in which is never ideal because of audio lag.

The lag isn’t entirely cause by limitations of the 3.5mm analog jack requiring conversion to digital, but also the requirement for a buffer to be created to keep the multi-room audio synchronised. I presume that hasn’t changed.

Can you use Era 300 (or for that matter, Era 100) as surround speakers for an Amp connected to a TV or projectors? The Shop FAQ only mentions sound bar compatibility.

Era 300 requires an Arc or Beam (Gen2). Era 100s can be used as surrounds with an Amp.

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/surround-sound-guidelines-and-limitations

Thanks for the link; however, interesting that it doesn’t note the Era 100 incompatibility with the Playbar and Playbase.

@Mr. T Is correct - only Era 100 can be used with Amp or Beam (Gen 1), and neither Era model can be used with Playbar or Playbase.

I’ll get the page updated - thanks for flagging.

So if you have two Era 300’s paired with a sub for a really nice Atmos listening experience and you are streaming the same music to other non spatial audio enabled Sonos zones at the same time does the signal just revert to stereo for the zones that can’t handle it? 

Exactly, yes.

Really? So Dolby Atmos continues to play on the Era 300s?

Given that the Era 100 and 300 have USB-C ports (which are digital), wouldn’t it be possible to connect these speakers to a TV ARC port using a HDMI-USB-C cable?  The Sonos 5s only had an AUX line in which is never ideal because of audio lag.

The lag isn’t entirely cause by limitations of the 3.5mm analog jack requiring conversion to digital, but also the requirement for a buffer to be created to keep the multi-room audio synchronised. I presume that hasn’t changed.

so there are 2 steps for the 5s.  But a sound bar has the one step (as what would be the case in the set up I described) - if you classify the speaker pair as “TV” then it should function the same as the sound bar does then.  Should be a straight forward software tweak, surely.  

Given that the Era 100 and 300 have USB-C ports (which are digital), wouldn’t it be possible to connect these speakers to a TV ARC port using a HDMI-USB-C cable?  The Sonos 5s only had an AUX line in which is never ideal because of audio lag. 

The USB ports on Era models cannot be used as digital inputs at present.

So if you have two Era 300’s paired with a sub for a really nice Atmos listening experience and you are streaming the same music to other non spatial audio enabled Sonos zones at the same time does the signal just revert to stereo for the zones that can’t handle it? 

The entire group would revert to stereo playback.

So if you have two Era 300’s paired with a sub for a really nice Atmos listening experience and you are streaming the same music to other non spatial audio enabled Sonos zones at the same time does the signal just revert to stereo for the zones that can’t handle it? 

Exactly, yes.

Really? So Dolby Atmos continues to play on the Era 300s?

Apologies - I had to seek confirmation on this and there was a misunderstanding.

Playback would continue in stereo for the entire group, including the Era 300s.

If a line in source needs the Sonos adapter, what does the on body USB socket do on its own with no adapter?

Given that the Era 100 and 300 have USB-C ports (which are digital), wouldn’t it be possible to connect these speakers to a TV ARC port using a HDMI-USB-C cable?  The Sonos 5s only had an AUX line in which is never ideal because of audio lag.

The lag isn’t entirely cause by limitations of the 3.5mm analog jack requiring conversion to digital, but also the requirement for a buffer to be created to keep the multi-room audio synchronised. I presume that hasn’t changed.

@Corry P, can you confirm this?  When the USB-C is used for aux input, will it have the standard 75 ms delay that other aux input (Port, Amp, Five) currently have? 

What is the delay for bluetooth input?

If a line in source needs the Sonos adapter, what does the on body USB socket do on its own with no adapter?

Without a dongle/adaptor, the USB-C socket doesn’t do anything, presently. 

If a line in source needs the Sonos adapter, what does the on body USB socket do on its own with no adapter?

 

It it appears the answer is...nothing.  I can see why people would be annoyed by this, but for me personally, I’m perfectly fine with this.  I won’t be using a line in or ethernet port, so in a way, I’m not paying for something I’m not using.  The same goes for anyone who intends to use the Era 300 as rear surround speakers, since you can’t use the line in and no need to use an ethernet port. 

You could argue that you therefore aren’t paying for what you’re not using, and it’s wasteful to have ports that many are not going to use.  You could also argue that Sonos is just forcing you to buy more stuff and that dongles are wasteful.  Eh.  Just take it for what it is.

 

Without a dongle/adaptor, the USB-C socket doesn’t do anything, presently. 

Ok, so what the adaptor does is replace the bulkier and more expensive Port/Connect; still a very useful feature, especially for the more budget friendly 100. 

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