Retired Sonos Staff

Introducing Era 300

Related content:Hardware

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Hi all,

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

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.

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.

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BrianBosch

Lyricist III

Is it also possible to only select the Era 300's as a stereo sound set for e.g. streaming music Spotify/Apple Music. So not using the Beam?

Once you set it up as a home theater configuration you can not select only the Era 300’s for music listening. You would have to reconfigure and unbond them from the Beam and sub mini to use only the Era’s for music.

Or just get another two Era-300’s, pair them and stick them out in front for music playback.😁

Thanks for clarification.

That's indeed what I expected. Constantly swapping in the S2 app - surround/stereo pair is not my preference. I hoped because now Bluetooth has been added I thought direct audio streaming would be possible (on top of the surround set up). Nevertheless I will enjoy these two eras anyway.

Add another two Era300's 😵: I'm still sweating for pitching my business case to my wife for the first pair of 300's. I can see it as a challenge. BTW still working on my LG G3 story-line 😉

D

DirtiByrd

Lyricist I

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.

Great feature addition. Looking forward to the day when the speaker array configures itself based on situation, ambient acoustics as well as user input.

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

@Corry P I have a question about the Era 300s and the height channels when used with a Beam (Gen 2). When playing Dolby Atmos audio, does the Beam play the virtualized front left and front right height channels while the Era 300s play the rear left and rear right height channels from the upward-firing drivers? Or do the Era 300s play the combined front and rear height channels along with the Beam’s virtualized height effects?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

Ken_Griffiths

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?

Taken from a post online: The stream is dictated by the least capable speaker in the group, so if a grouped speaker is not Atmos capable, it will result in the overall stream playing in stereo.

Corry P

Sonos Staff

@Corry P I have a question about the Era 300s and the height channels when used with a Beam (Gen 2). When playing Dolby Atmos audio, does the Beam play the virtualized front left and front right height channels while the Era 300s play the rear left and rear right height channels from the upward-firing drivers? Or do the Era 300s play the combined front and rear height channels along with the Beam’s virtualized height effects?

The former - Beam (gen 2) will virtualise the front height channels, while the 300s will play the rear height channels (as well as the other rear channels).

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

K

karldrogo

Lyricist III

thankyou for identifying that

P

Pixaranimated

Lyricist III

So after talking myself out of buying the era 300s since announcement, thinking i knew best and stating (rear effects are often subtle and the era 300 will be overkill) I have realised my error and gone and bought a pair of era 300s lol.

I will pair them with the sub mini and beam (gen 2) (until Sonos release a new soundbar). (7.1.4) 2 virtual side and 2 virtual front.

Reason for my purchase was watching Peter Pees review and reading here (I did not realise that 2 side channels are virtualised with the era 300s). Also, I am in a small space and the sonos ones the era 300s will replace can’t really sit far behind my head (they’re at ear level to the sides of my sofa) and as they fire directly forward it can be detracting (feeling more like side channels to rears sometimes). Hearing reviews of how it is difficult to pinpoint where the sound is coming from with the era 300s and that placement isn’t as important i think for my situation they will be a massive upgrade for the rear immersion and so something to note. Excited to receive them.

K

karldrogo

Lyricist III

Yes, that's correct. When you have two Sonos Arc speakers paired with a sub for Atmos audio, and you are streaming music to other non-spatial audio enabled Sonos zones at the same time, the audio signal will automatically be downmixed to stereo for those zones. This is because those zones do not have the capability to process the spatial audio information necessary for Atmos audio playback. So, in essence, those zones will still receive the audio stream, but it will not be in spatial audio format.

bockersjv

Local Superstar

A couple of things I’ve noticed that had not been mentioned in the press or by other, although I may have missed it. There is no Balance Control for the ERA 300’s. Well not when two are paired anyway. Also the Trueplay option seems to be the same as the Fives. There is no mention of the internal Mic driven Trueplay.

Apple Atmos works a treat too.

I bought these to replace two Sonos 5’s Gen 2. The 300’s come alive when my Sub Gen 2 is bonded but doing a like for like takes time, moving the sub and re-trueplay tuning so it’s hard to make a side by side comparison. It’s not better or worse but is a different listening experience. Will see how or if that favours one or the other set of speakers.

BrianBosch

Lyricist III

Received my two Era300's this afternoon (CET) via my best friend DHL . I almost hugged him…

Unpacked, installed, trueplay-d etc. Added Apple Music Dlby Atmos songs to my playlist and started to stream them via the S2 app.

What an improvement of listening to music. Goose bumps!! Luckily also favorite tracks my wife likes a lot. Will ‘demonstrate’ them to her when she comes home from a hard day of work. That might justify my investment for these two Era 300's 😉.

Hopefully over time the S2 app becomes even more user friendly and will also Apple Music Classic be supported via the S2 app. Take your time tomorrow is time enough 😂

A big thank you and enjoy launch day of these new gems. A new era of listening to music has just been started.

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