- Era 300
- Era 100
- Move (Gen 2)
https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/6/23588049/sonos-era-300-100-optimo-speakers-leak-features
UPDATE: https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/20/23606369/sonos-era-300-100-speakers-leak-features-price-photos
A New "Era" of Sonos Speakers
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New product announcements, made too early have killed companies.
Not just sales but the whole company.
1- - media leaks potential atmos speaker
2 - Apple decides to re-release homepod speaker that happens to compete with said speaker before said speaker is released.
🤔
Maybe coincidence. Maybe not.
As far as consumer goes, I get the immediate benefit to waiting to purchase when you know a better product will be released soon. However, I want Sonos to be around for a long long time to continue to support the system I’m invested in.
Bummer. I had never tried with my current One surrounds.
On the plus side, you all just saved me $1,200! For now.
The end of Sonosnet?
https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/switch-sonos-between-a-wireless-and-wired-setup
This one surprises me a bit. I like that Sonos builds its own mesh and had just kind of assumed Era would continue that tradition.
Obviously Atmos music is the most impressive. But stereo is still rock solid. Some genres benefit from the more open sound than other (electronic music in particular). Still listening to test out other genres...
Took delivery of two white era300’s today. Quite discreet in size and shape, the Mrs is ok with them. Sound wise, awesome as rears to an Arc and Sub, films and music rock but they are very very loud as a package. You could have one serious party with these but you would need to invite your neighbours!
Slightly more difficult, I suspect. I’d put money on the fact the stands aren’t made by Sonos in Sonos manufacturing plants, but made by third parties. Just a guess, mind you.
I believe Sanus, company that often makes speakers stands for Sonos, was involved in one of the leaks. Plus, it’s stands are almost always released at the time speakers are released, portable speakers are the only exception I can recall. I’d say be surprised if stands aren’t released when the new speakers are released.
I noticed the dreaded “pre-order" phrase included in my email notification.
Sonos: just build the damn things and then offer to the market, don't get greedy for cash and put your best customers in pre-orders wait time hell.
I guess the good news is that no payment is taken until the devices are shipped. It probably just assists Sonos to quickly establish the demand and supply, going forward and to manage that entire process.
Era 300 on Sonos stands package are frigging huge compared to Ones on stands. About a foot taller plus much larger speaker box.
Good news is that FedEx came a day early. Setup is standard sonos-easy and replacing the Ones in the living room surround system painless.
My guess is that the new speakers will insert the same latency as the current speakers -- otherwise the new speakers would not be compatible with the current speakers and we would effectively have an S3 system.
Userlevel 7
A VERY interesting post on Reddit from Chris Welch from The Verge:
“Sonos documents list an Arc, Sub, and two 300s as 7.1.4.”
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+17
Losing Google Assistant would be very bad, especially since neither Alexa nor SVC work in my native language (dutch).
Very excited for this. Hoping that the Era 100 delivers the Atmos sound that we’ve been lacking from the Sonos home theater system since the debut of the Arc.
Wanted to add that my big question on the Optimo...I mean Era, is whether or not these can be use for home theatre and how exactly that would work.
I fear though that the Era 300 is not a Five equivalent, but more directly competing against Homepod in terms of audio and price. That would be disappointing.
I think that’s the point though, no? The ‘300’ I think is a direct reference to the Play:3, which would be the Homepod competitor. Sonos has an empty slot at that price point, so this year would be a good time to launch something, particularly with Apple bringing back the HomePod.
Please check the spec of the Era100’s. I seem to remember that they are not Atmos compatible?
I think the idea that some people are asking for is the you could switch selected speakers into ‘autarky’ mode. They become low-latency but can no longer be a source of network-play.
Why not allow that currently with the Sonos Five? It also has a line in.
I would guess the reason is that Sonos sells “multi-room” speakers. They’re not in the business of selling one room speakers, there’s already a ton of competition in that space. Sonos has built their reputation and product line on the fact that data is shared across your network.
It would feel odd for them to change that now. But I suppose anything is possible, it most likely depends on what the market is demanding, and how well Sonos fits in that environment (without breaking all the older devices/systems that are in use, or confusing all of the existing users)
Reports suggest that the 100 has a line in using USB C. How will that work, or, what will that work with?
I have always believed that the Play 1/One would have been a better product than what it already is, if it had a line in jack. But I am not sure what the 100 is reported to have, is that feature.
Doing a quick search, there are tons of dongles out there that convert USB C to 3.5mm jacks or RCA, so I suspect this won’t be an issue. Also, I would guess that you can connect android phones with USB-C ports to the Era speakers without a dongle. Since Apple is supposed to switch to USB C in the near future, those too. Of course, with airplay and bluetooth, this doesn’t seem 100% necessary, unless the wired connection handle can do things that wireless cannot.
On the same subject, although nothing is confirmed yet, history would tell us that the USB-C input, and bluetooth are unlikely to be turned on when the Era speakers are used as rear surround speakers. Again though, nothing is confirmed. I just wouldn’t assume that to be true.
Userlevel 1
Reports suggest that the 100 has a line in using USB C. How will that work, or, what will that work with?
I have always believed that the Play 1/One would have been a better product than what it already is, if it had a line in jack. But I am not sure what the 100 is reported to have, is that feature.
Doing a quick search, there are tons of dongles out there that convert USB C to 3.5mm jacks or RCA, so I suspect this won’t be an issue. Also, I would guess that you can connect android phones with USB-C ports to the Era speakers without a dongle. Since Apple is supposed to switch to USB C in the near future, those too. Of course, with airplay and bluetooth, this doesn’t seem 100% necessary, unless the wired connection handle can do things that wireless cannot.
On the same subject, although nothing is confirmed yet, history would tell us that the USB-C input, and bluetooth are unlikely to be turned on when the Era speakers are used as rear surround speakers. Again though, nothing is confirmed. I just wouldn’t assume that to be true.
The bigger question is if this will be a true zero latency line-in or if it will still be a 75ms minimum delay because of the Sonos software.
Okay Sonos it's March 1st start selling the damn thing already
Optimo is a better name. Era just doesn’t roll of the tongue. Is it “Air-Ah” or “Ear-Ah”? I get that this is supposed to be start of a new era of Sonos speakers, but that doesn’t mean you have to name the product such. I guess Optimo was just one too many syllables.
Didn’t see any other new info about the speakers themselves.
Also, a Move Gen 2 is not terribly surprising. Besides 4 years since Gen 1 release, there are clearly some easy features to adopt that Roam already has. I suspect their won’t be a new form factor or significant change in battery. But it would be rather impressive if the Move uses some of the new woofer tech they bought to improve audio in a smaller (or same) size, which should also improve battery life?
This is exactly why “leaks” don’t really help. Sonos will announce them when they’re ready, not when The Verge posts a rumor.
In this case, there’s some evidence that most of the “leak” may be accurate, but we really need to wait for Sonos to announce.
There’s all sorts of reasons why they may not be ready to do so, too.
Wanted to add that my big question on the Optimo...I mean Era, is whether or not these can be use for home theatre and how exactly that would work.
I fear though that the Era 300 is not a Five equivalent, but more directly competing against Homepod in terms of audio and price. That would be disappointing.
Maybe as whiny current customers, we are get first dibs via email when sonos does bother to make them available, and we can begin the months long whining about software updates making things worse, until sonos head engineer #1 figures out what they did wrong in the first place
Maybe as whiny current customers, we are get first dibs via email when sonos does bother to make them available, and we can begin the months long whining about software updates making things worse, until sonos head engineer #1 figures out what they did wrong in the first place
Gee, you'd think a product which brings such utter disappointment would turn someone off from purchasing it. Then again, some folks seem to enjoy whining.
The bigger question is if this will be a true zero latency line-in or if it will still be a 75ms minimum delay because of the Sonos software.
Do you mean for playback in the specific room, or in grouped rooms?
Wanted to add that my big question on the Optimo...I mean Era, is whether or not these can be use for home theatre and how exactly that would work.
I fear though that the Era 300 is not a Five equivalent, but more directly competing against Homepod in terms of audio and price. That would be disappointing.
I haven’t heard the latest HomePod (yet), but I still personally think the Sonos One sounded better than the original HomePod, which I’ve always thought lacked clarity and sounded a little fuzzy, particularly in its mid-high range. My son-in-law has the original HomePod and he has switched to Sonos after hearing things side-by-side. The ‘One’ is much clearer/crispier sounding to my old ears.
I couldn’t actually gauge the size of the Optima/Era from the ‘rendered’ orangey image that The Verge posted some time ago, but it always struck me as being around the size of the old (discontinued) Play: 3 or somewhere between that and a Play: 5/Five - so if I had been asked to guess it’s name, I would have said a ‘Sonos Four’ - so that’s another wrong guess (yet again) on my part.. huh! 🙅
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+17
If USB-C is also used for power, will the power supply be external? That would not be very nice.
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