A New "Era" of Sonos Speakers

Just something plugged directly into the speaker and not grouped.  You cannot use a Five right now without a 75ms latency even if something is plugged directly into it and it’s not grouped/wireless.  I’m hoping this move to a USB-C input allows actual zero-latency (or close) operation.

There are many latency threads.

While I understand why people would want to play audio input without delay for the specific room with input attached, I can see why that would be done for two reasons.  One is that you could then use  the aux input for TV input, which is not it’s designed use and probably not what Sonos prefers..  The second is that if used as designed for audio only, then the delay is not a concerned and playing grouped audio in sync is a bigger priority.    A switch to allow playback in both ways might be ideal, but again, syncing audio with TVs is not the design.  Maybe Sonos is at a point where they prefer flexibility even if it means customers used speakers in unintended ways.  The inclusion of bluetooth, assuming rumors are true,  on these speakers seems to lean that way, so who knows.

Yes, I believe that’s the case.   Here’s an older article about USB audio. I don’t know if the article is still valid, but it does appear that an analog/digital conversion needs to take place. The USB-C cable doesn’t carry an analog signal on it’s on.

I like the idea overall. Since so many sources are digital already these days, there shouldn’t be a need to convert to analog and then back to digital, a direction connection should be fine.  As I stated earlier, you should (maybe?) be able to connect an android or USB-C equiped iOS device directly to the speaker without any conversion, perhaps even having better audio than what analog RCA or 3.5 mm connection can handle.  It’s completely spuclation on my part, but there 

Also, if you do need to convert from an analog source to digital, you can use the dongle Sonos provides, or if you want to use some other converter device, you can.  If you don’t have a need for an wired input at all, then you aren’t spending money on something you don’t need.

Just wonder if these new speakers can be added to the home theatre system to make it more complete…

I wondered the same thing. I wonder if when the 300s are set up as a stereo pair or used as surrounds, the inside side-firing drivers are disabled. And if it’s true that adding the 300s as surrounds will create a 7.1.4 setup with the Arc, disabling these inside drivers would make sense. Or it’s possible that the inside drivers will just play the same audio as the three (I think) front-facing drivers.

It does make some sense to disable the inside speakers as rears.  But then I keep looking at the promo image below, and the only speakers pointed directly at the main listening area are the inside  speakers. Seems like the inside speakers would do a better job of creating ‘side audio’ then the outside speakers, since there would be do wall bounce required.  However, also seems odd the the side audio would likely appear to be coming from behind the rear audio.  Maybe there is some DSP time delay to address that or something. 

edit:  Also, just a promo image.  If the actual recommended layout has  the rear speakers facing inward slightly, that changes things.

I felt the same about big fancy setups, spouse wanted something less intrusive than what I had.

After a while using the Sonos solution I find I’m very happy with the sound and the lack of complexity (when it is happy) is really nice. My knees really appreciate the lack of a rat’s nest of wires too.

Just ordered a 100 - I sent back a Sonos One because Alexa was unreliable - a critical function for me. I spent too many hours with support to no avail. I subsequently bought several Amazon Echo devices, all of which have been completely reliable re Alexa, also dirt cheap, but nowhere near as good re sound quality.

I loved the sound of the One though, so I’m just hoping they will have improved this aspect with the new model. If not I of course have the option of using the marvellous returns policy.

That makes the 100 a very flexible solution for getting HiFi quality sound, even perhaps without the addition of a Sub Mini, for not a lot of money. SVC should make the geography limitations of voice control a non issue, and the line in will allow users that like an album art display to get that via device like an earlier generation Echo Show 5/8; earlier generation because the new ones have no line out jacks, although they may have USB audio out, I am not sure. And turntable fans are also catered to in a cheaper way than they are at this time.

Assuming that the Era speakers can be used for rear atmos surround, and will be released sometime this year, it doesn’t make sense for the Ray to do rear atmos as well...hindsight being 20/20 and all.  It very likely could have upset a lot of people who bought the Rays who would have preferred to wait for Eras.  As well, I bet Sonos would prefer customers to use the Eras instead of Rays.

Listening to the launch coverage today, it sounds like the Era 300 may be better for music than an Arc-based surround system. And to be honest, I’ve never been that impressed by my Arc for music, but the living room is my favorite place to listen. 

If I got a pair of 300s for rear surrounds, is there an easy way to toggle between them being surrounds and stereo fronts (without Arc) for music (preferably also using the sub)? I have a recliner opposite the TV couch that would be perfect for listening to music. 

That would make Era 300 worth it to me. But I don’t want to reconfigure the whole system back and forth every time. Let alone run Trueplay again (shudder). 

Oh, right. You’d need to reconfigure the Sub each time, too.