A New "Era" of Sonos Speakers

The 300s are temping upgrades to the Sonos Ones for rears. But the price, including stands, is a kick in the pants. I think I’ll wait for an SL model to shave cost before jumping on this hype train.

I’m pumped for spatial audio support on Apple Music though. Having to fire up the TV to get spatial audio (through Apple TV) has been a real bummer and is not nearly as nice as screen-off music listening.

$1200+ including stands isn't cheap. There's a long list of folks (e.g. Military, students etc) that quality for 10% discount.

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). 

I would not expect this because this has not been the SONOS tradition. I expect that you would need to unbond the 300’s from ARC, then set them up as a stereo pair.  Personally, this would quickly become an unwelcome chore.

There would unlikely be any difference in the software between removing the current surround speakers, and the Era 300s. i.e. sure, it can be done, but you’d lose all TruePlay if used, and it would be a pain to do each time, with a bunch of keystrokes necessary to go between a stereo pair and a set up surrounds. 

This would not be a setup I’d recommend. Probably much to Sonos’ Sales groups happiness. 

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

There is no easy way to toggle between the two.  The adding/removing process takes a little time to configure the radios and establish the handshake between the units.

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. 

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

No more the ‘end of SonosNet’ than the fact that the Sonos Roam or the Sonos Move don’t connect to SonosNet, either. 

I agree that our older SonosNet speakers will be fine working this way still but I’d put money on the fact that Sonos probably won’t make anymore now that support it. Otherwise why won’t these 2 new ones support it? They always stated the portables did not support it given their portable nature.

It’s a shame I think as I think SonosNet is a great feature but I also understand it is there due to how the original speakers used to work, back in the old days 😀 

It surprised me too. It’s a shame I think as I love the SonosNet feature with Sonos although I know my existing system will still be fine working on it.

These products are a missed opportunity for SONOS by not including either a HDMI connection or enabling the USB-C port to work with a USB-C to HDMI connector.

Very disappointed that the Era 100 does not support using them as a default audio output with Apple TV. SONOS only supports this through their soundbar’s HDMI TV connection …

I was hoping to replace my current Bose audio system with a pair of Era 100s and (maybe) the Sub Mini since I like 2.1 sound for music and don’t really care about movie surround sound or super booming base. I am not a sounder fan.

A pair of the new Apple HomePods with spatial audio and Apple TV integration are likely the way I will go in our Great Room and relegate my 4 SONOS Ones and SONOS Port to other rooms for ambient listening. Done adding any more SONOS products to my “kit” ...

Very disappointed in SONOS.

Or maybe Error 330/100.

Please check the spec of the Era100’s. I seem to remember that they are not Atmos compatible?

The 100’s are Atmos compatible, in the sense that you can use them with Arc or Beam Gen 2, that do Atmos. They do not do Atmos themselves though, so I’d say they’re not Atmos capable.

Shipping as promised….so far zo good 

I don’t fear this anymore, and not disappointed.  Granted, I haven’t heard it yet, but additional info and thoughts have changed the way I look at.  There absolutely needs to be an Era 300 that isn’t a replacement/equivalent for the Five (call it Era 500).

1 - The angle of the upward firing speaker needs to be more vertical since the sound won’t be traveling as far horizontally...like it does in the Arc.  Since you would want to be place an Era 500 at the front of a large room, it would need to have angles like the Arc...which means it would work as well for rear surround duty.  A bit of a catch-22.  The Era 300 seems ideal for rear duty and atmos music in smaller rooms.  A good first step.

2- The Five is already larger than an Era 300, so adding side and upfiring speakers would make the speaker enormous.  An Era 500 really needs the new woofer tech Sonos bought recently from Mayht to reduce it size, maybe more than any other speaker..  And that isn’t ready for production just yet apparently. 

3. All Sonos speakers need to be flexible these days, useable in multiple situations.  Most can be used for rears, stereo pair, or stand alone speakers.  The portables can be used portable, stereo pair, or stand alone.  An Era 500 would likely not make a good rear speaker due to upfiring angle, and would probably disappoint many if it can’t be used for front home theatre.  That means that Sonos has to introduce separate fronts logic, either a center channel speaker or phantom center channel, while competing with their own Arc soundbar.  Sonos probably isn’t ready for that just yet.

4. Reviews are generally stating that the Era 300 is very different that just about everything you’ve heard before for spatial music.  It’s going to take some getting used to. It makes more sense to ask consumers to get used to atmos music on a speaker that costs $450 each over an Era 500 that will likely cost upwards of $600 each.

I got a pair of Era 300’s, paired them in stereo and bonded them to my Gen 3 Sub for music listening.  All I can say so far is they are WAY more powerful than I imagined both in loudness, soundstage and bass (even without the sub they have way deeper reach than the pair of ones I had in this configuration.  Maybe they are not quite as good as the fives on their own, but they are still really impressive on their own. With the sub bonded they sound huge, as big as my full on Aperion Audio sound system in my living room.

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!

Anyone do any measurements of their 100 or 300 speakers yet?

DXOMARK has posted some of their obtuse measurements of the 100. The massive directionality error and audible levels of distortion measured at the crossover point of the 100 has turned me off purchasing for now, would be interested what the 300s look like.

https://www.dxomark.com/sonos-era-100-speaker-test/

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.