Hello @Jonny Extracto, welcome to the Sonos Community!

I would personally choose the two Era 300’s with a Sonos Sub. Main reason would be the ability to listen to Dolby Atmos Music.

You can find more about that in our blog post: The Beginner’s Guide to Spatial Audio

With my reply, your thread moved to the top of the latest activity list, maybe other Community users would like to share their opinion.

I hope this helps.

From those choices I agree with ​@Sotiris C. but for different reasons.

The Sub will extend the low end giving you the full range of the recording far better than the 5s on their own will. I don’t view Atmos support as a main selling point, because like soundbars, the dsp and sound reflection has limitations to how effective it can be. How well it works is dependant on your room size, keeping clear space above and around the speakers etc, so feeling underwhelmed by Atmos can be quite common.

Depending on what size you mean by average, Era 100s and a Sub may be more than capable of providing what you want.

Design is a very personal thing, but for a speaker wire free Sonos solution in the living room, I’d get the Ikea Symfonisk picture frame or lamp speakers with Sub as I think they look far nicer and blend into a room far better than either of the Sonos options.

If it was my money, I’d take a slightly different route and get either a Sonos Amp with passive speakers + sub or a Port with a set of powered/active 2.1 speakers. Obviously you then have speaker wires, but get far more flexibility in terms of speaker design and choices. With the Sub handling the low end <100Hz, you can use more discrete on-wall speakers or smaller bookshelf speakers without sacrificing music quality. 

I am very happy with a stereo pair of Era 100s and a Gen2 sub.

Thanks everyone for the great input! 

I'm still undecided since the majority of music I listen to comes from ripped CD's. Yeah, I know.....but this is just how I evolved. It was the thing to do back then.

If  I dipped into  Apple music, I could benefit from the  Dolby Atmos sound, but in a practical sense, I  would be paying twice for music I already own.  Streaming the Apple would be better quality by far, but my listening behavior is mostly background while I meander around the house. My 60+ year old ears might not detect the difference between an ERA 300 and a tea kettle whistling in the other room. Laugh all you want but I saw Zeppelin and the Who with Keith Moon, so there.

I am thrilled with the sound quality available today and it's all so very tempting, but I don't want to overspend on sound only my dog can hear.  

I've learned a from the forum. Many thanks!

Don’t forget Sonos do their (30?) day trial, so if you don’t like what you choose first, send them back. 
 

That said, I’m very happy with my paired Era 300’s, even without a Sub or Sub Mini. 

Don't feel old, my last live concert was The Beach Boys.

I haven't been a fan of Atmos since few of the movies I watch have it and I don't usually listen to music on my Arc. Made an effort to give both a try and now I'd lean to the 300s and Sub for a new Room set.

No vinyl and I'm finding Amazon's Stations option is replacing my ripped CD collection.

I recently compared a pair of fives with a pair of era 300’s + sub mini. I eventually went for the era 300’s with the sub mini. I listen to a lot of classical music streaming on Apple Music. To be honest mostly the Dolby Atmos records on Apple Music led me to chose the era 300’s. Sound quality is great. I used to have two Play 5’s (gen 1) which were also very good, but these era’s are on another level. But since you only listen to non Dolby Atmos music I would maybe choose the fives then.