Better than the Homepod (mini)? These are the Sonos Era 100 and 300

The Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 are two new smart speakers with a number of cool innovations. iPhoned tells you what you need to know!

Sonos Era 100 and Era 300

Secretly we already knew that these new smart speakers were coming. But today is the day: Sonos has officially introduced the Era 100 and Era 300.

According to Sonos, the Era 300 is designed to let you enjoy spatial audio, and the Era 100 gives you room-filling sound with next-gen acoustics. We tell you exactly what that means.

Sonos Era 100

The Era 100 is the successor to the Sonos One, but with new hardware and software. The speaker is slightly larger than the One and has an improved design that should provide detailed stereo sound and deep bass.

Two tweeters pointing left and right provide the stereo sound, and a large midwoofer is responsible for the powerful bass. It is now possible to combine two copies for a room-filling stereo sound. Also nice: two speakers can be used as rear speakers for a great surround sound system.

Sonos Era 300

You can see the Era 300 as the successor to the older Play:3. The speaker has a striking, hourglass-like shape, which is designed for optimal dispersion and direction of sound. Whether you like that is of course a matter of taste. In any case, the shape benefits the sound.

The speaker is equipped with no less than six drivers, which are directed to the left, right, forward and upwards. This ensures a very spacious sound. It is also the first Sonos speaker that can deliver multi-channel surround sound when used as a home theater rear speaker.

Starting March 28, 2023, Sonos will add spatial audio support to Apple Music. Apple Music with Spatial Audio is available on Sonos Era 300, Arc and Beam (Gen 2).

True Play and Quick Tune

The Trueplay function that we already know from previous models can also be found on the Sonos Era 100 and 300. This function adjusts the sound of the speaker to the room in which it is located. You then ‘scan’ the room with the microphone of your iPhone, so that the speaker knows what it looks like.

New is the Quicktune function. This function is similar to Trueplay, but it is not necessary to make a tour of the room with your iPhone. The speaker does this automatically and uses its own microphone for this.

That own microphone is not only there for the Quicktune function, but also for voice control via Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. It is also nice that you can now temporarily switch off the microphone with a physical switch.

Sonos 100 and 300: wireless and wired

In addition to WiFi, both speakers also support Bluetooth. Even though you may not use it that often in practice, it is useful that it is possible. AirPlay 2 will of course also remain possible.

What is new is that the speakers are equipped with a USB-C connection. If you buy an optional line-in adapter, you can change that connection into an aux input. And that means that you can connect a record player to it, for example.

Price and availability

The Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 are available from March 28, and you can choose a white or a black version with both models. The Sonos Era 100 has a suggested retail price of € 279, for the Sonos Era 300 you have to pay € 499.

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