- Cheryl Tan
Sonos Launches Era 100 & Era 300, TruePlay Tuning for Android & More
Sonos has finally announced two new speakers, the Era 100 and Era 300, after the recent leaks. While both are incredibly exciting, one of the most significant additions to the speakers has to be the inclusion of the USB-C input that allows for them to be used with other equipment like turntables.
Let's talk about the Era 100 first. This speaker is seemingly the successor to the Sonos One, although both will still continue to be sold by Sonos. But the Era 100 is certainly an upgrade, with two angled tweeters and a larger woofer for even more powerful bass and a stereo experience. Additionally, something new is that there is now a tactile strip on the top of the speaker which controls volume as you slide your finger along it. This is fantastic for late nights where you want to turn down the volume of your music but you don't want to pick up your phone or turn on the lights to find the volume buttons.
The speaker also comes with a mic array for voice control, as well as Sonos' Trueplay tuning which, after years of complaints, will finally be coming to Android phones as well. The microphones can be disabled via a switch on the back as well, if you're worried about privacy. And as always, the speaker will support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, as well as USB-C input that allows for audio sources to be plugged in via an AUX cable and the Sonos Line-In Adapter. Unfortunately, no 3.5mm line-in, but we're just glad for the option to be available.
But let's move on to the Era 300, because that's even more exciting. It comes in a new, interesting hourglass-shaped design that houses six drivers (four tweeters and two woofers) for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos support. Additionally, the Era 300 can even be used as a pair of rear surround speakers for the Arc or Beam Gen 2, with the up-firing and side-firing tweeters and woofers coming together to potentially provide a 7.1.4 system when pairing two Era 300 speakers with the Arc and Sub.
If you've been using Sonos products for a while, you'll know that spatial audio tracks are rather limited. There was no support for Apple Music's spatial audio, and Amazon Music isn't available in Singapore. But there's good news on this front, as we have heard from the Sonos folks that Apple Music will support spatial audio tracks on the Era 300 from early Q2 2023 onwards.
As for controls, you get the same tactile slider in addition to the play/pause and track-skipping capacitive buttons on the top. At the back, there's the same mic disconnect slider as well as the USB-C line-in port.
While we can't say much about how the speakers sound yet, we did get a chance to listen to the Era 100 and Era 300 in various configurations and suffice it to say, they're certainly impressive and we're looking forward to really putting them through testing. The Era 100 retails for S$449 while the Era 300 goes for S$799 and pre-orders are now open, with general availability starting from 28 March onwards.