STEREO GUIDE verdict
The Sonos Era 300 delivered rich bass and good balance in the review. However, the 3D effect of Dolby Atmos was not really convincing.
Pros
- balanced, gripping sound with really rich bass
- very good room impression for a one-box system
- very good microphones for Amazon Alexa and Sonos Voice Control
- Trueplay calibration now also without iPhone
Cons
- Device control via Amazon Alexa was still a problem in the test
- low selection of 3D music tracks and also only via Amazon Music Unlimited
- not very convincing room effect with Dolby Atmos
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Sound: naturalness / transparency8.0
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Sound: Bass / Dynamics8.2
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Practice / Connectivity9.3
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Price/Performance9.2
The new Sonos Era 300 is not only supposed to expand the strong position of the brand from the USA with 3D surround sound. It is intended to eliminate a partial backlog at the same time. The Sonos multi-room system is considered the market leader. Even in our reviews, such as the recent Sonos IKEA Symfonisk Gen 2 speaker, the American technology often proved to be the easiest and most stable to handle. However, this has been accompanied by limitations in streaming protocols and formats. Audio streaming via Bluetooth was missed in the WLAN speakers for the home, as were analog inputs.
With the new Sonos Era 300, which together with the Era 100 establishes a new product generation, all that should be a thing of the past. The smaller Era 100 is often compared to the still available Sonos One because of its size, price and functionality, and some observers already consider it a kind of successor. In contrast, the larger Era 300 embodies an independent product in many respects.
Its special position is already reflected in its design. There are definitely functional reasons for this: Sonos takes the 3D sound trend – be it Dolby Atmos, Apple Spatial or Auro 3D – and puts it into an amazingly compact speaker. With a width of 26 centimeters and a weight of 4.5 kilograms, the Era 300 belongs to the middle class of WLAN-enabled home speakers. It is hardly bigger and heavier than a Sonos Move placed on its side. Nevertheless, it should not only bring convincing virtual stereo, but also Dolby Atmos into the living room with a discrete height channel.
These loudspeaker drivers are inside
The elliptical shape with a slight waist, reminiscent of a diabolo, is completely new for a speaker. For those who do not immediately understand how to set up the Era 300: The large grilled elliptical surface is the front. Behind it, however, is only a center tweeter along with a rather large sound guide. This waveguide limits the dispersion angle to the sweet spot, i.e. the central position exactly opposite the Era 300.
The other five speaker drivers are hidden in the narrower perforation running all around: one 2-way arrangement each of woofer and tweeter for left and right, and an additional tweeter radiating upwards for the 3D signal components. These should reach the listener via reflections on the ceiling. By home theater standards, the Era 300 could be described as a compact 3.0.1 system with a somewhat generous interpretation of the standards.
Stereo pairing for even more spatiality
But that’s not the end of the use cases for the Era 300: You can choose from two via the
Sonos S2 app
(and the Era 300 only understands this) to form a stereo pair. Or connect the two as rear speakers with a soundbar of the latest generation, i.e. the Sonos Beam Gen 2 we recently reviewed or a Sonos Arc. The upward radiating indirect tweeters should then provide true channel-discrete Dolby Atmos 3D sound.
The two quite compact bass speaker chassis work in so-called push-push mode, i.e. in opposite directions, on a closed cabinet. This significantly minimizes cabinet resonances and makes placing the speaker near a wall or corner much easier than with a bass reflex or passive diaphragm system. However, only the listening test can answer questions regarding the achievable maximum level in the bass.
Control and actuation
The Sonos S2 app, which is offered free of charge for iOS and Android, should be the first choice for most users to control the Era 300. However, it should be just as convenient and full-fledged via Amazon Alexa. This voice assistant can be used with the smart speaker as long as you link your Alexa account to the Sonos. The necessary far-field microphones are already installed. But somehow Sonos and Amazon seem to have knitted everything with a very hot needle.
Already the connection of Alexa and the at the time of our review alternative-less, but not free online music service Amazon Music Unlimited with the Sonos app was a bit tricky, especially since the iPhone caused additional chaos with the passwords. Although I have various Amazon accounts in different countries for professional reasons. Except, interestingly, this circumstance didn’t present an obstacle when I recently installed Alexa in a 250,000-watt Bavarian smart speaker on four wheels. This was done in no time at all without any stress and has worked perfectly since then – whenever I have a suitable task for her.
Just before the Sonos or the iPhone, or both together, flew across the three-dimensional room, it suddenly worked. Alexa still complained that she needed special skills for the Sonos Era 300, although I had already installed the normal Sonos skills – her two-star rating was quite impressive.
License to Skill: Alexa, we have a problem
“Alexa, play music.” “To do that, you first need to enable the Sonos 300 skill in the Alexa app. Then ask me to search for new devices.” However, I didn’t find any specific Skills for the new Atmos speaker at the time of reviewing. After all, the Sonos Voice Control, which was activated completely without any additional accounts, shortcuts or curses, was still available to me. The only condition: You had to decide during the installation whether you wanted to issue your commands in English or French. Oops, you speak German – all of a sudden out of the blue. Obviously, Sonos has added an update since last weekend. Those were the days when you could buy a really complete speaker in the store.
Sonos tests the reviewers: After the update is before the update
And now I’m sitting here pondering the chicken-and-egg principle. In the past, you also wrote a test report and it was done. I just had to get back to this report now to take into account recent updates like the addition of the German language. And to the Era 100 released days before as well, because there the steep learning progress is not yet included, which is confusing if you don’t consider the release date and the update capability.
Where was I again? Oh yes, the array of microphones not only ensures that the compact Sonos understands voice commands very well even with background noise or its own music playback even from a distance. The microphones can also be turned off completely via a slide switch on the hardware, which should accommodate all users with privacy concerns. However, the slider sits on the back. If you are not afraid of the big eavesdropping attack, you can easily disable the omnipresent assistant via a touch key and re-arm it if necessary. That’s handy if, like me, you’re on the phone ranting about Alexa to a colleague and she keeps butting in whenever her name comes up.
The touch controls on the device have also grown up compared to previous Sonos products. Thus, there are not only the usual control buttons for playback and track jump, but also a direct voice assistant selection and a pretty cool furrow with stepless touch furrow for volume control.
Finally with Bluetooth
Bluetooth now works as a playback method without deactivating the WLAN and Multiroom functionality (as was the case with Roam and Move). Analog signals can be imported via a separately available adapter from 3.5 mm jack to USB-C. For example, if you own a turntable with a built-in phono amplifier, you can also listen to vinyl very easily via the Era 300. However, both variants require a prior setup via the Sonos S2 app. So just listening to it is not.
To really enjoy 3D material with the Era 300, you currently need a paid Amazon Music Unlimited account with Dolby Atmos tracks. The use of Apple Music with Apple Spatial is supposed to come with one of the next software updates, but it did not work at the time of reviewing. The tricky part: We reviewers were informed by Sonos. There were even “review guides” with precise instructions on what to consider for Dolby Atmos testing with the Era 300. It even contained a selection of music samples by performers who were completely unknown to me except for the Beatles (“Come Together” in the 2019 Mix).
Okay, irony is not everyone’s cup of tea. Maybe I’m too old for gadgets like the Sonos. But I think there’s something about a high-tech brand that’s famous for easy installation and use that quickly throws you for a loop, unless you carefully read the PDF from the announcement email, which is only for internal editorial use.
How can the ordinary buyer solve his problems with the Era 300?
But I became a HiFi reviewer because I’m curious and want to experience a product as one of my readers who bought the device at Amazon, Mediamarkt, Saturn or anywhere else in this galaxy. And the Sonos Era 300 is already available for purchase. The Wi-Fi speaker already has the bestseller seal on Amazon, which I can fully understand in terms of sound (spoiler alert!). But what happens when someone fires up their hip new multi-room speaker without the exclusive PDF? I can tell you, because I only reach for any instructions in the greatest need. That’s why I was initially surprised about Sonos’ explicit advice to all reviewers that you absolutely need Amazon’s Music Unlimited account for Dolby Atmos.
After all, there are numerous Dolby Atmos tracks in the normal Amazon Music and also in Apple iTunes. But they sounded no different than the normal stereo recordings as well. Can’t the Era 300 do that better or doesn’t it get the right signal? At this point the need was so great that I gave the rare review guide for STEREO GUIDE , in contrast to old habits, my full attention. Two short sentences made me see both the Sonos Era 300 and many a successful YouTube influencer about the smart speaker with completely different eyes.
Essential info about the Sonos
The one essential piece of info was: Dolby Atmos does not work with AirPlay. (Please consider the release date of the review when reading, in case some update or upgrade at some point makes these facts obsolete). The other important info: When playing Dolby Atmos, you get a Dolby Atmos logo displayed in the Sonos app. Ah, now, yes.
While I was still wondering how a normal user might fare who had just started up his proudly acquired Dolby Atmos 3D speaker via the Sonos app’s user interface, which is exemplary in itself, I started playing Dolby Atmos tracks directly from the Sonos app. This avoids the detour via Airplay, which would also be possible in principle, but without 3D signal processing, when you select your Era 300 in the Amazon Music app. And look: In the Sonos app, I finally saw the long-awaited Dolby Atmos sign. Eureka!
Spoiler alert
Warning, spoiler: While again nothing came out of the compact Sonos speaker, what someone who regularly reports on proper home theaters with Dolby Atmos and Auro 3D would call the feeling of sounds coming from above. But at least, I can now say with certainty: It was not up to me!
For a better overview, we have compiled all the conditions and settings for 3D sound playback via the Sonos Era 300 under FAQs below.
Room calibration without iPhone
Sonos’ Trueplay room calibration has already convinced us in several tests. However, it only worked with the dedicated home speakers with the help of an iPhone. With the Era 300, this is a thing of the past, because it measures itself on demand via the built-in microphones. The very effective and user-friendly principle was previously only known from the two mobile speakers Sonos Move and Roam, which also took on a pioneering role in terms of Bluetooth within the Sonos family.
The Sonos Era 300 gives the user a choice between the quick and convenient automatic and the even more accurate old-school calibration. In it, you have to dance around the room for a while, waving your iPhone, according to the app’s instructions. In the first case, the speaker records the measurement sweeps with its own microphones at its own location. In the second, more information is gathered about the acoustics in the room and you move around a bit in between.
The room adjustment is especially useful if the speaker is to be placed close to the wall and the bass seems bloated. With the new selection option, Sonos puts Android smartphone and tablet users, who were previously excluded from the blessing of this room compensation, on an equal footing with iOS users. Sonos always cited the variety of microphones built into the Android devices supplied by many manufacturers as an argument for the two-tier society. Finally, for a meaningful room correction, one must know the microphone characteristics and include them in the evaluation of the measurement results.
This is how the 3D Speaker from Sonos sounds
The bad news first: As already indicated, the use of Dolby Atmos recordings, which also arrived at the Era 300 in their full glory and were underlined by the Atmos seal in the Sonos app in multi-channel sound, made practically no difference compared to scabrous stereo tracks. The good news: The Sonos Era sounds extremely spacious for a one-box speaker system anyway with everything we fed it in the listening test. And not only in the width of the imaginary listening stage, but also in height and depth. However, it does not succeed in what we know from Dolby Atmos systems from the home theater sector. At least at the moment, you never know what updates are coming.
Flat hierarchy
There is no bottom and top with Atmos à la Era 300. There is only a pleasantly large cloud of sound that gives music the space to unfold – perfect for a relaxed and more realistic listening experience than one is generally used to from speakers of this size. A great performance that makes the Sonos a really good speaker for multi-room installations where not everything is subordinated to the sound. But voices or effects that seem to come from above are not his thing. And helicopters or helium balloons whizzing overhead like in Dolby Atmos cinema are even less so. Is that a problem? Everyone must answer this question for themselves. Satisfaction as far as 3D sound is concerned stands and falls with personal expectations.
However, if you want to increase the room impression, you can buy a second Sonos Era 300 and form a stereo pair with the other Era 300 in the app. Then there are more dynamics and, above all, a real wide stereo stage for the fraction of the price that wool-dyed high-end audio fans spend on a couple of arm-thick wonder cables for the distance between their conventional hi-fi amplifiers and their passive speakers.
No helicopters or helium balloons
As little as the 3D sound with Dolby Atmos convinced our critical ears in the editorial office, the basic sound tuning of the Sonos Era 300 convinced us. The tonality follows the Sonos Five and the Era 300 also does very well in dynamics and level stability for its relatively compact dimensions. Even without striking 3D effects from the treble channels, the new Sonos is one of the one-box speakers with the most vivid spatiality. And that’s really great in an environment where you shouldn’t even expect too much from the stereo imaging despite the usual two channels.
As always with Sonos, the tonal tuning of the Era 300 proves to be very coherent without any rough edges, simply perfect for all kinds of music and very suitable for long-term listening. Thanks to dynamic loudness control for boosting bass and treble at low listening volumes, it is also highly recommended for background sound, for example via web radio.
If you find the bass playback with its lush boom too dominant or if you are threatened by trouble with noise-sensitive neighbors, you can deactivate this feature in the app’s settings. In any case, Sonos once again succeeded in producing a bass from a really not big, living room-friendly case with the Era 300 that impresses acquaintances similar to the enormous acceleration of a Tesla. The active technology ensures a rich yield and a rich punch with decent precision here.
Conclusion and alternatives: Sonos Era 300 vs Sonos Five
A compact WLAN-enabled multi-room speaker that can do Dolby Atmos? Does not exist elsewhere on the market. Even with much wider soundbars, 3D sound is sometimes only available virtually or only in the form of blow-up algorithms. This makes the Era 300 unique.
Even more: Sonos has finally succeeded in digitizing the cult celebrated by so-called audiophiles, i.e. mostly gentlemen of advanced age. That is, those who wien their two-dozen Japan pressings and master recordings of extra-strong vinyl before each play and choose their music program not for the class of the interpretation but for the finesse of the recording. We never thought we would experience the same thing again as in the 80s of the last century, only digitally and wirelessly via WLAN. There you sit on your couch and listen to “A Higher Power”, one of the most boring songs Coldplay has to offer, just because it is among the manageable range of tracks available in Dolby Atmos.
As with audiophile interconnect cables made of high-priced and high-purity oxygen-free copper, the effect is debatable. But at least the new Sonos Era 300 is an all-around successful multi-room speaker with smart speaker functionality that even saves some money compared to the Sonos Five, which is hardly better in normal use.
Specifications Sonos Era 300
- Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price: 500 Euro
- Dimensions (W x H x D): 26 x 16 x 18.5 cm
- Weight: 4,5 kg
- Features: 2-way, virtual stereo with center, discrete 3D/Dolby Atmos with up-firing tweeters, stereo pairing, Bluetooth, WLAN, Bluetooth, Sonos 2 app compatible, standalone Trueplay room calibration, Alexa voice control via integrated microphones built in
- More at www.sonos.com
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