Sonos announced two Today’s new wireless speaker marks the beginning of a new era for the company, both literally and figuratively. So far, Sonos has been focusing its recent efforts on its line of soundbars. (Let’s be honest: the Arc, Beam Gen 2, and Ray are some of the best soundbars for the money.)
With the release of the new Era 100 and Era 300 speakers, though, Sonos has turned its attention back to music—and for the first time, it’s using cutting-edge and long-established technology. It’s a shame that it also gives up its extremely clear and concise naming system in exchange for something else.
The $449 (£449) Era 300 is the larger, more luxurious and pricier of the two new models. Sonos describes it as an hourglass shape — which seems plausible if you squint, but to us it looks a little more organic. Imagine part of a segmented insect, or HR Giger imagined a wireless speaker. If you’re being unkind, you might even say the 300 smells a little bit of ass.
The Era 300 is designed to deliver spatial audio sound. For now, it’s limited to handling Dolby Atmos content streamed over Wi-Fi from Amazon Music Unlimited—bad news for those of us who enjoy Dolby Atmos joy from Apple Music or Tidal, while Even more useless for those feeling Sony 360 Reality Audio is the superior spatial audio format. Sonos will eventually incorporate other services and formats, though, if the past is any guide.
The Era 300 features a total of six speaker drivers, each powered by a discrete Class D amplifier module. Sonos being Sonos, exact wattage levels, and drive size and composition, are confidential information – but we have a few things Do Know: One mid/tweet driver faces forward, two other mid/tweet drivers fire out the sides of the cabinet for some stereo width, and a horn-loaded tweeter is directed upwards in an effort to deliver the sound critical to the The sound height of Dolby Atmos (Dolby Atmos) audio priority list.
A pair of low-frequency woofers face left and right, and their job is to give the sound the necessary punch and punch. All six drivers sit behind carefully designed waveguides to spread the sound as widely as possible and reduce the impression of a “point source” of sound waves.
