Sonos officially launches Era 100 and Era 300 speakers here are the details

Date:
Tue, 07 Mar 2023 14:00:51 +0000

Description:
All-new multi-room speakers finally unveiled, confirming Bluetooth and USB-C line-in, plus Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio support for Era 300.

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After months of speculation and leaks, Sonos has at last officially taken the wraps off its newmultiroom speakers: the Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 .

As expected, theaudio tech brandtoday revealed two desktop speakers the Spatial Audiosupporting Era 300, and the mid-range Era 100 which is a direct replacement for the venerable Sonos One .

And we've tried them both read our first impressions of both in our hands-on Sonos Era 100 review , and our hands-on Sonos Era 300 review .

The Era 300 features an unusually-shaped, dual-angled frame which housessix class-D digital amplifiers,six hefty drivers , two subwoofers and four tweeters, allowing for sound to be fired sound both forward and upwards, as well as left and right.

As well as being able to create spacious stereo, the Era 300s tweeters are able to reflect sound off walls and ceilings,allowing for the devices calling-card feature of support for immersive Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio.

For an even bigger soundstage, the Era 300 can be paired up with the Sonos
Arc soundbars as rear speakers to create what looks likely to be a very powerful, and indeed expensive,7.1.4 Dolby Atmoshome theater setup.

Theres an all-new user interface, witha capacitive volume sliderplus
dedicated skip and replay controls, and a Bluetooth button for pairing
devices to the speaker.Sonos Voice Controland Alexa assistant is once again onboard, although Google Assistant support is noticeably absent, likely
thanks to Sonos long-running legal dispute with the search engine giant.

Privacy-conscious users can temporarily deactivate their voice assistants by tapping the new speech bubble control or completely disconnect power to the in-built microphone by sliding a switch on the back of the device.

Theres also one of the widest array connectivity options weve seen on a Sonos device, with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi forlosslessstreaming,Apple AirPlay 2andUSB-C line-inall featuring.

Unlike the Sonos 5, theres no dedicated 3.5mm input, but the Era 300 can be connected to other audio devices such as turntables via a sold-separately Sonos Line-In Adapter in conjunction with an auxiliary cable.

As ever, theres Sonos Trueplay set-up feature built-in, which measures the rooms acoustics and automatically adjusts EQ to optimize output for the
space, while Sonos claim the Era 300s overall sound has been tuned and tailored by a host of big name audio experts including Coldplay engineerEmily Lazar and mix specialist MannyMarroquin, who has worked with the likes of Alicia Keys, Kanye West and John Legend. Another new Era

Also finally announced today was the more compact and conventional-looking
Era 100.

The cylindrical speaker is slightly deeper and wider than its forbearer the Sonos One, and can now provide a stereo soundstage thanks to an angled dual-tweeter arrangement inside the larger housing, while a 25 per cent
larger mid-woofer provides improved low end.

While the Era 300 doesnt support spatial audio, it does feature a similar array of connectivity, with Bluetooth support, Wi-Fi and Airplay 2 streaming, plus a similar USB-C line-in setup.

The Sonos Era 300 is priced at $449/ 449/ 499/ AUD $749, while the Era 100 comes in at $249/ 249/ 279/ AUD $399. Both speakers are available now from
the Sonos website, and launch on March 28th 2023.

For more multi-room audio gear, check out our best wireless speaker and best smart speaker lists.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/sonos-officially-launches-era-100-and-era-300-s peakers-here-are-the-details


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