Sonos Era 300 review: This redesigned speaker includes support for Bluetooth and Dolby Atmos (Image: SONOS • EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS)
If you’re looking for a compact speaker with big sound, the Sonos Era 300 is booming brilliant
What We Love
- Amazing sound
- Incredible volume
- Modern design
- More ways to stream music
- Easy set-up
What We Don’t
- Expensive
- Lack of Spatial Audio tracks
- No Google Assistant
With the recent Era 300 and Era 300, Sonos has ushered in a new era of its speakers. You can read our in-depth Era 100 review for more details on that speaker, but if you’re considering the top-of-the-line Era 300, you will not be disappointed.
Want plenty of oomph from a surprisingly compact speaker? Sonos Era 300 is the perfect choice. The new Era 300 offers epic audio quality that can fill even the largest rooms with immersive, crystal-clear sound. It’s all thanks to the arrival of Dolby Atmos’ Spatial Audio standard, which maps out sound in three-dimensional space …so it sounds like you’re listening to a room filled with musicians, rather than a single speaker in the corner pumping out sound. It’s very impressive stuff.
Thanks to a new design, the Era 300 does all this without being too big, brash or dominating in the room. In fact, once placed on a shelf you’d be forgiven for forgetting that it’s even there.
We’ll admit that when we first clapped eyes on the Sonos Era 300’s refreshed concave design, we weren’t massive fans. However, this dramatic new styling has definitely grown on us and it looks far more modern than the ageing Sonos Five.
Set-up is also a breeze, the simple controls on the top make it easy to change tracks and we really like the new sunken volume Touch Bar which runs across the top of the speaker. Other extras include Bluetooth connectivity, plus there’s now a USB-C port on the back which makes it simple to plug in external devices such as turntables.
At £449, this is hardly the best Sonos speaker deal available on the market. In fact, it’s the most expensive standalone speaker you can currently buy from the US brand. As such, you’ll need to be really sure that more affordable options, like the Sonos Era 100, won’t suit your needs.
As well as all of the exciting new extras bundled with the Era 300, Sonos has taken away a few staples from its earlier speakers. There’s no access to Google Assistant (you can only use Amazon’s Alexa AI to control tracks with your voice) which is a real shame, plus you’ll need to buy additional dongles (sold separately, starting from £20) to use the USB-C port to connect any wired audio equipment, like a turntable. When you’re paying £449 for the speaker, that seems a little steep.
It’s also worth noting that a lot of music from popular streaming services isn’t compatible with Spatial Audio, so you won’t always get the very best out of this speaker. That’s not Sonos’ fault, but it does hobble one of this speaker’s best features.
Despite these issues, it’s hard to fault the hardware of the Sonos Era 300. If you’re looking for a compact speaker with big sound, the Sonos Era 300 is booming brilliant.
Sonos Era 300 review
Unlike the Era 100, which is set to replace the immensely-popular Sonos One when stock runs out, the Sonos Era 300 isn’t taking the place of anything else in the current Sonos lineup. Yes, this is a completely new speaker that sits between the shiny new Era 100 and older Sonos Five.
It offers a striking new look, new speaker components, and more connection options than before. It’s also the most eco-friendly speaker design from Sonos in quite a while, with the US company promising that everything is fully repairable.
So, should you invest almost £450 of your hard-earned cash on a Sonos Era 300? Our in-depth review has all of the answers.
Sonos Era 300 review (Image: SONOS)
Set-up and design
Sonos has honed and refined its set-up process over the years and the Era 300 is a total breeze to plug in and get the music started. Just lift it out of its beautifully designed and fully recyclable packaging, pop the plug in the wall, launch the Sonos app and you’ll have this new speaker added to your system in seconds.
All of the annoying heavy lifting is done for you and anyone with an existing Sonos speaker will even find the Era 300 links up to the Wi-Fi without having to start digging around for that ever-forgettable password.
Once it’s added to the app you can leave it as a standalone device or add it to your existing system for the full multi-room experience.
There are also other easy ways to beam music to this device with Apple’s AirPlay 2 included and there’s now the addition of Bluetooth – that’s something that has long been lacking from the Sonos One and Sonos Five.
Owners can simply press the Bluetooth connection button on the back and link any devices such as phones, music players, tablets and laptops. It’s an important change from Sonos and it’s sure to be popular with anyone who treats themselves to the Era. Once you’re all up and running you’ll actually find the 300 fits neatly on any desk, shelf or table.
When we first set eyes on its concave look we really weren’t convinced by its unique styling. However, during our weeks of testing the design had definitely grown on us. In fact, the more we’ve used it the more we like it and we now prefer its shape to the curved rectangle of the Sonos Five.
Simple touch buttons make it easy to control music (Image: SONOS)
The sleek design also makes sure this device doesn’t dominate a room and its curved edges soften its appearance.
You can buy it in black or white, which is fine but possibly not the most exciting of colour schemes – it’s a shame Sonos hasn’t added a grey or something brighter to the collection but maybe more styles will be added at a later date.
Hopefully, this device will last for years on end but, should anything go wrong, you’ll find things much easier to fix. This is a promise from the US audio firm is making in a big to boost its eco credentials. We’ve not tried to pull it apart so we’ll have to take their word on this for now.
The final thing to mention about the Era 300 is the new control panel on the top. Sonos has included the usual play, pause and voice assistant buttons but has added a sunken volume bar which runs across the device. It’s a really nice addition and makes whacking the volume up to 11 fast and easy as you simply swipe to increase or reduce the power.
There’s little to complain about when it comes to set-up, connection, and aesthetics and this is another triumph for the Sonos design team.
The Era 300 is compatible with Spatial Audio tech (Image: SONOS)
Sound quality
Tucked under its shell is a seriously impressive array of speakers which help it produce some serious audio. Somehow Sonos has managed to pack six class-D digital amplifiers, four tweeters and two woofers inside the 300 and it really does sound impressively good.
Pump up the volume and you’ll get a sublime listening experience with music sounding incredibly detailed, rich and booming with just the right amount of bass.
Nothing ever sounds muddled and you’ll hear clear vocals along with each pluck of a guitar string and gentle tap of the cymbal.
Another bonus of the Era 300 is that it’s fully compatible with Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio which makes things sound much more immersive. Spatial Audio gives artists the opportunity to create immersive audio experiences for their fans with true multidimensional sound and clarity. This basically makes the sound appears to hit your ears from all directions making things sound much more true-to-life and engaging.
It’s a nice addition but there is one slight issue as lots of tracks found on streaming platforms aren’t compatible with this technology.
That means you won’t always get the very best out of the Era 300 – although that’s clearly not the fault of Sonos.
Voice controls and AI assistants
If you already own the cheaper Sonos One speaker you’ll be well used to barking orders at the Google and Amazon Alexa smart assistants. Having both of these useful digital helpers on one speaker is a brilliant feature but we have bad news if you buy the Era 300.
Google is gone from this device which is a massive blow for anyone who uses services and other products from the US technology giant.
Although Alexa is good, there are things that Google simply does better – such as finding phone numbers and getting directions – and those buying the Era 300 will now miss out. It’s also not great for anyone with a home full of Google-made Nest devices as these can’t be controlled via the Era 300 either.
Whether Google will return in the future remains to be seen but right now it’s just Alexa and the new Sonos Assistant that are available on this device.
How the Era 300 compares to the new Era 100 (Image: SONOS)
USB-C connections
Sonos has included its usual Wi-Fi connectivity along with AirPlay 2 on the Era 300.
However, there’s now the addition of Bluetooth plus there’s also the ability to plug external devices, such as turntables, right into the rear of the speaker via a USB-C port.
It’s another nice boost that really sets the Era 300 apart from other devices such as the Sonos One and Sonos Five. The only niggle is that you need an adapter to make this type of playback possible and that costs another £19.
Considering the Era 300 already costs over £400, we can’t help feeling that’s a big stingy and surely one could have been packed inside the box.
Some might say that leaving it out is a move aimed at cutting down on electronic waste but others might think it’s a sneaky way for Sonos to make a little extra cash.
Either way, if you want to plug in via USB you’re going to need to add that dongle to your online shopping basket.
The Era 300 sounds pretty epic (Image: SONOS)
UK price and availability
Sonos kit has never been cheap and don’t expect any bargains when heading to your local tech store as the Era 300 is pretty pricey. This speaker costs a whopping £449 which makes it a serious investment.
It’s also worth noting that, right now, you can buy the soon-to-be-discontinued Sonos One for just £169 via the best Sonos deals. Do the sums and you’ll soon see that you could take delivery of a trio of these award-winning devices for the same price as one Era 300.
Yes, this latest music maker is a lot of money but it is a very good speaker plus Sonos has now made things much easier to repair meaning owners should get years and years of use out of it.
If you do decide that you want the newest speaker from Sonos then the firm does offer the ability to pay back via instalments (3 months at £83) which certainly improves the overall affordability.
Final verdict
The Era 300 is a great new addition to the Sonos line up and this speaker really doesn’t disappoint.
It sounds simply sublime and can fill medium to large rooms with flawless audio quality from almost any music streaming service, radio station, audiobook, podcast player, turntable, and more. Sonos’ embrace of the new Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio tech means tracks sound more immersive – mapping out the sound in three dimensions.
There are niggles, but these aren’t enough to diminish the experience of listening to your favourite tracks on the Sonos Era 300
The redesigned touch-sensitive controls work well, and we love the flexibility of plugging-in external 3.5mm audio devices and streaming via Bluetooth 5.0. However, for our money, we’ll stick with the lossless streaming available when using a local Wi-Fi network, either with the excellent Sonos app (available on iPhone and Android) or Apple’s AirPlay 2 standard.
Sure, the price tag of the Sonos Era 300 is very high and the fact there’s USB-C dongle to plug in hard-wired audio kit is a bit of a slap to the fact at that price. Plus, there’s no Google Assistant, which is pretty annoying.
However, these niggles aren’t enough to diminish the experience of listening to your favourite tracks on the Sonos Era 300. This is a mighty speaker that hits all the right notes and a very worthy start to the new, ahem, era for Sonos.
