Let’s start with the Era 100, which directly replaces the Sonos One in the lineup with a slight $20 price increase to $249.
Sonos Era 100
The Era 100 has two tweeters that work in conjunction with the speaker’s ability to analyze the room to create a custom sound field and deliver true stereo sound; One couldn’t provide true stereo sound. The Era 100 still has only one woofer, but it’s 25 percent larger than the One, resulting in improved bass reproduction.
Measuring 7.18 in × 4.72 in × 5.14 in (182.5 × 120 × 130.5 mm) and 4.44 lb (2.02 kg), the Era 100 is slightly taller than the Sonos One but is otherwise somewhat similar in shape and size. Sonos says this new speaker also has a 47 percent faster processor than its predecessor.
Aside from the stereo and bass improvements, the Era 100’s big improvements are mostly related to connectivity. You can now stream to the speaker using Bluetooth in addition to the normal Wi-Fi setup that we know Sonos speakers for; Sonos has already introduced several portable Bluetooth speakers to join this popular bandwagon, but the Era 100 aims to fit comfortably into both the Bluetooth and home Wi-Fi worlds.
In addition to wireless connectivity options such as Bluetooth and AirPlay 2, the Era 100 features a USB-C line-in port for direct connection to players and other devices. This is a clear difference from the Apple HomePod, which only offers wireless connectivity. Adapters are required (and sold) for Ethernet and other non-USB connections.
Voice assistant support remains, but it’s limited to Sonos Voice Control and Amazon Alexa. There’s also a new hardware switch to turn off microphone power if you don’t want to use the voice assistant at all.
Sonos Era 300
The Era 300 is a bit more expensive at $449, but it supports all the features we mentioned about the Era 100. However, instead of two tweeters and one woofer, it has four tweeters (including one upward-firing tweeter) and two woofers.
The goal here is to deliver true surround sound, including Dolby Atmos 7.1.4, when you use two Era’s along with the Sonos Arc in a home theater system.
With twice as many speakers, the Era 300 will likely produce a much fuller and more immersive sound than the Era 100, not to mention the Sonos One. The Era 300 measures 6.30 × 10.24 × 7.28 inches (160 × 260 × 185 mm) and weighs 9.85 pounds (4.47 kg).
Trueplay comes to Android
With the launch of these speakers, another major milestone will take place: Sonos Trueplay will finally be available to Android users. Well, mostly, anyway.
If you’re unfamiliar with Trueplay, it’s a software feature available through the Sonos app that lets you customize your speakers specifically for the room they’re in. Using the app, iPhone or iPad users carry their mobile devices around the room (including any location they designate as their normal listening position) while recording audio output from the speakers to create a 3D map of the space. The speakers then tailor their output to optimize the sound for that space and primary listening position.
Sonos says Trueplay will be coming to Android, but it will be a different version of Trueplay that the company is calling a “quick setup.”It differs from the “advanced tuning”approach we just described in that the speaker only listens to itself and tunes accordingly; The user’s listening position is not taken into account, and the smartphone’s microphone is not used to adjust the setting.
This is probably better than no Trueplay setting, but not as useful as the advanced setting, which remains exclusive to Apple devices.
Availability and previous device support
Era 100 and Era 300 will be available in 26 countries starting March 28, with other regions coming later. Sonos One will be discontinued but will be sold until stocks run out. The high-end Sonos Five (which is even more expensive than the Era 300) will remain in the lineup for now. Sonos says it has no plans to end ongoing software and service support for the Sonos One.