Sonos Era 100 Hands-On: Making the Popular Smart Speaker Even Better
Reading Time: 4 minutesOne of the most popular speakers from Sonos is continuing to evolve for the better.
Originally hitting the market in 2013, the Sonos Play:1 provided great sound the company is known for in a compact and inexpensive package. The follow-up, Sonos One in 2017, built on that successful formula with improved sound and support for virtual assistants.
The compact speaker is evolving once again with the introduction of the Era 100. We were invited to New York in late February to take a look at the new speaker at a special media event. Here are our hands-on thoughts.
Moving Forward With the Sonos Era 100
The Era 100 takes a big leap forward in several ways. Most importantly, it sports a dual-tweeter architecture. That means it will provide stereo separation in a single speaker. Previously, you needed two Sonos One speakers for a stereo experience. That’s not the only audio improvement; the midwoofer is 25% larger to provide deeper bass.
Sonos Vice President of Sound Experience, Giles Martin, said that improving on the winning formula of the Sonos One was in some way more of a struggle than creating the brand-new Era 300 (check out our first impressions of the Era 300.)
‘I can go into a coffee shop and hear music and say, ‘that’s a One,” he said. ‘It’s a really natural, honest speaker. So one of the biggest challenges with the Era 100 was adding stereo and directness. I wanted the audio to be at different locations.’
The key, according to Martin, is to make speakers that aren’t annoying and that blend into your home. After adapting to the challenge, Martin said he is very pleased with the audio from the Era 100.
‘The thing about sound, just like a lot of other things, is that you don’t really know what you’re missing until you hear it,’ he said. ‘I can tell when I’m now listening to the Era 100. It’s a deeper and more open sound.’
The new features don’t stop there. While you can still use Sonos Voice Control or Amazon Alexa to play music and other audio content via Wi-Fi, the speaker now offers Bluetooth capability.
This means you can easily pair any Bluetooth device with just a button press. That makes the speaker incredibly flexible, allowing you to stream music from a wide variety of devices. For example, when visitors come to your home, they can connect their phone directly to the Sonos Era 100 instead of having to connect to your Wi-Fi.
On the rear of the speaker is a USB-C line in port. With an optional Sonos line-in adapter and auxiliary cable, you can also connect other audio sources like a turntable or other wired equipment.
Just like previous models, the Era 100 is compatible with Apple’s AirPlay 2 protocol over Wi-Fi. As always, you can also still use the speaker as part of a home theater setup.
Our First Impressions of the Sonos Era 100
While the new speaker looks a bit different from its predecessors, it still sports that same familiar rounded shape and mesh grill. It’s about an inch taller than the Sonos One, mostly due to the larger midwoofer for improved bass.
On top of the speaker is a revamped interface with a capacitive volume slider that’s easy to understand and use.
During the media event, we were given a preview of how the Era 100 sounds. Other speakers were backing the audio from the Era 100. We heard a number of songs including Cooped Up by Post Malone and About Damn Time by Lizzo.
Even though the controlled environment was designed to provide the best possible audio experience, I could definitely discern the much-improved sound from the Era 100. At 70% volume, the stereo soundscape from the dual tweeters was rich and filled the entire room. In bass-heavy portions of songs, the larger woofer helped provide an extra punch compared to my Sonos One at home.
The Sonos Era 100 and 300 Offer Trueplay for Android Users
Trueplay is one of the best features for many Sonos speakers. Anyone with a compatible iPhone or iPad can use the Sonos app as part of the tuning process, which takes around three minutes. You walk around the room and follow the app’s instructions. With that information, Trueplay adjusts the Sonos audio to best match the room it’s located in. You can re-run Trueplay at anytime.
It lives up to its billing and much more. I’ve used the feature many times when moving or adding a Sonos speaker to my setup, like the Sonos Sub Mini (see our review of the Sonos Sub Mini), and the results are spectacular.
Even so, there’s always been one downside—it wasn’t available to Android users. But that’s now changing with the Era 100 and Era 300. The Android Trueplay experience will use the microphones on the speaker to fine-tune the sound for your room.
Users with an iPhone or iPad can choose to do the same Quick Tuning option, or still take advantage of the Advanced Tuning option that uses the microphones in your smartphone or tablet.
It’s good to see Sonos bring the great feature to Android users. Hopefully, the Quick Tuning option will bring as good of results as the iOS-exclusive option.
Sonos Era 100 Pricing and Availability
The Era 100 officially lands on March 28, 2023 and will retail for $249. You can choose from the familiar black or white options.
With that price, the only true competitor seems to be Apple’s second-generation HomePod. If you’re well entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, the HomePod does an impressive job providing top-notch sound combined with Siri. It can also play spatial audio from Apple Music.
Nevertheless, the Era 100 is shaping up to be compelling. It provides additional input options in while offering a true stereo playback experience in a single speaker. That versatility is definitely attractive in today’s wireless smart speaker market.
We’ll be interested to see how the Era 100 sounds in real-world experiences, while also comparing it to the HomePod and other smart speakers.
The Evolution of a Great Speaker
The Sonos One has always been one of the best ways to harness the Sonos sound and its whole-home audio experience without spending tons in the process. The Era 100 is looking to take the winning formula and make it even better.
Reference: https://www.makeuseof.com/sonos-era-100-hands-on/
Ref: makeuseof
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