Taking the place of the Sonos One, the Sonos Era smart speakers have arrived
After months of leaks, the Sonos Era smart speakers are finally here. Sonos have released both their Era 100 speaker and their Era 300 speaker. Let’s check out the differences.
Sonos refers to their Era 300 speaker as a “premium smart speaker.” Designed in an hourglass shape, the Era 300 takes on a unique form with six positioned drivers all around to support Dolby Atmos Music.
To be more specific, there’s a center driver for vocals and lead instruments, two custom drivers for room coverage, two woofers, and a center tweeter that reflects sound off the ceiling for audio dispersion. The Era 300 also uses a new control pad which features a volume slider, skip/replay controls, and a Bluetooth pairing button.
The Era 100 speaker looks more akin to the conventional cylindrical design we’re accustomed to seeing, and holds a similar shape to the Sonos One. Where the One uses mono output, the Era 100 uses stereo sound. It also features a second tweeter and a mid-woofer for heavier bass.
Neither of the Sonos Era smart speakers use Google Assistant. Sonos says this is due to a change in the technical requirements for Google Assistant on third-party devices.
“We’re evaluating these requirements, but it’s a heavy engineering lift and we’ll continue to prioritize work that builds on our vision of voice assistants all working concurrently,” stated Sonos. “We remain hopeful that Google Assistant will be part of this ecosystem one day, but that’s really up to Google.”
The Sonos Era 100 costs $249, while the Era 300 costs $449. Both Sonos Era smart speakers go on sale on March 28, 2023, and may be ordered on the Sonos website.