Sonos Era 300 review: Very strong, with a catch
A TEST REPORT from David Haydl 
on April 07, 2023, 8:00 am | Write a comment
The Sonos Era 300 is the new top product from Sonos. I found out for you whether it is worth it.
Sonos makes major changes to its product range every few years. Many years ago, the design language of the products was modernized with the One, the Five and others, and then the Move and the Roam soon the manufacturer's first portable loudspeakers. Now Sonos brought them Era series, which the It was 300 includes, out.
This is a new high-end speaker and replaces the previously available Sonos Five. Among other things, it comes with Dolby Atmos, 7.1.4 surround sound, a new design, more inputs and new control options. You can read here how it fared during my two-week test phase.
tl; dr
The Sonos Era 300 combines and refines all of Sonos' know-how. This is reflected in the sound, the design and also the well-developed multi-room features. To get the most out of the product, proTo be able to fit, however, you almost need a second copy, which quickly costs money at a unit price of 499 euros. Then you can enjoy Dolby Atmos better and use the 7.1.4 mode.
Unboxing and initial setup
The Sonos Era 300 slumbers in a light cardboard packaging that is based on the usual Sonos design. To open the box there are two sliders, which have to be moved to the side. The contents of the package include the Era 300, a power cable and various pieces of paper with various information.
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- Picture: TechnikNews
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- Picture: TechnikNews
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- Picture: TechnikNews
The setup works the way you are used to from Sonos – namely in the manufacturer's app. After activating Speaker, it immediately appears in a pop-up that allows the connectionproprocess. After that, the Era connects to a WLAN and you have the option of assigning it to a room. The app then loads any updates that are still available.
Once that's done, you can optionally optimize the sound with the TruePlay feature. So far, this was only possible with an iPhone and now also with Android smartphones.
Design and workmanship
On the Sonos Era 300 prothe manufacturer once tried a new design. The multiroom speaker is available in black and white.
The look of the Era 300 is immediately reminiscent of Sonos, while still being completely new. (Picture: TechnikNews)
The shape of the case is completely new in this model. According to Sonos, they designed the body in this way in order to be able to accommodate all the drivers and maintain good acoustics. Nevertheless, one notices immediately that this is supposed to be the successor to the former Sonos Five.
On the top you will find some control options for those moments when you don't have the app at hand. We already know the touch buttons for play/pause, forward and back from other models. A new feature is a slider for adjusting the volume, which has always been very accurate for me. There is also the option to deactivate the voice assistant on the top.
This is the new volume control. (Picture: TechnikNews)
Everything else went to the back. Sonos installed the power connection in the middle and above it a button to start the pairing process for Bluetooth connections. There is also a kill switch for the microphones, which completely cuts off the power to them. In my opinion, it could be a bit easier to reach, but the function is definitely nice to have. We have a USB-C port next to it. One of the separately available adapters from Sonos (jack or Ethernet and jack) is connected to this. Ethernet unfortunately had to go for this, but it is understandable that they didn't want two ports here.
sound quality
Sonos advertises the Era 300 with a "breakthrough in spatial audio" and "next-level sound". It's capable of Dolby Atmos with Spatial Audio, 7.1.4 surround sound when connected to a second Era 300 and an Arc or Beam (Gen2). Six amplifiers, four tweeters and two woofers are installed. As mentioned at the beginning, TruePlay and some predefined equalizers are available for adjusting the sound.
For the inputs, you can choose between Wi-Fi 6 (via the Sonos app or AirPlay) and Bluetooth 5prochenen adapters allow you to connect a jack cable and can be purchased from Sonos from 25 euros. It's great that there are now more ways to play music. I don't understand why an adapter is necessary for this.
How does the Sonos Era 300 sound now? In short: fantastic, I wasn't disappointed in the normal music enjoyment. When using Dolby Atmos, everything sounds a little more detailed and spatial, but not significantly different compared to the conventional mode. Spatial Audio just couldn't grab me. But that's probably more because I didn't have a second speaker for this. If I had had an additional Era 300, I am sure that my conclusion at this point would have been different. At the same time, it's a pity that you have to pay a lot of money for this multi-room speaker and then you can't enjoy all the advantages.
App
The free Sonos app is required to interact with the product. There are versions for Android, iOS, Windows and macOS. However, since nothing has changed compared to my last tests, I will not go into details here.
Picture: TechnikNews
Sonos Era 300 Pricing and Availability
The Era 300 is available from Sonos, Amazon, MediaMarkt and other retailers. The RRP is set at 499 euros. For the twoproThe manufacturer charges a minimum of 25 euros for such an adapter.