Sonos Era

[AlmaAtaKZ]

Era 300 and 100 comprehensively leaked:

Exclusive: these are the new Sonos Era speakers

Can the Era 300 and 100 reset the bar for smart speakers?

www.theverge.com

 

[AlmaAtaKZ]

I am considering these as possible replacements for speakers+airports in my multiroom set up, reducing the box count.
Interested to see full specs. And of course measuments.

 

[Kegemusha]

Strange looks on the Era 300.

 

[AlmaAtaKZ]

Agreed!

 

[Beershaun]

Giles Martin and Sonos CEO Patrick Spence on the new Era 100 and Era 300 speakers - The Vergecast

They join The Vergecast to discuss Sonos’ new Era 300 and 100 speakers, the ins and outs of spatial audio, and why this is the time to get behind it.

pca.st

 

[Puddingbuks]

It comes with a coupon for free shipment of your balls to oblivion.

Get some real speakers, life is too short for bad sounding music.

 

[voodooless]

Get some real speakers, life is too short for bad sounding music.

Sonos is known for creating pretty well measuring speakers within the confines of the physical dimensions of the products. Obviously they are a compromise. So are Klipschorns, just ask your ex-wife

Most “real” speakers don’t give you wireless surround, let alone wireless Atmos.

 

[GXAlan]

“Those include two woofers for bass, a front tweeter with a custom waveguide to optimize clarity, an upfiring driver to bounce sound off your ceiling, and two beamforming side drivers that utilize phase cancellation with the top driver to help get the most out of spatial audio formats like Dolby Atmos.”

The beam forming drivers appear to be conventional drivers operating as compression drivers since there seems to be a chamber and a horn…

 

[jonfitch]

Strange looks on the Era 300.

Yeah I don't get why it looks so goofy, they could've just gone with a more symmetrical design like the Homepod, which has 10 (ten!) tweeters.

 

[Kegemusha]

Yes, I dont like the looks at all of that 300, and they are expensive too.
Even the Play5 has a killer price tag.

 

[AlmaAtaKZ]

The 100 (single or paired) is a maybe
The 300 is a definite no

 

[bevok]

The Vergecast interview was really interesting for an inside view on the 'turning point' of Spatial audio/Atmos, and also for the discussion by the CEO at 20 mins about how they looked at highres in 2018/19 when there was a lot of talk about it and decided not to pursue it.

 

[exm]

It comes with a coupon for free shipment of your balls to oblivion.

Get some real speakers, life is too short for bad sounding music.

Sonos is great for multi-room. I have a bunch all over the house, and an Arc with surrounds. My main HT is a different story. But you can't dish Sonos for 'bad sounding music'. They are arguably the best $200-$250 all-in speaker you can get (One/Era 100).

 

[mmi]

It comes with a coupon for free shipment of your balls to oblivion.

Get some real speakers, life is too short for bad sounding music.

Sonos measure better out of the box than most of the speakers people talk about here. Just search the forums for quasi anechoic measurements by Napilopez and others. And that is before you get room and phase correction for free with a wave of your phone.

They make everything from the drivers to the screws to the chips to exacting standards. They spend as much or more than Harman in its heyday on R&D (>.5 billion). They have the largest anechoic chamber in the world for gods sake! I don’t get why people on this forum hold this ignorant belief that they sound bad. I prefer my Sonos speakers to my Genelecs.

 

[voodooless]

I don’t get why people on this forum hold this ignorant belief that they sound bad. I prefer my Sonos speakers to my Genelecs.

They generally sound pretty good, just don't expect massive dynamics. Even the Ikea versions are quite good for the price.

One major issue that I have always had with Sonos products is the connectivity, especially with Airplay. It's never stable, always has dropouts, and sometimes doesn't work at all. I only have a gen 1 Sonos one, and Ikea speaker, but they both have this, even with the access point only a few meters away.

This would make me reluctant to invest anything in Sonos products. I actually would not mind the look of the 300. It would be interesting to pair it with the Arc for an Atmos setup. But I also feel the Arc is then the weak link. It isn't really the very best soundbar.

 

[GXAlan]

Sonos measure better out of the box than most of the speakers people talk about here. Just search the forums for quasi anechoic measurements by Napilopez and others. And that is before you get room and phase correction for free with a wave of your phone.

They make everything from the drivers to the screws to the chips to exacting standards. They spend as much or more than Harman in its heyday on R&D (>.5 billion). They have the largest anechoic chamber in the world for gods sake! I don’t get why people on this forum hold this ignorant belief that they sound bad. I prefer my Sonos speakers to my Genelecs.

Agree with one minor edit. They have the largest anechoic chamberS in the world, with a plural, dedicated to audio. (There are bigger ones for defense). Besides the spending on R&D, they will also have economies of scale which gets passed onto the customer too.

@voodooless
Agree about dynamics. They need to support stereo subs for music. Right now they just allow stereo subs for sound bars.

I still think a Sonos Five gives the LSX a run for the money with superior user experience. I think the Five has better Wifi than the One. I have read that with modern routers doing beam forming that being too close to a router is bad.

I have the Arc in a bedroom setup. Agree. There isn’t a soundbar that sounds “great” to me. It would be much more interesting if they could make the soundbar a center channel and then have 4 ARC 300’s to give you a real sound field.

It’s a great sound bar but that is like saying you have a great smartphone speakerphone.

 

[mmi]

They generally sound pretty good, just don't expect massive dynamics.

With the smaller speakers for sure. But for the average consumer or people who don’t like to listen extremely loud then they do more than fine. I’ve never turned my One’s stereo pair much above half volume, and that is enough I start worrying about the neighbours. Out of all the speakers the Five’s can do dynamics tho, they don’t really wake up until you start pushing them.

One major issue that I have always had with Sonos products is the connectivity, especially with Airplay. It's never stable, always has dropouts, and sometimes doesn't work at all.

To be honest I have far more issues with Airplay 2 than I did with Airplay 1 (running an Airport express into my amp). Personally I have put this down to Airplay 2 as the cause. Streaming through the Sonos app is generally flawless but I do that much less than Airplay.

 

[mmi]

On the topic of the new Eras, I am quite hyped. I’ve become weirdly obsessive about finding speakers that fill my living space evenly and don’t become directional to one channel or dull as you move around. Pretty specific ask, but the 100s with their bipole style double tweeters might be what I’m after in stereo pair, and the 300s could be everything I am hoping for and more.

 

[voodooless]

I have the Arc in a bedroom setup. Agree. There isn’t a soundbar that sounds “great” to me. It would be much more interesting if they could make the soundbar a center channel and then have 4 ARC 300’s to give you a real sound field.

Why knows.. there seems to come an Arc gen 2 in may?

Meanwhile, I'll be auditioning the Sennheiser Ambeo Max tomorrow. I'm quite curious about how it sounds. I'd like to simplify my setup and probably build a more dedicated music setup later, and don't want to clutter my room with speakers. It has a sub out, so I can connect as many subs as I want with a miniDSP as well. The Ambeo basically has the same SD as 2x 6.5" drivers. That's pretty close to my current LRC setup (3x 6.5"). I was also contemplating building a soundbar myself... but don't know where to get the time from

 

[exm]

Why knows.. there seems to come an Arc gen 2 in may?

Meanwhile, I'll be auditioning the Sennheiser Ambeo Max tomorrow. I'm quite curious about how it sounds. I'd like to simplify my setup and probably build a more dedicated music setup later, and don't want to clutter my room with speakers. It has a sub out, so I can connect as many subs as I want with a miniDSP as well. The Ambeo basically has the same SD as 2x 6.5" drivers. That's pretty close to my current LRC setup (3x 6.5"). I was also contemplating building a soundbar myself... but don't know where to get the time from

There won't be a new Arc this year, that's now how Sonos releases their product. If they release a new Arc (gen2) it will be later this year or a year from now. Having said that, I am not sure what they would change besides maybe the internal hardware? Maybe USB-C?