- Okay, it's really happening.
These are the latest smart speakers from Sonos,
the Era 300 and the Era 100.
If you've been following my work at the Verge lately,
you've known these have been on the way since August.
And a few weeks ago we spilled the full details.
Today Sonos is finally announcing them.
You can order both Era speakers starting now
and they'll be in stores on March 28th.
So we already knew a lot about them
but now we've gotten a chance to see
and hear the 300 and 100 in person.
It's a big moment for the company
and I think Sonos fans have a lot to be excited about.
Okay, let's start with the ERA 100, which costs $249.
Sonos sees this as a remaster of the Sonos One.
This is the speaker you buy for someone
who just wants the nice thing that sounds surprisingly good.
The 100 has a similar overall size
but it's more rounded now.
Inside there are two tweeters instead of just one.
So it's now capable of playing proper stereo sound.
It's still one speaker, so don't expect much separation
but at least you're getting left
and right channels and not losing anything in the mix.
Sonos has also made the midwifer larger
for more powerful base response across the volume range.
Speaking of, the controls have also been changed up a bit.
There's a new indent for volume controls.
You can tap a finger
on either side or swipe across to adjust.
So the sound quality has improved
but I'm more excited that the ERA 100 just does new things.
Sonos has added Bluetooth and Line-in to both Era speakers
and the Sonos one didn't do any of that.
In fact, Sonos used to make fun
of Bluetooth and ads that showed music being interrupted
by phone notifications and so on.
From what CEO Patrick Spence told me, times have changed.
- I think the technologies have evolved in such a way
that we can provide the experience that we want to
and so Bluetooth's gotten much more reliable.
Really on the Line-in, one
of the things has been the prevalence
of turntables and the resurgence of vinyl
and a lot of people asking us, hey I want to plug it in
to my Sonos speaker.
And so we're like, okay.
This is a real thing happening we've heard
from a lot of customers on
so let's figure out a way to give them that choice.
- Then we come to the Era 300.
This new speaker is built
from the ground up for spatial audio.
Just look at this thing.
It costs $449
and has a design unlike any of Sonos' previous speakers.
Sonos describes it as an hourglass shape
and opinions online have been pretty mixed
but this is a case where Sonos prioritized
function over form.
There are six drivers inside that direct sound forward,
left, right and up.
We use the term room filling sound a lot when talking
about speakers, but in this case, yeah, it's legit.
By itself one Era 300 can play spatial audio
from Amazon Music Unlimited and Sonos says support
for Apple music's Atmos tracks are coming this spring.
Now you've heard the hype a lot
but we're still in the early days of spatial audio music.
- You know, that whole transition
from mono to stereo took years, right?
And this'll be the same
where not everybody's gonna switch overnight.
There will be strong opinions on either side
of the equation of the way they experience it.
But we think it is the future.
- So in that sense the Era 300's funky design is necessary
to get the most out of spatial audio from a single speaker.
That's according to Giles Martin
who is Sonos' Head of Sound experience
and he took a little shot at the HomePod
while he'll talk through Sonos' reasoning.
- Spatial audio has to be forward facing and immersive
and by the functional form and fill
of the speaker it is forward facing
and immersive opposed to a circular object
which will just fire audio in all directions.
That's not how we listen to music.
You know, even a performance is in front of you.
So there's a reason why we've gone down that route.
- Thing is a lot of early Dolby Atmos song mixes,
well they suck.
You can find some great ones here and there
but 90% of the time stereo is still the way to go.
So as an industry, everybody has to move forward together,
device makers, record producers, and so on
before this format can truly stand on its own.
Sonos says it's giving out Era 300s to music producers
and studios so they can hear music how you'll hear it
when you have one at home.
Now Neli had a long chat about spatial audio
with Patrick and Giles, so be sure to check that out.
And Sonos will be keeping the Sonos five around for people
who prefer the highest fidelity stereo experience.
That speaker still gets louder and kicks out more bass
than either of these two.
But the ERA 300 isn't just about music.
It's also built for home theater
and owners of the Sonos Arc.
If you're willing to fork out $900 for two
of them, you can use a pair as rear surrounds.
And since they fire sound in several directions,
you're getting a more immersive Atmos audio
behind you than from any other Sonos speaker.
But $900 is a lot of money.
Sonos also just raised the price
of its mid-level beam soundbar to $499.
Just like all tech brands nowadays,
Sonos is putting a bigger emphasis
on repairability with both Era speakers.
They use more recycled materials
and screws in place of glue and adhesives.
So that's one important step.
But what about selling parts
and letting people do their own repairs?
- We pack a lot in there in a lot in a tight space.
And so it's the practical reality
of how do you balance those two things
of making it easily repairable
but at the same time, you want to be able to make kind
of the tightest form factors you can
and use that air in a smart way.
But no, there's no religious debate about it.
It's more can we practically do something like that?
- Turns out there's a very active Sonos community on Reddit.
So I turned there for a few questions.
Some people worried about planned obsolescence
of their old speakers now that Sonos has new ones coming.
So I asked Patrick whether the Play one, Play three
and Play five still have years and the years
of life left in them.
- Back when we started the company and we were passionate
about building products that would last
for a long, long time, but nobody could see 15 years
into the future or any of those things.
And now we're 20 years into the future
but you now see us as well incorporating things
like Bluetooth and other technologies like Line-in
which also will help support and future proof.
- There are others who were disappointed
that Sonos didn't build up firing Atmos drivers
into the Era 100 and according to Giles Martin,
they never even tested such an idea.
- For the ERA 100, it is a single box stereo unit
and we're honest about what it does, okay?
We're not gonna say it does spatial
'cause it doesn't do spatial.
We're not gonna put a brand on it so it does spatial audio
or temp virtualization because it is our key thing
when it comes to audio is honesty.
- Many of you asked why a soundbar always has
to be the front fixture
of every single Sonos home theater setup.
Why not let people use two Era 300s
as dedicated left and right front speakers?
- Yeah, I mean, we've thought about that.
Quite often it's fit and form, people don't have space next
to their televisions.
Right now we have three incredible soundbars
that fit that purpose and they do provide an amazing
both home theater and music experience.
- Take that answer how you will.
Maybe it'll happen someday, but for now it's very clear
that Sonos likes to sell soundbars
and those are the Era 300 and Era 100.
We're gonna start testing them very soon
and putting them up against the HomePod
and other smart speakers over the next few weeks.
So let me know what you're curious about and keep it locked
on the Verge for more reviews and other videos.