The era of spatial audio has arrived, with an abundance of 360-degree sound content available, from streaming shows to music. But forget about using a laptop or a pair of AirPods to fully experience it. The Sonos Era 300 represents a new generation of speakers, engineered to maximize spatial audio, especially for those tracks that incorporate height channels all within a compact, desktop-friendly design.

    The Sonos Era 300 is one impressive bound in home audio, built for unparalleled spatial audio. This speaker will hit the market in 2024, boasting the most advanced features conceivable on its sleeve, making it a no-brainer for audiophiles and casuals alike.

Sonos Era 300: Design and Build Quality

    The Sonos Era 300 is sleek and modern, with a relatively small build that will fit in nicely in any room. Subtle curvature of the edges combined with a minimalist approach to design gives the device a very premium feel, while solid construction makes sure it is durable enough. In addition, the device comes in black and white, depending on taste.

    The Sonos trademark of outstanding build quality oozes from every pore. It's easy to use and will sit silently in any room. The front is clean, bar the small, embossed Sonos logo on the grille; there are no buttons or screens to break the lines other than a single LED light, which can also be turned off if you don't want it. The Era 300 comes in matte black or matte white and joins the Sonos range - most particularly its more affordable sibling, the Era 100 looking like a natural fit.

Sonos Era 300: Sound Quality

    Where the Sonos Era 300 truly differs from its predecessors is support for Dolby Atmos, which gives it that immersive three-dimensional sound. With six powerful drivers placed judiciously around the device to throw sound in every direction, it creates a depth of space, letting listeners experience music, movies, and games in a truly enveloping way.

    The bass is deep and punchy without overwhelming the mids and highs, which remain clear and detailed. The Sonos Era 300 produces rich, full-bodied sound from a live concert recording all the way down to an action-packed movie.

    Less expected, perhaps, but equally astonishing, is how cohesive and full the sound remains, whatever the audio format.Whether standard stereo or spatial audio tracks, the instruments and vocals coalesce into a compact cohesion that draws listeners in. Each song is reproduced with great clarity, depth, and dynamic range-from an '80s rock anthem to a piano-driven classical piece. For its size, the Era 300 projects music into the room with scale and power expected of much larger speakers. 

Sonos Era 300: Connectivity and Smart Features

    Sonos has always been known for seamlessly integrating smart systems into the house, and Era 300 is no different. With support for voice through Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, it gives voice-free control over the speaker. This speaker also allows Apple AirPlay 2 for effortless streaming of music directly from your iPhone or iPad.

    It's easy to set up and operate the speaker with the Sonos app. Additionally, it supports multi-room audio, meaning one can easily synchronize the Era 300 with other Sonos speakers across the home. Bluetooth is also an option for connectivity, offering flexibility in how one chooses to play their music.

    Unlike other Sonos speakers, this one has the addition of Bluetooth connectivity for wireless audio streaming directly from your mobile devices. We did notice some AV synchronization issues in our testing, but they won't make a huge difference if you just stream podcasts or music. Even when playing video, we found that the delay was very minor and not particularly noticeable in casual viewing. Applications like YouTube themselves account for latency, which may be the reason why playback is running smoother. The AV sync problem might also depend on whether certain application servers are up or down, leading to small variations in performance.

    Here's the good news for object-based audio lovers: The Sonos Era 300 finally supports Dolby Atmos surround speakers, marking the very first time the series is offering multi-channel rear audio. Mated to the Sonos Arc and Beam Gen 2 soundbars, plus the Sub, the Era 300 will be able to create a full 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos home theater. Although to date we've only tested one Era 300 unit, we look forward to exploring the full Atmos movie experience in the months and years ahead. 

    The Sonos S2 application is a convenient way to tune your speaker from the comfort of your couch. You'll be able to change bass, treble, and height levels from within, not to mention Trueplay room correction, which fine-tunes the audio with the acoustics in your room. Trueplay is fully available for iOS users, while Android users will at least have access to the Quick Tuning tool. Unlike the full process, Quick Tuning will only employ the speaker's onboard microphone, where the iOS application uses your iPhone or iPad's microphone for a deeper optimization. The Loudness feature also, according to the manufacturer, amplifies certain frequencies like bass when the volume is lower to make up for your ears' natural loss in sensitivity during quieter audio.

Sonos Era 300: Price and Availability

    The Sonos Era 300 is pretty high-end at about $449. Of course, this is on the higher spectrum of price, but the features and the quality of sound are advanced enough that the investment is well worth the money spent by those seeking only the best in audio.

Is The Sonos Era 300 Worth Buying in 2024?

Sonos has managed to hit its aim of class-leading spatial audio from a single wireless speaker, but that isn't why the Sonos Era 300 sits top of this list. It's class-leading across all music formats - whatever your source, whoever's singing. Admittedly, the addition of Bluetooth streaming, plus all the comprehensive features that come part and parcel of being part of Sonos's seamless ecosystem, goes some way towards justifying this premium price. All in all, the Era 300 yields an exciting-and fun-listening experience that is well worth your money.

Indeed, the Sonos Era 300 is powerful and feature-rich, and it lives up to that promise of immersion in a spatial audio experience. Stylish in looks, robust in sound quality, seamlessly integrated with smart homes-it's just perfect for elevating home audio. Be it for music lovers or movie enthusiasts, Era 300 will prove fascinating with its dynamic and detailed sound performance.