I’ve by no means actually admired Sonos’ audio system for his or her precise sound high quality. Sure, the prior Play One and Five sequence audio system, the corporate’s soundbars, subwoofer, and even the portable Roam sound completely respectable. But the primary draw of a Sonos speaker is the technology behind the grill. Boasting integrations with Alexa, Apple, Google, and just about each music streaming service value mentioning, the multiroom-capable system is probably the most handy technique to take heed to every part, all over the place, abruptly.

With the brand new Era 100, Sonos lastly wipes the ground with opponents in terms of sound high quality too. With stereo tweeters and a extra superior room tuning function, this can be a single speaker that simply holds its personal with every part however dearer two-speaker programs. If you are out there for a compact all-in-one speaker, the Era 100 is definitely the perfect one I’ve ever heard. I might fortunately unfold them round my dwelling like wildflowers if I used to be looking for a technique to fill my dwelling with sound.

The Era Era

The Era 100 seems acquainted. It matches the second-generation Sonos One and One SL speakers in each dimension and form. This is smart, on condition that the earlier fashions already had a glossy design that simply blends into most rooms, and on condition that Sonos is devoted to conserving its earlier merchandise related, each visually and technologically, for years and years. 

Sonos additionally lately launched the Era 300, a brand new Dolby Atmos speaker that’s bigger and dearer. The Era 300 replaces the Sonos Play:3, which was discontinued earlier than this revamp. Those audio system are nonetheless supported, nevertheless it’s value noting that the corporate beforehand bought in a little bit of sizzling water over discontinuing support for other early models. That stated, expertise for good audio system has come a good distance since these early fashions Sonos was compelled to mothball, and in my expertise, the corporate does its greatest to maintain its merchandise functioning for so long as attainable. Later-gen Sonos audio system all nonetheless work fantastically collectively.

The rectangular Era 100 speaker is available in black or white. It has a quantity slider on prime, in addition to a play-pause button, so that you don’t have to tug out your telephone to do the straightforward stuff. The slider is a welcome change that many customers reportedly requested for. The speaker has a rubbery foot which means it can stick to almost any floor you place it on. For those that dislike voice assistants, there is a swap on the again of the speaker, alongside its USB-C enter, that allows you to bodily disable the built-in microphone.

Pairing and setup are tremendous straightforward. Pop out your telephone, obtain the Sonos app, and add the speaker to your consumer profile. You can inform the Sonos app the place in your own home the Era 100 lives, make teams of a number of audio system, and connect with your entire favourite streaming apps. I like how straightforward it’s to combine with Spotify and Alexa (the streaming service and voice assistant I exploit). The speaker additionally has shockingly good microphones for voice controls; I changed an Amazon Echo Show 8 with the Era 100 in my workplace, and it picked up my prompts higher than Amazon’s personal audio system, regardless of being equally distant.

Like the improved mics, you received’t see lots of the greatest enhancements constructed into the Era 100, however they’re obvious as quickly as you begin taking part in music. Sonos has made the woofers 25 p.c bigger and added a pair of angled tweeters to create actual stereo sound. The earlier Sonos audio system of this form and dimension solely performed mono sound. You additionally get a 47 p.c quicker processor, which can assist protect this speaker’s potential to obtain software program updates longer than the final one. Sonos claims that it over-builds the processing in these audio system, so to talk, in order that it will probably accommodate future efficiency upgrades for so long as attainable. I’ve been testing many fashions of Sonos audio system collectively for years and have by no means seen any lag, nevertheless it’s good to know these have much more wiggle room to get higher down the road.