Sonos Era 300 review

The Sonos Era 300 is smart speaker with lots of different functions. It can be controlled via an app, voice control as well as via external inputs. Furthermore, the speaker can also be connected to a second Era 300 for stereo music and it can be configurated as a rear speaker for a Sonos sound bar. In connection with the 3rd gen Sub, this combination is supposedly meant to provide the "ultimate home cinema experience".

As a smart speaker, Sonos has mostly focused on its wireless connection options using Bluetooth 5.0 or Wi-Fi 6. Regarding its physical inputs, things begin to look a little more meagre, as the speaker only features a proprietary USB-C port, which can be used for Ethernet or AUX using the expensive Sonos adapter. Unfortunately, this input leads to a sound delay of at least 75 ms. The speaker has an integrated power supply, meaning you just have to connect it to an outlet using the sleek and space-saving cable. The device doesn't have a battery and as its USB-C port also doesn't support Power Delivery, you can't connect a power bank to it, either. There sadly also isn't a regular screw hole for a stand on the bottom - Sonos has instead utilized two screw holes for M5 x 12 mm screws, so you can only connect their expensive in-house stands.

The Sonos Era 300 features a sleek design made from high-quality plastics (40 % recycled, see their exemplary environmental report). Both of our purchased test samples were built excellently - only one of our samples had a few imperfections on the grill. Weighing 4.5 kg, this smart speaker is in no way lightweight or mobile, meaning it is less suitable to be used as a portable speaker. We went for the slightly more discreet white model. Out of the box, as well as after a few weeks of use, this color is still easy to look after and is very pretty. In general, you can read that Sonos doesn't tend to have any issues with discoloration on their products, but we obviously weren't able to come to any definitive conclusions after our relatively short test phase.

To control the device, Sonos has installed touch buttons onto the top of the Era 300. In our test, they worked well and offer all the most important functions for voice assistance, volume and track controls (play, pause, next and previous song). On the back, there is also a button for Bluetooth connection and a toggle switch to deactivate the speaker's microphone.

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One individual Era 300's power consumption of 1.7 - 1.9 watts in idle mode definitely has to be noted. At 30ct/kWh, this would add up to $5 a year. A full surround sound system with Sonos Arc, 3rd gen Sub and 2x Era 300 used 10.8 watts without being in use, adding up to over $28 a year. This would make a physical separation via a power strip a sensible decision, especially as all the Sonos devices started up quite quickly in our test (around 17 seconds for the Arc, for example).

If you actively use the speakers (e.g. via Airplay), one Era 300 uses about 8.3 - 22.5 watts (peak at maximum volume levels). The whole surround system stays surprisingly frugal in use, using about 35 watts at medium volume levels.

As the smart speaker houses the power supply, amplifier and CPU, its heat development is also important to take a look at. At ambient temperatures of 23°C, we measured a hot spot of about 38°C on the bottom front of the device. This is noticeably warm, but still far away from any critical surface temperatures.

Sound quality is, of course, the deciding criteria when it comes to such an as expensive smart speaker. Here, the Era 300 scored lots of points and in our test, it impressed with its balanced sound. According to Sonos, however, its most important feature is its Dolby Atmos 3D Music support. In order to do this, Sonos has installed 6 tweeters into the device, and result definitely makes for a good audio experience. In combination with the Arc (see below), 3D music is made even better.

Our measurements confirm how good the Era 300's sound quality is. The speaker has surprisingly good bass and only from highs of about 4000 Hz, the sound quality begins to dip a little.

At over 100 dB from a 15-cm distance, the Era 300 is also very loud and can easily be used in bigger rooms.

Of course, we would love to be able to benefit from the Era 300's great sound quality by connecting it to laptops and PCs, too. Unfortunately, Sonos hasn't done too great a job in this aspect. The Eras can be controlled via Bluetooth, Airplay 2 and by using the proprietary adapter (USB-C from Sonos). Sonos has published a post about this in their community forum.

Connecting via Bluetooth works well - even in the stereo pair - although, Sonos doesn't support any aptX or LDAC. The audio and video latency was fine in our test, however, this isn't really good enough for gaming, as always. Using Airplay 2 to connect to a MacBook also worked well in our test (if a little buggy - likely due to MacOS). The latency felt a little higher here - up to 2 seconds when pausing a video, but the synchronization was fine.

If you'd like to use the optional adapter to connect the speaker directly and latency-free to a system, then you'll likely be very disappointed. The USB-C adapter suffers from high latencies (at least 75ms according to Sonos). This means its uses are more limited to music and video - what a shame.

If you pair two Era 300s with a Sonos Arc and optionally with a 3rd gen Sub, then you can create an awesome Dolby Atmos surround system for your home cinema. Although, in order to do this, you ideally need an eARC enabled TV in order to enjoy high bit rates using Dolby Atmos (with ARC you'll have to settle for Dolby Digital Plus).

In our practical test, our setup performed well and had great 3D audio sound quality (using Apple Music) and Dolby Atmos (using Disney Plus or Amazon Prime, for example). Using an older TV (only ARC support), Disney Plus and the likes only worked in stereo. The subwoofer did especially well during films - while playing music it is a little more subtle (especially using the default settings). In TV use, the Arc also works well as a center and can playback spoken words very clearly. During music, it is sometimes a little too dominant.

For 3D audio, we would recommend setting up via Trueplay. This currently only works using IOS / iPadOS devices, as it uses their built-in microphones and location sensors for its measurements. If you don't have access to an IOS device, then we would recommend borrowing a device to do so. You simply set up via the Sonos app while making sure the device is connected to the same network.

The Era 300 achieved great measurement data during our test, but the Arc did very well, too. If you add an optional 3rd gen Sub subwoofer into the mix, then areas below 100 Hz are considerably better supported. If you generally aren't too big a fan of bass-heavy music, then you can also just leave out the subwoofer.

As soon as the Era 300 speaker is set up as a rear speaker, you unfortunately can't continue to use it on its own via Bluetooth. You can only utilize the entire setup together using AirPlay 2, as well. In order to use it on its own, you simply have to disconnect it, which takes a few seconds. This is a shame, as Sonos typically supports multi-room use well - here, we are missing a little bit of flexibility.

The Sonos Era 300 are awesome smart speakers with some considerable weaknesses when it comes to using them connected to a laptop or PC. They benefit from amazing audio quality and good app support. It is super quick and easy to set them up via the Sonos app. Using them via the app and TV proved to be no problem - however, there were a few issues when using Airplay 2 and a MacBook Pro 14. We would have appreciated a little more feedback from the app when we ran into difficulties.

Sonos voice control worked well during our test, although, it is only available in English and French. Spotify, Apple Music and Sonos Radio can be directly connected to the Era 300 or the Arc and don't have to be streamed from your phone - this is perfect.

The Era 300 really score points when using them as an oversized rear speaker while playing music. For films, some smaller Sonos speakers such as the Era 100 or the One SL should do the trick. You also have to question whether you actually need the 3rd gen Sub.

Compared to other smart speakers such as Apple's HomePod or Amazon's Echo Studio, Sonos isn't only able to score points in sound quality - it benefits from flexibility, too. Multi-room and 5.1.2 Surround System can be used with Sonos products effortlessly and swapping out or upgrading to newer models in the future is no problem either. Sonos currently supports its products over a longer period of time, providing them with updates and new functions long after they were released. Price-wise, the Samsung HW-Q995GC / Q990C could be an attractive alternative (the previous model, the Q990B, even more so) - but these definitely don't feature the same level of flexibility.

With a latency-free line-in and optical input, the Era 300 could be a near-perfect smart speaker. Even so, it is still an amazing system - you just have to be aware of its slight limitations.

You can currently find the Era 300 on Amazon for $539.99. They are available in black and white.