Sonos Era 300 review: A big bet on spatial audio

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If you take note of the music trade, you’ve in all probability heard about spatial audio. The promise is that music will envelop the person from all instructions while not having a room stuffed with audio system to realize the impact. Apple has pushed it loads in the previous few years, in Apple Music, its line of AirPods headphones and the newest HomePod speaker. Amazon’s streaming service additionally provides spatial audio, and its Echo Studio speaker can play again suitable tracks.

Sonos has been paying consideration, as nicely – its latest Arc and Beam soundbars help Dolby Atmos for motion pictures, and now the corporate is releasing its first music speaker designed for spatial audio, the Era 300. This beast is giant and has an uncommon form to accommodate all of the drivers wanted for reaching these room-filling results. At $450, you’d count on this speaker to sound wonderful, no matter whether or not it’s taking part in again spatial audio or not, however help for this new format is what units it aside from different audio system. As such, the large query on my thoughts is whether or not this characteristic is a recreation changer, a gimmick, or someplace in between?

Design

There’s nothing within the Sonos lineup to match the Period 300 to. From a dimension and weight perspective, it’s a big speaker, just like the Sonos 5, however its uncommon form instantly units it aside. Seen from the entrance its oval jogs my memory of a race monitor, however some other angle reveals a particular footprint. In case you have a look at it from the highest, it’s thinner close to the center than it’s on the ends; one of the best ways I can describe it’s a knocked-over hourglass.

That is to accommodate the complicated driver array contained in the Period 300. There’s one tweeter pushing out from useless heart, and two extra sending audio out the left and proper sides. Lastly, there’s a fourth tweeter inside a directional horn pointed upwards; Sonos says that it’s at a selected angle optimized for spatial audio. Two woofers, once more on both facet of the speaker, full the array.

The Period 300 jogs my memory of most different latest Sonos merchandise. It’s well-built, exceedingly sturdy and usually seems like a product that justifies its excessive price ticket. That stated, its bodily look is certainly extra uncommon than the corporate’s different audio system. I acknowledge that it’s practical, however the combo of its dimension and unusual tapering make it stand out greater than you may like.

Quite a lot of new options and adjustments within the Period 100 are additionally discovered within the Period 300. This features a redesigned set of contact controls on the highest panel, a USB-C port for line-in and ethernet (offered you shell out for the non-obligatory adapters), a Bluetooth toggle and a change to bodily disconnect the microphone on the again. For extra on these options, I’ll level you to the related part of my Period 100 overview. Most every part I stated there applies. That stated, for $450, it’s a bit disappointing that Sonos requires an adapter for line in or Ethernet. The $550 Sonos 5 has each of these constructed proper in. I’m positive the corporate has the info exhibiting {that a} small proportion of homeowners use these options, so I’m glad they haven’t been eliminated fully, however it could undoubtedly be good in the event that they didn’t require an adapter.

Setup

Establishing the Period 300 is fairly easy, even in case you don’t have already got a Sonos system. You’ll have to obtain the Sonos app to your cellphone and arrange an account; from there, the app will look and see if there are any audio system so as to add. You’ll additionally have to log in to your audio providers of alternative – if you wish to attempt spatial audio, you’ll want both Apple Music or Amazon Music Limitless. You possibly can seek for and play music via the Sonos app, however there are additionally a bunch of choices in case you’d quite persist with the music apps you’re used to. You should use AirPlay 2 to shoot audio from Apple Music and different providers on the iPhone on to the Period 300, or use Spotify Join while not having to undergo the Sonos app. That stated, it’s value noting that if you wish to play again tracks in spatial audio, you’re required to make use of the Sonos app.

There are a couple of non-obligatory however helpful issues you are able to do whilst you’re establishing the Period 300. The primary is Trueplay, a characteristic that tunes your speaker’s output based mostly upon the place it’s positioned in your room. Trueplay has been round since 2015, however up to now it required you to have an iPhone. You’d should stroll round your room slowly elevating and reducing the cellphone whereas the speaker performed a check tone. The Period 300, although, can use its built-in microphones to hear and optimize its output – that course of is far less complicated and sooner than the previous approach, and Android customers aren’t disregarded both.

I’ve been extraordinarily proud of Trueplay’s outcomes up to now, so I’d suggest that everybody do this out. That stated, I did discover that the previous, handbook tuning course of yielded barely higher outcomes. So whereas I admire the convenience of use within the new Trueplay system, I’ll in all probability nonetheless stroll round my room waving my cellphone – however I gained’t decide you in case you take the simpler route.

In case you like utilizing voice controls, you can even add a voice assistant to the Period 300. Amazon’s Alexa has been supported for the reason that One launched again in 2017, and final 12 months Sonos added its personal music-focused assistant. Establishing the Sonos assistant is a bit simpler than Alexa, since you don’t have to go linking your Amazon account, however each are fairly easy at this level. 

One factor to notice: previous Sonos audio system with microphones additionally labored with Google Assistant, however that’s now not the case. The Period 300 solely works with Alexa and the Sonos assistant; I assumed the continued patent battles between Google and Sonos had been the rationale for this variation. However Sonos let me know that “Google has modified the technical necessities for Google Assistant on third social gathering gadgets.” Sonos additionally stated that “it’s a heavy engineering raise and we’ll proceed to prioritize work that builds on our imaginative and prescient of voice assistants all working concurrently” and stated it hoped it may get Google Assistant working once more, however that it is “actually as much as Google.” I personally choose Google Assistant over Alexa, so it is a little bit of a bummer. However I additionally principally simply speak to my speaker to play music, so the Sonos choice works nicely sufficient.