Sonos Era 300 Sets New Standard for Smart Speaker Sound

But if Mick asked the same question today, Martin could point to a number of less pricey one-box smart speakers, including the new Sonos Era 300. The $449 smart speaker is part of a major revamp of Sonos’ home speaker line, joined by a smaller stereo-only Era 100. The 300 slots in below the Sonos Five, which has sat near the very top of Consumer Reports’ wireless speaker ratings in various incarnations for the better part of a decade.

The 300 delivers single-box stereo and can also be paired for a more conventional stereo setup. But unlike other Sonos products, it can play spatial audio tracks in Dolby Atmos, producing a huge soundstage that’s a little like stereo on steroids. The Era 300 has six drivers that direct the sound left, right, forward, and upward.

“It’s three-dimensional audio,” Martin said in an interview with Consumer Reports.

The new Apple HomePod and revised Amazon Echo Studio also offer a spatial audio feature, so it seems like spatial audio is having a moment.

When the Era 300 reached stores, we bought one and handed it over to the trained testers in our sound lab, who compared it with the dozens of speakers evaluated in that same room, using the same music and same methodology. Here’s what we learned.