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 first rate. But the principle draw of a Sonos speaker is the technology behind the grill. Boasting integrations with Alexa, Apple, Google, and nearly each music streaming service value mentioning, the multiroom-capable system is probably the most handy option to hearken to every thing, in all places, suddenly.
With the brand new Era 100, Sonos lastly wipes the ground with rivals in the case of sound high quality too. With stereo tweeters and a extra superior room tuning characteristic, it is a single speaker that simply holds its personal with every thing 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’d fortunately unfold them round my residence like wildflowers if I used to be purchasing for a option to fill my residence with sound.
The Era Era
The Era 100 appears 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 smooth design that simply blends into most rooms, and on condition that Sonos is devoted to maintaining its earlier merchandise related, each visually and technologically, for years and years.
Sonos additionally not too long ago 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 acquired in a little bit of scorching water over discontinuing support for other early models. That mentioned, know-how for good audio system has come a good distance since these early fashions Sonos was pressured 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 high, in addition to a play-pause button, so that you don’t have to drag out your cellphone to do the easy stuff. The slider is a welcome change that many customers reportedly requested for. The speaker has a rubbery foot which means it is going to stick to almost any floor you place it on. For those that dislike voice assistants, there is a change 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 cellphone, 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 whole 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 gained’t see lots of the greatest enhancements constructed into the Era 100, however they’re obvious as quickly as you begin enjoying 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 sooner processor, which can assist protect this speaker’s skill 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 could 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.
