Sonos Era 300 Review: A Speaker Made for Dolby Atmos

Whether you’re interested in spatial audio or not, the Sonos Era 300 is here. The speaker will work with any kind of music, but it was designed to play Dolby Atmos music. Thankfully, it sounds great playing just about anything you throw at the speaker.

The New Design of a Spatial Audio Wireless Speaker

It’s not hard to mistake the Era 300 for another speaker, from Sonos or any other company. It’s a purpose-built audio device that looks like it has a greater calling than simply playing music in the same way as every other speaker before it.

But first, the basics. The speaker comes in either black or white. It features a far-field microphone array for its voice assistant and Trueplay quick tuning (based on its room location), a physical disconnect switch for the microphones, and a USB-C port on the back for line-in and ethernet via a Sonos accessory. Touch controls for media and volume grace the top of the unit.

At first glance, it’s easy to have an opinion on the speaker’s design. In talking with various people, it seemed to produce a gut reaction stronger than other speakers, including the Era 100. Having seen the speaker in person (first in early February) and now living with it in-home for three weeks, I can attest to the fact that living with the product will soften any initial extreme views.

Because the Era 300 is compact and designed to work for music or in a pair as rear speakers in a home theater setup paired with a Sonos soundbar, there are mounting options on the bottom of the speaker. There are first-party solutions from Sonos and third-party stands and mounts from companies like Sanus. I tried a fixed-height stand, and it allowed me to place the speaker in more places throughout different rooms. It was sturdy and, to my eye, attractive.

The Sound of Dolby Atmos on Era 300

The Sonos Era 300 is built around spatial audio, but the product’s functionality doesn’t collapse if you never use it for that purpose, either for music or as part of a home theater. The value of the product is more debatable if spatial audio is never played through it, but it’s a bold, punchy wireless speaker, no matter what the exact format of music you listen to is.

Of course, spatial audio is a loaded term. It can mean fully immersive, where the sound is supposed to sound like it is all around you in 360 degrees, but it doesn’t have to. Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos is a standard that gives mixing engineers a format to send different information (sounds or instruments) to specific speakers in specific ways.

More generally, I think the better way to approach the idea of spatial audio, in this case, is that the Era 300 is able to become much bigger than its physical size. The speaker (figuratively) gets better when it plays a spatial audio-mixed song, compared to a stereo-mixed one.

Depending on the mixing of a spatial audio track, a song can be a little bigger, or it can sound like it’s stretching out to fill an entire wall. “Mantra” from the No Time To Die soundtrack by Hans Zimmer stretches the orchestral music incredibly wide to sound like it’s playing from a large area in front of you.

There are a few examples I found that even sound like the audio is approaching more than 180 degrees of coverage. “Starry Eyes” by The Weeknd and “We Know What You Whisper” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack are able to wrap around you if you sit in the right spot. This experience was rare and shouldn’t be considered the norm.

One analogy for spatial audio was to imagine standing in a doorway looking into a room. More information and details of the room are available to you, there in person, compared to looking at a picture of the same room from the same vantage point.

Overall I could hear more details and more depth from Dolby Atmos songs from the Era 300 than non-Atmos songs. Even without instruments or vocals mixed in 360-degree ways, there was still a more natural air to music than typical stereo mixes provided.

In fact, don’t expect to be wowed by dazzling aural motion and panning effects. Instead, listen to the songs as you normally would. I think most active listeners, those singing along or picking out lyrics, will appreciate that Dolby Atmos mixed songs sound more dynamic.

During the review period, I used both Amazon Music Unlimited and Apple Music to provide Dolby Atmos music through the Sonos app. Apple Music and its Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio catalog of music should be available for the Era 300 as of March 28, 2023.

A few songs I thought were particularly good were Finneas’ “A Concert Six Months From Now,” U2’s “Beautiful Day (Songs of Surrender),” and “Heaven’s Here” by Robert Glasper.

In the case of “Heaven’s Here,” the track has an airy bass part that floats around the room. The song has much more room to breathe on the Era 300. It almost feels like a great live recording than a studio recording because the musical elements are more spacious.

If you’re interested in another spatial recording, check out Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” which puts the wolves howling from different directions.

The Finer Details of the Era 300 Speaker

After living with the speaker for several weeks, it became easier to separate the hype from the actual performance. It might be pitched a little bit as a magic box that can swirl music all around you, but in actuality, until you’re listening exclusively to Dolby Atmos mixed music, it still needs to perform well as a traditional speaker too.

The Sonos Era 300 sounded great for all kinds of music; the bass was rich and could be punchy when it needed to be, the mid-range was crisp and clear, and the treble sparkled. Still, there’s a reason this speaker is not replacing the Sonos Five.

The Five speaker still packs a more powerful punch than the Era 300 one. Plus, if you are specifically using a Sonos speaker to listen to vinyl records, content that is certainly not spatial, the Five is the better choice.

Some other items worth noting:

• You can pair two Era 300 speakers together for a stereo pair. (The six-driver arrays in each speaker will adjust themselves to still playback spatial audio.)
• The power cord is flat in the back, which means it’s a little more versatile in where it gets placed near walls or wall-mounted.
• The speaker is more repairable than past Sonos speakers with a more modular design.
• The line-in adapter is USB-C to 3.5mm and costs $19 from Sonos. The other accessory has 3.5mm and ethernet to USB-C and retails for $39. Both accessories come in black or white.
• Trueplay quick tuning or the traditional ‘wave your iPhone in the air’ method are both available.
• To turn on Bluetooth, press and hold the Bluetooth button in the back until the front light blinks blue. Double-press the button to disconnect it.

Should You Buy the Sonos Era 300?

A $450 wireless speaker for listening to music at home is a steep price. It’s a definite commitment. Even more pricy is adding two Era 300 speakers as rears to a home theater setup. I’ve heard two Era 300 speakers in that home theater configuration, and they sounded amazing, but I didn’t test them in my home, so I can’t comment on whether you should be saving up for that level of movie engulfment.

In terms of committing to a single Era 300, it’s absolutely worth it for music enthusiasts. More casual listeners will probably be better suited with the less expensive Era 100 speaker. In this case, music enthusiasts are people who are constantly creating playlists, tracking new music each week, and have music playing regularly throughout the day.

The Sonos Era 300 is a forward-looking product that will only get better over time—with more spatial audio. But the speaker is also incredibly satisfying today with any streaming music it’s asked to play. The Era 300 produces stellar sound in a compact frame. The only question for you is whether there’s room in your budget for it.

Be sure to read How-To Geek’s review of the Sonos Era 300 for additional insights on Sonos’ spatial audio speaker.