![]() ![]() Yes, it's an Android-friendly Sonos speaker. It does make it easy for friends to come over and play audio without connecting to your home's Wi-Fi, which is nice, although I'm not sure my friends (or family) are smart enough or determined enough to try and figure that out. But I'm not sure I'd actually do that very often. Theoretically, it allows you to stream audio that you normally wouldn't be able to normally, like music you've recorded or the audio from a YouTube video. As for when you'd need to connect via Bluetooth, that's a different story. You simply push the Bluetooth button on the back of the speaker, find the Era 300 in your smartphone's settings and connect. But I'm guessing that it works just fine.)Īs for Bluetooth, this works really well on the Era 300. I wasn't able to try the Era 300 on my turntable, unfortunately, as I didn't have Sonos's special adapter. (For the last few years, I've had my Play:5 connected to a turntable and it works great. Previously, you were only able to do this with a Five or Play:5. The latter is the cooler thing in my eyes, as it allows you to hook up the Era 300 to a turntable with a built-in preamp - although you will need to buy Sonos's special 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter ($19) - or play your vinyl records on your Sonos. In addition to streaming over Wi-Fi, the Era 300 supports Bluetooth and a USB-C line-in connection. There is so much content - movies, shows and sports - that support Dolby Atmos, and as long as you have an Arc soundbar (or even a second-generation Beam), the Era 300s will immediately sound their best when paired with that home theater system.įor this reason, I imagine the vast majority of early adopters of the Era 300 will be buying two and using them as rear-channel speakers with their Arc. The great thing about using two Era 300s as rear-channel speakers is that it nullifies the headaches (more on this below) that come with Sonos's support of Dolby Atmos music. We watched several movie clips, including the scene in A Quiet Place where a monster corners Elizabeth Blunt's character in the basement, and the sounds were just blasting off the ceiling. However, earlier in the month I went into New York for a private briefing, and I was able to listen to the Arc, two Subs and two Era 300s - which is a 7.1.4-channel system and the most immersive sounding home theater system you can make with a Sonos soundbar - and it was incredible. Two Era 300s are the best rear-channel speakers you can buy.įull disclosure: Sonos only sent me one review unit of the Era 300 and thus I was not able to use two as rear-channel speakers with my Sonos Arc. The audio shoots left, right, through the center and upwards (thanks to the Era's upward-firing driver) and just immerses you in a way that feels a little more intimate, more like you're experiencing music live. When listening to songs that were optimized for Dolby Atmos - like Justin Bieber's "Ghost," Halsey's "Die 4 Me" and Ed Sheeran's "Shivers" - they just sound bigger than what you'd get with traditional stereo. These songs are even labeled with a "Dolby Atmos" icon, so you know you're listening to the right thing. (You can also search for playlists and tracks that do support Dolby Atmos, like this one). I tested it with Amazon Music Unlimited - which when I tested it before the official launch was the only streaming service that Sonos supported Dolby Atmos, but Sonos is rolling out Dolby Atmos support for Apple Music at launch - and the speaker sounds big, wide and full of energy.Īmazon Music Unlimited claims to have tens of thousands of tracks that support Dolby Atmos, and I actually found that most of the music I normally listen to was available in Dolby Atoms. When at full pelt and playing tracks that support Dolby Atmos, there's no debating that the Era 300 is a fantastic-sounding speaker. ![]() So if you don't subscribe to either of those, or if you don't plan on buying two Era 300s and using them as rear-channel speakers, you should probably opt for another Sonos speaker, like the Era 100 ($249) or Five ($549), instead. That's because even though it sounds terrific, the Era 300 really needs to be playing Dolby Atmos content to make use of all its powers - and Sonos only supports this via two music streaming services, Amazon Music Unlimited and Apple Music. In reality, the Era 300 is a bit more complicated. And if used as rear-channel speakers, two Era 300s can help make the most immersive Sonos home theater system possible. It has both Bluetooth and line-in connections in addition to Wi-Fi, meaning it supports more ways to play audio. It's the company's first non-soundbar that's fully optimized for Dolby Atmos - like its Arc soundbar, it has an upward-firing driver to make audio feel way more immersive. On paper, the Era 300 ($449) is arguably the most exciting Sonos speaker in years. ![]()
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