Alongside Taylor Swift launching her Era’s Tour earlier this month, Sonos is also pushing forward into a new Era with the 100 and 300. I’m focusing on the Era 100 here, the new entry point for a smart speaker within the Sonos ecosystem.
At $249, it is more expensive than the long-standing One that it’s replacing, which offered bold sound at an affordable price point within the excellent world of Sonos.
In terms of reinventing products, or seeking to improve an almost universally loved one, Sonos did a lot right with its new product. The Era 100 is a joy to use with excellent sound quality that is better than the One in a similar build, but with some key additions.
The main downside is a more expensive entry point and competition from other brands with more options than ever before. Still, the Sonos Era 100 is easily the best smart speaker for most.
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Sonos Era 100 Pros and Cons
An Unassuming Build
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Apple’s HomePod boasts a seamless, mesh grill that wraps around a compact oval. Amazon’s Echo opts for a spherical, grapefruit like size and Bose offers a range of different options. Heck, Sony even has a massive smart speaker that looks like a Norelco shaver up-top.
The Era 100 pushes into a new era with a rather unassuming, strikingly simple build. It’s quite compact at just 7.18-inches tall with a depth of around 5-inches. Rather than sporting a square shape with rounded edges like the One, the Era 100 presents itself in an oval build. If anything, it can squeeze into a tighter space with the increased depth and decreased width.
In classic Sonos (SONO) fashion, it comes in just two shades--black or white--with a grille that wraps nearly all the way around. The Era 100 pushes sound out the front and sides. The top and rear of the 100 are flat and mostly seamless.
The Era 100 debuts a few new controls, which where the biggest change from the One arises. For starters, individual buttons for raising or lowering the volume are replaced with a slider line that dips in. You can swipe left to reduce volume or right to raise it (after a few tries, it comes pretty naturally). You can also tap either side, to the extreme right or left, to raise or lower one by one. Sonos diehards will need to adjust to this, and I expect we’ll see this on future Sonos products.
You still have the touch, capacitive buttons for going backwards, forwards, and playing or pausing music. There are four microphones up top and a button to mute them for services like Amazon Alexa or Sonos Voice Control. This is akin to muting an Echo or any other smart speaker.
For folks who really didn’t want a listening smart speaker, Sonos previously offered a cheaper version of the One named the One SL that lacked microphones. That’s not the case with the Era 100 as Sonos is offering a one-size-fits-all model. On the rear of the 100 towards the bottom, there is a toggle that you can flip down to disconnect the microphones. It is above a vertically placed USB-C input, which can be used for in-line connectivity with another device.
Sonos also offers two dongles--one with an audio jack and another with an Ethernet port and an audio jack. This is a welcomed addition alongside Bluetooth connectivity as it expands how you can get music on your Sonos aside from the companion application.
The Bluetooth integration works in a jiffy and is the same as on the Sonos Move or Roam. Just hold the button, the Era 100 switches to Bluetooth, and you can connect to the speaker from another device. Easy enough.
Lastly, Era 100 gets power via the included cable that attaches on the bottom of the speaker. In classic Sonos fashion, the brand even integrated a spot for easy cable wiring. With some rubber on the bottom, the Era 100 won’t slide or move as you play music.
Terrific Sound
By all aspects, it’s a simple design, but the Era 100 kicks things into a higher gear with the audio quality. There is quite a bit of new hardware inside that comes together for a speaker that gets plenty loud, but even at those higher volumes, the sound stays crisp.
Those two tweeters are angled to the sides to afford more space for a track and are coupled with a mid-woofer that is significantly larger than what was in the One. The Era 100 delivers stereo thanks to this hardware along with two digital amplifiers and a much improved processor.
Whether it’s “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen, “Ribs” by Lorde, or “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift the Era 100 sounds downright good. There is ample room for various elements of a track to shine through, and the bass is stronger. It doesn’t overpower the track but is definitely more present in each moment of playback. Music just sounds great, and it works really wherever the Era 100 is placed.
I tested it in a few spots like on a packed kitchen counter, on an open island, a side table, and even on a shelf. Regardless of its location, the Era 100 was able to produce crisp audio that could reach volumes much larger than what the size of the unit would leave one to believe. Much of this is thanks to the fine-tuning feature TruePlay, which now comes in two forms. The ability to run it from the Sonos app and wave your phone around the space is still only available for iPhone folks, though. The microphones on the iPhone pick up the tones that the Era 100 produces to get a sense of the landscape.
The second way to use TruePlay is for the Era 100 to do it on its own, a new capability. It plays the tones and uses the built-in far field microphones to adjust the mix for your space. Both ways of using this feature work well, and I didn’t notice a crazy difference between the two for the most part.
As a whole, the Era 100 really sounds great, and that is what really makes it stand out in such a crowded market. Sonos was able to take a really good speaker and make it much better with a wider soundstage that offers a crisp, vibrant experience for any track. You won’t find Spatial Audio support here, however, as that is reserved for the Era 300.
Because the Era 100 lives within the Sonos ecosystem, you can easily group this with other Sonos speakers. Additionally, you’ll use the Sonos app for Android or iPhone to control playback. You can pick from hundreds of sources like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, Nugs.net, or SiriusXM. It’s really easy to get music going.
If you’d rather use your voice, you have two choices: Amazon Alexa or Sonos Voice Control. Both work well here but are somewhat limited in terms of which services they support. The Google Assistant is also completely absent here, which makes the speaker less appealing if you’re in that ecosystem, especially considering it was available on previous Sonos.
You can’t use Siri, either, but if you’re an Apple (AAPL) user, AirPlay 2 is supported. There is also a case to be made that, at $50 more, the second-gen HomePod is a worthy option.
Is the Sonos Era 100 Worth It?
The Sonos Era 100 is one of the best gadgets released this year and really plants itself as the best smart speaker for most folks. If you care about the music, want to build out your own ecosystem that isn’t tied to just one service, then the Era 100 fits the bill.
Yes, it’s more expensive than the One and is missing some features, but if you can live with that price increase, it really hits the mark. The design works in really any space, the sound quality is great, and it is ultimately easy to control.
Bluetooth is a really nice addition here and the USB-C port feels like a half step. Rather than selling a dongle, Sonos could have added an audio-jack and ethernet port right to the Era 100. Maybe that’ll arrive in the next version.
Even so, for most people and regardless of what your preferred streaming service is, the Era 100 impresses. The Sonos Era 100 is available now at $249 in black or white.
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.
