So this is the Sonos Era 100, it was announced along side the larger Sonos Era 300 which has Dolby Atmos Support. Now the 100 doesn’t have Dolby Atmos Support cause it doesn’t have any upwards firing speakers. But nonetheless, this is a great sounding speaker. But just like with most Sonos products, there are some important things that you should know, nonetheless, lets see what the Sonos Era 100 is all about.
Regarding Pricing, the Era 100 has a retail price of $250. And given that this is a Sonos speaker, I don’t expect it to go on sale all that often and if it does, its not going to go on sale by much. Now if you’re a Sonos fan boy, than this speaker is going to make you very happy. But if this is your first Sonos speaker, then you do want to pay attention. Nonetheless, if you want to pick this speaker up, it’ll be linked down below.
Now first, I want to talk about the set up process about this speaker, cause this is just one of the things that I dislike most about Sonos. Before you can actually use this product, you have to connect it to wifi and get it registered to your account. Personally, I just hate that this is a thing. And in general, this is a wifi first type of speaker, meaning, that wherever you plan on placing this speaker, just make sure that its going to have a solid wifi connection. Cause if not, you’re going to have a bad time.
Now unlike the Era 300, the Era 100 doesn’t have any upwards firing tweeters. All of its sound comes out the front. So placing this speaker is a little more straight forward than with the 300 cause you can put in a cabinet if you want, and you also don’t have to worry about obstructing the top. And overall, this speaker is a lot more compact than the Era 300. So placing this speaker is much easier. And I also appreciate that this speaker comes included with a 6 long power cable, which also makes placing this speaker a little easier… and I also like that its power cable is neatly tucked away on the bottom. Unlike the Era 300 who’s power cable just sticks out the back. Now just like the 300, the 100 is using mostly matte plastics and it comes in either white or black… and it had touch controls up top. Touch controls that you can deactivate from its app, which could be important if you have a little one at home.
But now, lets talk about connectivity cause there’s a lot that we have to track down here. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a wifi first speaker, so wherever you place this speaker, you want to make sure that it has a solid wifi connection. Now if you’re an iPhone user, then using this speaker is super easy cause you can just stream music to it cause this speaker has airplay 2 support.
Whereas if you’re an android user, this speaker doesn’t have chrome cast. So if you want to stream music to it, you have to open Sonos’s app, you have to link your streaming service of choice, and then you have to select your music while inside of Sonos’s app. These are just extra steps that I just don’t want to have to do when all I want to do is play music. So I just feel that if you do decide to get this speaker, your life is going to be a little easier if you’re an iPhone user.
However, something that’s new for Sonos here is that this speaker now has bluetooth… I know, it sounds wild to have bluetooth on your speaker. But sometimes, you just need bluetooth. So if you’re an android user you can just use Bluetooth and make your life a little easier… but also, I just think that its important to have bluetooth on your speaker cause this way you can share your speaker with someone, without having to share your wifi password.
But now this leads us to the USB C port on that back of this speaker. Now Sonos says that you’re not supposed to this USB C as a charging port fro your own devices… but I haven’t had any issues… but obviously you’re not going to get any fast charging. However, this USB C port is meant to be used as a line in for this speaker, so you can use it with a wired connection. The problem is, you don’t get a USB C to audio jack adaptor… that’s sold separately. Personally, I do think this is a little ridiculous, I think this speaker should just have a built in audio jack, or at least come included with the adaptor.
But also, Sonos also sells a separate adapter which has both a 3.5 millimeter audio jack, and it also has an ethernet port… just incase you want to hardwire this speaker into your home network. I still think this speaker should have a built in audio jack cause I think a good amount of people will still want to use that… but as for the ethernet port… I do think that’s a much more niche case.
But wait, we’re not done about talking about connectivity with this speaker. Now in general, this speaker doesn’t have a lot of bass to it… but you can always fix that by connecting any of Sonos’s wireless Subs to this speaker. So you’re going to have a lot more physicality in your music.
And, if you were to get 2 Era 100’s you can always pair them up with your Sonos sound Bar, lets say an Arc or a Beam Gen 2, and you can use them as rear surround sound speakers.
But next up there are the voice assistants on this speaker. You can either use Sonos’s own voice assistant and you're going to be able to control your music playback, and you can tell it to groups your speakers together and you can even tell it to play or pause your music in specific rooms. But also, you can use Alexa with this speaker, but unfortunately there is no google assistant here.
Now, even though this speaker does have built in microphones so that you can talk to your voice assistant, and also so that I can calibrate itself to your room… if you’re privacy conscious like I am, you can always deactivate the microphones on this speaker but using the switch on the back. And this will disconnect the microphones on this speaker from power, on a hardware level.
But with all of that out of the way, we can finally start talking about how this speaker actually sounds. Regarding speaker set ups, the era has a much more conventional set up than the Era 300. It has a single frontward firing woofer, and it has dual frontward firing tweeters. Now just like with most other Sonos speakers, the Era 100 does sound a little flat when right out of the box. But thankfully, you can go in and adjust its bass and treble. And personally I do like to use this speaker with its bass raised by 5 clicks. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test, and we’re going to be comparing the Era 100 to two similarly priced and sized options. First we have the Marshall Middleton which is a 360 degree speaker, which has a total of two woofers and two tweeters on its and a pair of passive radiators. And we’re also going to be using the JBL Xtreme 3 which has dual frontward firing woofers dual frontward tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides.
Sound test
So sound quality wise, something that I really like about both of Sonos’s Era speakers is that they do an incredible job of creating a very life like listening experience. With the JBL Xtreme 3, I think its a great speaker to take on the go with you, but the Xtreme 3 does have a fairly bight sound signature to it, so it does over emphasize the highs. That’s why I always lower the treble on the Xtreme 3 when I’m going to use it personally. And then theres the Middleton which has very impressive instrument separation, but is just doesn’t sound as concentered.
Where as with the Era 100, it has that great instrument separation, and it sounds concentered, and the highs aren’t over emphasized like with the Xtreme 3. The only draw back about this speaker is that it doesn’t have too much physicality in its bass. The bass on this speaker is mostly on the audible side.
But like I mentioned earlier, if you want more physicality in your music, you can always connect a Sonos sub to this speaker… but from a cost basis, I don’t think that would make a whole lot of sense.
But then there’s max volume performance on this speaker. The Era 100 gets decently loud for its size and its going to have no problem filling a small or medium sized room with sound. But just as you’d expect, this speaker isn’t going to get as loud as the Era 300. But more importantly, this speaker doesn’t suffer from any distortion at higher volumes like with some other speakers out there.
But with all of that being said, I can’t deny that the Sonos Era 100 is a great sounding speaker that does a very impressive job of sounding very open and very balanced. They only thing that I don’t like about this speaker is that there isn’t too much physicality in its bass. The bass on this speaker is mostly on the audible side. But if you already have Sonos speakers in your home, then the Era 100 is going to be a great addition.
But there are somethings that I feel that you have to keep in mind before buying this speaker. First off, you are going to get a little more out of it is your an iPhone user. Since this is a wifi first speaker, airplay is kind of important. But personally, I dislike how aggressive Sonos is to make you sign in into your Sonos account before you can even use this speaker. Also, if you plan on using a wired connection with this speaker, just be ready to buy that USB C to audio jack adaptor, which is sold separately.
So, if you’re not already heavily invested in Sonos’s eco system, or if you don’t plan on buying more Sonos products in the future, or if you don’t need your speaker to be smart and to connect to your wifi… you can definitely find more affordable solutions that sound great, you can get a bigger bang for your buck by buying some other speaker.
But if you are set on buying the Sonos Era 100, it truly is a great sounding speaker. It does a great job of giving you a life like representation of what you’re listening to. I just feel the you’re paying a Sonos tax for it.