Sonos Era 100 is a next-gen replacement for the venerable Sonos One
The Era 100 brings improved sound quality to smaller parties and office spaces alike
Sonos is ushering in a new era, with the $249/£249 Era 100 to replace the Sonos One, which has been on its second generation for a while now, also joined by the One SL which was basically the same thing without support for voice assistants.
Properly new this time is Bluetooth support, so you’re no longer restricted to Wi-Fi sources such as Amazon, Apple and Spotify – it’ll have a wider appeal as a result. Apple’s AirPlay 2 is still present if you prefer to use that with Apple devices.
It doesn’t have spatial audio but does have two angled tweeters for better stereo performance, a mid-woofer that’s 25% larger, and three class-D amps to power everything. Once again it’s compatible with Trueplay to optimise the EQ and get the right sound for your room. Usefully this now works on Android as well as iOS.
There’s a new capacitive volume slider on the top of the unit, too, alongside other standard controls for pausing, playing and invoking the voice assistant.
Speaking of which, Sonos Voice Control is supported, as is Amazon Alexa. You can directly hook up a source such as a turntable with a separately available adapter (the actual connector on the speaker itself is USB-C). Once again you can stereo pair a duo of Era 100s together.
The Era 100 is joined by the Era 300 which will set you back $449/£449 and both are available at the end of the month. The Era 300 model seems to be designed as a successor to the long-lost Sonos Play:3 rather than any threat to the Sonos 5, which is sticking around in the range. Surely though, it too will get a successor at some point soon.
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
