Sonos Era 100 Review: Truly impressive stereo sound

The all-new Sonos Era 100 is a capable smart speaker offering an impressive sound performance and extensive connectivity but is it right for you?

27th March 2023

Sonos Era 100 Review: the most versatile smart speaker?

The all-new Sonos Era 100 truly marks a new “era” for Sonos, bringing in a new wave of smart speakers for the popular multi-room audio brand. The evolution of their award-winning Sonos One (Gen 2), the Era 100 has some big shoes to fill. Here is our Sonos Era 100 review from Smart Home Sounds

The Sonos Era 100 promises major upgrades to the sound performance of this speaker with a 25% larger woofer for bigger bass and a new stereo sound with 2 angled tweeters. A refreshed design brings a more modern feel and overall sleek aesthetic while upgrades to connectivity including WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 and a USB-C line-in connection ensures true versatility.

We’ve spent the last few weeks testing this speaker out and testing it with its predecessor to help you decide if the new Era 100 is right for you.

Reading not your thing? Watch our Sonos Era 100 Review on YouTube.

There’s a lot to cover in this review so feel free to use the chapters below to skip ahead.

1. Sonos Era 100 Pros & Cons

2. Sonos Era 100 Price & Release Date

3. Sonos Era 100 Design

4. Sonos Era 100 Internals

5. Where Should You Place The Sonos Era 100

6. How Have Sonos Improved the Energy Efficiency of the Sonos Era 100?

7. Sonos Era 100 Connectivity

8. Can You Connect a Sonos Era 100 to a Turntable

9. Can You Connect the Sonos Era 100 to Your Desktop Computer via Bluetooth?

10. How to Use Trueplay Tuning on the Sonos Era 100

11. Sonos Era 100 Review: Sound Performance

12. Sonos Era 100 vs Sonos One (Gen 2)

13. Sonos Era 100 vs Sonos Move

15. Sonos Era 100 Surround Sound Rears

16. Verdict

Sonos Era 100

RRP £249 (see latest pricing)

View Sonos Era 100

Sonos Era 100 Pros & Cons

Sonos Era 100 Pros

Sonos Era 100 Cons

✅ Powerful bass performance from a compact form factor

✅ Wide soundstage, impressive details & standout vocals

✅ Versatile connection with WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 and line-in connectivity

✅ Sleek, modern design that fits well in most spaces

❌ No support for Google Assistant

❌ No Sonosnet

❌ Bluetooth & line-in disabled when used as rears

Sonos Era 100 Price & Release Date

The Sonos Era 100 launched on the 28th March 2023 alongside the Sonos Era 300, Sonos’ first Dolby Atmos speaker.

With an RRP of £249, the Era 100 launches £50 more than its predecessor and sits above the Sonos One SL in the Sonos Wireless Speaker range.

Sonos Era 100 Design

Design-wise, the Sonos Era 100 is modern upgrade from the Sonos One (Gen 2) and it feels more like a lifestyle piece rather than a speaker. The logo running down the front seems to be the way Sonos are going with their recent products and the overall feel is similar to the more recent Sonos products such as the Sonos Roam and Sonos Sub Mini. Available in both black or white, the Era 100 will blend in with your home.

Side by side with the Sonos One (Gen 2), you can see it’s slightly taller and slimmer than the One but overall pretty similar in size. There are, however, some differences to highlight. They have removed the ethernet port on the back of the Era 100 and added a USB-C line-in port for connecting to an external audio source (you’ll have to purchase a separate Sonos line-in adapter).

Top panel controls look a little different on the Era 100 too. There are still touch controls for playback but we now have an indented volume slider on the top which not only looks better but is more intuitive to use. One quick swipe from one side to the other increases the volume by 30%.

Sonos Era 100 Internals

Under the grille of the Sonos Era 100, we’ve got a 25% larger woofer compared with the Sonos One (Gen 2) and that woofer is as large as they could squeeze in this form factor so we are expecting a noticeably better bass performance.

They’ve also made this a stereo speaker with a dual tweeter setup with two angled tweeters. Plus there are three class-D amplifiers powering the woofer and tweeters. Sonos have also added custom waveguides which work to help spread the sound waves to give you an even wider soundstage.

Where should you place the Sonos Era 100?

When it comes to placement, the Era 100 is a versatile Sonos speaker and can be placed almost anywhere. The main thing to look out for is when placing the speaker next to a wall or on a shelf, be sure to leave at least 1” of space around the back to avoid impacting performance.

Worth noting that, as the speaker is humidity resistant, you could choose to place this in a kitchen or on a covered patio.

How have Sonos improved the energy efficiency of the Sonos Era 100?

Sonos have made the Era 100 more sustainable by using less virgin plastics and more screws instead of glue. The packaging is also 100% recyclable.

But the brand have also said they have improved the energy efficiency of the speaker when playing and when idle and from our tests, it looks like the Era 100 is considerably more efficient than the Sonos One (Gen 2).

When playing music at 50% volume, the speakers seemed to use pretty similar power (between 5 and 10 watts) which costs around 7p if you were to have them playing at that volume for 24 hours. However there is a difference when the speakers are idle which for a lot of us is maybe 80% of the time.

When idle, the Sonos One (Gen 2) used 3.47 watts which works out around 3p per day whereas the Era 100 used around 1.76 watts, around 1p per day. So over a year, you’re looking at £10 for the Sonos One compared with £4 for the Era 100. For reference these figures are based on 34p per kwh.

Sonos Era 100 Connectivity

The Sonos Era 100 offers WiFi 6 connectivity which we would still say offers the most reliable form of streaming at home. However, you also have the choice of AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and voice control with the choice of Sonos Voice or Amazon Alexa.

Now you’ll notice I didn’t include Google Assistant in that list and it looks like someone at Sonos or Google isn’t playing ball right now as we don’t have the option to add Google Assistant with this speaker. It feels like surely this is something that will be solved in time over a software update but if your home runs over Google Assistant this is something to consider.

A major change for this speaker and actually for Sonos as a brand is they have added Bluetooth connectivity to the Era speakers. It’s been a highly requested addition for their smart speakers and it seems Sonos have listened to consumer feedback for these speakers. With Bluetooth 5.0, you now have the option and I can see it being handy for when friends and family are over and want to control the music without getting onto the WiFi.

One thing missing from this speaker is Sonosnet. While we aren’t 100% sure why they’ve removed this, it could be that WiFi 6 is reliable enough that Sonosnet won’t be needed. I also suspect that Sonos see Matter on the horizon and view that as the future for connecting different smart products.

Sonos are registered with Matter but there’s been no official announcement of that or confirmation if this speaker can be used as a Matter Thread Radio but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s coming soon.

Can you connect a Sonos Era 100 to a turntable?

The Era 100 is now the most affordable solution for adding a turntable into your Sonos setup. You will need to purchase either the Sonos line-in adapter or Sonos combo adapter to connect your turntable to the USB-C line-in on the Era 100.

Can you connect the Sonos Era 100 to your desktop computer via Bluetooth?

Yes. We’ve tested pairing an Era 100 with a desktop via Bluetooth and found it works great. We’ve not experienced any lag when watching videos or on a call but you do need to use the microphone on your computer as it wouldn’t work with the microphones on the speaker itself.

How to use Trueplay Tuning on the Sonos Era 100

We’d suggest using Sonos’ room correction software, Trueplay Tuning, with the Era 100 to make sure you’re getting the best performance for your space. With the new Sonos Era products, there are now 2 versions of Trueplay available. A new Quick Tuning process uses the microphones in the speaker to analyse your space and acoustically optimise the speaker to suit. As this doesn’t require an iOS device, Android users now have an option to Trueplay their Era 100 speaker which is great news.

You still have the traditional method of trueplay available for iOS users, now called Advanced Tuning, and Sonos have said that this will give a more accurate result. In our testing, we tried both versions and toggled them on and off to test the difference and to be honest, I couldn’t hear much difference after performing the Quick Tuning. It was only with Advanced Tuning that I could hear a change.

Sonos Era 100 Review: Sound Performance

From our testing, the Era 100 offers an impressive, balanced performance. The added bass brings extra depth to the performance while the dual tweeter setup delivers a wide soundstage and vocals are crisp and captivating.

The Era 100 brings a room filling sound from a surprisingly small footprint. In a stereo pair, the Era 100s are again impressive when it comes to bass and stereo separation. Human by Rag’n’Bone Man sounded like a completely different performance, almost like it had been remastered. The vocals and the wider soundstage gives you another level of performance.

Sonos Era 100 vs Sonos One (Gen 2)

Now I’m a big fan of the performance of the Sonos One (Gen 2) and it remains a solid performer but the bass could be better and it’s a fairly directional speaker.

The Sonos Era 100 does offer deeper bass and a wider performance, as expected, but it also provides a richer, livelier performance. It almost feels like you get another layer onto your audio with this speaker. The bass is nice and tight and there is good separation between different elements of the track.

I think the vocals on the Sonos One (Gen 2) sound more projected forwards in some tracks whereas they sit nicely within the overall performance on the Era 100. For me, after testing these speakers out as a standalone speaker for music alone, I’d already decided that it was worth an additional £50.

Sonos Era 100 vs Sonos Move

The Sonos Move isn’t really a comparable speaker for the Sonos Era 100 as both have been designed for different use cases. In general, you do pay a premium with the Sonos Move for the portability but it’s still a larger and more powerful speaker.

The Era 100 comes closer to the Move than the Sonos One (Gen 2) does but still sits beneath it in the range. If you would like a full comparison then let me know and if enough of you ask for it then we’ll delve deeper on this topic in a video on our YouTube channel.

Recommended Sonos Era 100 Soundbar Pairings

The Sonos Era 100 can also be used in a pair as rear surround sound speakers to a Sonos soundbar. So long as the rest of the home cinema setup is running on the Sonos S2 app, you can pair the Era 100s with any Sonos soundbar including the Sonos Arc, Sonos Beam (Gen 2), Sonos Ray or the now discontinued Sonos Playbar or Sonos Playbase.

Want to get more from your soundbar? Read our Sonos Soundbar Top Tips blog.

Sonos Era 100 surround sound rears

We’ve tested the Era 100s as rears to both the Sonos Arc and Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and they add extra immersion and soundtracks in particular felt more brought to life. Compared with the Sonos One (Gen 2) rears, the performance feels more expansive but actually the biggest difference we noticed was when there’s an effect behind you which has bass.

One example is the scene in James Bond No Time To Die where they are being shot at in the car. There are shots being fired from behind and you can definitely feel more weight in those effects, giving the overall scene a heightened sense of immersion.

However, I don’t think for the most part I would recommend swapping out your Sonos One (Gen 2) or Sonos One SL rears because I don’t think you’re going to get enough of an upgrade for that extra £500. That’s especially the case if you have a Sonos Sub in your setup as the added enhancements with the bass from the rears will be less of a tangible upgrade.

However, if you’re coming in from scratch either for a full Sonos Home Cinema Bundle or you only have a Sonos soundbar, I do think these are great surround sound rears.

Verdict

So after a lot of testing, what’s the verdict of our Sonos Era 100 review? Overall this is a great new addition to Sonos’ lineup and definitely a good upgrade from the Sonos One (Gen 2). The upgraded internals give an impressive sound performance which pushes this speaker ahead in the smart speaker market. The versatility of connections also pushes this speaker ahead and the addition of the USB-C line-in port makes this the most affordable solution for adding a turntable into your Sonos ecosystem.

For existing Sonos One (Gen 2) users, if you are considering adding another zone of audio into your home then we think you'll love the performance of the Era 100 and will appreciate the extra features and upgrades Sonos have added to this speaker.