I tried the Sonos Era 300 Dolby Atmos speaker, and it's a spatial audio beast

The Sonos Era 300 is the company's first Dolby Atmos-enabled speaker, and I got to try it with both Dolby Atmos streaming music and movies in a home theater configuration. Sonos has made soundbars with Dolby Atmos before, of course, but this is its first separate speaker unit to be designed around positional audio – and I've got to say, it blew me away.

We'll obviously reserve final judgment for a full Sonos Era 300 review, but even after a demo I can say that it's one of the most impressive speakers I've heard for its $449 / £449 / AU$749 price, and that it's a genuinely transformative upgrade for the Sonos Arc soundbar, finally bringing the true 'dome' of Dolby Atmos sound to a Sonos home theater setup.

And like the smaller Sonos Era 100, it's easier to get audio to it than almost any other Sonos speaker, thanks to featuring Bluetooth audio support as well as optional 3.5mm line-in via an adapter, and I think that even you don't put Dolby Atmos sound through it, it could still line up as one of the best wireless speakers around today based on my early impressions. So let's get into all the details.

(Image credit: Future)

Hands-on Sonos Era 300 review: Price & release date

• Released on March 28th, 2023
• Priced at $449 / £449 / AU$749
• Cheaper than the Sonos Five

The Sonos Era 300's $449 / £449 / AU$749 price is far from cheap – it's beyond even the Apple HomePod 2, which is similarly designed for Dolby Atmos thrills. But it's actually cheaper than the Sonos Five (which is sticking around in Sonos' line-up as the more hi-fi-focused option), and is much less expensive than the likes of the Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Gen.

And I gotta tell you, compared to what I described in my hands-on Sonos Era 100 review, the Era 300 is really on a whole new level in terms of dispersing the sound, clarity and positioning of instruments, and rich bass.

(Image credit: Future)

Hands-on Sonos Era 300 review: Features

• Upfiring and side-firing drivers for Dolby Atmos
• Bluetooth and 3.5mm line-in support
• Creates 7.1.4 system with Sonos Arc

Let's start with the speakers in the Sonos Era 300. Interestingly, Sonos has gone for compression drivers for the most part, which are much harder to integrate well into small home-friendly speakers than standard dynamic drivers (because they require an extra structure to shape and amplify their sound) – but they can be more efficient, easier to steer for directional sound, and lower-distortion when done right.

Here, there's a forward-firing compression driver, then one upfiring driver at roughly a 10-degree angle, and two side-firing drivers (one left, one right) also at around 10 degrees.

And then there are two side-firing woofers, facing left and right, in a force-opposing configuration. This means they play the same audio, and can be driven hard for rich bass without vibrating such a small speaker right off the shelf – the vibrations of the two drivers cancel each other out.

A processing platform with 4GB of RAM powers the thing, helping to get the Dolby Atmos positional effects from the drivers.

You've also got Bluetooth 5.0 and a USB-C port, and you can connect an adapter to the latter than enables 3.5mm line-in or Ethernet. Wi-Fi 6E is here too.

Sonos says that an upgrade to Bluetooth 5.2 will come in the future.

(Image credit: Future)

Hands-on Sonos Era 300 review: Sound quality

I truly cannot wait to get my hands on the Era 300 for more testing, because I loved what I heard in my time with it.

First: music. It's absolutely crammed with detail, yet seems to also be able to punch deep for bass notes without overriding the finer points elsewhere in the mix. Treble floats sweetly, and voices in the mid-range came through the soundstage clearly and naturally.

But more importantly, this is all happening in what may be the most well-dispersed soundstage I've heard from a single speaker. Stuff that should be central comes from the speaker unit, yes, but everything else has space to swarm around, including nearly feeling like they're coming from your sides at times.

Even when it doesn't get that far, the sound is so wide and so tall – I can't think of another speaker this size that's filled the whole space in front of me quite as well.

Sound positioning isn't just limited to steering things far left and right, to be clear. Instruments can be placed just around the Era 300 speaker too – I heard a song where different parts of a drum kit sounded like they're coming from around the speaker as it faced me.

This was music playing from Amazon Music via the Sonos app – sadly, right now that's the only way to get Dolby Atmos music to play on it. Sonos says that support for Dolby Atmos in Apple Music is coming, but couldn't say when.

For all my gushing above, I was even more impressed when trying it in a home theater setup with the Sonos Arc and Sonos Sub. Sonos describes that as a 7.1.4 system, whereas every previous Sonos surround system has been 5.1.2 at most.

But I think that undersells it. I use a Sonos Arc with Sonos One rear speakers at home, and the transformation here compared to that is just astounding.

The biggest issue with the Sonos Arc compared to the very best Dolby Atmos soundbars is that its height effect isn't that impressive, but when you add the two extra upfiring speakers from the Era 300, that changes. During my demo, the height effect was clear and dynamic, shifting forward and back, or side to side as the film needed.

And the movement of sounds around the rear channels is a dramatic change too. Individual parts of the audio steer so much more neatly and precisely between the two rear speakers, but the rears also hand sounds back and forth with the Arc soundbar more seamlessly, creating something much closer to the feeling of being surrounded by speakers on all sides, rather than having one in front and two behind.

(Image credit: Future)

Hands-on Sonos Era 300 review: Early conclusion

My opinion walking out of my Sonos Era 300 demo is that I needed to get a pair of these in my house ASAP. I was most excited by their home theater performance, no question, but I'm desperate to see how one does on its own with a broader selection of music too, especially non Dolby Atmos tracks. 

Assuming that the Era 300 still disperses stereo tracks as convincingly left and right as it does with Dolby Atmos, I could see this being one of the best-value speakers for music lovers with little space to spare – you could put one of these on a single set of shelves with one of the best turntables connected over its line-in adapter, and I think you'd have a hell of a setup that fits in a corner of a room.

The angular design, while clearly necessary, may put some people off – it comes across as more 'techy' than the simple cylinder of the Sonos Era 100 – but it doesn't matter to me. After that demo, the Sonos Era 300 is my most anticipated launch of the year.