Sonos Era 300

Surprisingly Full sound – If you are looking to fill a space small to medium this is all you need. I bought a pair and they are full sounding. The speakers are heavy and have a premium finish. Love the Spatial Audio output. Love these. Expensive but worth every penny..

Lives Up To The Hype – There's been a lot of hype and excitement around the release of the Sono Era 300 wireless speaker, the first Dolby Atmos enabled wireless dedicated music speaker (as opposed to soundbar) to hit the market. Although pricey at $750 each, in the end I decided to take the leap as I found the offering of Dolby Atmos enabled immersive spatial audio too tempting to resist. I wasn't disappointed. Weighing almost 5kg they're very solid and hefty units, they look and feel like they mean business.

The speaker features 6 drivers in total: 2 side-firing left and right woofers and 4 tweeters: two side-firing left and right drivers, plus a front facing driver and an upwards-firing "height" driver on top for Dolby Atmos audio.

The sound quality is amazing: rich, detailed and clear, with more than enough very solid bass (I measured it down to about 33dB on a tone generator app subwoofer test).

I started off with a single unit and wasn't planning to go beyond that. Just one Era 300 on its own is already very impressive, with a sound comparable to the similar sized and also excellent Google Home Max (now discontinued), but with punchier bass and a more satisfying response overall for me.

But with Dolby Atmos music the speaker really fires up. The immersive sound of Atmos adds a whole new dimension to music that is incredibly captivating and refreshing. I quickly found however that, with just a single unit, I had a sense of missing out. I just got a very strong intuition that this setup would only truly shine as a stereo pair.

So off I went back to the store and got a second unit. And I wasn't wrong. As a stereo pair, the Sonos Era 300 just blows you away. Ordinary stereo mixes already sound fantastic but when you listen to high-quality Dolby Atmos mixes these speakers take music to a whole other level. Whatever magic's involved, it's way better than 5.1 surround music, which I've always found somewhat thin and distracting. With the Era 300s, the soundstage is still in front of you, as it should be as that's almost always how we listen to music whether at home or at concerts or live gigs, but nevertheless the Atmos effect really does make you feel completely immersed in the music, as if it's coming from all around you, but in a uniform, totally consistent way.

In Atmos mode, a pair of these speakers appears to render a 5.1.2 surround system, but specifically geared for music, which makes a world of difference from surround systems geared to video. The front-facing drivers render the Front Left, Centre and Right channels, the side-firing L+R drivers render Surround Left and Right channels and the upward-firing drivers render Height Left and Right channels. And the woofers carry all the bass down to a very respectable 33 Hz or so.

The speakers are intended to connect to your home WiFi network via the Sonos App. You do need a subscription to Apple or Amazon music to access Dolby Atmos mixes, as streaming them is the only way the speakers can access Atmos. That actually makes sense given these are music, not home theatre speakers, and almost all Dolby Atmos music is currently only available on the Apple and Amazon music platforms. Hardly anyone is putting their Atmos mixes on discs to sell as physical products at the moment, except for a few very limited releases via the Super Deluxe Edition website. I'm surprised at just how much Atmos music there is these days on Apple & Amazon though, way more than I expected, and I don't regret needing to sign up to an additional service (I've been a YouTube Music subscriber for 8 years now). From pop to classical, rock to electronic to ambient to acoustic, there's plenty of music from every kind of genre.

However you can also cast any content you like via Bluetooth or even via a 3.5mm stereo lead, meaning you can hook up a turntable or even a CD player, or any other audio device if you wish. You do need a special Analogue to Digital (ADC) converter USB-C adapter to do that though, available from Sonos for an extra $35. Ordinary mobile phone USB-C headphone converters won't work as they are Digital to Analogue (DAC) converters.

I'm not an audiophile by any means, and would never spend tens of thousands on a ridiculously expensive hi-fi system with ever-diminishing returns. I'm just someone who loves music with an intense passion and is happy with a solid, good quality sound system. If you're a music lover, a true fanatic like me and you are looking for a quality, all-round system that really delivers without breaking the bank, I strongly recommend these speakers.