Review: New Sonos Era 100 - The Next Level Audio Speakers

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Article Quick Links

• New Sonos Era 100 Speakers
• Era 100: Sonos Speakers Then & Now
• Sonos Era 100 Unboxing
• Sonos Era 100 Setup
• New Design and Features
• Bluetooth and USB Connectivity
• Sound and Speaker Upgrades
• Configurations
• Trueplay
• Hands-On Performance Testing
• How Does it Sound?
• Final Thoughts

New-Sonos-Era-100-Speakers New Sonos Era 100 Speakers

The new Sonos Era 100 is a voice-controlled wireless smart speaker and represents the first significant audio upgrade that Sonos has made to its smaller speaker lineup in quite some time. Sonos touts it as the "next-gen home bookshelf speaker". I will back that. Not only does it have a new design, but there are plenty of new features and connectivity options that demonstrate Sonos' commitment to innovation for not just the audio quality, but for the user. So, what's different in the Era 100 compared to previous Sonos speakers? Era 100 vs. Sonos One and Play:1? Should you switch out your old Sonos speakers for the Era 100?

I put this brand new speaker to the test and then some in this review, so read on. If you’ve watched our YouTube channel, you know I’m kind of the “go-to” guy when it comes to Sonos. I’m always excited to get my hands on their new releases - I'm a gadget and music guy, and Sonos has always scratched that itch for me. If you’re new to our YouTube channel, we have an entire playlist of videos devoted to Sonos. Buckle up. I go into detail. Get ready to immerse yourself in your favorite music like never before and experience a new level of sound quality and clarity that will blow you away from such a small speaker.

Sonos-Speakers-Then-Now Era 100: Sonos Speakers Then & Now

So how did we get here? … to this “new era” of Sonos speakers? Sonos was founded in 2002 with the mission to help music lovers play any song anywhere in their homes. They had a long way to go before the technology even existed to make that dream a reality. Their first release, the ZP100 one of the first streaming amplifiers which came out in 2005. Sonos didn’t release an all-in-one speaker until the Play:5 in 2009. The Play:5 led to the Play:3 in 2011, and then the Play:1 in 2013.

Today, Sonos’ rate of innovation and speed to market has drastically increased with a slew of new releases over the past few years. Sonos has a speaker for just about any room. I attribute this to Sonos’ commitment to their 3 principles. 1) Setup has to be fast and intuitive for anyone, 2) It has to integrate well with any technology or service, and 3) it has to deliver superior sound in any home environment. I think that’s a fantastic approach to technology and streaming music.

The original Play:1 was my favorite gift to give for a long period of time. I gave one to my sister, my brother, my mother, you get it. I personally owned (5) Play:1s at one point... I loved those little speakers. Sonos replaced the Play:1 with the Sonos One in 2017, but there wasn’t much of an audio upgrade when the One came out. It was slightly larger, and added Voice Control, but other than that, it delivered a very similar audio experience. For me, I didn’t need voice control, so I never upgraded.

Fast forward to 2023 with the release of the Era 100. Almost 10 years after the Play:1’s debut, and Sonos is finally delivering audio upgrades to the smaller form factor speaker... and now I’m tempted to switch out my system with the Era 100’s improved audio, enhanced Trueplay tuning, and the new, dedicated Sonos voice control option.

Sonos voice is built specifically to control your music. When you ask for an esoteric low-fi band from Southern California there’s a better likely hood that the Sonos voice platform will know what you’re talking about rather than Alexa whom is searching almost any iteration of that word. Keeping the music first allows them to be more accurate at playing what you want to hear and more specifically what you asked to hear.

Sonos Era 100 Unboxing Sonos Era 100 Unboxing

Sonos is dedicated to a simple unboxing experience and eco-friendly packaging. The Era 100’s packaging is made of entirely recycled materials. SONOS has also started to incorporate this philosophy into the materials that they use to build their speakers. The Era 100 is constructed with the most recyclable and eco-friendly materials to date. Sonos has even updated the power cord wrapper to a recycled material so there are no plastics involved at all.

Sonos wants the speaker to be unboxed and ready to go as fast as possible, and with a single strip to pull on, the box opens, and you have access to everything very quickly.

Inside the box is the ERA100, a power cord, and simple instructions for setup and that’s it. Nothing superfluous.

Sonos Era 100 Setup Sonos Era 100 Setup

The setup of the Era100 is exactly like any SONOS device and it's a breeze. Sonos wants to reduce your “Time to music”. So setup is seamless and quick. Once you have the SONOS app on your phone and you’re connected to your network, SONOS will walk you through the process.

There are (3) ways to connect your new speaker:

1. A Near Field Chip method will ask you to place your phone near the speaker for it to authorize the ERA100 to access your Wi-Fi information from your phone.
2. A “chirp” method sends out a high-frequency sound from the speaker to your phone OR,
3. Lastly, there is a PIN code on the bottom of the unit that you’ll have to type in.

Once the speaker is ready to be setup, a prompt in the SONOS app will appear asking if you want to add a new speaker. Follow the on-screen instructions and you’re ready to go.

The whole process took 4 minutes to add both speakers AND combine them into a stereo pair. After they’re added into your system, Sonos offers a run through of how your new speaker works, called “Get to know your Era 100”. This is a simple walkthrough to get you familiar with button placement and new features.

New Design and Features New Design and Features

The Sonos Era 100 comes in black or white matte finish and weighs a little under five pounds. At around 7” H x almost 5” W x and 5” D, it’s taller than the One and the Play:1 by almost an inch and comes in at about a pound heavier. The difference in the body is that it’s not as much of a rounded off square and is a lot more oblong/cylindrical with a wraparound grille. It's super clean and minimalistic. Sonos will be releasing stands and wall brackets designed specifically the Era 100 which will maintain the clean minimalism by conveniently hiding the power cord and allow your speakers to sit at just the right height.

You'll find updated playback controls on the top of the speaker. There are three distinct ways to control the volume directly on the unit itself: 1) A new swipe-able volume control. The speed that you swipe will adjust the ramping speed of the volume. So, if you go slowly, it will go slowly. If you swipe quickly, the volume will adjust faster. 2) You can also tap to raise or lower the volume. 3) And you can press and hold to ramp the volume.

Also on the top of the speaker, you will find a standard play/pause button in the middle and a dedicated button to skip forward and skip backwards. These functions were available on their previous speakers, but you had to remember to swipe left or right or double or triple press the play button.

There also a button to turn the microphone on or off (it will have a white light if it’s on), and there is also a kill switch on the back towards the bottom that will make sure the microphone is never on. Green means it’s good to go. You’ll need this turned on to run Sonos' new quick Trueplay feature, but you can disable it once you’ve finished. A quick reminder: you will not be able to enjoy Sonos’ Voice Control or Amazon Alexa while you have the kill switch set to "off".

I discovered an interesting detail Sonos added for the user when I engaged the Sonos voice control. During the process I got a warning that I had to engage the microphone on the left speaker because it was chosen by the Sonos app to be the dedicated speaker to listen for voice commands. Funny thing is the right one had the microphone engaged but it wouldn’t let me proceed until I fixed the switch on the left speaker.

Bluetooth and USB Connectivity Bluetooth and USB Connectivity

Something that the Era 100 (and Era 300) have that the One and Play:1 did not have, is the addition of Bluetooth as an input. Bluetooth 5.0 to be exact. It is a concurrent Bluetooth input just like on the Sonos Roam where it will stay on your network and be available via Bluetooth (unlike the Sonos Move). The Bluetooth input can be shared to any room in your Sonos ecosystem, so you’re not limited to a single player. This makes it easy for friends and family to use their phone to play music through your Sonos system without having to download the app or get on your Wi-Fi. Press and hold the Bluetooth button and it will quickly go into pairing mode and you’re set. While testing it, I used Bluetooth in a variety of ways, but my favorite was connecting the Era 100s to my MacBook to act as much better speakers than what the laptop could offer.

But Bluetooth isn’t the only way to get non-Sonos music into your Sonos system. There is also a USB-C input on the back of the speaker here. Sonos gives you two options of what you can do with the USB-C. They are selling USB Attachments that will allow you to connect a 1/8” stereo cable to add in something like a turntable. The other attachment will have a 1/8” stereo input and an ethernet, aka network connection. Since most people will be connecting to this speaker wirelessly, Sonos didn’t want to take up real estate on the speaker for a network connection.

Sound and Speaker Upgrades Sound and Speaker Upgrades

The Era 100 totally shifted the soundscape of Sonos' small entry level speaker with this new design. It’s not just going to have a 47% faster processor to handle the demand needed for Voice Control, High Resolution Audio, or using their Phase array technology when it’s a rear speaker.

Sonos has also upgraded the speaker architecture. The Era 100 has two tweeters instead of one tweeter in the Play:1 or One, to create better stereo imaging alone, or if you’re using them in a stereo pair it will create a more spacious sound stage.

The Era 100 has a 25% larger midwoofer than its predecessors and is shaped much like oval midwoofers that you’ll find in the Arc, Beam, or Ray. This lets the bass be a lot punchier. It also has a custom waveguide to help create that wider soundstage

There are Three class-D digital amplifiers that Sonos toons to the unique acoustic architecture of the Era 100

That additional height and larger midwoofer will give you more bass response, but while I played with it, I did add my Sub Mini to the mix to get the oomph I really wanted.

Configurations Configurations

The Era 100 can be used in three configurations: 1) as a standalone speaker, 2) a stereo pair, or 3) as rears in a home theater setup.

As a standalone speaker, the Era 100 is great in the kitchen, office, bedroom, or wherever you want to add a little music.

As a stereo pair, I think it’s a great contender for top 2-channel systems for under $1,000 for sure with the help of the Sonos Sub Mini. I’ve always felt two Ones and a SUB Mini were a great starting point for a 2.1 channel musical setup, but when I set up a pair of the Era 100s with the Sub Mini, it felt like a more substantial listening experience. The Sub Mini took over the heavy lifting for the low end and the Era 100s midwoofers could focus on filling out the midrange instead of playing double duty. The dual tweeters made it feel like vocals were more present, and the soundstage more open.

If you add in the Victrola Stream Onyx that has the “works with Sonos” designation, you have a well-rounded audio system for a little over $1,500 and you only had to buy four things.

In regards to a home theater setup, when paired with an ATMOS capable soundbar, Sonos engineered the Era 100 to utilize the same phase array technology that the Beam Gen 2 has so you can create a simulated ATMOS setup. It’s not a true ATMOS setup because there aren’t dedicated channels to the height speakers, but it will use psychoacoustics to create the feeling of an enhanced audio setup.

If you’re like me and have the Sonos Playbar, I will warn you that the Era 100 will not work as rears with the Playbar.

If you want a true ATMOS setup with Sonos, make sure you watch our video about the ERA 300 where I go into more detail about Sonos’ first full 7.1.2 Atmos surround system.

Trueplay Trueplay

A crucial part in any Sonos speaker setup is running Trueplay, Sonos’ room calibration software. The Era series speakers come with the ability to do a “quick tuning” of Trueplay that will use the microphones built into the speaker to do a very quick calibration. I’m talking about 30 seconds at most. This is perfect for someone who wants a quick setup and doesn’t want to walk around with their phone for 5 minutes doing the standard Trueplay.

Do not set this speaker up without using this feature. It benefits the sound so much, and if you need to hear for yourself, you can. In the app, you can turn it on and off to A/B test for yourself. But, it takes 30 seconds. It took me longer to explain it than to set it up. Slightly longer if there is also a Subwoofer.

Which leads me to another big innovation with the release of the Era series speakers: Sonos has finally released Trueplay calibration for Android devices! You asked for it, and they listened. It won’t be the same as if you were using an iOS device because there are still a great number of microphones that the Android phones could use, but SONOS wanted to make sure you could tune your system if you were an Android user. The result is the SONOS app will make a couple suggestions on how they’d like to tune the system, and then you can pick which is the one you like the most. I’m glad that SONOS finally found a way to add this feature to the Android ecosystem.