Sonos Announces New 'Era' Speakers and Apple Music Spatial Audio Support

[MacRumors]

Sonos today announced new Era 300 and Era 100 smart speakers following multiple leaks. In addition to Bluetooth 5.0, both speakers support AirPlay 2 for wirelessly streaming audio from Apple devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

Era 100 (left) and Era 300 (right)​

The higher-end Era 300 speaker features an hourglass design with six class-D digital amplifiers, four tweeters, two woofers, USB-C line in, and a far-field microphone array with beamforming and multi-channel echo cancellation. Era 300 is the first Sonos speaker capable of multi-channel surround sound when used as rear speakers in a home theater system, and features Trueplay technology for automatic EQ optimizations.

The lower-end Era 100 is the successor to the Sonos One speaker and features a cylindrical design with three class-D digital amplifiers, two tweeters, and one woofer. Like the Era 300, it has USB-C line in, a far-field microphone array, and Trueplay.

Sonos also announced that it will be adding support for Apple Music's spatial audio feature. Apple Music subscribers will be able to listen to spatial audio tracks on the Era 300, as well as the Arc and second-generation Beam sound bars, starting March 28.

Both speakers can be pre-ordered now and will be available globally starting March 28, with U.S. pricing set at $449 and $249, respectively.

Article Link: Sonos Announces New 'Era' Speakers and Apple Music Spatial Audio Support

 

[Z6128]

Does anyone else find spatial audio for music to be a bit lacking? It’s amazing for movies. But every time I try and listen to Atmos music on my Sonos soundbars or AirPods, I end up turning it off and going back to regular stereo.

 

[G5isAlive]

Seems like Apple isn't the only one to have prices go up... should be interesting to see how these rate acoustically against the Sonos One and 3. Is there going to be an Era 500?

 

[contacos]

Does anyone else find spatial audio for music to be a bit lacking? It’s amazing for movies. But every time I try and listen to Atmos music on my Sonos soundbars or AirPods, I end up turning it off and going back to regular stereo.

I hardly notice anything TBH and I even got Tidal HiFi with „Atmos“ „Master“ and „360 Real Audio“ (supported by my Sony Headphoned)

Marketing always tells me I am supposed to feel like I am „emerging“ into the music as if I am standing in a musical hall but nope. Play me „basic“ Spotify on 320 kbs instead and I wouldn’t even notice

 

[TotalMacMove]

Would be really nice to be able to set these speakers as "default" via apple tv like the homepod.

 

[Logic368]

I saw this image and thought it was a camera case

 

[StangGT909]

Agreed, currently is this not possible with anything other than HomePods?

 

[Jankie]

Does anyone else find spatial audio for music to be a bit lacking? It’s amazing for movies. But every time I try and listen to Atmos music on my Sonos soundbars or AirPods, I end up turning it off and going back to regular stereo.

Yes. I just returned the Arc, Sub, and surrounds. The problem I had was that while some music wasn't bad, other music was horrible. I think the issue is the soundbar. The speakers are smaller, not as spread out, and seem to be using some type of passive bass. I went back to my simple stereo system and the quality of all the music was higher.

I think if the Eras 300 were used for all the speakers like a traditional 5.1 sound set-up, that this may resolve the problem because decent speakers would be available when just playing stereo. IDK.

 

[mrCrumbSnatcher]

Does anyone else find spatial audio for music to be a bit lacking? It’s amazing for movies. But every time I try and listen to Atmos music on my Sonos soundbars or AirPods, I end up turning it off and going back to regular stereo.

It really depends on the album. There are a lot that are not mixed well.... most likely auto-generated Spatial or something. But there are some albums that sound absolutely amazing. Some of my favorites:

• Rumors - Fleetwood Mac
• Thriller - Michael Jackson
• Pyromania - Def Leppard
• Various Beatles albums

For the younger crowd, I've stumbled across various tracks by The Weekend, Billie Elish (sp?), etc. That sound really neat.

But as mentioned, there are many albums that did Spatial a disservice (I'm looking at you, Faith no More - Epic).

Edit: Just to clarify - I have the Arc, Sub and two Ones in my setup.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Does anyone else find spatial audio for music to be a bit lacking? It’s amazing for movies. But every time I try and listen to Atmos music on my Sonos soundbars or AirPods, I end up turning it off and going back to regular stereo.

Select stuff explicitly made for it (not faux created after the fact like turning mono & stereo recordings into it) can be interesting/impressive. For example, the Beatles Love soundtrack does seem a bit "more" in spatial than stereo to my ears.

I suspect part of the problem is that just about every way we've ever listened to music involves it coming from a direction (stage/hall/stereo speakers out front) or perhaps just left & right stereo (when in headphones). Spatial is conceptually trying to put the audience somewhere in between the musicians, as if instead of seated in an audience with the orchestra ahead of you, you've taken position in among the orchestra with some of them in positions all around you.

We generally do NOT already know the sounds of that kind of audio at all. Instead we are accustomed to it in stereo at best coming from a single direction. Even in hifi setups that would previously fake it with a setting like "concert hall" most of that immersion would make the virtual space seem larger by sending a little echo out to other speakers, etc.

So now the game is "faking it" by taking recordings originally mixed as stereo and digitally faking surround or- in some cases- choices are being made to go back to the individual tracks to make a new surround sound mix (which- per established familiarity- music noticeably changes and may get some negative bias because it sounds different than the version we know so well).

I suspect as time passes and brand new recordings are created explicitly to take advantage of it, it might gain some extra steam and even sound BETTER to our ears than stereo. If you hear new creations for the first time in it, you can't have previous bias/familiarity to how it sounds in stereo. Getting acquainted with brand new music this way may make it seem like the stereo version is "missing something." For example, flip this to movies with great surround sound audio. When you try to watch the same movie in only stereo or only mono, it is VERY noticeable (and generally a lessened experience).

Once upon a time all recorded audio was mono and people had to adjust or rebel against the crazy idea of 2 channel stereo with some sound more left than right and vice versa. Our initial reaction to this is probably like that. Step forward 10 or 20 years and perhaps we'll be ridiculing "old-fashioned" stereo because "everything can only sound like it's coming from one direction and only left & right."

 

[campdogg]

just another set of clunkers that I can't use Google Assistant to play Apple Music on. So frustrating.

 

[Jankie]

just another set of clunkers that I can't use Google Assistant to play Apple Music on. So frustrating.

I did not try the Sonos Voice Assistant before I returned my system. Is it bad? Does it not work with the music services like Apple Music?

EDIT: I went to the Sonos site. It appears that their Voice Control works with Apple Music and is onboard so that it does not need to send requests to the cloud. If only playing music, this sounds like a good option, unless I am missing something.

 

[ThisIsMike]

Love the 300 - I was wondering when Sonos would come out with their own VR headset! 😀

 

[coachgq]

Would you compare these like 300:Homepod and 100:HomePod mini? Or are there bigger differences? The cost is definitely higher on the Sonos so maybe they both have better sound than the apple speakers.

 

[Razorpit]

Does anyone else find spatial audio for music to be a bit lacking? It’s amazing for movies. But every time I try and listen to Atmos music on my Sonos soundbars or AirPods, I end up turning it off and going back to regular stereo.

Everything I listen to with it on seems to be slowed down slightly. Weezer and the Ramones for example were terrible. Not as bad as playing a 45 at 33, but along those lines.

Select stuff explicitly made for it (not faux created after the fact like turning mono & stereo recordings into it) can be interesting/impressive. For example, the Beatles Love soundtrack does seem a bit "more" in spatial than stereo to my ears.

I suspect part of the problem is that just about every way we've ever listened to music involves it coming from a direction (stage/hall/stereo speakers out front) or perhaps just left & right stereo (when in headphones). Spatial is conceptually trying to put the audience somewhere in between the musicians, as if instead of seated in an audience with the orchestra ahead of you, you've taken position in among the orchestra with some of them in positions all around you.

We generally do NOT already know the sounds of that kind of audio at all. Instead we are accustomed to it in stereo at best coming from a single direction. Even in hifi setups that would previously fake it with a setting like "concert hall" most of that immersion would make the virtual space seem larger by sending a little echo out to other speakers, etc.

So now the game is "faking it" by taking recordings originally mixed as stereo and digitally faking surround or- in some cases- choices are being made to go back to the individual tracks to make a new surround sound mix (which- per established familiarity- music noticeably changes it and may get some negative bias because it sounds different than the version we know so well).

I suspect as time passes and brand new recordings are created explicitly to take advantage of it, it might gain some extra steam and even sound BETTER to our ears than stereo. If you hear new creations for the first time in it, you can't have previous bias/familiarity to how it sounds in stereo. Getting acquainted with brand new music this way may make it seem like the stereo version is "missing something." For example, flip this to movies with great surround sound audio. When you try to watch the same movie in only stereo or only mono, it is VERY noticeable (and generally a lessened experience).

Once upon a time all recorded audio was mono and people had to adjust or rebel against the crazy idea of 2 channel stereo with some sound more left than right and vice versa. Our initial reaction to this is probably like that. Step forward 10 or 20 years and perhaps we'll be ridicules "old-fashioned" stereo because "everything can only sound like it's coming from one direction and only left & right."

Why not, everyone’s bought in to LP’s again, I’m holding out for the Edison cylindrical edition of the White album.

 

[Clonetrooper]

Does the USB C line in mean I can connect one directly to a Mac mini?

 

[LeadingHeat]

But HomePods are so expensive!
/s

 

[campdogg]

I did not try the Sonos Voice Assistant before I returned my system. Is it bad? Does it not work with the music services like Apple Music?

EDIT: I went to the Sonos site. It appears that their Voice Control works with Apple Music and is onboard so that it does not need to send requests to the cloud. If only playing music, this sounds like a good option, unless I am missing something.

Google Assistant has all my data and is fantastic for voice-controlled operations of my calendar, weather, my home-connected devices, etc. I don't want to switch to the Sonos voice control and lose all the other features I get out of my Google Assistant. Its just incredibly frustrating that these 3 very popular services - each near or best in class - can't work together. I may have to tuck my tail and go back to Spotify now which I really don't want to do.

 

[enc0re]

Does the USB C line in mean I can connect one directly to a Mac mini?

Can, yes. But it will probably be undesirable. With all present Sonos speakers the line-in has quite a bit of lag. That's because any line-in source can be shared across the Sonos network and Sonos' multi-room audio is excellent, arguably the best. But it comes at the price of lag.

 

[enc0re]

Would you compare these like 300:Homepod and 100:HomePod mini? Or are there bigger differences? The cost is definitely higher on the Sonos so maybe they both have better sound than the apple speakers.

Probably closer to 100:HomePod.

I have Sonos Ones (predecessor to 100) and they are of comparable size and sound almost as good as my HomePod. Of course, HomePod supports Spatial Audio (to a point) and the 100 will not.

 

[diamornte]

Does anyone else find spatial audio for music to be a bit lacking? It’s amazing for movies. But every time I try and listen to Atmos music on my Sonos soundbars or AirPods, I end up turning it off and going back to regular stereo.

Definitely agree, it sounds like the tech is trying too hard to separate pieces of audio and vocals which sound better when married and mixed together "flat" and not "spatial."

 

[daanodinot]

Very interested in the Era 100s. As much as I’m an Apple sucker, I prefer these over the HomePods for a number of reasons:

• a narrower shape, which makes them easier to fit in, especially for stereo
• lack of the gimicky ‘screen’ Apple has put on top
• the fact that I can actually buy an official stand with them (for some reason Apple thinks that use case doesn’t exist)

Looking forward to the reviews!

 

[CARIB_APPLE]

No Thread / Matter support?

 

[darthbane2k]

The Verge’s coverage of this sounds suspiciously like an Ad, also their so called leak was planned - hence the glowing coverage.

Also find it hilarious that for all the criticism of Homepods price, no one is calling out the $900 price Sonos is asking , for two rear speakers in a home cinema setup.

Finally for all of Sonos refusal to integrate Siri properly into their speakers (by interfacing via a homepod), why the heck has Apple allowed Apple Music spatial audio to be supported on these speakers?!

 

[daanodinot]

The Verge’s coverage of this sounds suspiciously like an Ad, also their so called leak was planned - hence the glowing coverage.

Also find it hilarious that for all the criticism of Homepods price, no one is calling out the $900 price Sonos is asking , for two rear speakers in a home cinema setup.

Finally for all of Sonos refusal to integrate Siri properly into their speakers (by interfacing via a homepod), why the heck has Apple allowed Apple Music spatial audio to be supported on these speakers?!

Look, The Verge clearly has some kind of source at Sonos. But Apple writing ads for Sonos? I think you underestimate how much is at stake for a publication like The Verge to say “Whatever we’re just going to write an ad for a tech company.” It would ruin their entire reputation; it would destroy livelihoods. Whatever they would get from Sonos, it wouldn’t be worth the risk. Not by a long shot.

Also: these are first-looks. It’s hard to criticize something when you’ve only heard a demo. So wait for the reviews. Then judge.