The Sonos Era 300 is £449. It is one speaker. It claims to render Dolby Atmos. By all reasonable expectations, that should not work[1].
It mostly works.
The trick
Six drivers, three angled upward and outward. The processing fans the soundstage left, right, and up. In a typical room with reflective ceiling and walls, the result is a wider soundstage than any single speaker has any right to.
Where it works
Music mixed in Dolby Atmos. Apple Music has a growing catalogue of Spatial Audio[2]. The verticality of well-mixed Atmos tracks is genuinely there. Drums above and behind the listening position; vocals centred and forward.
The early Beatles albums remixed by Giles Martin in Atmos sound like a different band.
Where it does not
Stereo music played on the Era 300 in "stereo upmix" mode is good but not better than a regular Era 100 stereo pair.
Movies. The Era 300 as a TV speaker is fine but not transformational. The Atmos rendering needs music's lower acoustic complexity to land.
Small rooms. The reflective trick depends on walls and ceilings. In a 3x3m room with no headroom the spatial effect collapses.
Use case fit
If you stream Apple Music in Atmos: this speaker.
If you mostly stream Spotify or YouTube Music in stereo: an Era 100 stereo pair is better value at similar price.
If you want a TV soundbar: get a soundbar.
What is good about Sonos in general in 2024
The S2 app is finally stable after the disastrous May 2024 update.
TruePlay room calibration on iOS works well.
Multi-room is still the best in the category.
What is not
The price is high. £449 for one speaker is a lot.
You are locked into Sonos. AirPlay 2 is supported, Spotify Connect is supported, but the deepest features want the Sonos app.
The S2 update saga eroded a lot of goodwill. Sonos lost their CEO over it.
Verdict
If you have a streaming subscription with Spatial Audio content and a room with normal ceilings, the Era 300 is genuinely impressive. I did not expect to like it as much as I do.
For everyone else, an Era 100 pair makes more sense.
About the data
A note on what the numbers in this post represent so you can read them with the right confidence:
- "My own bench" rows are personal measurements on my own hardware. They are honest about my setup and reproducible there, but they should not be treated as universal benchmark scores.
- Benchmark numbers attributed to public sources (Geekbench Browser, DXOMARK, NotebookCheck, FIA timing) are illustrative, the trend is what matters, not the third decimal place. Cross-check against the source for anything you would act on financially.
- Client outcomes and ROI percentages in business-focused posts are anonymised composites drawn from my own consulting work. Real numbers, real direction, sanitised so individual clients are not identifiable.
- Foldable crease-depth and similar engineering measurements are estimates pulled from teardown reports and reviewer claims; manufacturers do not publish these directly.
- Forecasts and "what I bet" lines are exactly that, opinions, not predictions with a track record yet.
If you spot a number that contradicts a source you trust, tell me, I would rather correct it than be the chart that was off by 6 percent and pretended otherwise.