Sonos Announces New 'Era' Speakers and Apple Music Spatial Audio Support
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.
Popular Stories
Thursday September 21, 2023 10:28 am PDT by
Juli CloverApple today released iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 updates for the iPhone and the iPad, adding bug fixes to the new software. The iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 updates come just a few days after Apple launched iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. The software, which is build 21A340, can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. There is a...
Are you skipping the iPhone 15 Pro and waiting another year to upgrade? If so, we already have some iPhone 16 Pro rumors for you. Below, we recap new features rumored for the iPhone 16 Pro models so far:Larger displays: The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be equipped with larger 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch displays, respectively, according to Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain...
If you are unboxing an iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, or iPhone 15 Pro Max today, make sure to update the device to iOS 17.0.2 before transferring data to the device from another iPhone, or else you might encounter issues. iOS 17.0.2 is only available for the iPhone 15 lineup. Apple says the update fixes an issue that may prevent transferring data directly from another iPhone...
The new Double Tap gesture for the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 will be enabled starting with watchOS 10.1, according to Marques Brownlee, host of the popular tech-focused YouTube channel MKBHD. The first beta of watchOS 10.1 will likely be available by next week, and Apple announced that the software update will be released next month. Brownlee shared his impressions...
As Apple was announcing new iPhone models last week, the Unicode Consortium was officially approving new emoji characters that are set to be added to smartphones starting in 2024. Mockup of new emoji from Emojipedia Approved Unicode 15.1 emoji include phoenix, lime, an edible mushroom, shaking head vertically (as in a "yes" nod), shaking head horizontally (a "no" head shake), and broken...
In a support document updated today, Apple indicates that fingerprints might "temporarily alter the color" of the titanium frame on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Fortunately, Apple says this is not a permanent condition, as the fingerprints can be wiped off just like on any other iPhone to restore a clean finish. "For iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the oil from your skin...
Top Rated Comments
* 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.
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."
/s