Sonos Era 100 guide

What Hi-Fi? Verdict

The Era 100 packs in an astonishing amount of streaming and playback features alongside an enjoyable sound that’s bigger, more detailed and more open than before. What’s not to like?

How do you follow up on one of the best wireless smart speakers on the market? Sonos hit the sweet spot jackpot with the Sonos One back in 2019, with its enjoyably sophisticated sound, compact size, extensive streaming features and affordable price meaning it easily found its way into people’s homes – not to mention a five-star What Hi-Fi? review.

But Sonos isn’t the type to stand still and rest on its laurels. For the sequel, the company went back to the drawing board and redesigned the entire speaker.

Enter the Sonos Era 100. Now packing stereo sound and Bluetooth streaming alongside its plentiful wireless streaming talents, the Era 100 looks to be a souped-up speaker that aims to improve on its predecessor with panache.

The Sonos Era 100 released in 2023. This premium home speaker has a wide array of built-in smart features to make the most of your listening experience. Alexa support lets you control the device with only your voice, and through the Sonos S2 app, you can connect it with compatible Sonos speakers to spread audio throughout your home. Alongside the larger and more premium Sonos Era 300, it's one of the few Sonos speakers to include Bluetooth connectivity. That said, it doesn't have Dolby Atmos support like the 300, so you can't enjoy more premium audio formats like with Dolby Atmos Music.

Sonos Era 100 review: the new default smart speaker

The more affordable Era speaker improves upon the Sonos One by nearly every measure and will likely find the same success and popularity among Sonos customers.

his is how you follow up on what was already a good product. Over the course of my time reviewing the new Era 100 speaker, which succeeds the Sonos One introduced in 2017, that’s been my consistent takeaway. It’s gone up in price slightly — now $249 compared to the One’s $219 price (itself an increase over the $199 launch price) — but that increase wasn’t just for the sake of it. The Era 100 outperforms the One in every category when it comes to sound: it’s now capable of stereo playback

But the most exciting aspect of the Era 100 is the way Sonos has broadened its functionality. It’s still a smart speaker that can stream from every music service you can think of, supports hands-free voice commands, and includes extra features like AirPlay 2. Those things were all true of the One, but the Era steps up to another level by tacking on Bluetooth playback and line-in audio via the rear USB-C port. The former lets anyone who comes over easily play their own music on the speaker, while the latter allows you to run a turntable or other external audio source through your entire Sonos system.

Review: Sonos Era 100

Sonos’ compact speaker now streams in stereo, and it comes with some of the best room-tuning software I’ve ever heard.

I’VE NEVER REALLY admired Sonos' speakers for their actual sound quality. Sure, the prior Play One and Five series speakers, the company's soundbars, subwoofer, and even the portable Roam sound perfectly decent. But the main draw of a Sonos speaker is the technology behind the grill. Boasting integrations with Alexa, Apple, Google, and virtually every music streaming service worth mentioning, the multiroom-capable system is the most convenient way to listen to everything, everywhere, all at once.

With the new Era 100, Sonos finally wipes the floor with competitors when it comes to sound quality too. With stereo tweeters and a more advanced room tuning feature, this is a single speaker that easily holds its own with everything but more expensive two-speaker systems. If you're in the market for a compact all-in-one speaker, the Era 100 is easily the best one I have ever heard. I would happily spread them around my home like wildflowers if I was shopping for a way to fill my home with sound.