My house is full of Sonos speakers. I got on Sonos early, way before the company even made speakers and have sold (quite revolutionary at the time) ZonePlayers instead, one of which was designed to add streaming to an existing hi-fi and the other a simply -add- speaker affair.
Since then my collection has grown exponentially. It’s not that I’m immune to the kit lures of various other brands: it’s more that over the years Sonos has continued to improve its technology, add support for every streaming service imaginable, and expand its range into new categories such as sound bars . Basically, I haven’t gone elsewhere, mostly because I’m not needed because Sonos has always offered more or less what I need when I need it.
(For the record, that’s not to say my house only has a Sonos kit – until recently I also used a Denon AVR and I also use an Arcam SA30 for ‘serious’ listening)
Despite my recent flirtation with a pair of HomePod 2 speakers as an AV system, I’m a huge fan of the Sonos Arc soundbar. As a performance-per-pound proposition, it’s almost impossible to make mistakes. Big, bold, dynamic and reasonably detailed, it’s a super handy home theater that’s well executed.
Of course, being a soundbar, the Sonos can’t throw sound at you from the sides or back of where you’re sitting. You can add wireless speakers like the Sonos One or even Ikea Symfonisk (as magazine editor Jonny Evans did) to add this real surround effect, and it’s well worth it, but there’s a problem with it: while the Sonos Arc integrated upward-firing speakers to generate a big, three-dimensional Dolby Atmos effect, none of Sonos’ wireless speakers can handle Atmos, and that can make the back of the room sound a little flat compared to the front .
In other words, I’ve been waiting years (since the launch of the Arc in 2020, in fact) for a Dolby Atmos-enabled speaker. That speaker has finally arrived in the form of the Era 300, which seems to be exactly what I’m looking for, but it’s far too expensive for my needs.
To be clear, I haven’t heard the Era 300, and I certainly wouldn’t be so bold as to assume it doesn’t more than justify its price as a dedicated wireless speaker, but that’s not what I want. for. I want it purely as a surround speaker to work with the Sonos Arc. In fact, I’d need two, and with each priced at £449 / $449 / AU$749, that would mean I’m spending more money on Era 300s than on the Arc itself. That just seems excessive to me.
Perhaps the Era 300 will prove so good that it will clearly be worth its asking price, even if it’s just used as a surround speaker, but that’s a little hard to imagine. I’m open, of course, but I’m already hoping that Sonos has plans to close the gap between the Era 300 and the Atmos-less Era 100 with a speaker that still has Atmos support, but at a price point that’s more palatable to those of us looking to upgrade an Arc-based home theater. Apple reached a price of £299 / $299 / AU$479 for its Atmos-enabled HomePod 2, and that’s a price I think I’d be willing to pay if Sonos could do the same.
MORE:
Worth the money? Here’s ours Sonos Era 300 hands on
And here’s the Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 comparison
Worth the upgrade? Sonos Era 100 vs Sonos one