The Sonos Era 100 is a cutting-edge wireless speaker system that elevates your audio experience. As an audio enthusiast with years of experience, the Sonos Era 100 caught my attention for its unparalleled sound quality and seamless connectivity features. With its sleek design and advanced technology, this speaker promises to revolutionize your listening environment.
Unboxing
Sonos prioritizes a straightforward unboxing experience and environmentally friendly packaging. The Era 100’s packaging is crafted entirely from recycled materials, aligning with Sonos’ commitment to sustainability. Furthermore, Sonos has extended this eco-conscious approach to the construction of their speakers, ensuring that the Era 100 utilizes the most recyclable and eco-friendly materials available. Notably, Sonos has transitioned the power cord wrapper to recycled material, eliminating the use of plastics entirely.
Emphasizing simplicity and efficiency, Sonos aims for swift setup with the Era 100. A single strip pull opens the box, providing quick access to all contents. Inside, users will find the Era 100 speaker, a power cord, and straightforward setup instructions—no unnecessary extras included.
Review
The Sonos Era 100 is available in a sleek black or white matte finish, weighing just under five pounds, embodying a clean and minimalist aesthetic. Sonos is set to introduce stands and wall brackets tailored specifically for the Era 100, maintaining its minimalist design while conveniently concealing the power cord and providing optimal speaker placement.
At the top of the speaker, you’ll find updated playback controls, offering three distinct methods for volume adjustment directly on the unit itself. Firstly, a new swipe-able volume control enables users to adjust the volume ramping speed by the speed of their swipe—slower swipes result in gradual adjustments, while faster swipes lead to quicker changes. Secondly, volume adjustment can be achieved by tapping to raise or lower the volume. Lastly, pressing and holding allows for gradual volume adjustment.
Additionally, the top of the speaker features a standard play/pause button positioned in the middle, along with dedicated buttons for skipping forward and backward tracks. Moreover, a button to toggle the microphone on or off, indicated by a white light when activated, is included. A kill switch located towards the bottom of the speaker’s back ensures the microphone remains permanently deactivated, with a green light indicating its activation. This microphone activation is essential for utilizing Sonos’ new quick Trueplay feature, although it can be disabled once setup is complete.
An essential step in setting up any Sonos speaker is running Trueplay, Sonos’ room calibration software. With the Era series speakers, you have the option to perform a “quick tuning” of Trueplay, utilizing the built-in microphones for a rapid calibration process, taking no more than 30 seconds. This feature is ideal for users seeking a swift setup without the need to spend several minutes walking around with their phone for the standard Trueplay calibration.
It’s highly recommended not to skip this setup step, as it significantly enhances the sound quality. Users can verify the difference for themselves by toggling the feature on and off within the app for an A/B test. The process is so quick and straightforward that it’s even faster than explaining it, albeit slightly longer if a Subwoofer is also part of the setup.
The Era range introduces a significant milestone for Sonos by incorporating Bluetooth connectivity into its Wi-Fi-based home speakers, a feature that enhances flexibility and usability. Utilizing Bluetooth 5.0, it supports the standard AAC and SBC codecs, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of devices and delivering an improved wireless audio experience.
Inside the Era 100 are two angled tweeters equipped with custom waveguides, complemented by a woofer that boasts a 25% increase in size compared to previous models. Sonos asserts that this configuration is designed to provide “detailed stereo separation” and enhanced bass depth. Each of the three drivers is powered by its own Class D amplifier, ensuring optimal performance and sound quality.
The Era 100 amplifies all the aspects we admired in previous Sonos speakers—crisp, detailed sound, spaciousness, and deep bass—but takes them to a whole new level. It offers a significantly larger, more expansive, detailed, and deeper sound profile, while maintaining precise timing, dynamic range, and even tonal balance.
Despite its compact size, the Era 100 impressively fills the room with a wide spread of sound. Its delivery is robust, projecting voices with confidence throughout the listening space.
Moreover, the bass delivery isn’t just powerful; it adds genuine depth to the audio, exhibiting exceptional agility and control in its rendition.
User Reviews
Customers like the value, connectivity, ease of installation, and sound quality of the speakers. They say it sounds like a big expensive system, works and connects very well, and is easy to set up. That said, opinions are mixed on performance.
Verdict
In wrapping up the Sonos Era 100 review, it’s evident that this speaker boasts impressive features like the Three Class-D Digital Amplifiers, Dual Angled Tweeters and Mid-Woofer, and the Far-field Microphone Array with Adjustable EQ. The Trueplay Room Acoustics Measurement and Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi 6 Compatibility further enhance its appeal to tech-savvy consumers looking for top-notch audio quality. For those seeking a premium audio experience with cutting-edge technology, the Sonos Era 100 presents a compelling option. Its blend of innovative features and user-friendly design sets it apart in the market.
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