I’ve always been a massive fan of the Sonos One speakers. When I’ve been asked for a recommendation, whether it be for a secondary speaker in your office/bedroom or something to put the tunes on in the living room, the go-to has been the Sonos One.
When the Sonos Era 100 was announced, there were a lot of functional upgrades that make sense for the successor to the Sonos One, but I wasn’t expecting the massive leap in sound performance that the Sonos Era 100 provides.
The Sonos Era 100 has a 25% larger woofer which results in a much, much deeper bass. The Sonos One still sounds fine, but going between the two really shows how much of a big difference there, with bass being really prominent on the Sonos Era 100.
There’s also now dual angled tweeters (in comparison to the single tweeted in the Sonos One) which not only gives you a sense of direction when listening to audio, but it also provides clearer audio particularly as you crank the volume up. There’s a lot more clarity on those highs and I’d assume because the bass is now doing a lot more of the heavy lifting on the lows, everything just sounds crisper and much more defined
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Design-wise, the Sonos Era 100 is a lot more refined. It’s taller, and skinniest and has a lot less lines and changes in textures to really blend into any room without standing out too much.
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The controls have been completely re-designed. The volume is now controlled by a slider that you can run your finger across to make larger adjustments or just tap on each edge to make smaller adjustments. The play/pause and backward/forward buttons are now totally seperate.
The connectivity of the Sonos Era 100 has been drastically improved with both Bluetooth and line-in functionality now being an option. You’re able to enable Bluetooth with a button at the back of a device, for connecting to your phone (if you’re out of your home network) or devices such as your PC.
In huge news for those with vinyl players, there’s also line-in functionality thanks to a USB-C port on the back, although you will need to purchase a line-in adaptor for $35, but I’m still so thankful to see this functionality as it means you can connect a vinyl player, then send it to the rest of your house.
You’re also able to use smart assistants including Sonos Voice Control which works pretty decently for music or adjusting the volume, and you’re also able to use Amazon Alexa both to play music, but also control smart devices around the home. Interestingly, Google Assistant isn’t included on the Sonos Era 100, and we wouldn’t hold our breaths to see it returning at any point.
Sonos has very clearly understood that not everyone is into having a microphone that’s always listening, so they’ve provided two ways to control it. A button on the top allows you to turn voice assistant on or off, but will allow the microphone to keep working for Trueplay, but a switch on the back totally allows you to turn the microphone off all together.
Speaking of Trueplay, there’s now two types. Quick Tuning uses the microphone (without any external device) to quickly tune the speaker based on its current location. This is a great solution particularly for those on Android. Sonos now calls its traditional tuning method ‘Advanced Tuning’ which is still only available on iOS devices, and it’s absolutely still my recommended way of tuning your speaker.
