A couple of years back, we said there was a great argument for Sonos updating the old Play:3 but when the Beam arrived, followed by the Move, the argument for a straight-up replacement of the living room speaker dwindled, much to our disappointment.

That's all changed now though and - finally - there is a solid substitute for the Play:3. The Sonos Era 300 is one of two speakers within the new Era range, which sits alongside the Sonos Five, soundbars and the portable speakers Roam and Move.

While the Sonos Era 100 directly replaces the Sonos One, the Sonos Era 300 simply joins the Sonos portfolio without anything making way for it. That, in our mind, makes it a newly imagined Play:3 but with some great new tricks up its sleeve, like Dolby Atmos and spatial audio. We've been spending some time with it and here is our review.

Funky design

• 160 x 260 x 185mm, 4.47kg
• Capacitive controls, volume trough
• Bluetooth switch, microphone switch
• White and Black

The Sonos Era 300 is definitely not traditional in its design. It's got a pretty unique shape, which is a result of the company designing the speaker casing around the acoustic architecture rather than the other way around.

The front section of the Era 300 is oval in shape and there is a speaker grille on the front with the Sonos tag in the middle. The top of the front meanwhile, is a smooth environmentally-friendly polycarbonate with controls for playback. They include play/pause, skip and rewind, along with an indented trough featuring a '+' and '-' either side that allows for volume control.

The front section of the Era 300 - which makes up around a third of the speaker - then tapers in towards the rear, which is also oval in shape. We suppose you could describe it as a figure of eight with what is essentially a cinched in waist - a bit like an hourglass figure if you're looking from the top.

The entire rear section of the Era 300 has a speaker grille covering it, except for the backplate that houses the various ports. This means you get a change in material, making the design interesting in other ways than just its different structure.

There's a power port in the centre of the backplate rather than underneath, like on the Era 100, and you'll find a microphone hardware switch at the bottom, alongside USB-C line in, while the top has a Bluetooth to Wi-Fi hardware switch. In the past, Sonos speakers had Ethernet ports and pairing buttons, but there's none of that here.

The Bluetooth and Wi-Fi switch is also something we haven't seen on the non-portable Sonos speakers before, plus the microphone switch used to be just a capacitive touch control on the top of speakers that featured smart assistants. However, the Era 300 has both so there are plenty of changes to set the Era range of speakers apart from the ranges that have gone before them and the Era 100 shares some of these too.

Black and White are the colour offerings of choice, as is very typical of Sonos speakers. You get the odd ones that come in different colours - like the Roam and the Sonos One did initially with the Hay Edition - but Black and White are the standard offerings. The White has changed slightly for the Era 300 (and the Era 100) though in order to be more environmentally friendly, but we've got the Sonos Five in the old white and you can barely notice the difference even when side-by-side so if you have older speakers, the newer models will blend in your home no problem.

Features

• Adjustable EQ, Airplay 2
• Compatibility with over 100 music services
• Amazon Alexa, Sonos Voice Control
• Trueplay, Quick Tune

The Sonos Era 300 is a Sonos speaker by name, and therefore a Sonos speaker by nature.

That means it has all the features you would expect from a Sonos speaker, like support for over 100 music streaming services, Apple AirPlay 2, the ability to use an Era 300 on its own or as part of a wider collection of Sonos speakers, and the ability to adjust EQ levels - the latter of which isn't possible on speakers like the Apple HomePod for example.

You can stereo pair two Era 300 speakers and you can add them to a Sonos Arc, Beam or Ray soundbar to deliver multi-channel surround sound. Two Era 300 speakers, a Sub and a Sonos Arc delivers Atmos support in a 7.1.4-channel set up, which is a first for Sonos, while two Era 300 speakers with a Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and Sub delivers 5.1.4. Unfortunately, while we have a Sonos Arc and Sonos Beam, we only had one Era 300 in for testing so we will need to wait a little longer to test this home theatre setup in its full capacity in our own environment.

The Era 300 speakers can also be connected to a Ray or first generation Beam as we mentioned, but you're going to get the best experience when paired with the Sonos Arc given this also supports Dolby Atmos.

As with other Sonos speakers - and other multi-room speakers, the Era 300 will play the same music as any other Sonos speakers you have grouped with it, or you can play different music in different rooms simultaneously. Our Sonos tips and tricks gives a great rundown of all the features Sonos speakers offer, like grouping the Era 300 in a living room with the Arc in the kitchen space for example so you can hear live sport commentary, for example.

There are a range of smart features on board the Era 300 too though, including Sonos Voice Control and Amazon Alexa. The beady-eyed among you might notice Google Assistant isn't mentioned as the Era 300 and Era 100 don't offer it as an option like the Sonos One does. Sorry folks, Alexa only this time. You can read more about Sonos Voice Control in our separate feature, though - in a nutshell - it is more about control of the speaker itself, while you'll use Alexa for your smart assistant and smart home hub needs.

This works well and the Era 300 is more than capable of turning off your compatible smart lights or starting a robot vacuum cleaner for example - but there is that microphone hardware switch we mentioned if you want to turn off all smart functionality for a bit.

In addition to the standard and smart features, the Era 300 also offers support for Trueplay, which requires an iOS device, as well as a feature called Quick Tune, which sees the speaker use the on board microphones rather than an iOS device to automatically adapt to its surroundings and deliver the best sound it can in the environment it's situated in.

It's new for the Era 100 and Era 300 speakers, allowing those with an Android device to tune the speakers without having to borrow an iOS device. Quick Tune isn't as precise as the full Trueplay tuning so if you can find an iOS device to use, it is recommended to get the best experience, though we would definitely advise doing at least one of them. Sometimes the sound is only very subtly adjusted with Trueplay tuning but other times it can make a big difference. When it only takes a matter of minutes, it's well worth doing to get the best sound from your Era 300 for the room you've placed it in.

Hardware and performance

• Six class-D drivers, four tweeters, two woofers
• Custom wave guides
• Dolby Atmos and spatial audio support
• Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C line in

The Sonos Era 300 is designed to be a standalone spatial audio speaker and the company has said it wants spatial audio to sound better than stereo and not be a gimmick.

In order to achieve this, the Era 300 has six drivers on board, along with custom wave guides to enhance audio dispersion. There are drivers on either side of the Era 300, with a centre driver designed to focus on vocals and instruments.

A pair of custom drivers are then positioned to evenly cover the room no matter where you're standing - the Era 300 has been structured so you don't necessarily need to be standing or sitting in the sweet spot to experience the best sound.

Around the sides, the Era 300 has two woofers for bass, while a directional horn positioned on the top features an up-firing tweeter to reflect sound off the ceiling and enhance spatial audio and Dolby Atmos tracks and content. There are an additional three tweeters on board, with one forward-firing mid-tweeter and two side-firing mid tweeters for stereo separation.

During our review period, we've listened to a range of tracks and genres, including Sharks by Imagine Dragons, where the bass landed with impact around us while vocals remained lovely and crisp. Meanwhile La Fama by Rosalia and The Weekend sounded excellent on the Era 300 with the mixture of instruments and vocals detailed and rich, and the soundstage appearing far wider than the Era 300's relatively small footprint.

We also delved into Deep Deep Feeling by Paul McCartney, A Concert Six Months from Now by Finneas, as well as one of our favourite testing songs, which we also used on the Era 100 - Space Ghost Coast to Coast by Glass Animals - and they all sounded fantastic on the Era 300.

We've heard Space Ghost Coast to Coast in a Dolby Atmos studio, and for a single speaker, the Era 300 does a sterling job of creating space in the track, and replicating the feeling of the music surrounding you as you listen, for a more immersive experience. Vocals are detailed, and there is a clear distinction between them and the soundtrack. You're not going to get an Atmos studio experience as one speaker can only be in one position in the room, but the Era 300 is right up there with the Apple HomePod (2nd Generation) for single-box solution, delivering excellent performance.

This is the case across a range of tracks and genres, with all frequencies well managed, and well represented. As with most Sonos speakers, the Era 300 is on the bassier side, though unlike Apple's HomePod, you can adjust the EQ levels, so you can tune the Era 300 to your preferences.

There's great dynamic range, too, and plenty of volume but you don't lose detail at either end of the scale. Put up against the larger Sonos Five, the Era 300 really gives it a run for its money, and overall we prefer the sound here - that's high praise considering the Five is an excellent speaker.

In terms of movie theatre, as we mentioned, we only had one Era 300 in for review. We have experienced a scene from Top Gun: Maverick with a setup involving the Sonos Arc, two Sonos Subs and two Sonos Era 300 speakers as rear surrounds though (in a testing environment) and it felt like the fighter jets were flying directly over and around our heads, while the dialect was crystal clear. Keep in mind you'll need an Arc or Beam (Gen 2), along with a supported TV, HDMI eARC and Dolby Atmos content for the full experience. As we said, we will be testing this in our home environment in the coming months and we will update this review when we have.

Elsewhere on the hardware front, there's Bluetooth on board, so you can use the Era 300 as a traditional Bluetooth speaker and it's easy enough to do and works as you would expect. You simply have to press the Bluetooth hardware button on the rear, wait for the LED light on the front of the speaker to turn blue and connect your device to it like you would any other Bluetooth device. It's worth mentioning that you need to be connected to Wi-Fi in order to experience spatial audio tracks, and you also need to have a service that supports them - so something like Amazon Music Unlimited, Tidal or Apple Music.

Verdict

The Sonos Era 300 has a unique design. Some will love it, others might not be so sure, but you can't deny it's different and we have grown pretty fond of it.

It's not just about what it looks like though - the Era 300 sounds incredible and it's packed full of features. This includes Bluetooth, which is a bonus, and that Dolby Atmos support which really delivers, though you will need a supporting streaming subscription to get the full spatial audio or Dolby Atmos music experience, and that could be limiting for some.

It's also not the cheapest, going against other spatial audio-compatible speakers like Apple's HomePod (2nd Gen) and Amazon's Echo Studio, both of which are quite a bit cheaper and also sound great.

The Sonos Era 300 is a fantastic speaker though. It offers excellent performance, a range of great features and a design that really stands out. Sure, if you are an Apple user, the HomePod could be a better choice, but for those already invested in the Sonos system, or looking to start one with a bang, the Era 300 is a truly fanatastic choice.