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Sonos Era 300 £449
The Era 300 is a wireless smart speaker that comes packing all the goodness and seamlessness of a Sonos system, with a key stand-out feature that Sonos believes is the next generation of sound: spatial audio. Spatial audio uses the Dolby Atmos format to create multiple channels of audio (beyond the standard two) to deliver a greater sense of immersion. For music, which has been in good ol’ stereo for many decades, that’s quite a big change.
The 300’s divisive ‘cinched hourglass’ design is down to spatial audio playback needing a carefully considered but unusual arrangement of drivers that can fire out sound in all directions to deliver that ‘immersive’ audio experience – while still keeping a familial Sonos look.
Four tweeters (one forward-firing, two side-firing, one upward-firing) and two woofers (angled left and right for stereo playback) are complemented by custom waveguides that help direct sound out forwards, upwards, left and right, and each is powered by its own class-D amplifier. The upward-firing tweeter is loaded into a directional horn to reflect sound off the ceiling when playing Dolby Atmos music.
The spread of sound is immense from one single wireless speaker box. It solidly and cohesively projects sound further into the room and overhead more confidently than any other similar wireless speaker we have heard. Regardless of whether you are listening to stereo or spatial audio tracks, the rich
