SonosEra 100 | Smart Speaker with WiFi, Bluetooth, compatible with Amazon Alexa - White

I love this speaker, a great addition to our house. The most important factor is how it sounds, and it's brilliant. It's replaced an older Bose Bluetooth speaker we used to have in our kitchen, and the difference in audio quality is night and day - well worth what I paid for it. It is very easy to setup and control via an app on your phone, and for me it integrates seamlessly with Spotify and BBC Sounds. I would recommend this product to anyone who thinks it's reasonable to spend over £200 on a speaker.I originally wrote this review with the title "Excellent speaker - but voice control is poor". This is because the voice controls did not work properly in my first few weeks of owning the product in February 2024. Alexa was completely unusable - simple commands rarely worked, complex commands never worked. Also, there are no good alternative ways to control the device with your voice (this is still true - the built-in "Hey Sonos" is useless for everything apart from adjusting the volume, and it's not compatible with Google Assistant). However, as of March 2024 Alexa now works without any problems and the device works properly as a smart speaker. I've read that this was a known bug with Alexa on this particular speaker, and it has now been fixed. Therefore, I've updated this review with 5 stars.

Sounds fab the app is a little glitchyI originally ordered the echo studio and it sounded awful so I sent it back !And I opted for the era 100 and I don’t regret it worlds apart with sound

Very happy with the Era 100. The sound quality is good (not great) and definitely an improvement over the Sonos One (gen 2) which it replaced. There is still the usual sonos boomy exaggerated bass (lots of people seem to like this though). I am able to partially correct the bad bass with the tone controls and all is fine. The big improvement is in in the upper midrange and treble. Much better clarity and resolution in sound. The treble can get a little harsh and sibilant (again, something many customers seem to consider as 'clear sound') but a few EQ adjustments fix this too.The 'fast tuning' does improve the sound depending on positioning but it still results in the strong V shaped sound signature that the majoriry of sonos customers seem to like.Network connectivity is super stable and reliable. Very easy to setup and the sonos app continues to be the best of the rest.Roon sounds good through the sonos era 100.Airplay works really well, spotify connect sounds lovely too (a bit warmer even).Overall a wonderful speaker

Love this speaker.Sounds really good in our kitchen. I see a lot of bad reviews but I haven’t experienced any of them with the app or connection issues. It can be used via Bluetooth but you still need to connect it and set it up via the app. Mine is on most days, and we love it.I did see a review about the plug being a bad shape, wow I mean that a really picky thing to say. Once it’s plugged in I can’t see why you would want to move it much.

Beyond the modern and tasteful aesthetic the sound is excellent. Listening to my studio monitors is great , but when casually listening to music I want a speaker that isn’t so clinical and embellishes the music while not fatiguing the ears.Here is where the era 100 excel. It’s almost like listening to everything through a 1/4 inch tape machine, it makes digital music sound as smooth and buttery as tape audio. Snares are clear with papery like harmonics , bass sits very well and when calibrated still is a little too much for my liking , although it still sounds detailed , almost pulling out every harmonic overtone to define it. The eq doesn’t stress out the compressor too much so your music doesn’t sound squashed , but reducing the bass a couple of notches in this smallish room made a world of difference , opening up the sound.I did find that there is a ‘wear In period’ for the drivers , so expect the sound to get better after about 5- 6 hours of listening time. The calibration routine gave me a forward mid signature that works well in this room, I removed loudness and dropped bass eq two notches and now I think I have my sweet spot for most occasions.I have eclectic taste but the majority of my music is Electronic and Jazz. This can means anything from Classical, I did find badly mastered piano music to distort the tweeters, most things are fine, to Drum and Bass and progressive techno, Coltrane and Classical Japanese music.The single speaker does handle stereo information via its two tweeters I believe , but obviously two would be best for larger rooms.The app is ok and I did find WiFi a bit dodgy at first with lag , I wonder if it’s downloading/ uploading initial data, because after 30 mins or so it began behaving as it should, bit like when you first use a new computer , takes a while to settle down. Voice control is very responsive after this and as I play mostly from Apple Music and Bandcamp , the main Sonos app integrates these, but using Apple play 2 directly and using the apps on their own is a quicker experience.So far it’s been reliable , the sound is really great for home listening and a welcome break from my sterile and clinical studio monitors.It only drops a star because the app is laggy compared to using things like Apple Music directly , but this is trivial compared to the overall experience , which is worth the asking price.