With Sonos Era 300 and Sonos Era 100, we’re pushing the boundaries of what a home speaker can deliver. With Era 100, that means powerful, room-filling sound in an elegant and compact form. While the groundbreaking design and spatial audio experience on Era 300 can envelop you in sound—making you feel like you’re inside the music.

Start Here

Whether you’re brand new to Sonos or a long-time owner, the ‘Essential Guide’ series is for you. We’ll walk you through the entire Sonos journey step by step, from setting up Era 300 and Era 100, to diving into more advanced features. Ready? Let’s get to it.

Setup

The setup process for Era 300 and Era 100 is easy.

If this is your first Sonos product, you’ll need to download the Sonos app from the App Store or Google Play. Make sure you’re connected to WiFi, then place your speaker in its desired location and plug into power. Once you’ve created your Sonos account, the app will automatically search for new speakers and guide you through the rest of the setup process.

If you’re adding Era 100 or Era 300 to an existing Sonos system, simply follow the app-guided instructions to set up your new speaker. You can also find detailed setup instructions from the user guides here.

A Note on Packaging

Featuring recycled plastics and crafted using 100% paper-based materials certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, Era 100 and Era 300 mark a major step toward our goal of delivering responsible packaging. We redesigned our signature clip system to use 41% less plastic, and replaced the cushion, handles, and cable ties with paper.

You can learn more about our sustainability initiatives here.

Powered by Dolby Atmos

Era 300 is our first all-in-one speaker to deliver a spatial audio experience. Powered by Dolby Atmos technology, the speaker’s six drivers project sound left, right, forwards, and up, placing sounds within a three-dimensional soundstage, giving your music and films a sense of height, and opening up countless new sonic possibilities.

Because of the way spatial audio works, the placement of Era 300 is important. For the speaker to most effectively project sound, you should leave space above and to the side of the speaker rather than fitting it into a bookshelf where the sound beams might get blocked. We recommend that you leave at least one inch (2.5 cm) of space around the back of the speaker, and optimally two feet (.61 m) above it. You can learn more about placement tips here.

Regardless of where you place Era 300, Trueplay™ ensures that your system sounds great by tuning your setup to the precise acoustics of your living space.

Superior Stereo

With its two angled tweeters, powerful woofer, and Sonos-engineered acoustics, Era 100 produces rich, detailed stereo sound.

If you’re placing Era 100 on a counter or shelf, make sure that it’s not pushed right up against the wall. There should optimally be at least one inch (2.5cm) of space behind and to either side of the speaker, allowing sound to project outwards.

Just as with Era 300, you can fine-tune your speaker using Trueplay™ technology.

The Sonos App

The Sonos app offers seamless control of your entire system from the palm of your hand, from playing music and grouping speakers to scheduling alarms and adjusting the EQ.

Below are a few of our most popular features in the Sonos app that will help you quickly find your favourite music or discover something new.

My Sonos

Even with millions of songs, albums, books, and podcasts at our fingertips, we often find ourselves going back to those handful of favourites over and over again. Save them to ‘My Sonos’ as you explore and then tap the star icon in the toolbar at the bottom of your screen to quickly access all the content you love.

Search

Tap the magnifying glass icon in the toolbar to search by artist, song, album, playlist, station, genre, composer, and more.

Browse

When you’re not sure exactly what you want to listen to, tap the music note icon at the bottom of the screen, and let Sonos Radio or your favourite music service lead you down a path of music discovery.

A Note on Sonos Radio

Sonos Radio is our free radio service available in the Sonos app. Access thousands of radio stations from around the world, listen to curated genre stations, discover new music, and enjoy original content free. You can also preview stations and listen to shows on the web from anywhere and on any device.

Tune in to Sonos Sound System, our signature station, to learn stories behind the music, find new artists, and hear the latest releases. Or check out exclusive stations curated by music icons including Thom Yorke, Brittany Howard, and Lorde. Follow @sonosradio on Instagram for the latest, including fascinating deep dives into radio culture.

And if you want to listen in high-definition, ad-free, and with access to even more original content, including stations curated by Ghostface Killah, Björk, FKA twigs, and Blacksmith Radio, check out Sonos Radio HD.

Touch Controls

While the Sonos app remains the best way to access all the settings for your system, sometimes it’s quicker and easier to reach for the touch controls on the top of your speaker. All of our speakers have touch controls or buttons that allow you to manage your experience without the app.

To play or pause

Tap Play/Pause once to play or pause content.

To group speakers

Tap and hold Play/Pause to play what your last active speaker is currently playing.

To change volume

To adjust the volume, swipe your finger across the slider, or tap either end to turn the music up or down.

To skip forward or back

Tap the right arrow to skip to the next track.

Tap the left arrow to play the previous track.

Note: You can also disable touch controls in the Sonos app. From the Settings menu, tap System, choose your speaker from the list of products, and then toggle Touch Controls in the Hardware section to off.

Play Your Way

Era 300 and Era 100 offer new levels of connectivity with WiFi, Bluetooth, and USB-C line in:

WiFi

Stream over WiFi for the highest audio quality, and enjoy your music uninterrupted from calls or notifications.

Bluetooth

For those moments when you want to let your friends DJ, you can connect to Era 300 or Era 100 using Bluetooth.

All you need to do is press the Bluetooth button on the back of your speaker until you hear a chime and the status light starts flashing blue. From here, find your speaker in your device’s Bluetooth settings. Once your device is connected, the status line will turn solid blue.

Line-in

If you have a turntable, CD player, or other audio device, you can also connect it to Era 300 or Era 100 using the speaker’s USB-C port and Sonos Line-In Adapter.

Direct control

If you want to stream to Sonos without leaving your favourite audio app, then you can use something called ‘direct control’. Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, Pandora, and other services all let you control Sonos directly through their app. Just look for the button that allows you to play to an external speaker.

And if you have an iOS device, including iPhone and iPad, or a Mac, you can play sounds from your favourite apps out loud on Sonos via AirPlay 2.

Voice Control

If you want to add an extra layer of hands-free help for setting reminders or getting answers to questions, you can also use Amazon Alexa.

To make sure your voice control is on and ready to take requests, look for the white light on the top of your speaker. This signals that the microphone is on and your voice assistant is ready to respond. To mute your voice assistant, simply tap the speech button on the top of your speaker.

If you’re not into voice assistants, use the switch on the back of your device to completely disconnect the microphones. Just note that this will also disable certain features, like Trueplay™, which utilise your speaker’s microphones to adjust the EQ to the room.

Trueplay™

With sound, so much depends on the environment in which you’re listening. If you’re listening in a cozy room with thick carpet and tons of pillows, your speaker is going to sound different than if it was placed in a larger space with harder materials.

Our Trueplay™ tuning technology measures the effect that your room’s size, furnishings, and other surfaces have in relation to your speaker’s placement, then fine-tunes the EQ to make sure it sounds exactly as it should.

There are two methods for Trueplay™ on Era 100 and Era 300: Quick Tuning and Advanced Tuning.

With Quick Tuning, your speaker plays a series of chimes, listens to how it sounds in the room, then compares the results to similar rooms that were measured using Advanced Tuning. Because this method does not rely on your phone’s microphone, Quick Tuning can be enjoyed by both iOS and Android users.

Advanced Tuning is our traditional Trueplay™ method that uses the microphone on your iOS device to adjust the EQ to the room. This process requires you to manually move your device around the room so your speaker can measure the sound in different environments. While Advancing Tuning requires a bit more effort, in return, you’ll benefit from a more precise tuning.

Whichever device you use, you’ll be prompted to tune your speaker with Trueplay™ when you open the Sonos app during setup, but you can always come back to it later by visiting Settings.

Stereo Pairing

If you’re looking for an even wider and more detailed sound experience, then you can pair two matching speakers in the same room.

Pair two Era 300 or two Era 100 speakers, add them to your Sonos system using the Sonos app, and then follow the in-app instructions to create a stereo pair.

Era and the Sonos System

Sonos pioneered multi-room listening with a simple vision: Help music lovers play any song anywhere in their homes.

But how we live in our homes is ever-changing. Sometimes we continuously flow from room to room, crossing paths with partners, family, and housemates. Grouping our music across rooms helps us share those sounds, creating collective listening experiences, and bringing us closer together. But there are also times when we camp out in separate areas of the house, happy to stay put and have our individual experiences. With multiple speakers, the Sonos system adjusts to the unique ways we live in our homes.

If you want to explore how to expand your listening experience, visit sonos.com for more information on portable speakers, architectural speakers, and more.

With Era 300 and Era 100, we’re bringing new sound experiences into the home, from the enveloping experience of spatial audio with Dolby Atmos on Era 300 to richly detailed stereo sound on Era 100—enabling you to feel more connected to your music than ever before.