Sonos portable speaker portable#
This has been corrected and the score adjusted from 8.5 to 8.4.The best portable Bluetooth speaker that we've tested is the Sonos Move. If you want a speaker for background music - while you're entertaining or just hanging out - the Sonos Era 100 is every bit as capable as its predecessor: It's just a great smart speaker.Ĭorrection, March 28: An earlier version of this review incorrectly stated the speaker was able to offer Google Assistant, as it is with the Sonos One. If you want a smart speaker that's compact and sounds great, the Sonos Era 100 is an excellent choice and an easy recommendation. Yet I can see people relegating their existing One speaker to a bedroom in the same way they do with an older TV.
If you already own a One, it's not an essential upgrade. (Yes, technically, Apple's HomePod was announced before the Sonos, but the Apple speaker went on sale later.) Now, though, the Sonos One has plenty of competition. Certainly nothing as well-formed and enduring as the One. When the Sonos One debuted in 2017, there was nothing else like it apart from some tentative smart speakers which quickly disappeared. Over Wi-Fi, the bass had more punch and there was much more "air." Should you buy it? It was easy to hear the quality difference between Bluetooth and Tidal's lossless audio, though, even on such a small speaker, which speaks well to the performance of the Era 100. On its own, when playing Alpha Zulu by Phoenix, it's clear and punchy - there's very little to complain about sound-quality wise. So what about two Era 100s versus a single Era 300? I wasn't able to hear the Era 100 in a stereo pair, but I hope to test this soon. In the past, I found the Sonos One was able to outperform the Play:3 in a stereo pair. Intelligibility is excellent, and there was no throatiness or "bad cold" problems. Use your speakers for audiobooks or podcasts? The Era 100 coped well with Andrew Hickey's deep-voiced narration during his podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. But if you want a stereo system replacement, this is the closest of all three. Its sound quality was not as refined as the other two, particularly with the singer's voice using the speaker's Stereo Spatial enhancement, and I had to back off the treble and mid a bit as it sounded a little harsh. Next up was the Echo Studio, which brought a huge, loud sound from the same Dead Can Dance track. The aforementioned thrum was more confident on the HomePod, though, which is to be expected from a larger, more expensive speaker. Using the same Dead Can Dance track, I found the HomePod had no real stereo effect at any distance.
Swapping out the One for the Apple HomePod, I instantly found the Era 100 can get louder than the HomePod. There is a bass "thrum" at two minutes in that came through deeper on the Era. I could hear distinct stereo separation in the left/right shakers that appear after the two-minute mark, and while this was most obvious when I was sitting about a foot away, I could still tell they were separate instruments at six feet away. Using Yulunga (Spirit Dance) by Dead Can Dance brought out the improvements that the stereo tweeters make.
Sonos portable speaker for android#
The system no longer offers Google Assistant, and there is no Chromecast built-in capability, which limits streaming options for Android users. It offers the flexibility of an all-in-one control app - for controlling music services and speakers - or you can use streaming protocols like Apple AirPlay 2. Meanwhile, the Sonos ecosystem is one of the biggest and most storied multiroom systems out there. If you want Ethernet, too, you can step up to the $39 Combo Adapter, which adds wired networking to the 3.5mm input. You can then share that source - a turntable or FM tuner, for example - among all of the other speakers in your system.
The $19 Line-In Adapter allows you to add external devices in a way previously only available on more expensive products like the $449 Port and the Sonos Five. But the real boon is in Sonos' optional dongle. You can connect a generic USB-C Ethernet adapter for a wired connection. The Era 100 builds on this with Bluetooth and a USB-C port, which replaces the Ethernet port on the One. Connectivity has been Sonos' story from day one: Being able to play your music in any room in the house.
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