Sonos Period 300 assessment: A giant guess on spatial audio

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If you take note of the music trade, you’ve most likely heard about spatial audio. The promise is that music will envelop the consumer from all instructions while not having a room stuffed with audio system to realize the impact. Apple has pushed it so much in the previous couple of years, in Apple Music, its line of AirPods headphones and the latest HomePod speaker. Amazon’s streaming service additionally affords spatial audio, and its Echo Studio speaker can play again suitable tracks.

Sonos has been paying consideration, as effectively – its current Arc and Beam soundbars assist Dolby Atmos for films, and now the corporate is releasing its first music speaker designed for spatial audio, the Era 300. This beast is massive and has an uncommon form to accommodate all of the drivers wanted for attaining these room-filling results. At $450, you’d anticipate this speaker to sound glorious, no matter whether or not it’s enjoying again spatial audio or not, however assist for this new format is what units it aside from different audio system. As such, the massive query on my thoughts is whether or not this function is a recreation changer, a gimmick, or someplace in between?

Professionals

• Wonderful sound high quality
• Easy set-up
• Trueplay tuning is less complicated than ever
• Bluetooth and line-in choices
• Works with nearly any music service

Cons

• Spatial audio expertise could be hit and miss
• Costly
• Appears to be like just a little bizarre
• No extra Google Assistant assist

Design

There’s nothing within the Sonos lineup to match the Period 300 to. From a dimension and weight perspective, it’s a big speaker, much like the Sonos 5, however its uncommon form instantly units it aside. Seen from the entrance its oval jogs my memory of a race observe, however every other angle reveals a particular footprint. When you take a look at it from the highest, it’s thinner close to the center than it’s on the ends; the easiest way I can describe it’s a knocked-over hourglass.

That is to accommodate the complicated driver array contained in the Period 300. There’s one tweeter pushing out from useless heart, and two extra sending audio out the left and proper sides. Lastly, there’s a fourth tweeter inside a directional horn pointed upwards; Sonos says that it’s at a particular angle optimized for spatial audio. Two woofers, once more on both aspect of the speaker, full the array.

The Period 300 jogs my memory of most different current Sonos merchandise. It’s well-built, exceedingly sturdy and customarily appears like a product that justifies its excessive price ticket. That stated, its bodily look is certainly extra uncommon than the corporate’s different audio system. I acknowledge that it’s practical, however the combo of its dimension and unusual tapering make it stand out greater than you may like.

Numerous new options and adjustments within the Period 100 are additionally discovered within the Period 300. This features a redesigned set of contact controls on the highest panel, a USB-C port for line-in and ethernet (supplied you shell out for the non-obligatory adapters), a Bluetooth toggle and a swap to bodily disconnect the microphone on the again. For extra on these options, I’ll level you to the related part of my Period 100 assessment. Most every thing I stated there applies. That stated, for $450, it’s just a little disappointing that Sonos requires an adapter for line in or Ethernet. The $550 Sonos 5 has each of these constructed proper in. I’m positive the corporate has the information displaying {that a} small proportion of homeowners use these options, so I’m glad they haven’t been eliminated fully, however it will undoubtedly be good in the event that they didn’t require an adapter.

Setup

Organising the Period 300 is fairly easy, even when you don’t have already got a Sonos system. You’ll must obtain the Sonos app to your telephone and arrange an account; from there, the app will look and see if there are any audio system so as to add. You’ll additionally must log in to your audio companies of selection – if you wish to attempt spatial audio, you’ll want both Apple Music or Amazon Music Limitless. You’ll be able to seek for and play music by means of the Sonos app, however there are additionally a bunch of choices when you’d relatively stick to the music apps you’re used to. You should utilize AirPlay 2 to shoot audio from Apple Music and different companies on the iPhone on to the Period 300, or use Spotify Join while not having to undergo the Sonos app. That stated, it’s price noting that if you wish to play again tracks in spatial audio, you’re required to make use of the Sonos app.

There are a number of non-obligatory however helpful issues you are able to do whilst you’re organising the Period 300. The primary is Trueplay, a function that tunes your speaker’s output based mostly upon the place it’s positioned in your room. Trueplay has been round since 2015, however prior to now it required you to have an iPhone. You’d should stroll round your room slowly elevating and decreasing the telephone whereas the speaker performed a take a look at tone. The Period 300, although, can use its built-in microphones to pay attention and optimize its output – that course of is far easier and sooner than the previous method, and Android customers aren’t unnoticed both.

I’ve been extraordinarily pleased with Trueplay’s outcomes prior to now, so I’d advocate that everybody do that out. That stated, I did discover that the previous, guide tuning course of yielded barely higher outcomes. So whereas I recognize the benefit of use within the new Trueplay system, I’ll most likely nonetheless stroll round my room waving my telephone – however I gained’t decide you when you take the better route.

When you like utilizing voice controls, you may also add a voice assistant to the Period 300. Amazon’s Alexa has been supported for the reason that One launched again in 2017, and final 12 months Sonos added its own music-focused assistant. Organising the Sonos assistant is just a little simpler than Alexa, since you don’t must go linking your Amazon account, however each are fairly simple at this level. One factor to notice: previous Sonos audio system with microphones additionally labored with Google Assistant, however that’s not the case. The Period 100 solely works with Alexa and the Sonos assistant, probably as a result of ongoing patent battles between Google and Sonos. I personally want Google Assistant over Alexa, so it is a little bit of a bummer. However I additionally largely simply speak to my speaker to play music, so the Sonos possibility works effectively sufficient.