Let’s get one thing clear: I didn’t just wander into the Sonos world recently. I’ve been living in it for over a decade.
I’ve got the receipts — two Play:3s, three original Play:1s, two first-gen Playbars, and a Sub. That’s not a casual investment. That’s someone who bought into the vision of Sonos when it was still exciting: premium wireless sound, seamless multi-room playback, and an app that—back then—just worked.
My living room setup is basically the classic Sonos poster child: a full 5.1 experience anchored by a Playbar, with a Sub and two Play:1s as surrounds. It sounds phenomenal. Even now, after all these years, it still punches above its weight.
So when the Era 300 launched, I was naturally curious. I loved the idea of spatial audio done right. But I hesitated. And that hesitation turned into months of waiting—not because I wasn’t excited about the hardware, but because Sonos had completely lost the plot on the software side.
📉 Sonos and the App Meltdown
I don’t say this lightly, but Sonos nearly lost me.
In 2024, they rolled out a complete overhaul of the Sonos app. And rather than polish what was already solid, they basically tore it down to the studs… then forgot to rebuild the top floor.
The new app launched with missing features. Not edge case stuff either—core functionality. Here’s what went out the window:
- Alarms
- Sleep timers
- Access to local libraries
- Queue editing quirks
- And maybe most absurdly, any clear indicator of whether a song was playing in Dolby Atmos or not
This wasn’t a “we moved the buttons around” update. This was a “wait, why doesn’t this thing do the thing anymore?” moment. It felt like they shipped a beta to the public and crossed their fingers.
Users were furious. App store ratings tanked. I wasn’t just reading about the mess—I was living in it, day-to-day, trying to play music in my house.
And this wasn’t just a one-off stumble. The blowback was so bad that longtime Sonos CEO Patrick Spence stepped down in January 2025. That’s not normal. That’s the kind of thing that happens when leadership fundamentally misreads their user base.
If you want the full post-mortem, The Verge did a great deep dive, but the short version is: they pushed out a half-baked app, pretended it was the future, and users revolted.
🎵 Why I Still Bought Two Era 300s
After all that… I still went ahead and bought two Era 300s.
Not right away. I waited. I let others be the guinea pigs. I read everything, watched YouTube reviews, and waited for Sonos to patch the app enough to make it barely functional again. And then I pulled the trigger.
First, I dropped them in the kitchen as a stereo pair. Immediate difference. The sound was huge, clear, immersive—everything the reviews said. But that’s just the first phase. The long-term plan is to move them to the front room and upgrade to an Arc and new Sub for a fully Atmos-enabled home theater experience.
The Era 300s are designed for that kind of flexibility, and they deliver on it. It’s part of what still makes Sonos great: the hardware is thoughtful, future-ready, and damn good at what it does.
But I’ll be honest—I didn’t buy these speakers with excitement. I bought them because I’ve already committed so much to the platform. I’m locked in. If I were starting from scratch today? I don’t know if I’d choose Sonos again. And that’s a hard thing to admit, after being this deep into the ecosystem for this long.
🔊 So How Do They Sound?
Let’s talk sound—because this is where the Era 300 absolutely redeems itself.
Paired in stereo, the Era 300s are monsters. Room-filling sound, precise separation, and a sense of space that’s genuinely impressive. And when you play Dolby Atmos tracks? That’s where the magic happens.
I’m using Apple Music, and it’s the best experience by far. They’ve nailed the presentation: curated playlists, obvious labels, clean navigation. You know immediately what’s in Atmos and what’s not. Songs feel immersive, like they’re floating around you. It’s not gimmicky—it’s cinematic.
I also tested Amazon Music, which technically supports spatial audio, but wow—finding Atmos content there is a chore. No clear sections, no filters. It’s just buried. You’re basically guessing. It works, but it doesn’t invite you to explore like Apple Music does.
Still, even with stereo-only tracks, the Era 300s hold up. They don’t fake it—they just give you clean, dynamic audio. That said, these speakers are honest to a fault. If a track is poorly mastered, you’ll hear it. The Era 300 doesn’t hide weaknesses; it exposes them.
💡 Small Wins: Bluetooth, Line-In, and Voice
Some small but meaningful wins:
- Bluetooth is here and finally works without jumping through hoops
- Line-in exists, but you’ll need to buy a USB-C dongle (classic Sonos move)
- Voice assistants are… complicated. Google Assistant is gone. Alexa is limited. Sonos Voice works, but only for very basic stuff
- Trueplay tuning is still best with iOS. Android support is limited and kind of underwhelming
These features used to feel like bonuses. Now, they feel like necessary checkboxes to make up for how rough the app experience is.
🤔 Where Does That Leave Me?
Here’s the thing: I love the sound. I hate the uncertainty.
When I first got into Sonos, it felt like a confident, premium platform. Everything worked. The sound was killer. The app made sense. And the promise was simple: “we’ll handle the tech so you can just enjoy music.”
That promise is starting to feel a bit shaky.
The Era 300s are brilliant speakers. Truly. When the conditions are right—paired up, running Apple Music, playing Atmos—they deliver a stunning experience. But that magic is layered on top of an app that still feels like it’s recovering from a breakdown.
I bought them because I had to, not because I was excited to. Because starting over with another ecosystem (Bluesound? HEOS? a Frankenstein Sonos/Roon hybrid?) just isn’t realistic with everything I’ve already bought.
So yeah, I’m staying. For now. But I’m watching closely. Because one more screw-up, and I may finally start figuring out what a life after Sonos looks like.
TL;DR
- Sound: Exceptional. Especially with Atmos tracks on Apple Music. Stereo pairing takes it to another level.
- Software: Sonos broke its app, and while it’s improving, it’s still a frustrating mess. Missing features, laggy UI, no spatial indicators.
- Music services: Apple Music is the clear winner for spatial audio. Amazon Music is clunky and uninviting.
- Ecosystem: If you’re already in Sonos, the Era 300 is a no-brainer. If you’re not? Think long and hard.
- Overall: The Era 300 is amazing. But Sonos, as a company, needs to earn back the trust it’s lost.