Sonos has unveiled its latest speakers, and spatial audio is a key focus for the company in 2023.
The Era 100 is a “remastering” of the existing (stereo) Sonos One speaker, but the all-new Era 300 is built for providing Dolby Atmos spatial audio from a single device, which will cost $449 when it goes on sale later this month.
There’s also a big partner for this and some of the company’s other spatial-capable speakers: Apple Music. From 28 March, Sonos will add support for Apple’s spatial catalogue to the Era 300 as well as existing devices the Arc and Beam.
(Note, Sonos already also supports Amazon Music’s spatial audio.)
CEO Patrick Spence has been giving interviews about the new products and how he sees spatial audio: a solo chat with TechCrunch and an appearance on The Verge’s podcast accompanied by Beatles-remastering producer Giles Martin.
“It’s our goal to bring spatial audio outloud to the masses, and I do think this [the Era 300] is the product to do it. And I think we’re the company to do it,” Spence told TechCrunch.
“I think it’s at the time where you’re seeing the streaming companies, the labels and the artists really get behind it, so I do think it’s a tipping point for spatial.”
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