Sonos Era 300 Review in Australia: A$799 for One Cabinet, A$638 for Two Era 100s

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In this guide

THE SHORT VERSION

Sonos Australia's store page listed the Era 300 at A$799 on 6 November 2026, shown in stock, with no promotional price beside it: A$799 is the list price as read, not a markdown. Two Era 100s at A$319 each come to A$638, so the Australian step from a stereo pair to one spatial-audio cabinet is A$161. That figure comes out of two list prices read on the same day and it says nothing about how either plan sounds in your room.

The Australian store lists it under its own SKUs, E30G1AU1BLK and E30G1AU1, with the specifications from Sonos's global guide. What that cabinet spends its money on is the ceiling above it. Six Class-D amplifiers drive four tweeters and two woofers in a 160 x 260 x 185 mm body, and one tweeter fires upward so the Dolby Atmos height channel reaches the seat as a reflection. The guide asks for about 61 cm above the speaker (2 ft in its imperial version), 20 cm at each side and 2.5 cm behind, with enclosed shelving discouraged.

The rest is the part an Australian buyer has to accept before any sound arrives. Setup runs through the Sonos app on Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth will not pair until that is done; the speaker sits on the S2 side of the ecosystem; wired input and Ethernet are adapters rather than ports, at A$35 and A$69. Bonded as surrounds behind a compatible Sonos soundbar, the Era 300 gives up Bluetooth, line-in and AirPlay at the same time.

Our verdict

Buy the A$799 Era 300 for one room that plays Dolby Atmos Music and has a flat ceiling; the A$161 over two Era 100s is what height costs here. On TV duty it works only as surrounds.

A good fit for: One room that plays Dolby Atmos Music and can give the overhead clearance, or a home theatre adding two Era 300s as surrounds behind a compatible Sonos soundbar.
We would skip it if: A room with no flat ceiling to reflect from, a TV-first plan where dialogue comes first, or the owner of two Era 100s who wants width, not height; here that pair sits A$161 cheaper.

Reasons to consider it

Six Class-D amplifiers, four tweeters and two woofers, and the upward-firing tweeter adds a height channel that neither Era 100 carries
Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 and AirPlay 2, with a USB-C port that takes the A$35 Line-In Adapter or the A$69 Combo Adapter for Ethernet
A$799 on the Australian store on 2026-11-06, shown in stock with no promotional price, and the guide prints an auto-switching 100-240 V, 50/60 Hz supply for the same cabinet Sonos sells everywhere
Two units bond as a stereo pair or as surrounds behind a compatible soundbar, so the room can grow without replacing the first speaker

The compromises

Placement ships with the cabinet: about 61 cm overhead, 20 cm at each side and 2.5 cm behind, and enclosed shelving is discouraged
Bonded as surrounds, Bluetooth, line-in and AirPlay all go quiet at once, which is every input that made the speaker easy to feed alone
The Australian step from a pair of Era 100s to one Era 300 is A$161 on A$638, roughly a quarter, and it buys a height channel rather than more separation
No wattage and no frequency response are published, so there is no number to weigh against the pair beyond driver counts

What we have not verified: The Australian store data read on 2026-11-06 gave no returns window and no warranty period; on 2026-11-08 the same page showed '30-day returns' marked 'Terms apply', and Sonos's Australian Terms of Sale give a one-year warranty alongside the Australian Consumer Law guarantees. No Australian retailer price was read. The A$638 and A$161 figures are subtraction between two list prices read on the same page set, not a measurement of sound. Sonos publishes no wattage and no frequency response for the Era 300, and no published comparison of one Era 300 against a stereo pair of Era 100s was found on 2026-11-06, so the pairing judgement rests on driver layouts and Sonos's own placement advice. The height channel depends on a ceiling the guide describes only as about 61 cm (2 ft) of clearance.

The things in this guide

A closer look at the products, who they may suit, and what to check before buying.

One cabinet for Atmos Music, ceiling permitting

Sonos Era 300

A$799 on the Australian store on 2026-11-06, in stock with no struck-out price: six Class-D amplifiers, four tweeters including one aimed upward for Dolby Atmos, two woofers, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 and AirPlay 2, and a USB-C port for the A$35 or A$69 adapter.

Before you buy: Wants about 61 cm of clearance above and 20 cm at each side; Bluetooth, line-in and AirPlay switch off while it works as a surround; setup needs the Sonos app and an account.

$799 at Sonos

Price checked 8 November 2026. Retailer prices can change.

Two A$319 boxes when separation outranks height

Sonos Era 100

A$319 each on the same day, so a bonded pair lands at A$638, A$161 under one Era 300, and Sonos's stereo-pair rule accepts two speakers of the same model with 8 to 10 ft (about 2.4 to 3 m) between them.

Before you buy: Neither unit carries an upward-firing tweeter, so Dolby Atmos Music gets no height channel from this plan.

$319 at Sonos

Price checked 6 November 2026. Retailer prices can change.

Six drivers, and the one that needs your ceiling

The guide lists six Class-D amplifiers with four tweeters and two woofers around the front, sides and top of the cabinet, and the tweeters have separate jobs: one forward unit carries the centre image, two side-firing units do the widening from a single box, and one upward unit exists so Dolby Atmos content arrives with a height channel bounced off the ceiling. The woofers angle left and right. Sonos prints no wattage per channel and no frequency response, so there is no published number to set beside the pair.

Placement is where the design's cost shows. About 61 cm of overhead clearance (the guide's 2 ft), 20 cm at each side and 2.5 cm behind is what Sonos asks for, and an enclosed bookshelf is called out as the case that costs dispersion and clarity. That leaves a floor, a credenza or an open shelf, and rules out most entertainment-unit nooks. The electrical line is short: an internal auto-switching 100-240 V, 50/60 Hz supply, in the same cabinet Sonos lists on its Australian store.

One Era 300 sits A$161 above a pair of Era 100s

Two Era 100s come to 2 x A$319 = A$638, one Era 300 lists at A$799, so the Australian step from a bonded pair to one spatial-audio cabinet is A$161 - about a quarter on top of the pair price. The two sums buy different things: A$638 never gets a height channel, because neither Era 100 carries an upward-firing tweeter, while A$799 keeps its whole spread inside a single cabinet.

So for a buyer in Australia the question narrows to this: is the height channel worth that premium, in a room that can also give the clearance? Separation is where the pair argues back - two boxes at the 8 to 10 ft Sonos recommends between bonded same-model speakers, seat 8 to 12 ft back, figures the support page prints in feet. Inside one 260 mm cabinet the Era 300 leans on side-firing drivers for width, and height stays the one job the pair cannot do.

Bonded as surrounds, three inputs switch off

The Era 300 carries no HDMI input, so it cannot take the television as a source by itself. Sonos's home-theatre plan bonds a matched pair as rear surrounds behind a compatible soundbar, and the manufacturer's product page names the Arc and Beam (Gen 2) as the hosts. In that arrangement Atmos side and overhead information runs through each surround while dialogue stays in the bar.

Take on the surround job and three inputs go quiet together: a speaker set up as a surround loses Bluetooth, its line-in is disabled, and AirPlay is withheld from surround speakers. Feeding the cabinet from a phone or a turntable only works while it stands alone. The host soundbar is a separate purchase, so a surround plan is two Era 300s plus a bar that may not be in the cart yet.

Nothing plays before the app and the account

Setup runs through the latest Sonos app, and the Era 300 sits on the S2 side of the split, so the S1 Controller app cannot drive it. Bluetooth pairing waits until the speaker has been set up on Wi-Fi in that app, and a first Sonos system needs an account too. Keep an older S1 system and the house ends up with two apps whose rooms cannot be grouped to play the same audio - living with old speakers alongside new ones is a replacement decision, not an extension.

Room tuning is less demanding than it used to be. Quick Trueplay runs on the speaker's own microphones with the microphone switch on, is listed for the Era 300 on Android as well as iOS, and covers a normal room. The walk-the-room advanced pass remains iOS-only. Either way, tuning belongs to setup; you do not repeat it because a chair moved.

Adapters, the carton, and what the page did not state

The carton holds the speaker, a 2 m power cable and the quickstart guide, so nothing extra is needed to get sound. The items that change the bill are Sonos's own: the A$35 Line-In Adapter brings a 3.5 mm line-level source to the USB-C port, and the A$69 Combo Adapter does that and adds Ethernet. Bonding a second Era 300 as a stereo pair is another A$799. No subscription attaches to the speaker, and streaming services bill separately.

The 6 November 2026 reading of the Australian store page took the A$799 list price, the stock status and the two adapters, but no returns window or warranty period. A re-read on 8 November 2026 found the page's own '30-day returns' line, marked 'Terms apply', and Sonos's Australian Terms of Sale give a one-year warranty for defects in materials and workmanship. That runs beside the Australian Consumer Law guarantees, which the same terms say cannot be excluded and which cover a replacement or refund for a major failure.

Leave it when the television or the shelf says no

If what the room needs is clearer dialogue off the television, the Era 300 is the wrong tool. No television sound reaches this speaker except through a Sonos soundbar, and the bar is the product built with the HDMI input and the dialogue tuning the job asks for, so a bonded surround pair earns its place only once that bar is in the room. The same goes for an enclosed bookshelf or a room that cannot offer the overhead clearance - with nothing flat above the cabinet, the upward tweeter has no surface to work from.

Reach for it when one box has to fill a room with music, Atmos masters included: neither cabinet of an Era 100 pair offers a height channel. For an Era 100 pair owner the choice is narrow - the extra A$161 buys height, and wider left-right separation is what the two boxes already deliver.

How we put this together

Built from the product pages and listings below, without test scores or results we have not measured. Specifications and prices change, so check the original page for the exact model, current price, delivery, and returns.

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