Sonos has scored a knockout with the Era 300 spatial audio surround speaker, which finally brings the full promise of Dolby Atmos to their flagship soundbar.

The Dolby Atmos-compatible Era 300 delivers room-filling spatial audio on its own, or it can be easily integrated with other Sonos speakers for a truly theater-like experience.

With Dolby Atmos, the Sonos Era 300 offers an entirely new way to listen to music.

Big, detailed, and confident sound. Convincing spatial audio effect. Exemplary control app. Plenty of multi-room and multi-channel possibilities.

The Sonos Era 300 creates more space in your music than anything else I've heard for the same price or size. It gives you a real feeling of sounds being positioned with Dolby Atmos tracks, and even stereo gets more width than you'd think possible. It's not one for those who like it quiet, and we'd love a little more bass extension, but it's still one of the most exciting speakers you can buy today.

First: Do you have Amazon Music Unlimited or Apple Music? If the answer is “no” to either of those services, then you do not need the Sonos Era 300. If you're already super into your Spotify and you have no desire to switch to a different music streaming service, you just aren't going to get the most out of your Era 300 (and we'd recommend you stick to the Sonos Five). Despite the limited catalogue of content that is optimized for this speaker, it is a damn good one if you're super into Dolby Atmos and use those two streaming services it's built for. Everyone thinks they're an audiophile, but few are actually well-attuned to using Dolby Atmos in their everyday life—those who are already tapped into spatial audio will love the Era 300; those who just want to get the most out of their regular-old content will not let the speaker do what it was primed for.

The Era 300 is a big, expensive, stationary speaker that introduces Dolby Atmos support to Sonos's line of music-focused speakers. With four directional tweeters and two woofers, the Era 300 can fill a room with accurate sound that's also warm and super musical. And it also works with spatial audio if you're into that. It's not cheap, but along with line-in and Bluetooth support, it's Sonos's most versatile speaker ever.

The Era 300 isn't as straightforward to recommend as other Sonos speakers. There are too many variables. If you're primarily going to listen to music, you should really be a subscriber either Amazon Music Unlimited or Apple Music and be really psyched about listening to Dolby Atmos tracks — which again, sound fantastic on the Era 300.

The Era 300 makes it easy to bask in immersive spatial audio. With its wide sound, it feels like you’re listening to more than one speaker. Thanks to crisp treble and deep bass, it sounds good with regular stereo music, too. It’s packed with features, but you pay a premium for the privilege.

In conclusion, the Sonos Era 300 is a remarkable smart speaker that creates an ambient and immersive listening experience. Its wide and enveloping soundstage allows music to be enjoyed evenly throughout the room, making it ideal for achieving balanced acoustics in a living room setting. The Atmos compatibility adds an extra layer of immersion when paired with appropriate music choices and a subscription to Amazon Music or Apple Music.

In terms of Sonos' range of speakers, this is undoubtedly the best-sounding speaker for the money after the Sonos Era 100. If you want to buy a Sonos for a desktop and don't want to shell out $600 for the Five, then the Era 300 is a great option. No product exists in a vacuum though, and if it wasn't for the cheaper and almost-as-good Amazon Echo Studio, the Era 300 would be the Atmos speaker to get.

The Sonos Era 300 speaker retails at $449 which, while $100 cheaper than the older Sonos Five, is still a lofty asking price. But even as a penny-pinching consumer, I consider the Era 300 the best standalone Dolby Atmos speaker available, making its price justifiable. The audio quality, including spatial audio support, sets the Era 300 apart from all other speakers I've tested in its price range.

Sonos Era 300 sounds absolutely amazing for the price, though its design is a little lackluster.

Fortunately, the Era 300 is a great speaker, whether or not it is playing songs in Dolby Atmos. It’s crisp, loud, detailed and has lively bass – and when I’ve stopped thinking about spatial audio, it has been a joy to listen to. Spatial audio is a potentially interesting feature, especially if more and more musicians and producers embrace it, but I’d recommend that you not buy the Era 300 with only that in mind. Buy it if you’re really interested in a premium speaker that does a great job filling a room with sound, whether it’s an Atmos mix or not.

The Sonos Era 300 is good for music. Like most premium speakers on the market, this device has a room correction tool designed to automatically optimize audio reproduction based on the unique acoustics of your room. It reproduces voices and other lead instruments with accuracy, making it suitable for many genres. The bass and treble levels are adjustable, too. There's a little less low-bass than with the Sonos Five, but you still feel some rumble in the mix with bass-heavy genres like EDM. With its stereo sound, you get a wide and immersive soundstage. Also, if you want to listen to Dolby Atmos Music on your eligible music streaming service, it's one of the few speakers we've tested to support this technology.

When you find a good spatial audio song, Sonos’ new speaker can blow your mind and sounds like nothing else. But it trails the Sonos Five at stereo playback and suffers from the wildly inconsistent state of Atmos mixes.

The Sonos Era 300 is one of the very best wifi speakers you can buy, producing the sort of sparkling audio that will have you discovering new elements of well-worn tracks.

With its huge scale of engaging sound, wide range of features and seamless Sonos experience, the Era 300 is an impressive speaker that can do it all

The unusually shaped Sonos Era 300 delivers where it counts, offering seriously impressive immersive sound that’s way beyond even the flagship Sonos Five. The addition of the voice assistant – and the ability to turn it off – is a plus, as is the Bluetooth connection. However, those looking to hardwire it may find the USB-C port a little annoying. Without doubt though, this is the best speaker for the money right now.

Another first-class wireless speaker from Sonos – the only thing wrong with the Era 300 is its lack of Google Assistant support

It’s not cheap, but the Era 300 is a superb smart speaker. Regular stereo playback is rich and detailed, and music mixed for spatial is also dynamic, the speaker managing to place sounds and fill space in a way that seems impossible given its size. This same ability makes it an excellent choice for movie playback too. Though it’s a bit of an investment, it can play back pretty much any digital or physical audio source you might ask of it and sound mighty good doing so. Truly, an impressive achievement.