Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Home Theater
  3. News

Bluetooth on Sonos’ new Era speakers isn’t what you think – it’s better

Simon Cohen
By

When Sonos recently debuted its two newest wireless speakers — the Era 100 and Era 300 — it broke with years of precedence by adding Bluetooth, a connection option that has never been offered on the company’s non-portable speakers. At the time, I thought Bluetooth on an Era speaker worked the same way as it does on the Sonos Roam and Sonos Move. I was wrong.

It turns out, the Era speakers use Bluetooth in tandem with their Wi-Fi connections, as opposed to the Sonos portable speakers, which treat Bluetooth as a completely separate mode. That has some profound implications for what you can do with one of the new Era speakers within a Sonos system, as well as a few caveats about what you can’t do.

Keep control

Two phones showing Bluetooth streaming (left) and the Sonos app, with an Era 100 speaker set to Bluetooth mode.
A Xiaomi 12 Pro (left) is used to stream Tidal content over Bluetooth to a Sonos Era 100 speaker, while an iPhone 14 is used to control the speaker via the Sonos app. Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Using Bluetooth on a Sonos Era speaker is additive — it lets you layer a Bluetooth connection over the speaker’s existing Wi-Fi connection — which means the Sonos app can maintain its link to the Era 100 or 300 even when another device is connected to these speakers using Bluetooth. You can still control every aspect of the Era speaker, just as you would if the speaker was playing from a source within the Sonos app, or via AirPlay from an Apple device.

Related

This mirrors the way other multiroom wireless systems like Bluesound handle Bluetooth, but it’s a radical departure from the way the Sonos Move and Roam work. Once you switch these speakers into Bluetooth mode, they disconnect from Wi-Fi and the Sonos app can no longer communicate with the speakers.

Unfortunately, despite the persistent connection from the app to the Era speaker over Wi-Fi, the app can’t currently display album or track artwork when audio is playing from a Bluetooth device — only the text is displayed.

Bluetooth as a shared source

When you connect to an Era speaker over Bluetooth, Sonos treats that Bluetooth connection the same way as it treats an AirPlay connection. You can simply play Bluetooth audio to just the Era speaker you’re connected to, or you can jump into the Sonos app and group the Era speaker with as many other Sonos products as you like and each component will play the audio being streamed via Bluetooth to the Era speaker.

One at a time

Close-up of the Bluetooth indicator light on a Sonos Era 100 speaker.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Even though an Era speaker can be connected to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth simultaneously, while also supporting AirPlay, there is a pecking order to these connections. First, only a single Bluetooth device can be connected at once. If you’ve paired a second device in the past, and then connect it to the Era speaker, it will disconnect the first paired speaker.

Second, if you’re using an AirPlay session to play music from an Apple device to an Era speaker and then you begin playback from a connected Bluetooth device, it will terminate the AirPlay session instead of just pausing it. To start using AirPlay again, you’ll need to pause the Bluetooth session, reconnect your Apple device to the Era speaker via AirPlay, and then begin playback from the Apple device.

Third, Bluetooth and Sonos app sources have parity when it comes to control. Hitting play on a Bluetooth streaming session will pause any content that the Era speaker had been playing from the Sonos app, and vice versa. Hitting play from the app will pause the Bluetooth source (but won’t disconnect the Bluetooth device).

Stereo yes, surrounds no

Close-up of the Bluetooth button on a Sonos Era 100 speaker.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

If you set up two matching Era speakers as a stereo pair, you’ll still be able to use Bluetooth streaming as described above. However, if you use those same two speakers as a set of surrounds in a home theater — along with an Arc, Beam, or Ray — Bluetooth won’t be available until you remove the speakers from this arrangement.

Still need Wi-Fi

As with Sonos’ portables, Bluetooth streaming to an Era speaker can only be done once the speaker has been set up and activated via Wi-Fi. Out of the box, there’s no way to use them as Bluetooth speakers.

If you want to be able to manage the Era speakers using the Sonos app when streaming via Bluetooth, you’ll need to be connected to your home Wi-Fi network. However, if you strictly want to use them as Bluetooth speakers — perhaps at a cottage or at a friend’s house — all they need is a power source.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
11 Sonos tips, tricks, and little-known features
Tyler Lacoma
By Tyler Lacoma
March 8, 2023
Sonos Era 100, beside a turntable.

Sonos continues to be one of the best multiroom wireless sound systems you can buy, with whole-home speakers that range from Wi-Fi-connected single speakers like the stalwart Play One and surround sound beasts like the Sonos Arc to the portable Sonos Roam and Move speakers and the new, er, era of Sonos speaker, the Era 100 and Era 300 that seemingly do everything.

A Sonos system can spread music throughout your home, be configured with multiple products as a pretty excellent Dolby Atmos-capable surround sound system for your TV, and be used to connect your existing analog equipment to it for a tailor-made setup that works just for you -- they're some of the best speakers you can buy.

Read more
The Sonos Era speakers solve a major problem for Android users
Phil Nickinson
By Phil Nickinson
March 8, 2023
Sonos TruePlay settings.

The new Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 usher in a new generation of wireless speakers for the company, and our first impressions were pretty good. They also close a gaping hole that has plagued a pretty large segment of users. Android users no longer are left out of the Trueplay feature.

Custom tuning of speakers for their environments isn’t particularly new. Google has done it with its Nest Hub Max. Apple does it with the HomePod. But Sonos has always required a phone to do the listening for ambient sound and fine-tuning the speakers. And to date, that phone always has had to be an iPhone (unless you have a portable Sonos Move, but that's almost a different product category at this point. Stay with us here).

Read more
Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 first impressions: it’s all about immersion
Simon Cohen
By Simon Cohen
March 7, 2023
Sonos Era 300.

Sonos has launched its latest wireless multiroom smart speakers — the $249 Era 100 and $449 Era 300 — effectively rebooting the company's entry-level product. It marks the end of the Sonos One, and its midsize offering, which had been noticeably absent since the discontinuation of the Play:3 in 2018. We'll have reviews in due time, but I've spent a little bit of time with the new kit, and here are my first impressions.

I got a chance to hear both the Sonos Era 100 and 300 in action at a private launch event in New York City. The demo room was hardly an ideal spot from an acoustics point of view -- a wide and shallow shape and drapes slung on some walls, while others were built from highly reflective glass -- and yet I was able to get a sense of both speakers' potential.

Read more