Sonos Era 100 SL – Compact, Microphone-Free Speaker with WiFi, Bluetooth – White

Awesome speaker to get started with Sonos, great for surrounds, no mic for privacy conscience!
If you’ve been looking to get into the Sonos ecosystem, want a great sounding speaker, and not have to pay a lot, then this is your ticket in. The speaker is the same exact model as the normal Era 100, but the only difference is this one doesn’t have any microphones in it. What this means is that you lose the “Sonos Assistant” (think similar to Siri or Alexa, but more for music than general) and that’s really about it. There is one feature called “TruePlay” that automatically tunes the speaker using it’s built in microphone, but since these don’t have a mic, you can’t do that. You can still tune them using the app and your iPhone, but the automatic tuning that the normal 100s have isn’t present on this model.If you’ve never heard a Sonos speaker before, then you are in for a treat. To me, they sounds incredible. For their size and stature, they sound amazing. Sure a full sized floor standing speaker may sound better and have deeper bass, but that’s not what these are compared against. Others will criticize them, claiming they are not THE best sounding speaker in existence for the price, but they really do sounds incredible. You’re also paying for convenience too. All you need is power, and that’s all. No speaker wires to run, no receiver to connect to, just power and wifi. Once you have it connected, you can stream music straight from the internet to the speaker through a variety of sources. You can use the Sonos music library, or you can connect Apple Music or Spotify or a host of other services as well. They even have bluetooth if you have guests and they want to send music directly to the speaker. Very versatile!These integrate well with your home too as they are AirPlay 2 compatible as well, so you can AirPlay music right to them, incorporate them into your Apple Home, join them with HomePods to all stream in sync between them all; it all just works seamlessly. These speakers are moisture resistant too, so place them anywhere in your house, even the bathroom for that sweet whole home audio!If you’re already in the Sonos ecosystem, these would make excellent starter surround speakers if you have a Sonos soundbar like an Arc, Beam, or Ray. You wouldn’t really need the mic for surround speakers, so these make an excellent choice for that.So what do you get for trading off the mics? A lower price point. These come in at basically the bottom price point for Sonos, so if you’re thinking of trying it out, give these a shot, but be forewarned, it may just make you buy more shortly after!

Great standalone speaker or entree into Sonos whole-house system 🙂
We are long-time (since 2015) users of Sonos speakers and have an entire home-wide sound system built up — including as surround systems for four TVs — so I have a bit of experience with regards to Sonos products. I ordered this new speaker to use as a standalone in our kitchen and didn’t want the complexity of using one of our smart home controllers (Alexa, Siri, Sonos) to do the work, as this speaker is within arm’s reach of the action area in our kitchen.The speaker itself is identical in size, weight, and build quality to the Era 100 smart speakers (we have two as front surrounds in the living room) but without the integrated microphone, which seems to be the only mechanical difference. I like this speaker’s sound profile — which is typical Sonos — and via the app, is able to take advantage of TruePlay, which optimizes the sound for this speaker in this room in this environment — and only takes a few minutes to work.I also like the very simple controls integrated seamlessly into the top of the speaker, and include volume and simple music controls. To start or stop is a literal tiny tap and it works immediately. Other than the slight trench of the volume slider, everything is flat, touch sensitive, but may require a peek or two initially until one is familiar with the controls. Note that everything — including more options — is available via the (required) Sonos app.Setup was a simple matter of unboxing, attaching the power cord, plugging it in, and opening the app to see almost immediate recognition of the new device to be added. Other than “next” a few times, no other input is required — and it did a system update initially, which took less than a minute, after it had automatically connected to our wifi in the app (again, no input needed except “next”). The only real choice offered was in which room — via the scrolling selection — would it be placed.The beauty of this single speaker is that it can connect independently to a music source via Bluetooth, an integrated USB-C port on the back, or simply via an existing Sonos setup and its wireless connections to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Sonos Music, etc.Overall, this is a handy and beautifully-sounding standalone speaker or an intro into the Sonos system with its newest technology, and if one is interested in expanding, a great starting point (warning: this may be habit-forming).