Our Pick for Smart Speakers — and Two Strong Runners-Up

By Editorial Team | April 2026

The Sonos Era 300 is the one to buy if you want a smart speaker that sounds like more than a smart speaker. Its six-driver layout, Dolby Atmos Music support and room tuning make it the most convincing single-box option here, and the £449 price only makes sense if sound is the priority.

Our picks at a glance

Based on hands-on research, expert review consensus (RTings, Wirecutter, relevant subreddits), and current pricing.

Best overall: Sonos Era 300

Sonos Era 300 — £449.00

This is the smart speaker for people who actually care how music sounds. The Era 300 earns its 8.2 score by doing what most Alexa boxes cannot: making spatial audio feel wide, tall and worth paying for.

Why we picked it:

• Six drivers fire in different directions, which is why it creates a bigger, more enveloping sound than a normal one-box speaker.
• Dolby Atmos Music support is the real headline here, and it gives you a more three-dimensional listen when the source material is there.
• Trueplay tuning matters because it adapts the speaker to your room instead of making you fix the room around it.

The trade-off: It is expensive, and it is not the right buy if you just want a cheap voice assistant or background noise at low volume.

If that sounds like your use case, buy the Sonos Era 300 and stop shopping around.

Best upgrade: Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (3rd Gen)

Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) — £226.70

The upgrade here is portability and finish, not scale. The A1 is the speaker you pick when you want something smaller, prettier and easier to live with outside the house, with 24-hour battery life and IP67 protection.

Worth it if: you want a premium Bluetooth speaker that you can throw in a bag and still enjoy at home.

Best budget pick: Edifier R1280DBs

Edifier R1280DBs — £139.00

This gets the basics right without pretending to be a smart speaker. You lose the Sonos ecosystem, but you get optical, coaxial, dual RCA and Bluetooth in a package that makes a bedroom, desk or small TV setup sound much better than cheap plastic speakers.

Worth it if: you want the cheapest sensible way to get proper stereo sound from a TV, laptop or turntable.

Also worth considering

Bose SoundLink Flex (2nd Gen) — £109.00

This is the practical pick for people who want a small speaker they do not have to baby. The IP67 body, PositionIQ tuning and punchy sound make it a stronger travel companion than the Sonos Era 300, but it does not compete on scale or detail.

Wharfedale Diamond 12.1i — £249.00

This is the one for anyone building a real hi-fi setup. It needs an amp and speaker cable, which is the whole point: you get cleaner, more direct stereo sound than most powered speakers can manage, but you also give up convenience.

JBL Flip 7 — £119.00

The Flip 7 is the grab-and-go option for people who want durability first. IP68 protection and drop-proofing make it more carefree than the Era 300, and Auracast is genuinely useful, but it is not the speaker you buy for refined home listening.

How we chose

We looked at price, sound quality, connectivity, and how each speaker fits a real listening scenario. For the Era 300, the big factors were spatial audio support, Trueplay tuning, wireless flexibility and whether the price is justified by a real jump in sound.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Sonos Era 300 worth £449? Yes, if you want one smart speaker that sounds meaningfully better than the usual voice-assistant box. No, if you mostly listen at low volume or just want convenience.

Should you buy the Era 300 or the Era 100? Buy the Era 300 if you want the wider, more immersive sound and you will use Dolby Atmos Music. The Era 100 is the cheaper, safer buy for smaller rooms, and it is the better value for most people.

Can you connect a turntable to the Era 300? Yes, but only with the Sonos line-in adapter, so it is not as plug-and-play as a speaker with a built-in analogue input.

Bottom line

The Sonos Era 300 is the best pick here because it sounds like money well spent when you turn it up and feed it good material. If you want a smart speaker to disappear into the background, skip it. If you want one that justifies itself every time you play music, it is the one to beat.