Best Home Sound makes your music feel like it's playing all around you, and not just from a single speaker in the corner of the room. Sony now brings you immersive listening with 360 Reality Audio. This audio format maps sound in a 360 degree spherical space when recorded. This means you hear it as the artist intended and you may even feel surrounded by musicians from your favorite bands or sitting in the center of an orchestra. Previously, Sony only offered 360 Reality Audio with its headsets, such as the Sony WH-1000XM4. But the brand's newest speakers, the SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000, can deliver 360-degree sound deep into your living room.
360 Reality Audio comes to Sony speakers
Sony SRS-RA3000 (Image credit: Sony) Sony's first new 360 Reality Audio speaker is the SRS-RA5000 ($500/$550). This wireless speaker has a unique premium design and an array of seven speakers, transmitting sound both vertically and horizontally. It offers superior two-channel audio quality, and audiophiles will be happy to know that it supports Hi-Res Audio. To get the most out of 360 Reality Audio, it has a selectable auto volume control and a manual room calibration feature. This means setup is easy and the feature changes the sound of the speaker to suit your space - you get great room-filling sound no matter where you place it. The second speaker is the SRS-RA3000 ($300/$300), a smaller home wireless speaker with a three-speaker array available in a choice of two colors. It is resistant to moisture, so you can use it in the bathroom when you shower or in the kitchen when you cook. It also offers premium two-channel audio quality with automatic room calibration and a switchable auto volume feature, so you always get the best possible performance. Both speakers support multiple Wi-Fi transmission protocols and you can pair them with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa speakers for hands-free control as well as multi-room listening.
Here's why 360 Reality Audio will improve your listening
Sony SRS-RA5000 (Image credit: Sony) 360 Reality Audio uses Sony's spatial audio technology to make music sound the same as when it was first recorded. Sony's audio technology accomplishes this by mapping information about distance, angle, and more. So you can hear your music as if each instrument is playing in a sphere around you. Imagine the difference between hearing your favorite band play a few hundred feet away and feeling like the singer is directly in front of you and the guitarist is right next to them. 360 Reality Audio is delivered through the underlying MPEG-H object-based audio format. This standard can support multiple audio channels simultaneously, so they are combined to simulate a large 3D space.
360 Reality Audio: Sony Headphones vs. Sony Speakers
Sony SRS-RA5000 (Image credit: Sony) There are differences between having a 360 Reality Audio experience, whether you're listening through a pair of Sony headphones or enjoying music from one of Sony's new speakers . For starters, headphones have a fixed position relative to the listener, unlike speakers, and you can move them around a room. The experience is possible on almost any headset, but it's refined and best experienced on 360 Reality Audio-certified headsets. These can be customized to your ear shape and size using the Headphones Connect app. Additionally, the way music is streamed to your device can also affect its sound. For example, you can listen to 360 Reality Audio over Bluetooth or an audio cable when using headphones, but only over Wi-Fi through speakers. These differences, along with the hardware, mean you'll hear different 360 Reality Audio sound scenes depending on the device you're using. Right now, you can access 360 Reality Audio tracks, including old tracks from the catalog and new releases, via Amazon Music HD, Deezer HiFi and Tidal HiFi on Sony speakers, and Deezer HiFi, Tidal HiFi and nugs.net through headphones. While you may not find every track available to listen to on 360 Reality Audio, this is just the beginning. Sony is driving the expansion of this innovative new audio format, working closely with streaming services, artists and producers to bring you music that has never been so immersive and authentic.