Sonos has released its latest soundbar, and it comes at an affordable price that's uncharacteristic of the high-end multi-room audio brand.
The new Sonos Ray is a compact soundbar designed to enhance the sound of your TV and will be available to buy on June 7 for just £279 / £179 (around AU$400).
It's much cheaper than any other Sonos soundbar to date. So far, the best budget option has been the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), which costs €399 / €339 / AU4599. Meanwhile, the brand's flagship Sonos Arc soundbar costs $899. / £899 / AU$1,499.
Sonos speakers have never been cheap, but the new soundbar is part of the company's mission to bring better sound to more home theater setups. Speaking with TechRadar's Matt Bolton, Sonos' head of product creation Brandon Holley told us that "nine out of 10 TVs globally still rely on built-in TV speakers," which he described as "pretty difficult."
A sound bar (with a button)
In addition to being affordably priced, the Sonos Ray is the company's smallest soundbar and features tapered edges, making it an ideal choice for anyone tight on space.
More interestingly, a pair of Ray soundbars can be used as rear speakers if you already have a Sonos Arc or Beam at home. Putting a literal twist on the way we normally use soundbars, the Ray can be mounted on your wall vertically to amplify the sound of your existing Sonos soundbar.
Despite its small size, Holley says you'll still get that "big Hollywood blockbuster home theater experience," thanks to a bass-reflex system that delivers low frequencies while using anti-distortion technology to prevent "noise and turbulence." que usted get de una caja de alcance”.
There are four drivers in total, comprising two elliptical midwoofers and two high-output tweeters.
Unlike the Sonos Arc and Beam sound bars, Dolby Atmos doesn't work here, but the company has tried to offer a wide soundstage. Using a split waveguide, the beam directs some of the high-frequency energy directly at you and directs the rest behind you to bounce off your walls. In theory, this will create a spacious sound that contrasts with the soundbar's compact dimensions.
If you want to amplify the sound even further, you can connect the Ray wirelessly to other Sonos products; for example, a pair of Sonos One SL rear speakers and a Sonos Sub would create a complete home theater system. Plus, you get voice enhancement and night mode to tailor the soundbar's audio performance to the content you're watching.
As with the Arc and Beam, the Sonos Ray uses the company's TruePlay technology to calibrate the audio output to its environment. During this process, the sound bar will emit a series of beeps and ticks throughout the frequency range; You will then be asked to walk around your room waving your smartphone. The S2 app then uses your smartphone's built-in microphones to analyze the audio and adjust Ray's sound to suit your room.
This feature is only available on iOS, which is a shame. Holley admits that TruePlay will "only enhance the experience," but that the Ray is designed to sound great right out of the box for those who can't access the feature.
Whether you have an iOS device or not, you'll get all the other features you'd expect from a Sonos speaker from Ray. It's designed to blend seamlessly with the brand's other products, so you can build your system as big (or as small) as you like, and it can be used with the same remote you use for your TV. .
More interestingly though, the Sonos Ray's main connection to your TV will be via the optical port, rather than the HDMI eARC connection we often see for sound bars. Holley explains that this decision was made to make the Ray "a product that works with anything and is as easy to set up as possible."
We've liked all of the Sonos soundbars so far - the Arc is our pick for the best Dolby Atmos soundbar you can buy, so we're excited to see how the Ray fares against its big brothers and sisters. Stay tuned for our full review in the coming weeks.