Sonos, in a strong push to capture the hearts and minds of audio lovers, announced the new Sonos Ray soundbar, a more affordable option with room to grow as your space does.
Sonos is known for their high-end audio products, delivering such devices as the Sonos Arc, Beam and Sub, but they are now expanding that offering with a new more affordable soundbar, the Sonos Ray. This new soundbar promises fantastic sound, an affordable price, and the same great Sonos style people know and love.
Launching globally on June 7th, and priced at $279USD ($349 CAD), the Sonos Ray is an exciting entry in the company’s already impressive home theatre portfolio. Compared to the $449.00 Sonos Beam, and $899.00 Sonos Arc, the Ray is a much more affordable option, especially for second living rooms, or the small apartments we are all forced to make work in larger cities.
To bring the audio fidelity of Sonos to a less expensive package, some concessions had to be made. The Sonos Ray, unlike many of the recent speakers, does not have a built-in microphone, so you will not be able to use this speaker with your voice. It also only supports optical audio in, so while it will work with most major TV’s you will not get the added feature HDMI audio allows.
While the Sonos Ray may lack some of the more “smart” features, it does come with the same touch controls seen on their other products, and is tuned to perfection, built to make both audio and video sound amazing. Sonos has packed a lot of technology into the body of the Ray, and even though it features fewer speakers compared to the Beam, they still manage to deliver some amazing sound that will make your movies and music come to life, especially if you are currently listening on built-in the TV speakers. This includes speech enhancement, clear separation of audio, and clarity that is hard to match for the price.
“Homes have become movie theatres, fitness studios, gaming hubs and so much more, all supported by a
streaming era that is no longer exclusive to just TV, music and film,” said Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos. “Ray makes it easier than ever to enhance those listening experiences, thanks to its smaller size and impressive sound.”
The design also allows the Sonos Ray to fit into smaller spaces. While the Arc, and Beam both needed space around the speaker to be clear, the Ray does not, and can fit into media setups even when space is at a premium.
“[The Sonos Ray] will fit in a lot of places that most sound bars won’t, and especially it will sound just as good on top of something or on a wall versus inside a cabinet.” explained Product Creation Leader, Brandon Holley, on Ray. “That’s something that a lot of other products won’t be able to do, including the beam and putting a beam inside a cabin is not something we would recommend doing.”
Even at the price, the Sonos Ray is built to be modular, and expand as you buy more Sonos products. Much like the Beam and Arc, the Sonos Ray can be connected to the Sonos Sub, along with a pair of Sonos One speakers to deliver a 5.1 like experience that will let movies come to live in your living room.
The Ray features a range of speakers and acoustic tech under the hood that allows it to deliver amazing sound, even in the incredibly small size. The Ray features four Class-D digital amplifiers to give the soundbar its crystal clear audio profile, along with two tweeters for the highs, and two full-range midwoofers for the mids and the punchy bass. Combined with the Bass Reflex System and the Sonos Ray packs an audio punch much more impactful than its small size may suggest.
“We came up with a new way of doing the internals of that port that eliminates the distortion and creates a very clean base response,” outlined Holley, “So from a technology point of view, we expect to use the base reflex system, in a lot of future products.”
The Sonos Ray is slated to launch worldwide on June 7th for $279USD, and will be available in both black and white. You will be able to find it online directly, or via their retail partners.
