According to online scuttlebutt (well, The Verge), Sonos is set to announce a new product in the coming weeks and it’s going to be called the Sonos Ray.
The name slightly disappoints us, as the Sonos Fury codename sounded catchier (and like a character from a Mad Max film). Still, the purpose of the bar won’t change, to supercharge your TV’s audio at a price that won’t make you grimace.
The Ray will serve as the company’s cheapest soundbar, but what else is known about Sonos’ next product?
Release Date
It is thought that the Sonos Ray will be released within a matter of weeks. The expectation is that they’ll be an announcement in May, followed by an on sale date of June 7th. That means there’s not long left until the sun shines on the Ray, revealing all its secrets.
Price
The Verge (who else) have also reported on the bar’s prospective price, and at $249 (around £190) the Ray would be the cheapest bar Sonos has offered. As a result, that some features will be missing as as result of the drop in price, such as the ability to play Dolby Atmos soundtracks.
Design
The Ray is believed to be more compact in size than the Beam 2. According to the 3D renders created by The Verge, it sports an elliptical, horizontal shape that bears resemblance to the Beam 2 with its design language and front-facing grille.
It can be placed in a horizontal or vertical orientation (with a wall-mount available), and sources comment the two Ray speakers could be partnered with the bigger Arc or the Beam to act as a rear channels. The bar is apparently optimised to work in a vertical orientation, its slanted side drivers will fire Atmos soundtracks to the ceiling in a more effective manner. How this will work in practice is something we’re eager to see.
Features
The headline features are what the Ray doesn’t have, rather than what it does. Dolby Atmos won’t be supported, so it won’t be playing object-based audio tracks through up-firing or virtual processing.
It’s not expected to have a HDMI output to connect to a TV, suggesting this bar will connect via a digital optical connection, so 5.1 could be supported (with other speakers connected).
There are no internal microphones either, so they’ll be no voice assistance, mirroring the Sonos One SL and Roam SL models. If voice assistance is required, the a compatible speaker would need to be connected to the Ray.
Sonos doesn’t comment on rumour and speculation, so we’ll be keeping in the next few weeks of any information that drops about the Sonos Ray.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.