We are big fans of Sonos soundbars, especially the Sonos Beam. Today Sonos is introducing an even more compact and affordable soundbar, the Sonos Ray, alongside new color options for the Sonos Roam.
The Sonos Ray measures 22 x 3.74 x 2.79 inches and weighs just 4.29lbs, which makes it even more compact than their popular Beam soundbar. Despite the smaller size, the Sonos Ray is packed with all of the smart technology we’ve come to expect from Sonos, along with optimized sonics for music, TV, and even gaming.
The top side of the Sonos Ray features capacitive controls. On the inside, the Ray is packed with two-high performing tweeters, two mid-woofers and proprietary anti-distortion technology. The result is very balanced, natural, and clear sound. But what impresses us most about the Ray, is that just like the Sonos Beam, during our brief demo, we noticed that the Ray excels at dialogue just as much as it does with voice. This is not an easy feat, as we’ve discovered that most soundbars struggle at excelling with all formats.
The Sonos Ray features Sonos Trueplay which adapts the sound to the unique acoustics of the room, along with a very useful Speech enhancement setting that helps boost and clarify dialogue, as well as a Night Sound setting which helps reduce the intensity of loud effects while keeping dialogue clear so that you’re not disturbing others while watching TV late at night.
Sonos Ray pricing and availability
The Sonos Ray will be available starting June 7th in the U.S., Canada, and several other countries for $279. It will be available in a choice of white or black.
Sonos Roam gets new colors
Sonos Roam, which is Sonos most portable Bluetooth speaker to date, has also been updated with several new fun color options. The new lineup includes Wave, Sunset, and Olive.
The new Sonos Roam color options go on sale today for $179 each.
Sonos Voice Control
Sonos is also introducing their new Sonos Voice Control. Sonos has offered Alexa and Google Assistant voice assistant support on many of their products for a while now, but those who are concerned about privacy, might want to consider using their new Sonos Voice Control.
To start using Sonos Voice Control, all a user has to do is say “Hey Sonos”. Sonos Voice control will let you control your music hands-free. Unlike the aforementioned popular voice assistants, you can quickly follow one request after another without having to say “Hey Sonos each time.
Sonos Voice Control has also been designed to understand everyday language, so you don’t have to be worried about how you word your request. For those concerned about privacy, your voice is processed locally on the speaker.
Sonos Voice Control will become available in the U.S. starting on June 1st and it will launch later in the year in France. There’s no word on availability for other countries and languages yet.