Sonos makes four big announcements today: the Sonos Ray as a compact soundbar for the TV, Sonos Voice Control as a voice experience on your Sonos system, Sonos Roam in three new tones (Olive, Wave and Sunset) and a collaboration with Lorde on Sonos Radio. Of these announcements, the first is the most interesting: Sonos already had two soundbars, namely the Sonos Beam (about £450) and the Sonos Arc are the first two the most interesting. Sonos Ray is a compact all-in-one soundbar for the TV, which will be in stores from June and will cost €299.
The Sonos Ray emphasizes ease of use and a compact size, ideal for small houses or for the bedroom or children's room. The soundbar is intended for people who want to set up a home theater setup for the first time or to improve the sound in multiple rooms. The Sonos Ray has two tweeters, two midwoofers and proprietary technology to prevent sound distortion. You can also listen to well-spoken dialogues while watching TV series. The Sonos Trueplay software adapts the sound to your room. If you later have a budget to buy more speakers, you can expand the system with rear speakers or a subwoofer.
Sonos Ray is the cheaper version in Sonos' lineup of soundbars. It will be available from June 7 in various countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium. In European countries you pay €299,- as the suggested retail price. As usual, you can choose from the colors black and white. The top has touch-sensitive buttons and the back is curved.
At first glance, the Sonos Ray looks very similar to the Beam, but is slightly shorter:
- Sonos Fury: 550mm (wide) x 69mm (deep) x 100mm (high)
- Sonos Beam (gen 2): 651mm (wide) x 68.6mm (deep) x 100mm (high)
It has small feet on the bottom. In the middle you see the Sonos logo, just like with the other soundbars from Sonos. With the Beam, the grille extends to the back, but that is not the case with this new soundbar: the speaker grille is only at the front.
As far as connection is concerned, there is no HDMI or HDMI eARC, but only optically, just like with the former Sonos Playbar. This ensures that it can also be connected properly to older TVs. Pairing is done by pressing a button, which is on the back together with the Ethernet port. As with previous Sonos products, you can form a multi-room system with other speakers, where the connection is made wirelessly. The Sonos Ray itself only supports Dolby Digital and no Dolby Atmos. But if you use two as a surround speaker for your Sonos Arc or Beam, you will get a spatial sound. Due to the lack of a microphone, you cannot use Sonos Ray for Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
The Sonos Ray will be available June 7 from Sonos and various retailers.
Revision history:
- 2022 – May 12, 00:13: Article updated now that the Sonos Ray is officially announced.
- 2022 – May 04, 16:04: Article updated with possible name of new speaker.