The Sonos Ray brings into query why soundbars need to be so massive and unwieldy

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Soundbars are a smooth, spectacular (non-compulsory) addition to your leisure setup — typically on the expense of constructing a dent in your funds and decor. They will rescue you from tinny, underwhelming TV audio system and provide you with a approach to play your favourite music.

Alternatively, some soundbars do not essentially ship high quality sound, price a reasonably penny, and may kill the vibe of a superbly curated mid-century-modern credenza — an enormous, black bar in the midst of a colourful setup or muted pure wooden tones can typically throw a decor scheme off kilter. What it comes all the way down to for a product like that is good high quality sound and the client’s wants.

Enter stage left: The Sonos Ray soundbar. Sonos is a longtime audio know-how model with a give attention to sound high quality and technologically revolutionary options. A lot of its tools ranges in value from $200 to $900, rising if you buy tech bundles primarily based in your audio wants. A main draw to the model is its expertly engineered good audio system’ sound high quality and talent to construct upon each other for a tailor-made audio expertise. You’ll be able to join a number of merchandise of their app and hearken to the identical audio all through your private home.

The Sonos Ray Soundbar ($279) occupies a novel house in Sonos’s line of merchandise and the broader soundbar market. Due to its lower-end value, it is a no-frills soundbar that does not even include a distant or Bluetooth connectivity (actually? in 2024?). This gave me pause at first, however upon testing and reflecting, I noticed that not every thing wants Bluetooth connectivity, nor does your tech have to possess each single characteristic doable in the event you solely have one distinct goal. And the Sonos Ray does ship on the underside line requirement of any speaker: true, high quality sound.

I examined the Sonos Ray Soundbar and was pleasantly shocked that such a easy product may ship on its few, albeit easy, guarantees. When many soundbars in the marketplace are an eyesore, I assumed it was glorious that the Sonos Ray soundbar can are available a crisp white that blends in effectively if you do not need that traditional soundbar form and coloration plunked into your private home’s aesthetic.

What’s the Sonos Ray Soundbar good for?

The Sonos Ray soundbar is smooth, petite, crisp (in make and sound), and an all-around small however mighty soundbar so as to add to your leisure system. Nevertheless, you may’t essentially anticipate far more from this lower-cost soundbar from Sonos. It may possibly make the audio of Nintendo’s Tears of the Kingdom crystal clear such you can make out the luxurious swishing of the animated grass and the crunch of gravel beneath Hyperlink’s ft. It made Jeff Probst’s narration of Survivor challenges burst from the TV with crisp, emphatic readability, amplifying each splash, splat, and squelch of the contestants flailing within the ocean, sand, and dirt.

That stated, the choices and prospects on your Sonos Ray soundbar by itself aren’t limitless. It comes with an influence twine and optical enter twine, and that is it. I searched the field for a second for a distant, however Sonos needed to simplify this explicit soundbar (virtually) to a fault. To my disappointment, I couldn’t join the soundbar to my projector throughout my preliminary check run. With out making another purchases (say converter cables or further merchandise from Sonos), the one approach to get the Sonos Ray up and working for an leisure system is through your TV’s optical cable, often known as a SPDIF cable.

This was new for me with regards to a elaborate gadget from a model that foundationally prides itself on good audio system that do not visually boast their specs however secretly pack so many alternative options and promise state-of-the-art synchronicity between items of your system.

The Sonos Ray has minimal bodily controls and would not include a distant.
Credit score: Han Schneider / Mashable

Is the Sonos Ray Soundbar budget-friendly?

The simplicity of the Sonos Ray soundbar just isn’t essentially a “downside” to the product because it’s clear the model developed the product with the intent to supply a (comparatively) budget-friendly buy possibility inside its portfolio of units and throughout the broader sea of soundbar choices. The Sonos Ray soundbar is available in at $279, a lot decrease than the typical soundbar value in the marketplace amongst manufacturers like Sony, Bose, and Sonos’s bigger, extra versatile Arc soundbar ($899). Nevertheless, some analysis will reveal that many higher-cost soundbars from competing manufacturers go on sale close to the Sonos Ray value level.

Sometimes, a sale that ranks competitively would make me override a assessment and simply advocate the higher product.

Nevertheless, I do not notably suppose that is mandatory on this case. Dimension would not equal energy or sound high quality with this mannequin, and it brings into query why soundbars need to be so massive and unwieldy within the first place. The Sonos Ray is available in a traditional black or a smooth white that I believe blends into its environment delicately.

The parents who would profit from choosing an on-sale soundbar that rivals Sonos Ray’s value can be anybody who actually needs a wider portfolio of options.

What options does the Sonos Ray Soundbar include? 

The Sonos Ray is no-frills with regards to options, however you do nonetheless have to join and use the Sonos app to set it up and use it. This generally is a true dealbreaker for people who do not need to get their cellphone concerned or favor to not have an account connected to their gadget for digital privateness causes.

So far as apps go, although, the Sonos app could be very user-friendly and takes care of as a lot as doable for you. When you plug within the speaker and join the app, the app will discover the product for you and join it to your WiFi in the event you’re already logged in. All it’s important to do is flip in your TV and get to watching and listening. I additionally appreciated that the Sonos Ray is appropriate with IF remotes (infrared). I merely pointed my TV distant on the speaker to configure it and was able to go in a matter of seconds.

Sonos actually places its cash the place its mouth is with regards to sound high quality. There isn’t any doubt about it — these merchandise sound nice for music, motion pictures, TV, weekend-long Survivor binges, and extra. There are additionally unimaginable inner settings on your speaker you can management through the intuitive app. Nevertheless, the Sonos Ray would not have a microphone or any good house compatibility constructed into the product. Though, if that is a should, you may finesse it right into a broader good house system with good plugs.

These options embody “speech enhancement” for many who desire a crisper dialogue whereas enhancing the general sound. Throughout extra action-packed, bass-heavy programming, the dialogue typically wants just a little assist rising above the remainder of the superb audio projection. 

There’s additionally “night sound,” which dampens the deeper bass components of the speaker — if you need enhanced audio whereas a child, pup, associate, or roommate is asleep close by. Sonos prides itself on gadget intelligence (i.e., clever options like gadget synchronicity, Alexa, Google, and Apple House compatibility, and much more). It additionally presents Sonos’s spectacular “Trueplay Tuning,” which measures how sound bounces off surfaces in your house and adjusts its audio efficiency accordingly for the smoothest, most dimensional audio expertise doable.

Does the Sonos Ray Soundbar sound good?

Talking of bouncing off surfaces, one other characteristic I appreciated concerning the Sonos Ray soundbar is that the {hardware} audio system face ahead, angling the audio instantly out and on the viewer. Which means that the Sonos Ray soundbar is the proper candidate for becoming right into a petite cubby inside a TV stand, a built-in shelf for a soundbar, or wherever that will in any other case annoyingly envelope multi-directional sound and create just a little cove of cacophony as a substitute of a luxurious audio expertise.

Is the Sonos Ray Soundbar price it?

The Sonos Ray‘s strengths lie in the identical areas that some might level to weaknesses — as a result of this product is about becoming the client’s wants. It is a easy set up of 1 twine between itself and the TV, and a really easy-to-use app could also be nice for people who do not care about all of that good house hoopla (ahem, my dad and mom). It’s smaller and shorter than many soundbars in the marketplace for these with little house on their TV stand or leisure setup. The Sonos Ray soundbar may additionally neatly match beneath a monitor in a gaming setup for avid gamers on the lookout for a seamless luxurious sound expertise that matches into their house.

I might be remiss if I did not point out that this speaker additionally follows by on music sound high quality. The audio high quality for music speaks for itself if you get one in every of your favourite heard-it-a-million-times songs going. The treble and bass high quality are putting, even at a shallow quantity stage. The catch on the music facet of the Sonos Ray is according to its beforehand said weaknesses: there isn’t any Bluetooth connectivity. That does not matter right here as a result of you may play any music streaming app through your cellphone by merely deciding on the speaker within the apps. Probably the most putting issues concerning the music high quality on the Sonos Ray soundbar is how clear and crisp every guitar strum and cymbal hit is when listening to Palehound’s “Eye on the Bat.”