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Sonos audio system are a few of the finest within the enterprise, with each wanting smooth, refined and handsomely polished, wherever they sit in the home. Boasting mind-blowing, room-filling sound, Sonos soundbars have gained a market-leading repute through the years, however that’s simple to do while you’re a premium model.
We will wax lyrical concerning the Sonos beam gen 2 (£425, Amazon.co.uk) and the beefy Sonos arc (£839, Amazon.co.uk), however they’re each luxurious merchandise.
For years now, the corporate has let manufacturers like Denon and JBL lounge round within the entry-level market, however with the Sonos ray soundbar (£279, Sonos.com), the corporate is hoping to muscle its approach in with an inexpensive possibility of its personal.
Whereas it’s unlikely that the Sonos ray goes to be competing with the beam or the arc or, actually, any Sonos soundbar that has come earlier than it, we wished to search out out whether or not this could possibly be the brand new go-to for these first entering into the sport. Equally, we wished to see if this was actually a viable possibility for these wanting to spice up the sound of their TV without having the over-indulgent explosive theatrics of Dolby Atmos.
Whereas there absolutely should have been some corner-cutting, some give or take that made the Sonos ray much less immersive, much less of a premium product, identical to each different entry-level soundbar, Sonos isn’t actually positioning it as such. From the advertising and marketing spiel, that is the soundbar to boost your telly expertise, whether or not that’s streaming content material or next-gen gaming. So, with that in thoughts, is it price a spot in your house? We put it to the take a look at.
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How we examined
We attached the Sonos ray to our 65in entry-level Samsung TV and watched a spread of various TV exhibits and movies from each streaming providers and terrestrial TV so as to get a full sense of the depth, scale and weight of the sound. Finally, we wished to see if the Sonos ray improved audio on our TV, seeing as our present TV audio system aren’t actually as much as scratch.
We additionally listened to a bunch of music genres, testing the bass, mid-range and the treble, figuring out its general sonic high quality. And we additionally checked out how simple the ray was to arrange, management and join, in addition to evaluating the soundbar’s design and its options.
- Score: 7/10
- Dimensions: H:7.1cm x W:55.9cm x D:9.5cm
- Weight: 1.95kg
- Audio system: two tweeters, two midwoofers
- Connections: Optical, ethernet, wifi, AirPlay 2, Spotify Join
- Sound codecs: Dolby Digital, DTS Encompass, Stereo PCM
- Voice assistant? No
- Separate subwoofer included? Not included, bought individually
Design
If you happen to thought the Sonos beam gen 2 (£449, Sonos.com) was a petite machine, check out the Sonos ray, which is admittedly as small because it will get. It borrows the identical smooth design of its older siblings, together with the Sonos arc (£849, Johnlewis.com), however squashes all of it down right into a smaller, flatter body.
So, although you may need opted for the most affordable within the vary, it nonetheless seems such as you’ve received a premium soundbar sat beneath your telly – though it does look a bit disproportionate when you’ve received a TV that’s bigger than 55in. This design continuation provides a neat sense of cohesion to Sonos’s entire soundbar line-up.
That includes an aesthetic polycarbonate grill – that’s proper, no material overlaying on this one – it’s a very slick-looking machine, and is available in both white or black. It’s a minimalistic design, with minimalistic controls. You’ve solely received three touch-enabled buttons on the highest of the speaker for pause, play and quantity controls, however you received’t discover a microphone button right here – the ray isn’t voice-compatible, so there’s no Alexa integration.
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Plus, within the again alcove, you’ve received an ethernet port, an optical port and an influence outlet. Yep, that’s your lot – no HDMI nor HDMI eARC on the Sonos ray, you need to join it to your TV utilizing the older optical connection.
Whereas all Sonos soundbars are a doddle to arrange, the dearth of HDMI compatibility, current on the remainder of the Sonos soundbar household, makes the Sonos ray extra of a trouble than most. As a result of it needs to be related by way of an optical cable, we couldn’t management the amount utilizing our Samsung One sensible distant.
Mainly, most fashionable TVs use HDMI-CEC, which helps you to management the amount of any HDMI-connected gadgets utilizing one distant. You don’t have that simplicity when utilizing a tool attached via the optical port. And since the smaller ray doesn’t have an in-built microphone, you possibly can’t ask Alexa to extend or decrease the amount both.
The Sonos ray does work with an infrared distant, so we had been capable of management the amount with our fundamental Samsung IR distant, but when we didn’t have an infrared-compatible controller (homeowners of some LG tellies might have points), we’d have needed to management the amount utilizing the Sonos app or by tapping the amount controls on high of the soundbar itself. Not perfect, and feels a bit archaic given that almost all soundbars today are HDMI suitable.
Sonos does have in depth assist pages for setting the ray up with particular TVs, however you’ll have to depart apart half an hour or so to get all of it related. The Sonos app does stroll you thru most of this, and it does attempt to simplify issues as a lot as attainable.
Sound
There’s one other situation with an optical connection, and it’s the truth that you’re restricted to stereo PCM, Dolby Digital and DTS sound codecs, somewhat than the extra cinematic-sounding Dolby Atmos, which creates the phantasm of three-dimensional sound. In fact, you possibly can pair a few Ikea symfonisk desk lamp audio system (£199, Ikea.com) and use them as rear audio system for a {surround} sound expertise, however they’re not low cost. If you happen to splurge on a few Symfonisk audio system, you may as properly put money into the bigger Sonos arc.
That mentioned, it doesn’t appear to matter an excessive amount of while you’re truly watching a TV present, a movie or listening to music. Though it solely delivers stereo audio, the Sonos ray sounds good, even when it may not be as room-filling because the Sonos beam or arc.
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Regardless of solely having 4 drivers, Sonos has packed lots of engineering ingenuity into this factor to make it sound good. There are two midwoofers within the center and two tweeters which hearth out into the custom-designed waveguide, positioned on every finish of the soundbar, serving to to separate the audio each outwards and on the listener. This successfully creates a bit extra width by way of sound.
We initially thought that this may hinder the dialogue somewhat than improve it, however we had been rapidly confirmed improper. When watching Netflix’s 6 Underground, dialogue got here throughout crystal clear, separating neatly from the whirring blades of the helicopters within the motion scenes.
Dialogue is usually tough to listen to in actuality TV exhibits like Love Island, nevertheless, however we discovered that the ray boosted the readability of individuals’s speech, making it simpler to grasp whispered conversations. This was much better than speech readability on our TV audio system.
Whereas we discovered that the sound was a bit missing within the bass division, leaving us a bit underwhelmed when it got here to watching movies with heart-pumping soundtracks, we had been impressed with the way it delivered music over AirPlay. The ray dealt with mid and low frequencies with poise and muscle, whereas excessive frequencies got here throughout clear and concise. If you happen to personal the Sonos one speaker (£199, Sonos.com), you’ll discover lots of similarities within the sound.
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It additionally will get surprisingly loud for one thing so small, managing to fill our (albeit tiny) lounge with ease. The shortage of sonic depth and width is fairly evident, nevertheless. You’ll be able to inform that the sound is far more directional than Sonos’s pricier fashions – they each really feel extra enveloping than what you get on the Sonos ray, even after we’d used the Trueplay function within the app.
However as talked about beforehand, this can be a soundbar positioned for starter residence cinemas, so for the worth, this can be a splendid-sounding speaker, simply don’t anticipate it to stretch very far or into each nook of the room.
The decision: Sonos ray soundbar
That is probably the most inexpensive soundbar Sonos has ever made, and whereas there are a couple of annoyances on the subject of the usage of the optical connection, or actually, the choice to forego an HDMI connection, the Sonos ray soundbar nonetheless sounds epic. It doesn’t sound pretty much as good because the beam or arc, which have devoted channels for {surround} sound virtualisation, however for these beginning out with a house cinema setup, this may amp up the dialogue on the TV, fill your lounge with sound and do it with out distortion. It’s an awesome first step for an inexpensive Sonos soundbar.
Sonos ray
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