Sonos Ray: we review the most affordable premium soundbar

Sonos has launched a soundbar for all budgets: Sonos Ray. This small speaker for your television will allow you to enjoy music, films and series for little moneyand with the quality of Sonos.

In recent years, television manufacturers have been concerned with improving the quality of the image to unsuspected limits, giving them functions unimaginable until recently as virtual assistants, and giving them a design which makes them decorative elements in our living room. But in all this process something has been forgotten: the quality of the sound. Flatter TVs mean they sound worse and worseand if the image is important to enjoy a good movie, a good sound is just as important.

Sonos offers us solutions to this problem with modular home cinema equipment and exceptional results, like the new Sonos Beam 2, even with honors, like the fantastic Sonos Arc. But its price puts it out of reach for many who aren’t looking for such advanced products but just want good sound in their entertainment center. And precisely for this it has launched the new Sonos Ray, a soundbar for less than 300$, design and finishes at the height of Sonosextra features like AirPlay 2 compatibility and app control, and sound that will make you really enjoy what you’re watching on TV.

Features

This small soundbar packs four Class-D amplifiers, two midwoofers, and two tweeters inside. In size, it’s more like the Sonos Beam, although its design is slightly different, as are its specs, such as the fact that it doesn’t have an HDMI ARC/eARC connection but rather It has a single optical input that will carry the sound of our television.

It will connect via WiFi to our home network, or via Ethernet cable if we wish. This WiFi connection will be used not only for firmware updates but also we can also send music from our iPhone, iPad or Mac via AirPlay 2 and we can listen to music directly on it thanks to the Sonos app (later we will extend it). There’s no Bluetooth connectivity (what would anyone want?).

By not having HDMI, we won’t be able to enjoy the most advanced sound like Dolby Atmos, which we couldn’t do either given the specs of the Sonos Ray, so that’s not a big loss, but there is something important to consider account. When connected via an optical cable, volume control is carried out through control of the TV itself and the infrared receiver that the soundbar has, as long as your TV remote is infrared. If your TV is very modern, this may not be the case, so you won’t be able to control the volume with it. If this is your case, you can always use the physical controls at the top, the Sonos app for iPhone and Android, or the control on your Apple TV, which has an infrared emitter.

If you’re used to seeing reviews of Sonos products, you’ll miss the section on compatible virtual assistants. Nope, this Sonos Ray has no virtual assistant, no microphones or something like that. For many, this will be a relief.

Design

Its 56 centimeters in length make it a medium-sized soundbar, perfect for small TVs or medium-sized rooms. Sonos removed some “top” features to cut costs, but In terms of build quality, this soundbar is a real Sonos. Minimalist, discreet and made of good quality plastic, it is perfect for placing above your TV cabinet or for hanging on the wall (the support is sold separately).

Its grille with lots of small holes and the Sonos logo in the center, the matte black color (it also exists in white), the small LEDs on the front and all the details of this bar are unusual for a product in this price range (positive). It’s a quality product on the outside, and it is on the inside.

Setting

For its installation, it is enough to connect it with the cable provided in the box. Besides, it’s a classic cable, no “bricks” in the middle of the cable that you have to hide behind the television, another point in its favour. We will also connect the optical cable included and that we must connect to the optical output of our television, and we can configure it to start working.

Yes, using the Sonos app (link) is a must for setup, but the five minutes of time we’re going to consume will be more than offset by everything the app has to offer. It is also a very well guided procedure by the application itself, anyone (literally anyone) can do it. During the installation process, we may be asked to provide an available firmware update, and we can also configure the TruePlay function which will allow you to adapt the sound to the size of your room

using your iPhone. It’s something that’s only available to iPhone users, and it really shows the sound improvement, so I’d recommend spending a few minutes doing it.

In my case the detection of the TV and the remote control were automatic, but if it didn’t, you’d just have to set up your TV to output sound through the optical output and you can set up the remote from the Sonos app. I didn’t have to set any kind of sound sync with the TV, but you also have that option if needed.

Sound quality

Don’t be fooled by the size of this Sonos Ray, nor its price, nor the lack of HDMI. The sound is really good, and it’s not just for power but also for balance. Bass, midrange and treble combine beautifully to deliver a highly rewarding experience when viewing any type of content, and all with a volume which in my case must never have exceeded 50%. Unlike other products in this price range, where the bass is extremely powerful and artificial and the rest of the sounds cannot be seen clearly, Sonos has opted for a quality sound where the special effects will be punchy but the dialogue will be perfectly understandable.

The Sonos app also allows you to change the sound equalization, in case you want to improve a certain range, and also has two functions that are essential to me: the night mode, to reduce the bass a little and not wake up those in the next room, and the clarity of the dialoguesfor films in which explosions and special effects are too important.

As I said before, the power of the Sonos Ray in terms of sound is more than enough despite its size. Any average sized room, even an average living room, will be filled with the sodium emitted by the Sonos Bar

, and without having to reach high volume levels. Of course, you can crank up the volume further if you need to, and there won’t be any kind of distortion, although the bass is affected a bit, which seems to lose presence.

The one not-so-positive thing about this Sonos Ray is unavoidable given its size and internals: the sound is pretty directed. You won’t find any surround effects with this speaker, you will have quality stereo sound, but stereo. You can always add two Sonos Ones as rear satellites, but I think that’s a bit off the mark with this soundbar. Personally, I prefer to make the jump to a Sonos Beam 2 before buying a Sonos Ray and two Sonos Ones. Another thing is that you already have these speakers, so you can really use them.

So far we’ve talked about a soundbar that may have a competitor for its price, but it’s not just that. AirPlay 2 compatibility will allow you to use it as a speaker to listen to music from your iPhone, Mac and iPad, with Multiroom function, combined with other Sonos speakers or any AirPlay 2 compatible speaker, such as the HomePod. Its performance as a music speaker is good, and the qualities I mentioned as a TV speaker can be extrapolated to music.

We can also listen to music directly from the Internet thanks to the Sonos application and its integration with Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc. You can control playback from the app for iPhone, iPad and Android. What is not possible is to use the Bluetooth connection because it does not have it. I know there are still those who are still entrenched in this technology for speakers, but Sonos thinks it’s unnecessary in this type of product, something I totally agree with.

Editor’s review

Sonos chose to launch a more affordable speaker than the classic Sonos Beam and Sonos Arc, and did so with a product unmatched in its price range. The Sonos Ray is not intended to compete with other high-end sound equipment with Dolby Atmos, its place is in the living rooms of many people who want a quality product with a contained price, and there not only is it there. compliant, but also draws a very good note from it. Its price is 299$ on Amazon (link).

Versus

• May cause problems with some remote controls
• no surround sound