The next Sonos soundbar may have just been leaked — and it could be the company’s cheapest and most versatile home theater speaker yet.
According to The Verge, citing “internal documents and people familiar with the company’s plans,” the Sonos Ray will go on sale “within a few weeks” for about $249.
With a price tag of around £200/AU$350, this would make the Sonos Ray the most affordable soundbar the high-end multi-room audio company has released. Apparently, Sonos has managed to keep costs down by avoiding quality-of-life features like Dolby Atmos, a built-in voice assistant, and HDMI connectivity — instead, it’ll use a fiber-optic connection to connect your TV.
According to TechRadar’s Lance Ulanoff, the Sonos Ray may rely on the new Sonos voice assistant due to launch in June — which is obviously a bad idea.
Unique home theater
The Verge also revealed images of the Sonos Ray, which were apparently prematurely posted on the product listing by retailer Ktronix. The photos looked fairly reasonable to us, showing a compact black soundbar with curved sides, touch-sensitive controls, and the Sonos logo.
While the images — and The Verge sources’ claims — sound plausible, it’s important to take these details with a grain of salt. Sonos hasn’t confirmed the existence of a new soundbar, so there’s no official word on a release date, specs, or price. We reached out to Sonos for comment, and they told us they “do not comment on rumours or speculation.”
The leak follows a previous report from The Verge that claimed the next Sonos soundbar will be significantly smaller than its Arc and Beam siblings, measuring 550 x 69 x 100mm (WxDxH). The report also suggests that the Sonos Ray will include two front drives.
Best of all, if you already have a Sonos Arc or Beam at home, a pair of Ray soundbars can apparently be used as rear speakers. Unlike how we typically use sound bars, the Ray mounts vertically to your wall to enhance the sound of your existing Sonos sound bars.
The Sonos Ray can obviously be used as part of a more traditional home theater setup, capable of pairing with other Sonos speakers.
Those features do sound interesting, especially if the Sonos Ray is as versatile as The Verge’s sources claim; we’ve enjoyed all of Sonos’ soundbars so far, with the Arc among the best Dolby Dolby speakers we can buy today At the top of the Atmos soundbar guide.
Of course, we’ll reserve judgment until we’re sure the Sonos Ray actually exists…but don’t blame us for being a little excited about the prospect of a new soundbar from the multi-room audio giant.