- Sonos Ray review: Big sound from a budget soundbar
- Sonos Ray Review: NOT what we were expecting
- Sonos Soundbar Buying Guide 2022: Spend Wisely!
- Sonos Ray is Better and Cheaper
- Sonos Ray Soundbar Review: Can It Outshine The Beam?
- Sonos Ray Review: Finally, A Better Budget Soundbar!
- Does this fix your terrible TV speakers? – Sonos Ray
Sonos Ray review: Big sound from a budget soundbar
[Music],with the 279 ray soundbar sonos is going,after a new market the companys,previous home theater products have all,been 400 or more and have primarily been,geared towards people intent on getting,the best sound possible,the ray however is definitely more,accessible for people who want better,sound than their tv speakers can provide,but dont necessarily care about things,like dolby atmos support or room shaking,base,the ray isnt exactly a budget speaker,though so i set out to discover if sonos,made the right compromises here in its,effort to make a more mainstream sound,bar,[Music],physically the ray is smaller than the,already compact beam with a tapered,design thats wider in the front than it,is in the back,unlike other sonos sound bars though the,raised speakers are all forward-facing,in this way it reminds me a bit of a,wider and flatter version of the sonos 5,speaker this design means you can tuck,the ray into a media stand and not have,to worry about sound bouncing off of the,nearby surfaces,and since the ray doesnt have a mic for,voice assistance you dont need to worry,about whether it can hear you if you,place it in a media stand either as just,about every other sonos product the ray,has touch sensitive buttons on top to,start and pause music and adjust the,volume,on the back theres a power jack setup,button ethernet port and optical audio,jack sonos left out hdmi support to cut,costs and since the raid doesnt support,more advanced audio formats like dolby,atmos the additional bandwidth hdmi,allows wasnt needed here,the setup process was simple i just,plugged the right into the wall and,connected it to my tv with the included,optical audio cable,from there i finished setting it up on,the sonos app on my phone,the process will take a bit longer if,youve never set up a sonos speaker,before because youll need to do things,like authorize the various streaming,music services you want to use but i,simply needed to wait for the app to,recognize that there was a new speaker,to set up tell it which room the ray was,in and then wait for it to get connected,to my wireless network,once thats done you have the option of,tuning the ray using what sonos calls,true play,that uses the microphone on an iphone or,ipad to balance the speakers audio,based on how your room sounds its a bit,of a weird process walking around your,space slowly raising and lowering your,phone but ive found it always makes my,sonos speaker sound better so its worth,the five minutes it takes to set up here,if you have a compatible device on hand,ive spent the last week or so watching,movies and shows with the ray and,theres no doubt its a huge improvement,over my tvs built-in speakers,sonos said it focused on dialogue,quality bass response and a wide sound,stage and it definitely succeeded on two,of those fronts,dialogue sounds extremely clear whether,i was watching a drama like hbos the,staircase,a special occasion her baby girl is,going to college or enjoying galadriels,narration at the beginning of lord of,the rings the fellowship of the ring,for within these rings was bound the,strength and will to govern each race,they were all of them deceived,the latter also provided a great chance,to hear how the ray performed more,intense action-filled sequences,as the prologue of fellowship continued,to its massive battle against the forces,of sauron swordplay and arrows flying by,filled the space around the narration in,a well-balanced mix,and the rumbling explosion and massive,thud of saurons helmet hitting the,ground after its defeat were a good,opportunity to hear the ray flex its,base muscles,[Music],the ray pulls this off despite having,much simpler acoustics in the beam it,includes two center mid woofers two,tweeters with split wave guides to,broaden the speakers sound stage a bass,reflex system that provides a surprising,amount of low end performance and four,class d amplifiers its an effective,system but my main complaint is that the,wave guides and computational audio can,only do so much to widen that sound,stage,while the ray clearly has a solid stereo,presence its not nearly as immersive as,the first generation sonos beam that i,usually use,even though my older beam doesnt,support dolby atmos its larger size and,more complex speaker array give it a big,advantage over the ray the ray is also,not the loudest speaker out there again,this isnt a huge surprise as sonos is,making this device for use in relatively,small spaces that doesnt mean it was,too quiet for me but i did usually have,the volume up over 50 for it to be loud,enough if i really wanted to kick things,up while watching a big movie i might,get closer to 70 percent,if youre the kind of person who really,wants rumbling theater style audio,youll be better off with a more,powerful device the good news is that as,with all other sonos home theater,devices you can pair the ray with the,sonos sub to improve bass performance,and you can also use two sonos one,speakers as rear surrounds to make for a,much more immersive experience the ray,might be an ideal choice for a first,sound bar to upgrade your tvs audio and,then use it to build a more complex,setup down the line by adding other,components that said the sonos sub costs,a whopping 749 dollars its hard to,imagine someone buying a ray and then,spending three times as much on a,subwoofer while the ray is meant to be,hooked up to your tv its also a capable,music speaker sono says that when it,builds its home theater products music,quality is just as important as how it,works with movies and shows,in my testing the ray sounds great songs,like duolepis future nostalgia and,carly ray jeffersons cut to the feeling,have plenty of low end and super clear,vocals meanwhile the hard left and right,pan guitars and metallicas wherever my,room were quite distinct while its,still not the loudest speaker the rey is,more than capable of filling a,medium-sized room with clear and lively,music theres no question in my mind,that the ray is a serious upgrade over,tvs built-in speakers,whats less clear is how much better it,is compared to other small sound bars,like rokus 180 dollar stream bar pro,sonos has a long history of delivering,excellent sound and the ray does,continue that tradition and just as the,portable 179 dollar strom is a good,gateway drug into the sonos ecosystem,the ray is a good first sonos for,someone who wants to improve their tv,audio yes you can definitely find,cheaper sound bars but sonos is betting,its reputation for excellent sound,quality will make the ray a success,after spending some time with it id,have no problem recommending the ray to,anyone who wants an easy way to upgrade,their tvs audio but doesnt care about,having the best speaker that supports,the most formats for a lot of people,particularly those with smaller living,rooms the ray will be just the right,sound bar for their space,[Music],youSonos Ray Review: NOT what we were expecting
no dolby atmos no hdmi no voice,assistance and a price of 279 pounds is,this new sonar soundbar right for you or,are there just one too many compromises,lets find out,[Music],now you guys know im always honest in,our videos im not gonna say a new,product is great when actually its not,and after looking at the spec sheet i,was getting ready to have to make quite,a difficult video for you but the more,ive been thinking about it testing it,out unraveling it and talking about it,in the office the more i can see it,making sense for specific people in,certain situations and i think i can now,help you work out whether that might be,you or not before i get into the nitty,gritty in case you need a little recap,the sonos ray is now the most affordable,route into the sonos ecosystem for tv,audio and it joins the beam and the arc,in sonoss lineup of three sound bars,you can pick one up for 279 pounds i,will put a link in the description that,will take you to the product page and a,qr code should be round about here now,the ray has clearly been designed for,those who have a specific requirement in,mind or have a smaller space where they,want to enhance their tv audio as well,as have a wireless speaker for music now,because a large percentage of soundbar,buyers actually shop under the 300,pounds price mark sonos have clearly,decided to add an option to their,soundbar lineup that fits in this,category while still offering their,premium brand where previously the sonos,beam at 449 was your best option,now there are a number of caveats to,that which i will definitely be jumping,into a little bit later on before we do,i want to just take a closer look at the,design of the sonos ray now you can pick,one up in a color choice of black or,white the same as most of the other,sonos products and firstly youll notice,that actually the ray looks very similar,to the beam in terms of the materials,they both use this sort of polycarbonate,material with a perforated grille which,is great because as with all sonos,products their design ages really well i,think size wise its 100 millimeters,shorter than the beam but it shares,almost the same height and depth so at a,glance they dont look too different but,as a result of that smaller width you,could get away with using this with a 32,inch tv and above youve still got the,same touch control layout that you find,on the other sonos soundbars in the,range for play pause volume controls,skip track previous track but youll,notice that theres no microphone symbol,because theres no voice control built,in like you find on the beam or the arc,although you can use a separate google,home or amazon echo device to get music,playing out of your ray with your voice,that does also unfortunately mean you,cant take advantage of sonoss own,voice control service that can only be,done on the beam and the arc soundbars,but for those of you who are maybe,concerned about voice control and its,privacy this is going to be the safest,way because quite simply theres no,microphones in there to start with on,the back of the ray youve got your,power youve got your ethernet port and,interestingly only an optical connection,for the tv so more on that later now,guys a really important point here is,that the ir sensor on the front of the,ray will receive volume controls from,your existing tv remote as there is no,remote supply,now as theres no hdmi support that does,mean theres no cec functionality but,you can still pair your remote with the,ray as the ir receiver on the ray works,really well taking a look under the hood,you get four class d amplifiers that are,powering two tweeters for vocals and,high frequencies and then two high,efficiency midwifers for your mid-range,and bass youve also got this bass,reflex system which is a proprietary low,velocity port design and all this means,is that its going to minimize,distortion and its going to round out,those low end frequencies theres no,dedicated center channel so the soundbar,alone is a two-channel soundbar which,can be expanded up to 4.1 if you add a,pair of sonos speakers at the back and a,subwoofer on the ray all of the drivers,are front-facing theres no angled,drivers or upward firing drivers so this,is ideal for those looking to place the,soundbar within a tv stand a media unit,or perhaps within a cavity in the wall,where theres not much clearance either,side because then youre not defeating,the object of having those upwards and,sideways firing drivers for those people,that have never had sonos before id,really like to quickly cover setup and,control so sonos have made the setup as,simple as it can possibly be you simply,just plug the ray into mains power feed,your tv with the optical cable which is,supplied in the box and then download,the sonos app and follow the on-screen,instructions you cant really go wrong,with it in terms of controlling the,sonos ray youve got plenty of choice so,youve got spotify connect airplay 2 for,any apple device users but also hundreds,of services built into the sonos app,like amazon music tidal deezer apple,music tuning radio theres a long list,of what it supports and that is growing,all of the time once its all set up the,beauty of it is that it gets better over,time with free software updates and this,can often add quite a bit of value to,the customer like true play tuning where,you can acoustically optimize the sound,bar for the room and the environment,that it has been placed in although you,will need an apple device for that,so how does the new sonos race soundbar,sound then well weve spent loads of,hours now watching different content on,the ray from movies to tv shows to music,and podcasts and i think thats given us,a pretty good idea of its pros and cons,but before i share my thoughts im just,going to share some snippets of music,and a movie trailer for you to hear for,yourself a quick disclaimer that this,wont sound quite as good as it does in,our studio when its playing through,youtube and of course the device youre,watching me on but hopefully itll give,you a good flavor where do we start,[Music],[Applause],oh yeah what is it,[Music],here we go again huh,[Music],[Applause],[Music],hello girl kick your ass,[Music],two,[Applause],oh,[Music],tears keep on falling,[Music],[Applause],[Music],starting off then with where it excels,and that is 100 in the vocals now our,number one concern for budget-friendly,sound bars is that although they might,boost the volume of your audio the,vocals can sometimes get a bit lost in,the content after all the vocals are the,thing that keep you attached to the,storyline and although its nice to have,power in the mid-range and the bass,youve got to know whats going on right,now i didnt miss a word that was spoken,in the content that we tested out and,the vocals are surprisingly not far off,those of the sonos beam and the arc so,if you watch a lot of dialogue heavy,content this will be a massive advantage,for you and this was before id even,tried speech enhancement so you can,enable that in the sonos app and it will,emphasize the vocals and dialogue even,more if you need it the mid-range and,the treble are also really impressive it,was really easy to listen to if you know,what i mean theres no harshness theres,none of that distortion at higher,volumes now in our testing we did find,that it does clip the bass a little bit,to protect the drivers when youre,listening at those higher volumes but in,reality thats not going to be the,volume that youre listening at very,often if at all all in all im really,impressed with the sound stage,projection and the detail that the ray,offers everything is there you dont,really miss any of the details now bass,wise it was okay but we werent blown,away but it was more than adequate and,it didnt take away from the performance,however as with all sonos soundbars you,do have the option to add a separate,subwoofer and as this is a compact,soundbar which needs to retain quite a,slim aesthetic you cant really expect,hu
More: yellowstone review
Sonos Soundbar Buying Guide 2022: Spend Wisely!
well here we are three soundbar options,from sonos but how do you know which is,right for your setup lets find out,[Music],welcome guys to our 2022 sonos soundbar,comparison video which hopefully will be,all you need to watch to find out which,sonos soundbar is right for you and yes,weve even got a sound test so you can,listen to the differences between all,three and thats done by our other,reviewer the binaural mic so stick,around for that to help you work out,which soundbar is right for you im,going to cover design features and,control sound quality and then some,recommendations on which soundbar to go,for in your home who knows we might even,save you some money in this video dont,forget we love to review these products,but if youre interested in picking up,one of these feel free to head over to,our website,where you can purchase one with a,six-year extended sonos warranty and,30-day hassle-free returns policy i,expect therell be lots of questions on,this topic so pop your questions in the,comments below as we like to base our,content around what you guys are asking,so out of the three sound bars in the,sonos lineup the first generation beam,was the first to hit the market,back in 2018 i think and it was,essentially a more compact and,affordable alternative to the bigger now,discontinued sonos playbar rip now the,beam was actually updated to the second,generation this one here in 2021 which,came with a number of improvements which,well get into later and has an rrp of,449.,alongside the beam we also have the,sonos arc which arrived in 2020 and was,the replacement to the sonos playbar now,the arc was a big shift away from the,design of the playbar and is now sonoss,top of the range atmos soundbar option,which comes in at a price of eight nine,nine and then the most recent addition,to the sonos lineup is the sonos ray,here released in 2022 which happens to,have the smallest footprint out of all,three and can be purchased for 279,pounds so essentially were sort of,looking at a good better best situation,but best might not necessarily be best,for your setup which is why im making,this video for you guys if one of these,sound bars would be your first sonos,product its worth knowing that all of,these sound bars are wi-fi only so to,set them up you would give each of them,mains power make the necessary,connection from the soundbar to the tv,and then use the sonos app to complete,the setup and this is a really,straightforward process as these are,wi-fi soundbars theres no bluetooth so,all of your music control is going to be,done using your phones and tablets,around the home either through the sonos,app directly or using a separate service,like spotify connect or airplay 2 or,with your voice on the beam or the arc,now i know the lack of bluetooth is,often a gripe about some sonos products,but connection over wi-fi does actually,offer a more solid connection from your,device to the soundbar and theres no,interruptions from what bluetooth might,cause such as pausing the playback when,someone calls you for example being,wi-fi enabled as well it also means,youre part of the sonos ecosystem so if,you add more sonos products over time,you can connect them all up to play the,same thing or different audio in,different zones and again thats easily,controlled in the sonos app now if you,would like a full tour of the sonos app,link to that video will be here or in,the description after youve watched the,comparison of course so if we take a,closer look at these sound bars then as,you can see theyre all quite different,in their own right and thats why we,tend to find that the aesthetics of the,soundbar actually plays quite a big part,in your choice,now as you can see the arc is the widest,out of the three coming in at a total of,114 centimeters so i would have to say,that you do have to have a minimum of,about a 55-inch tv to ensure it looks,natural underneath your tv now the beam,and the ray you could get away with,using a tv smaller than 55 inch,especially the ray which i think is a,nice size right down to tvs which are,maybe 32 inches or even a monitor on the,other end of the scale you dont want to,have a massive 75 inch tv with a little,sonos rail beam because the sound bar,will end up looking very small in,relation to the tv so thats the first,tip id give you consider how large your,tv is going to be because that might,actually narrow down your options fairly,quickly a similar point to this is,starting your purchase decision with,your room size now while this is not the,be-all and end-all and im not going to,give you exact room measurements for,each soundbar it is an indicator to how,much you need the soundbar to fill your,space in general an arc will fill a,larger open plan space better than the,ray but it might be overpowering in a,small more compact room back to the,design of these soundbars there now all,three bars can be purchased in both a,black or white color and they can also,all be wall-mounted too using separate,wall mounts and i think theres even,options for fixing the soundbar onto,your tvs existing wall bracket or using,a cantilever so your tv and soundbar can,move together at the same time,now all three sound bars use a similar,material which is a sort of,polycarbonate material around the,outside and a perforated grille and i,have to say i really love the design of,all three of these products i find that,with most sonos products they age really,well due to their minimalistic and,understated design oh and then on all,sonos products you actually get these,sonos touch control pads as well,consisting of volume controls,play pause youve got skip track,previous track and in the case of the,sonos beam and the arc you also get an,additional microphone privacy button,which will actually cut the power to the,microphones because the beam and the arc,have the ability to use amazon,and google assistant as well as sonoss,own voice assistant built in so you can,use the sonos as a voice assistant too,to get your music played news updates,etc theres loads you can do with it now,the ray doesnt have this feature,unfortunately so thats why that button,isnt there but it is still possible to,integrate the ray with any other,or google home devices in your home it,would just mean your commands would go,through that device and not the ray,so as you can see ive flipped all of,the sound bars around ill get my,editors to zoom in and as you can see,they do all look quite similar now on,the beam and the arc youve got your,power youve got your ethernet youve,got a single hdmi arc connection to your,tv and a join button for connecting to,your wifi now on the ray you dont,actually get that hdmi arc connection,and instead you get an optical port so,what is the main difference between them,well on the beam and the arc these both,have dolby atmos support and in order to,get dolby atmos out of the soundbar you,must connect the soundbar to a dolby,atmos enabled tv by hdmi arc or e-arc,now on the ray you are limited to a,maximum of dolby digital which can be,carried by a standard optical connection,so now you might be wondering what the,difference is between dolby digital and,dolby atmos well atmos is the latest,advancement in sound processing so,essentially this is object-based rather,than channel based and that means that,when a film is made with atmos the,directors have much more control over,exactly where individual parts of the,sound will pass through which ultimately,for you the viewer you get much more,immersion most newer movies are,available in atmos now so this will be,the norm going forward but there is,still a huge amount of content already,filmed in dolby digital and lots of tv,channels still broadcasting in dolby,digital so when you watch a movie that,supported atmos then youll receive,atmos of course through the beam or the,arc but if youre watching through the,ray this will still give you dolby,digital surround sound which is great,now unfortunately this topic is endless
More: angels envy bourbon review
Sonos Ray is Better and Cheaper
Sonos Ray Soundbar Review: Can It Outshine The Beam?
so its not every day that we get new,hardware from sonos but today we have,new hardware from sonos,this is the sonos ray its their new,entry level sound bar and i tell you,its pretty good its better than okay,its better than some not as good as,others,[Music],im phil nickinson and before we get,into the rest of the sonos ray do me a,favor hit the like button hit that,subscribe thing click the bell you know,what youre doing right youre watching,this all right you ready lets go so,here are the broad strokes on the sonos,ray its 280,and that makes it the least expensive of,the three sonos sound bars available,that also includes the beam and the arc,and really what that means is its still,really good its just not quite as,featurific as the others so the sonos,ray only has four speakers its got two,mid-range and two tweeters and it only,connects with an optical cable which,sonos has been kind enough to include,but theres no hdmi and that means there,are no fancy features like dolby atmos,right youre stuck with what you got,other big feature thats missing there,is no internal microphone and that means,no hands-free voice control youre gonna,have to use a remote like a peasant but,the ray is still a sonos product that,means its pretty sleek insofar as sound,bars go theres just not a lot here,you can have it in any color you want so,long as its white and black and you,know its got a grill it looks like a,sound bar it looks like a sound bar so,the ray has capacitive buttons up top,for things like play pause or mute or,volume up and down on the back youve,got power and ethernet and the optical,connection is there too now like every,other sono speaker youre gonna set it,up inside the sonos app on your phone or,tablet super simple they do a really,good job walking you through it and they,do that better than just about anyone,else out there so the only tricky part,here potentially is connecting your,remote control the whole thing now,thats gonna vary depending on what sort,of tv you have uh whether your cec,control works you know if youve ever,done anything with a remote before you,know can be a little wonky uh but sonos,has good documentation to help you get,through it so good luck once everything,is up and running and again its just,going to take a couple minutes because,sonos is so good at that youre going to,have sound that is much,much better than what comes out of your,tv natively i mean after all thats the,point of all this right just a sound bar,connected to your tv but thats also,where things tend to get a little,interesting with the sonos discussion so,the sonos ray isnt in and of itself the,best sound bar you can get for almost,300 its just not in fact you dont have,to spend that much more money to get a,full 5.1 surround sound soundbar system,with rear speakers and a subwoofer and,thats going to be even better than the,ray is even if youre still staying at,the entry level and if youre just,thinking about this for music well,youre gonna do better with a sonos one,speaker than you will with the ray it,just sounds better than the ray does,but heres where the ray really stands,out right its a sound bar meant to be,connected to a tv and also serve as just,another sonos speaker connected,wirelessly to your whole sonos family at,home in fact if youre watching this,theres a pretty good chance youre,already the owner of something from,sonos right and that begs the question,why even bother with the sonos ray well,its just one more addition one more,option in the sonos ecosystem i might,not want it to live here in my living,room as the centerpiece of all things,audio where people are going to gather,the most but in a bedroom in a spare,room or maybe even the kitchen if you,have a tv in the kitchen its a really,intriguing option its not inexpensive,almost 300 bucks lets not forget that,but it serves as a sound bar for the tv,to make the tv sound better and say,youre cooking or youre entertaining,and you just want to have music going on,well it does that too and it does it,pretty well and just like the beam and,the arc because its also just a normal,wireless speaker you can do some fun,stuff so you can have your audio coming,from the tv say youre watching a,football game but you want to be able to,hear it in other rooms as youre,entertaining guests and friends and,stuff well you can do that and you dont,even have to be able to see the tv,thats kind of cool so again dont,overthink the sonos ray right its a,speaker its a sound bar its a soundbar,speaker that does tv stuff and music,stuff and audio stuff it does it pretty,well its not top line but its not,supposed to be either what its going to,do is get you into that soundbar,connected tv stuff on the ground floor,without spending anywhere near as much,money as you will on the high-end soto,stuff so really its just kind of a,matter of knowing how you want to use it,where you want to use it what room you,want to use it in and then whether it,makes sense for you,so thats it for the sonos ray again be,sure to like and subscribe and all that,stuff hit that notification bell so you,see the next video from digital trends,catch you next time
Sonos Ray Review: Finally, A Better Budget Soundbar!
lets review the sonos ray welcome,everybody to apple insider it is andrew,here and im excited about the sonos ray,like this is a new move for sonos theyd,already come in on the high end of the,soundbar market and the mid-tier of the,soundbar market with the beam and the,arc the arc even is able to produce,pretty incredible dolby atmos 3d,surround sound in your living room with,just a single speaker,but if you were looking for something,that didnt cost you north of 500,you didnt have an option inside of the,sonos market and you were left turning,to cheaper third-party alternatives like,vizio jbl and many many many more that,flood the pace of amazon,so,how does the sonos ray stack up to those,other options and,is it really better well im pretty,excited about this speaker theres a lot,of stuff to love but theres also a few,downsides that i think you should be,aware of so lets go ahead and start,just at the beginning,the sonos ray is an affordable sound bar,from sonos comes in at less than 300 270,if you want to be precise and it comes,in two different colors the black model,that i have here but theres also a,white color way that you can opt for,immediately after picking the product up,i was excited because sonos had been,transitioning to this really great,sustainable packaging its a small thing,and many of you may not care but i think,its important to have such a,sustainable packaging for your product,its super compact takes up less space,costs less to ship and theres not a,lick of plastic anywhere here just all,recyclable paper and cardboard the,hands pretty great,when you open it up youll find the ray,itself wrapped in this piece of cloth,material that helps protect it and the,grill from any damage during shipping,and handling theres physical controls,on the top and there are technically,four drivers on the inside itll produce,stereo audio so no dolby atmos or,anything like that but your standard,stereo audio left and right the four,drivers include two mid woofers as well,as two tweeters and then its pushed all,the way to the edges using some physical,wave guides thatll help move that audio,to the outside and improve or increase,the overall perceived sound stage of the,speaker while this is technically a,stereo speaker you can always improve it,by adding on additional sonos products,thats what makes sonos successful in,many ways because you can start off with,that single product and slowly grow your,sonos lineup adding more and more,devices so if were looking at the rey,soundbar in your living room what would,you want to add well you could add a,couple additional rear speakers pick up,a couple of sonos one sls or any of the,ikea symphonic speakers this guy here is,actually one of the ikea symphonic,speakers and is one of my favorite its,basically can be wall mounted and it has,so no speakers on the inside and its,crazy affordable plus you can replace,that fabric on the front with a variety,of different options from ikea and from,third parties that create their own art,to put on these so they can just blend,into your house and its an easy way to,add some rear speakers and get a more,immersive,playing experience if you want you can,also add a subwoofer though,ill come back to the subwoofer,situation in just a few,one of the few things that irks me,though is that the sonos ray is only,able to connect to your television,via an optical audio cable,this has some problems so optical audio,isnt bad and it definitely has some,pluses and ive never noticed any delays,when playing games to my playstation,everything just came out great,but it will only accept controls from,remotes that use ir,there are many remotes out there on the,market many tv manufacturers that only,include rf remotes or bluetooth remotes,and a lot of times with those youll be,out of luck in controlling the sonos the,sonos ray,its a huge problem for people that,dont have a compatible remote youll,need to look at buying a third-party ir,remote that you can use to control the,array or youre left using the physical,controls on top of the box,thats not an ideal user experience the,beam and the arc both are able to,connect over hdmi arc or e-arc so that,arc or audio return channel is just a,special version of hdmi and itll pass,over controls via cec so i can press and,do things to the television and itll,pass commands to that hdmi to the sound,bar to respond to and it makes it much,more compatible with a broader array of,televisions and remotes,fortunately for me as an apple user it,is possible to use the apple tv remote,with the sonos ray that was one of the,first things that i had to test and,unfortunately i was good to go but not,everybody is going to have the same,experience so use the sonos guide that,they have put theres a link to it down,below in the description that will help,you determine which remotes will work,and which ones wont work with the sonos,ray before you go to pick one up,that brings us to audio quality ive,listened to a lot of audio on the sonos,ray i started off by watching just your,typical tv shows and everything sounded,good i then moved to some movies watched,a lot of big blockbusters that had a lot,of explosions things like catching up on,thor before seeing the new movie,watching youtube videos just all sorts,of stuff i also played some audio,through the sonos app as well as through,airplay too and even music it all,sounded great everything about the,speaker actually sounds really nice for,a less than 300 speaker and is better,than most of the other budget sound bars,that i have tried out,the biggest concern would probably be,the base which is just,its good its not great but its good,and it definitely made me feel like i,would like to add a dedicated subwoofer,at some point in the future and thats a,little bit of a pain point for me,because many of the other 300,speaker setups,include a subwoofer in the box at the,moment sono only sonos only offers the,749 dollar third generation sono sub to,pair with your 279 speaker,theres a huge difference in price itll,cost you almost three sonos rays to,afford one subwoofer to pair along with,it,now if it makes you feel any better,there are a lot of prevailing rumors,that sonos is getting ready to introduce,a new mini sub this new mini sub sounds,ideal to me being able to pair a much,more affordable subwoofer to a much more,affordable,sound bar i would really prefer if sonos,did that but nothing is official these,are all just rumors so take that for,what its worth before committing to,making a purchase,but the biggest thing that i thought was,good with the audio is that the dialogue,just popped other reviewers have noticed,this as well,and just despite having no dedicated,center channel,the dialogue comes through loud and,clear if youre listening to your tv,speakers they can often just sound,muddied and kind of hard to parse but,it sounded so much better on the sonos,ray than a television speaker and many,other budget sound bars,they did a very good job at isolating,that audio and making sure that it was,crystal clear whether it was playing,games and theres dialogue going or,watching a movie or a tv show,frankly this thing just has great audio,for the price point,for apple users another benefit is that,this supports airplay 2. airplay is,apples wireless way to cast audio,around your home and it means you can,pair your sonos speakers with other,third-party airplay speakers so if you,have some home pods in your house or,other airplay speakers you can send,multi-room audio to all of them at the,same time so i can send some audio to my,safe and sound in the ceiling i can send,it to my home pod at homepod minis and i,can send it to the sonos rey all at the,same time and play music in sync in all,those locations,its pretty cool you can also go to of,course other sonos speakers whether,youre using airplay 2 or youre just,using the sonos app where you can group,speakers together and other fun things,but because this is also airplay 2 and,
Does this fix your terrible TV speakers? – Sonos Ray
350 bucks will get you in a walled,garden thatll ruin your life im,obviously incompetent,oh thats not working im going to cry,what do i have to do to make this work,turn that up,[Music],what do you mean that your eighth of an,inch thick oled tv has terrible speakers,what if we could fix it today we have,the sonos ray a sound bar that you can,stick in front of your tv to make it,sound less,look at that thats kind of cool looks,like it comes with a little box of,accessories as well this is all looks,like recyclable cardboard i dont see,any plastic which is actually quite nice,cant have straws but we can still get,giant,black tubes that we throw out in three,weeks when they,update the app and no longer support it,sonos thats the problem with these app,compatible speakers sometimes you know,maybe the company goes under and then,you cant use it for your tv anymore uh,well figure out if this one can even,work without the app i know that the,iphone app has a lot of features that,the android app doesnt like home,surround sound testing type of thing so,if you get multiple speakers you can,take your iphone around and itll,measure all of the space to get the best,sound possible not available on android,it seems it comes with an optical cable,and it comes with a power cable and,thats it look at that,oh i have it upside down oh no their,logo can go either way so for,connectivity we dont really have too,much weve got a pairing button i guess,weve got a power cable which goes in,here,and weve got toslink optical and,ethernet thats it thats all you get no,hdmi no arc none of that this is their,entry level model which is sort of on,the cheap end of their main center sound,bars the level above this would probably,be your arc which i think is about a,thousand bucks 1100 that sort of thing,this is much more designed as a cheap,entry into their ecosystem of connected,speakers if it doesnt sound very good,you can always modify it with satellites,or a subwoofer that sort of thing it,does have some reflex ports over here,and some mid drivers and i think its,got a couple tweeters in the middle,something like that four d-class amps,whatever that means so i guess well,segue to our sponsor secret labs secret,lab chairs are engineered to keep you,incredibly comfortable for long hours at,work and play their new titan evo 2022,chair keeps you feeling comfortable for,longer four-way lumbar support ultra,comfortable lines of different seat,material and more all chairs come with,up to a five-year extended warranty and,a 49-day return policy head to the link,in the description and check out secret,lab today how does it look in front of,the tv quite nice actually toslink is,like an answer to an upgraded analog,audio its all digital but it still,carries audio and you can transfer like,a lot of different channels over it its,not quite up to the level of the newer,hdmi standards which is probably why,its going to be phased out soon you,dont get any analog interference you,dont have to worry about grounding any,of that because again its just its,optical its a plastic cable with a,little led at the end rather than a,laser like in fiber optics i mean its,still fiber optics but you know whatever,one of the problems with only having,fiber optics compared to hdmi is,now we dont know if the tv is going to,be in sync unlike that really nice sony,speaker which didnt make you make an,account to use a piece of audio,equipment the sonos one does but,thankfully its already found it which,is phenomenal so i now have to let my,app record audio,thats really basic this might actually,not be terrible its already connected,so just place the sound and then its,fine turn on your tv plug in the optical,cable i already did that whats wrong,with you no signal detected another good,way to check toslink dont do this with,fiber because youll die but you can see,if its got a little red light which it,does lets make sure we plugged it in,right im going to cry im seeing,optical activity coming off of the back,of the toslink cable you know the red,lights on but the sonos isnt detecting,the tv or the tvs not sending audio,properly to the sonos welcome to my,other living room well we got it hooked,up to optical on this tv and it just,worked immediately so i think theres an,issue with that other tv rather than the,sonus itself lg you do do its nicer tv,anyway,hey,no i want one no,okay i have one too,this is a nice volume,it sounds like its coming from right,there though its not very wide which it,obviously isnt but,i dont hate this,i hate this song,its always great,oh,theres the too much bass,it doesnt keep up,okay i take back everything i said its,good no,what,its not good at low volumes the highs,and mids are,like quite reasonable you know the start,of that song was actually really nice it,was crisp you could hear the clicky,clackities,but,as soon as the bass dropped it just,explodes,really really thumpy,the whole rooms shaking and its,missing that nice crisp i dont know 200,to 300 all the 60s and the 80s of the,kick drums are just very boomy and then,as we increase the volume up to like 100,the highs and everything start to crisp,up and clip and it just kind of turns to,bad unfortunately i think for a center,channel this is quite a reasonable,product most of your speech is going to,be coming from a center channel which is,probably where this fits into their,ecosystem you know its a nice cheap,300 dollar addition to,cheap well i mean you know hifi stuff,can get really really stupid to me it,sounds almost like the speakers are,being overwhelmed with the bass and,theyre freaking out go back to our drop,we can hear when the bass starts and,then ill turn off loudness and we can,start playing with it,doesnt change it too much theres a,little bit of a character adjustment,lets turn the bass down though,bass at negative 10 sounds bad,no,i was hoping for more controls with,equalizer the treble adjustment seems to,move like the,10 000 hertz kind of areas whereas the,bass also doesnt seem to hit the right,areas for me loudness doesnt adjust,things quite enough so theyre quite,versatile if you have an iphone,unfortunately i dont get the privilege,of using chromecast so i switched to,jonos phone lets have a listen to one,of my reference tracks uh the wheel by,saw come on,johno i need your face ow,oh,turn that up,[Music],really nice crisp car,as a center channel four movies and tv i,think this would be quite phenomenal the,highs are nice and crisp the mids are,nice and balanced but as soon as you,have anything in there with bass,everything just explodes and goes,uh very disappointing honestly,maybe a pair of satellites so now youre,into it for two thousand bucks subwoofer,another 300 bucks,is it worth it for a 350 center channel,that you can only listen to speech or,hi hats on one thing that we might find,is that all the frequencies sound really,nice when theyre played individually,which is this is doing explain one,frequency at a time when you get into a,music or speech or a movie situation,you get multiple going on at the same,time and it might fail at that,to get it to disconnect from apple jono,land we had to power cycle it which is,irritating especially when all of these,are interconnect connected and you could,potentially have seven in your room plus,four in the ceiling im gonna set the,volume down at around half because,were gonna die if we have it any higher,i am hearing some gentle murmurs at,around,you know this hurts really started right,there around 30.,oh did you hear it get all quiet there,it went and then went away so its got a,massive boost right around 30 and now,were coming back up around 60.,its not really that directional,actually,its got a nice wide sound field,[Music],wow,you can hear it vibrating right,like the unit itself is going,when its,i guess sympathetic resonance so its,probably,maybe not built,like it should be,is this irritating for everybody yeah,nice and even through the 1000s,slight dip around 3k