Sonos made a handful of announcements yesterday, including the new Ray soundbar and Roam Bluetooth speaker. The company also unveiled a new voice control experience and announced a new collaboration with Lordes called SOLARSYSTM.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Sonos May 2022 Announcements
Ray
Upgrade your TV, music, and gaming experiences with Sonos Ray. This all-in-one soundbar delivers rich, precisely balanced sound to make you feel like you’re at the center of the story or song. Ray makes it easy to build your first home theater or enhance the sound in more rooms.
Sonos
- Features:
- Advanced processing creates a surprisingly wide soundstage and accurately positions elements in the room.
- Trueplay™ adapts the sound for the unique acoustics of the room so your content always sounds just the way it should.
- Connect Ray to virtually any TV with optical output, and use your existing remote to control the sound.
- Turn on the Speech Enhancement setting in the Sonos app to boost voice frequencies and clarify dialogue.
- With the Night Sound setting, you can reduce the intensity of loud effects and keep dialogue clear so you don’t disturb anyone else at home.
- The flat grille and forward-facing acoustics minimize interference from nearby surfaces, so you can place Ray inside a TV stand.
- Four Class-D digital amplifiers have been fine-tuned to the soundbar’s unique acoustic architecture.
- Two powerful tweeters for clear highs. Split waveguides project sound from wall to wall.
- Two full-range mid-woofers ensure you’ll hear the faithful playback of mid-range vocal frequencies plus deep, rich bass.
- Stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, DTS Digital Surround (*Not an indication of a licensed decoder.) The Sonos app’s Now Playing screen will display what type of audio is being decoded.
- Available starting June 7 in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Eastern Europe, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Hong Kong. China, Japan, and India to follow.
- Pricing: USD $279 / GBP £279 / EUR €299
Roam
Express your individual style with our most versatile speaker, now available in three new colors: Sunset, Olive, and Wave. Stream your favorite content on WiFi and Bluetooth and enjoy waterproof durability and all-day battery life to keep you connected wherever your curiosity takes you.
Sonos
- Features:
- Enjoy up to 10 hours of continuous playback. The Battery Saver setting in the Sonos app powers down Roam when not in use.
- With an IP67 rating, Roam’s durable design is sealed from dust and fully waterproof.
- Drop Roam on any Qi wireless charger, or make charging a snap with our custom-designed magnetic wireless charger.
- Sound Swap makes it effortless to move the sound to or from your nearest speaker just by pressing and holding Roam’s play/pause button.
- Position Roam vertically for a smaller footprint or lay it horizontally for stability on uneven ground.
- Use Roam on its own or stereo pair two Roams via WiFi for even more immersive sound.
- Two class-H Amplifiers are perfectly tuned to the speaker’s unique acoustic architecture.
- One tweeter creates crisp high frequencies.
- One custom racetrack mid-woofer ensures faithful playback of mid-range frequencies and maximizes low-end output.
- Uses advanced beamforming and multi-channel echo cancellation to readily activate voice assistants.
- Uses spatial awareness to smartly adjust the sound for the speaker’s orientation, location, and content. Available on WiFi and Bluetooth.
- Available starting May 11, 2022 in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Portugal and Eastern Europe. Available starting May 12, 2022 in Mexico and Colombia. Australia, New Zealand and Japan to follow.
- Pricing: USD $179 / GBP £179 / EUR €199
Sonos Voice Control
Sonos Voice Control is an entirely new voice experience that delivers fast, accurate, hands-free control of your music and Sonos system with unmatched privacy. Focused purely on serving up the music you love and controlling all your Sonos speakers, Sonos Voice Control effortlessly connects you to your favorite content. It even works on Bluetooth.
Sonos
- Features:
- Sonos Voice Control limits responses and chimes so you can get to your music faster.
- Quickly follow one request after another without having to say “Hey Sonos” every time.
- Don’t worry about how you word your request. Sonos Voice Control was designed to understand everyday language.
- Your voice is processed locally on your speaker so you can enjoy all the convenience of voice control with unmatched privacy.
- Enjoy essential control for volume and pausing while streaming with Bluetooth.
- Setup is simple, with no additional downloads or accounts. Just open the Sonos app and go to Settings to enable.
- Sonos Voice Control will be available in the US on June 1, launching in France later this year.
SOLARSYSTM Lorde Collaboration
Sonos (Nasdaq: SONO) today launched a new collaboration with award-winning artist Lorde, inviting listeners to explore the magical world that moves, shapes and inspires her, both at home and outdoors. Fans can tune-in to hear the songs and stories that influenced the star on her Sonos Radio station, SOLARSYSTYM, or go on a celestial adventure with her limited edition Roam carry bag, which will be available for giveaway on @sonosradio.
With artist-created stations that feed music discovery, Sonos Radio embraces the joy of out loud listening with original content that helps you feel more connected to the music and musicians you love. “SOLARSYSTYM is like stepping into my brain, giving listeners a front row seat to the songs that have meant a ton to me and my life,” said Lorde. “It is a collection of forms, gravitationally bound, a handful of planets, dozens, more dwarf planets, and countless little rocks. All reflecting light from a sun. These are the forms that have altered my course for better.”
Lorde’s curated station gives listeners a candid and unvarnished look at Lorde’s musical journey as she recalls the moments and artists that inspired her, starting in her teenage years and early career, to the present day. Spanning from 70s disco to hip hop, Lorde’s musical canon is on full display, or in her own words, “this cluster of celestial bodies will tell you who I am.” SOLARSYSTYM is available starting today on Sonos Radio worldwide and Mixcloud for those on the go.
“Sonos Radio lets fans dive deeper into the context, stories and raw creativity from some of the greatest music minds today,” said Brian Beck, Head of Music for Sonos. “Lorde is an artistic force to be reckoned with, so to follow the trajectory of how and where she’s been influenced is an invaluable experience for her fans.”
Empowering fans to venture outside and explore their own world, Lorde and Sonos have teamed up with eco-designers, Everybody.World, to design a sustainably-made carry-bag sized to fit Roam and shaped like a crescent moon in a deep blue color mimicking the dark sky after midnight with light stitching that creates a celestial effect. Fans will have chances to snag their own bag through weekly giveaways via Instagram on @sonosradio.
Sonos
What do you think of these new announcements? Please share your thoughts on any of the social media pages listed below. You can also comment on our MeWe page by joining the MeWe social network.
