It hasn’t been a good couple of months for Sonos and keeping secrets. The company’s latest soundbar is all but official. The only thing we don’t know is when it will be available for purchase in South Africa and what the exact price will be. And how it will sound, of course.
Rumours first emerged last month that Sonos had a new soundbar in the works with a more wallet-friendly price tag of $250 (around R4,000). Those rumours included renders showing off a smaller design, limited port selection, and a different arrangement of internal speakers.
Then, Wednesday 5 May, Chris Welch from The Verge claimed the new soundbar would be called the Sonos Ray. He cited internal documents, people familiar with the company’s plans and an accidental leak from Ktronix. The retailer prematurely published pictures on its website, where it specifically referred to the product as the Sonos Ray.
No Ray of sunshine at Sonos
— SnoopyTech (@_snoopytech_) May 5, 2022
Now there’s been another leak, this time of official-looking images, but still no word from Sonos. A Twitter user with the handle @_snoopytech_ shared a few of what look like marketing images. These confirmed what we already knew about the product, including its size, design, and colour options, namely black and white.
The images also confirm that the Sonos Ray will not feature any HDMI connectivity, sporting only a Toslink port for optical audio, an ethernet port, along with the pairing button around the back. This is presumably one of the ways Sonos has managed to keep the price down.
The new images also confirm the mounting holes for mounting the Ray vertically, although none of the images show it in this orientation. The thought is presumably to give the Ray a dual purpose. It can either be used as a budget standalone unit or can be paired with another Ray and other existing Sonos products to form a surround sound setup.
With these official-looking images and the listing on Ktronix, it’s reasonable to assume the Sonos Ray isn’t too far off. We’ll probably get an official announcement from Sonos in the coming weeks, if not an all-out launch. When it does eventually arrive and we get our hands on one, we will be sure to put it through its paces.
Source: The Verge