The most exciting trend in audio over the past years is the move toward affordable gear that actually sounds good. Examples include Vizio soundbars, to Elac speakers and even traditionally expensive brands like Sonos. After dabbling in the “budget” category through its excellent Symfonisk collaboration with Ikea, and putting out the excellent One speaker, Sonos has now delivered its first “affordable” soundbar. And it’s a winner.
The $279 Sonos Ray may look deceptively simple with its cut-down feature set, but it still manages to rival the more expensive Sonos Beam in some ways. The Ray lacks an HDMI port and doesn’t have a voice assistant like Alexa or Google Assistant built in, but the sound is tighter than the Beam. Overall the Ray is an even better value than the Beam in my book, because it still has all the features you want as well as great sound for a lower price.
