Sonos Inc. revamped its product lineup Wednesday, including an entry-level sound bar and new shade choices for its transportable Roam speaker.
The maker of audio merchandise already affords sound bars, however its new Ray system will come at a lower cost level: $279. That compares with $449 for the Beam and $899 for the Arc.
The system is supposed to hook as much as a tv and supply enhanced sound for dwelling viewing. Sonos
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mentioned in a press launch that the Ray sound bar will tune itself to a person’s specific room, steadiness the bass, “mission sound from wall to wall.”
“The timing given the place the world is makes it really feel significantly good to be popping out with a very good entry-level sound bar,” Chief Monetary Officer Brittany Bagley informed MarketWatch. The system might enchantment to households that deemed Sonos’ earlier sound-bar choices too costly, and it might additionally discover favor amongst current prospects wanting so as to add extra Sonos sound bars to their properties, she continued.
World availability begins June 7.
Additional, the corporate is introducing new Olive, Wave and Sundown shade choices for its $179 transportable Roam speaker, which it debuted final 12 months. The speaker beforehand got here in simply black and white choices, and the brand new colours can be out there beginning at present.
This marks the primary time that Sonos is including brilliant colours to merchandise by itself. The corporate beforehand launched colours for its One good speaker in a 2018 partnership with Danish design firm HAY.
The corporate additionally introduced Wednesday that it was including a brand new voice-control service to its speaker lineup. Sonos expects that the native characteristic might enchantment to customers involved concerning the privateness features of different voice assistants and produce extra correct outcomes when individuals are making instructions associated to artists or songs.
“No audio or transcript is shipped to the cloud, saved, listened to or learn by anybody,” Sonos mentioned in its press launch.
Sonos acquired voice-recognition firm Snips in 2019, serving to the corporate in its effort to create a extra music-oriented assistant.
“The explanation we did that’s, as nice as ask-me-anything voice assistants are, they aren’t as tailor-made to music,” she mentioned, which means that individuals won’t get as correct outcomes with Amazon.com Inc.’s
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or Alphabet Inc.’s
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voice assistants when asking about much less mainstream bands or songs. Sonos’ native providing, which may be activated by saying “Hey Sonos,” is supposed to assist “get music taking part in quicker,” she mentioned.
A spokeswoman famous that customers can use Sonos Voice Management and Alexa on the identical good speaker, they usually can even activate the Google Assistant on a distinct speaker throughout the identical system.
Sonos prospects can get the replace on their current units, and new merchandise will even characteristic the choice. It is going to be out there within the U.S. on June 1 and in France later in 2022. Extra markets will observe.
The bulletins come alongside Sonos’ newest earnings outcomes. The corporate topped expectations for its March quarter, pointing to sturdy demand however noting that supply-chain challenges might restrict upside for the steadiness of the fiscal 12 months.