Upgrade Your Sound With Sonos Ray

Can I trede in my Beam?

Not currently, no, the Beam is not on the list of devices that can be upgraded. See here .

The rumor was that these could be used as rears. Is that something that is possible to do with an Arc in a big room? If so, will their be mounts/stands to do so?

I think that “rumor” was merely speculation by the Verge, and not backed up by any facts. I saw an article earlier today that indicated that Sonos never broached the possibility in their discussion. So much like the cost projection, was a hoped for guess. 

I got the impression that leak info passed through a couple people and got distorted before it got to the Verge reporter.  Like that game we all had to play in Kindergarten.  So one guy in the chain said surrounds would be cool, and the next time heard it as surrounds are going to happen.

What do you think about using this as a PC soundbar?

Can it be used as a Center channel with Sonos amp?

No. In terms of the way this works, it’s the same as the Arc and the Beam. Sonos has not changed the software to create a ‘center’ speaker. All three soundbars include right, center, and left channels. 

Bit disappointed it can’t be used as a rear up firing speaker, I think people really wanted that more than just another smaller soundbar. The ARC needs to get its game up so it can compete with other soundbars that have upfiring rears.

No. Ray is a soundbar that lives at the front of the room connected to a TV.

I think it would be a great addition to a PC desk setup! In fact, I’ve written an article about using various Sonos speakers with your PC that you can find here: Using Sonos as PC Speakers

Thanks for the feedback. I’ve passed it on to our product team.

I would really love the option to hang the Sonos Ray on the back wall of my TV-room and use my Arc as front speakers and the Ray as a single stereo rear speaker… Hopefully, this will be made possible :-) 

Thank you if you could, I think its a very requested addition that sonos users are asking for.. 

I assume that the holes on the back are consistent with the other soundbars like Arc/Beam so it can use the Sanus/Rocketfish type hanging brackets that attach to the tv?

There is a separate mounting bracket for the Ray.   The Beam mounts from the bottom, while the Ray mounts from the back, so certainly can’t use it for that.   That said, I would bet most of the generic VESA  mounts to attach soundbars to TVs would work with the Ray.

@Caroline V.  Are there any plans to bring out some rear atmos speakers? I think these are one of the most requested products Sonos users ask for. Still baffled that sonos released another soundbar..

We don’t share details on our future roadmap, but I’d be happy to pass the request on to our product team for consideration 🙂

I see that Sonos Ray is advertised as a ‘gaming’ soundbar. Is it going to offer an improved latency when gaming on a PC compared to the original Beam with a HDMI-ARC to optical adapter?

I’d think it would be the same, I.e negligible. There’s no perceptible delay when using the optical to HDMI-ARC adapter, either.

Note, that adapter we speak of is one way, from optical to HDMI-ARC only, it does not take an ARC signal and change it to optical. 

As usual £53 dearer than it costs in US or Australia. Rip off Britain 😊

You cannot directly compare prices between the US and Britain.  US prices are listed without any taxes, whereas British prices include VAT and import taxes.  Depending on the state, US prices will include 0% to 7.25% sales tax.

Are there any advantages of the Ray over the Beam?

Smaller, less expensive, different connection interface, no Atmos capability.
 

Given that it’s designed for a less expensive price point, I’d expect no advantages over the Beam. 

One thought/question I had regarding the Ray and that is could you add Ones (not SL Ones or 1 One and 1 SL) and in essence have it have Voice Control Capabilities similar to the others or does that control have to be at the “main” level? If you were going to do 5.0 or 5.1 anyways then in essence you are spending an extra $20/$40.

The Sonos playbar and playbase allow the use of One’s with voice assistant control, so I don’t see why the ‘Ray’ would be any different…

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4807

Note: Airplay is disabled direct on the One’s when used as surrounds, but that won’t matter too much as the Ray is Airplay2 compatible.