Sonos - Ray

Honestly, your best bet is going to be the Sonos Ray. Never heard anything as clear, crisp, and appropriately responsive for that size, which is surprising because I've tried both high and mid tier offerings from Bose, JBL, Vizio, Samsung, bookshelf speakers (Edifier, Sony, etc.). The Sonos Ray is often on discount on Amazon for $169 and uses an optical connection so you don't have to worry about delay. In all regards of what makes up a sound bar, the Ray has impressed me the most even after trying the Q990C, and Sonos Arc. The only reason I returned mines is because rumors of the Sonos Arc Ultra started to come out so I'm going to wait to try it first as its more than just stereo and if its just straight up overkill for a pc, I'll go back to the Ray (while it is stereo only, it is crazy good and sometimes while watching a movie had me turning around to check if my roommates were calling me just to realize it was the Ray. TLDR: Sonos Ray, $169 frequent sales on Amazon, Optical, Best stereo out of a soundbar that is also super small.

Forgot to mention, but as a plus, its a Sonos speaker, so you get all of the smart features you'd want + more, and if you want to add a subwoofer and/or surround speakers going further, you always can.

Yea I've heard about the struggles of connectivity and all, but I recently tested out a Ray for a few weeks and apart from setting it up, I never encountered any problems whatsoever with the app. Generally I tried to avoid using it when I could, but whenever I did have to, it never really failed on me and worked as it should've. I guess it's maybe a chip thing with older bars/devices? Or maybe the way I had my WiFi setup? Idk for sure though, I had no problems but if everyone else on r/Sonos is reporting it there has to be something wrong with the app that even recent updates haven't managed to fix.

Look at the LG S60TR that's right around your price I bought the Sonos ray and it does the job for now

I have 2 rays in my living room and they do the job I can hear the TV and my wife can hear it from behind her Like I said it suits me just fine But I wonder if best buy will price adjust one seeing how it's not even a month old

I just bought a Ray to replace my old legacy PC speakers for my office desktop.

I too bought a Ray as a computer speaker for my Mac. Have a steel series arctis pro wireless for headphones and the wireless bass has optical out. Super seamless setup. USB c to the DAC and then optical to the RAY. Turn on the wireless headphones and audio to the ray stops. Turn the headphones off and the ray kicks in. A similar setup could be had with the SoundBlaster X4 and using windows the X4 can output dolby 5.1 but you have to use wired headphones and manually adjust the output between headphones and the speaker.

I bought a Sonos Ray which I gotta admit has impressive sound for its size, but I didn’t realise it doesn’t have HDMI ARC so I had to connect with optical, which renders my tv remote volume function inoperable. So I have to control volume via the App (aghh….). Such a dumb idea to skimp on such a basic and fundamental feature like ARC. Stupid Me for not checking that first, but who would either such ‘high end’ & top dollar equipment.

I have the Ray, Beam, and Arc. While there is a noticeable difference between the Ray and the others, the Ray is in a smaller room and it works just fine (and is much better than the built in tv speakers).

Probably the main selling point of a soundbar is that it's way better than the built-in TV speakers and they're pretty minimal. My Sonos Ray does the job for the main tv in the house that's located near the kitchen. No way I'm mounting a 7.1 channel system in that space. Now, if we're talking home theater where there's more room to dedicate to acoustics and layout, then yes definitely a surround system wins every time...but c'mon, they're two different things. People need to chill out...you're all so easily tweaked when someone talks about liking a soundbar it's kinda funny.

Get a Sonos Ray or Beam, add surrounds and subwoofer later when you move out.

For me the Ray filled the niche of an under-monitor soundbar perfectly, I probably wouldn’t have bought it at full price but when it was on sale it was well worth it. https://preview.redd.it/py9dbmry8fbe1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=96c0bfe503b80fe01fb0e201f7e2904bb5d7baaf The lack of HDMI-eARC isn’t a problem for me, but I can understand why it’s a dealbreaker for others. I wish it had a 3.5 mm Aux too, but I’ve gotten by fine with a HDMI switch with an optical extractor.

I agree, the price makes a huge difference. I got mine during a sale too, and it's been perfect for my setup. Not having HDMI-eARC isn't a dealbreaker for me either

I have. It’s in different rooms. I love my Ray in my office to watch TV, but do get a little jealous when my wife watches TV in the next room with the beam. The difference is there, but still very happy with the Ray, especially for the price.

I usally hate on it pretty hard (due to value) BUT sonos Ray? At around £200 UK I'd *personally* pick that before a TCL or Vizio. But to be clear that's more down to the UK not having Vizio or good TCL stuff. Bang for buck is a hard scale! The Q600C from Samsung is 500 but you can find deals for 300. But the Q990D is 1499 but you can use lots of offers and get it for 600! Less this half. What I'm try to say is if you budget is say 300 aim for bars in the 300 range and grab a deal that way vs aiming for a budget.

You can get the Ray super cheap as open box at Best Buy when there are Sonos sales going on. I have two of them, not sure I spent more than $120 on either of them

I bought a Ray and thought it sounded great, made voices much easier to hear, and was plenty loud for my small room and made movies sound great. But, I ended up returning it and getting the Beam because of lack of being able to control it with my remote, it would work 50% of the times, and then would become unsynched and the volume level shown on my TV wouldn't match the actual volume - to the point where the Ray would be loud, but the TV volume interface would show that the volume was at zero and woudln't let me lower it anymore. So I kept having to get up and fiddle with the volume buttons on top of the Ray. Now that I have the Beam, I do hear the sound difference and Beam is far superior. But also was double the cost! I think the Ray would be perfect for someone who doesn't care about the small inconvenience of the remote not synching with the TV.

I must say I agree with this, I own an Arc + Sub + Ones in my living room and just a Ray in the bedroom and I am more satisfied by the Ray as a purchase based on bang for my buck. It's soo much speaker for 150€ (got it on sale). Sure the Arc beats it at many things, but we're talking 1500€ vs 150€ - and yes, I'm saying 1500€ because the Arc without a sub sucks, maybe the ultra doesn't, but the normal Arc does. Meanwhile, the Ray without a sub is very good.

A Sonos Ray is perfect for a small apartment. And it sounds great for music too. But if u're looking for an even smaller footprint, with inbuilt streamer, the Roku Streambar is also a great choice. I have both in my rooms.

I have a small home and use the Ray for my main TV. It definitely sounds clear and I think using the speech enhancement feature will give you the result you're asking for. My only gripe is the channel separation. It's a very small soundbar so on its own it doesn't really separate left channel and right channel sounds well. A majority of the sounds sound like they are coming from the center channel. If that's a concern for you, I'd skip the Ray and get the Beam.

Assuming your remote has an IR emitter, you can train the Ray to receive the IR commands directly from your TV remote. It takes just a minute or two to set up. Sonos solved the “control volume with my TV’s remote” challenge long before HDMI-CEC and ARC were invented. https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/control-sonos-home-theater-with-your-tv-remote

Playbase has been a great system, since I pulled the trigger. I've had other soundbars, only one other Sonos (Ray). The playbase is the full package. Added play: 1s, when I downgraded back to S1, and I've never looked back or around. Edit: corrected model name.

Agreed on Sonos soundbars. We have a Ray and its great. Obviously we'd take an Arc or Arc Ultra and I don't deny for a second that they better, but the Ray does a great job for a 1/3rd of the price if budget is an issue.

It’s a great little soundbar… for the right user/use case. But no hdmi, and no Dolby Atmos support, is a deal breaker for me personally, a Beam (Gen 2) is a much better soundbar for the price.

Ray didn't have the sweet bass I was looking for! Beam Gen 1 is the minimum soundbar from Sonos that sounds great to my ears, and again, I realize tastes vary, but Ray didn't have the punch even when paired with a Sub Gen3 for my needs.

That's more helpful. But I have a ray and a beam. In the correct environment I think they are both awesome...

I agree. The ray was a pain in the arse to connect to the remote but it was cheap (£280 on sale) and for the price it's a fantastic upgrade to any TV if you're on a budget. I guess if you can get a beam for close to that money it's a no brainer.but it's still a good choice.

I had the opposite experience. Sound is great, product is pretty. The end. If you want to connect to TV, you might need to either buy a new remote or use your phone to turn sound up and down. You need an app to connect phone to device, and then the device will disappear from your app randomly..... If you want to use Spotify, you will have to connect it to sonos app, but then it won't show you more than half of your play lists. For the price tag it should be smooth and easy to set up. I want to throw it out thr window couple of times a week....

What do you mean average? Because Sonos is not average is nowhere near average. Sonos ray is a mess specially for the extremely casual buyer. Because many TVs nowadays don't come with toslink and it's pretty complicated to some users. That's why this bar is frequently returned and one of the things mentioned in Amazon as negative is connection and the app. The regular costumer is likely going to end up buying a Vizio soundbar that for the same price comes with a woofer and rears. Or those single bars from Samsung, fire TV or roku. People hate having to use an app Sonos is more for the modern more tech savvy audience so basically not your average costumer. And Sonos has that rep I have still talked to people that think thay modern speakers are like the One SL that you could only use them via wifi.

I'd echo that. I may be easily pleased, but the Ray has transformed my music listening and TV watching. I've since paired it with two second hand Play 1 speakers as surrounds and I could be happy for the rest of my life with this. I am clearly no audiophile, nor a discerning consumer, but I've had a fault free experience and it has made a big change for me.

It's funny. For me it was different. I went from TV speaker to beam Gen 2 and was impressed. Then my Dad got a cheaper but not bad "Dolby Atmos" Soundbar. I realized that the true secret sauce is Trueplay. That is what's makes the Sonos Bar better Imho. Overall, if you want to have better surround while not spending to much money, get a pair of Ikea Bookshelves and use them as surrounds. Your Beam will then have more headroom as it doesn't need to simulate the rears anymore

Yep, that spot is just screaming for a Sonos bar.