Sony speakers with 360 Reality Audio coming to challenge Dolby Atmos

(Prototype credit: Sony)

Sony's first 360 Reality Sound speakers were a CES 2021 highlight, and now we accept both pricing and a release date.

The Sony SRS-RA3000 and SRS-RA5000 will cost $299 and $699 respectively. You tin pre-social club both of them on Amazon ahead of their full release on March 29.

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It wasn't merely the distinctive triple-driver pattern of the SRS-RA5000 that caught optics back during CES; these speakers marking the first fourth dimension Sony has attempted to bring its 360 Reality Sound tech to audio hardware other than headphones.

For the unfamiliar, 360 Reality Sound maps individual components of a music runway — different instruments, vocals, crowd noises in live recordings and so on — to a simulated 3D space that seems to surroundings the listener. The result is a more immersive 3D surroundings audio effect, geared specifically for music. This also sets 360 Reality Audio autonomously from similar systems like Apple's spatial audio and Samsung's 360 Audio, which are designed to add together 3D sound to video content.

With the SRS-RA3000 and SRS-RA5000, Sony tin can't rely on being able to piping sound direct into the listener's ear from close range. Instead, these speakers bounce sound off walls and ceilings to create a room-scale 3D audio. We haven't tried it yet, only this iteration of 360 Reality Sound is a lot closer in technique to Dolby Atmos.

The SRS-RA3000 and SRS-RA5000 are smart speakers as well, offering a pick of Alexa or Google Assistant, consummate with their corresponding voice commands and smart home controls.

Chromecast and Spotify also come built-in, and similar the recently-revealed Sonos Roam both Sony speakers can calibrate sound output to their immediate surroundings, for optimized acoustics. Unlike the Roam, though, these are very much indoors-only wired speakers.

Sony also revealed that from April 6, both speakers volition be compatible with Amazon Music Hd's Alexa Bandage characteristic, and Amazon Music itself volition more than conspicuously label which content supports 360 Reality Audio. Currently, 360 Reality Sound songs are labeled with the aforementioned "3D" marker every bit Dolby Atmos, which isn't cantankerous-compatible.

The pricing is lower than we expected, given the already-appear U.K. prices, though the SRS-RA5000, in item, is notwithstanding a very premium investment. But, you practise get much bigger vertical drivers than the SRS-RA3000, which could boost the 3D effect, and the SRS-RA5000 is the but one of the two to come with Hi-Res Sound certification.

Nosotros're hoping to attempt out the SRS-RA3000 and SRS-RA5000 for ourselves very presently; with this much tech, they could be contenders for our best smart speaker rankings.

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James is currently Hardware Editor at Stone Paper Shotgun, but before that was Sound Editor at Tom's Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and anything else that intentionally makes noise. A PC enthusiast, he also wrote computing and gaming news for TG, usually relating to how hard it is to detect graphics card stock.