Sony has announced two new wireless speaker systems, the SRS-RA5000 and the SRS-RA3000. Both speakers are designed with providing a room-filling sound in an indoor setting and feature Sony’s proprietary 360 Reality Audio feature.
The more expensive of the two, the RA5000 has seven speaker system with three up-firing drivers, three front-facing drivers and an internal woofer. The up and side-firing design creates a uniform sphere of sound around the speaker regardless of its position around the room. The RA5000 also has a manual sound calibration feature, which lets it tune its audio to its current position.
The cheaper and smaller RA3000 has a triple-driver layout consisting of two tweeters that project sound in an arc through a long strip and a single woofer. There are also two passive radiators for additional low-end response.
The RA3000 also has a humidity-resistant design, which allows it to be placed in environments such as bathrooms and kitchens, which is something the RA5000 cannot do. The RA3000 can also auto calibrate itself to its surroundings, which is also oddly missing from the RA5000.
Both speakers feature Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. Wi-Fi allows you to stream content from Spotify using the Spotify Connect feature or you can use the Chromecast integration to cast audio.
Both speakers also have Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. However, this doesn’t make them smart speakers themselves but they can integrate with other smart devices within your home and you can also make them play audio along with your other smart speakers. If you want to play something on these speakers using your voice, you would need an Amazon or Google smart device and then tell it to play audio on these speakers.
The speakers only seem to be available in UK and Europe for now, retailing at £500/€599 for the RA5000 and £280/€359 for the RA3000. Both will be available in February 2021. Availability for North America would be announced later.
