Sonos
Sonos smart speakers are known for their ease of use and sound quality, not their affordability. This is especially true for Sonos’ home cinema products, such as soundbars, which only target the midrange and high-end markets.
That is about to change, according to recent reports from The Verge. The site claims to have seen photos of and gained access to information about a new soundbar codenamed Sonos Fury, which has the model number S36. According to the report, the new soundbar will cost $249.
There are of course still cheaper competing products from other brands, but this would be the cheapest soundbar from Sonos: the Beam costs $449 and the Arc costs $899.
The Fury (that may not be the final name) is reportedly slated for a June 7 release date, and like many other Sonos products, it will be available in black or white.
It will be smaller than the second-generation Sonos Beam, at 550×69×100 mm. (The Beam measures 651 × 68.6 × 100mm.) It will lack several features found in the Arc of Beam – most notably, it will not support Dolby Atmos, and it will only have an optical audio port instead of an eARC-ready HDMI port. It will also not have built-in microphones and voice assistant support.
On the other hand, it seems that Sonos wants the product to be more flexible than the Beam or Arc in some ways. The Beam and Arc are meant to be used only as soundbars under a TV, and the Fury will work that way too, but The Verge claims the soundbar will double as a rear speaker in addition to the Arc. In that situation, the Fury would be vertically oriented and could provide more immersive surround sound in that role than the Sonos One.
Home theater appears to be a major focus for Sonos, which in the past has focused more on playing music than TV, movie or video game audio. A few weeks ago, Sonos posted several job postings pointing to plans to develop a “Home Theater OS” for future living room products.
