CES is when many companies announce not just their future plans but also their upcoming products for the year. Sony have already announced their new TVs for 2021 and today they have announced their latest premium home speaker, the SRS-RA3000.
The Sony SRS-RA3000 comes packed with a host of features including spatial sound technologies and smart features — something every speaker should have in 2021 if it is to be taken seriously.
These spatial sound technologies help the RA3000 to create an “ambient room-filling sound experience in your home”. It does this by spreading music both horizontally and vertically with Immersive Audio Enhancement and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio content playback (in services that support it).
Immersive Audio Enhancement uses an algorithm created by Sony to transform 2-channel stereo tracks into an ambient room-filling sound, creating omnidirectional sound and filling the room with it.
360 Reality Audio music incorporate 3-D sound location data allowing the new Sony SRS-RA3000 to analyse said data and allocate the sound to the speaker’s structure leading to “true ambient room-filling sound”.
360 Reality Audio though is not available from any of Australia’s major music services and is, at this stage, only available through services such as Tidal, 360 by Deezer and negs.net. Those without a subscription to one of these services will be able to test them out upon purchase of the RA3000 with a trial coupon included in the box.
The RA3000 calibrates the room using sound it emits to optimise the sound to that room to help create accurate “ambient room-filling sound”. The speaker then adjusts itself in the background if circumstances in the room change, also adjusting the volume if volumes change between songs — it will also automatically recalibrate whenever it is moved to a new location.
So how does it sound? As you would expect from Sony the omnidirectional sound “hits the sweet spot” wherever you are in the room thanks to its full range speaker, omni-diffuser, beam tweeters and dual passive radiator to produce deep bass.
Connectivity-wise the SONY SRS-RA3000 supports Bluetooth along with Wi-Fi connectivity through Spotify Connect or Chromecast. The speaker supports both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant and can be grouped with other compatible devices for multi-room playback or even connected to your TV via Bluetooth for optimal TV audio performance.
For those interested in what will most likely be an amazing sounding speaker with the smarts to produce such sound whatever room you place it in the Sony SRS-RA3000 will launch into Australia mid-February for SRP $449.
EFTM’s coverage of CES 2021 is supported by Hisense, Samsung and Powered by Telstra 5G.
Scott is our resident open technology expert. If you can mod it, or want to use it your way, Scott has probably done it. From Laptops to phones, headphones and game consoles, he’s played with it and wants to see the next generation.
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