Last week Sony made a big announcement that it will soon be releasing new speakers that are compatible with 360 Reality Audio. By placing different vocals and sounds in a virtual sphere around the user, the spatial audio technology of the upcoming speakers will replicate the feel of live music. Sony was reluctant to share the look of the speakers when it made the announcement and the release was supposed to be around this spring. However, Sony’s UK website has now surprisingly come up with full product pages for the upcoming SRS-RA3000 and SRS-RA5000 speakers.
The higher-end SRS-RA5000 speaker will come with three-side speakers, three up-firing speakers, and a woofer. While SRS-RA3000 has a full-range driver, two passive radiators, and two tweeters. With the unique Sony algorithm, the speakers can calibrate themselves to the room. The calibration is automatic in SRS-RA3000 while SRS-RA5000 has a button for the same functionality. To maintain the consistency of the volume the speakers come with Sony’s Auto Volume feature which automatically adjusts the volume of each track. Both speakers support Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.
According to the press release on Sony’s UK website, SRS-RA5000 is the expensive one which will cost approximately £500 or €599. While SRS-RA3000 is priced at £280 or €359. Although Sony in its official announcement has stated that the speakers will be launched in spring of 2021 but the press release says otherwise. According to it, both speakers will arrive in February 2021 which is exciting since it will mean that the wait won’t be as long as anticipated earlier. However, there is one more possibility that Sony might want to release the speakers in different months in different regions. Although this is rare, it’s the only way that the contradictions between the official announcement and the press release on Sony’s UK website will make sense.
Sony has also worked hard with major music labels and service providers to expand the 360 Reality Audio platform from audio to video and to begin streaming video content with codec as soon as possible. As of now, more than 4,000 songs support this format and it is expected that this number will rise rapidly in the coming months. SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000 are Sony’s first 360-degree audio speakers and they are expected to change the music industry in coming years. Sony is way ahead of the competition and it seems the upcoming speakers will be game-changing for the company.