The Sonos Ray is Sonos' most affordable piece of home entertainment hardware. Priced at $279, the Ray strips away the size and specs of the company's best soundbars, making getting started with a Sonos system a bit more accessible.

Comparing Ray to Sonos Beam (2nd generation) and Sonos Arc is complicated because it does not support Dolby Atmos. However, it is designed for smaller spaces, and its balanced sound when placed in cabinets will strongly appeal to AV equipment novices and those who have never owned a soundbar. Even better, it works with TruePlay tuning and dozens of music streaming services via the Sonos app.

Although priced cheap by Sonos standards, we don't count Ray as one of the best inexpensive soundbars. A full review of the Sonos Ray is necessary to determine how it compares to similarly priced models and other Sonos soundbars. For now, here are our hands-on first impressions and everything else you might want to know.

The Sonos Ray is priced at $279 / £279 and is available as of June 7, 2022. Compared to other Sonos soundbars, the Sonos Beam (2nd generation) is $449 and the Sonos Arc is $899.

The design of the Sonos Ray follows Sonos' familiar design language. Smaller than the second-generation Sonos Beam, it looks much the same, with a flat top, forward-facing grille, and the Sonos logo front and center The Ray, like all Sonos soundbars, is available in black or white.

What is different in terms of looks is that the grille is flat and not curved at the top or sides like the Beam and Arc models. Because they are made for small spaces, they do not attempt to flood the room with sound. In fact, they are designed to be installed in a cabinet under a TV without compromising sound quality.

Finally, the Sonos Ray's port array is a significant departure from many modern soundbars. Featuring an Ethernet cable and optical line input, there is no HDMI connection; since it does not support HDMI ARC/eARC or audio return channels in formats such as Dolby Atmos, the optical port alone is sufficient. Sonos also claims that this makes Ray the best current TVs as well as older TVs.

Sonos Ray features a completely new internal construction that promises balanced sound, crisp dialog, and powerful bass. To achieve great sound in a small size, Ray uses a split wave guide in the tweeter and bass reflex system.

While I would love to do a more in-depth performance test, I had the opportunity to listen to some music samples on Sonos' new soundbar: the vocals on H.E.R.'s "For Anyone," while the split tweeters target the listener on the couch, demonstrated that they could reach outward and create an immersive sound. Bass was not the most body-shaking I've ever heard, but it did feel articulate and deliberate.

Listening to War on Drugs' "I Don't Live Here Anymore," the electronic synths sounded balanced in a way that could be described as Sonos' signature sound. Similarly, the vocal clarity of Charli XCX's "Twice" captured the singer's unmistakable autotune groove.

We also watched a clip from Venom: Let There Be Carnage to experience how the soundbar handles motion and controls sound with visual content. This will take a little longer to analyze, but I was encouraged to see Ray giving both Eddie Brock and his alien spirit space to speak during the contentious dialogue.

As for additional features, the Sonos Ray can be tuned to fit the room using TruePlay, and there is also a speech enhancement mode and a night listening mode. Like many other Sonos speakers, it does not support Google Assistant or Alexa, nor can it be queried with the new Sonos Voice Assistant. However, it can be grouped with other Sonos speakers like the Sonos One to create surround sound.

Testing of the Sonos Ray is still in its infancy, but from what we've seen, Sonos is serious about making its sound quality more accessible. However, it remains to be seen if the tradeoffs really make the Ray worthwhile when compared to a Dolby Atmos soundbar.