Wireless Sony 360 Reality Audio speaker shown at CES 2020
Is still a prototype
CES 2020 was all about key technologies for Sony, which I believe will be the foundation of the company for the next decade. Going forward, one core aspect of this foundational technology is going to be audio, specifically 360 Reality Audio. Sony believes that their new audio tech is the purest way to listen to the “artists’ intentions,” and it’s hard to argue with it. Put on a pair of their 1000XM3 headphones that support the new audio format, and you’ll quickly hear music in a new way that surrounds you with audio. If there’s a vocalist to the right and a drummer to the left, you’ll hear it precisely that way.
360 Reality Audio was also featured in their big CES surprise — the Vision-S prototype.
With this tech having debuted at CES 2019, many assumed that by now, Sony would also have a set of standalone speakers or soundbars that featured them, but as Billy Steele notes for Engadget, that hasn’t been the case.
Sony also built another wireless speaker prototype. The company’s representatives were clear this is still only a demo unit, and there’s currently no plans to sell it — just like the prototype we saw last year. This new model is a different design, and it looks more like a refined Echo Studio.
The prototype that you see pictured above isn’t anything new in terms of design — plenty of modern, wireless speakers like Echo Studio, HomePod, and Sony’s own LF-S50G feature the design — but what is new for Sony is that it’s their own first pair of hardware that utilizes 360 Reality Audio that isn’t a headphone. With proven audio tech and a well-received design, it’s okay if you’re also scratching your head at why Sony hasn’t made their own unit yet.
And yet, the company still hasn’t introduced its own speaker for the 360 audio system its championing. I thought it was odd that Amazon debuted the first 360 Reality Audio speaker, and to date, it’s the only one. It’s just as confusing that Sony, a year after showing off its first prototype, still hasn’t announced one of its own.
Like Billy, everyone I spoke with at CES 2020 also insisted that this model was still a prototype, despite it fully functioning, and there were no immediate plans for it to come to market. But one point that I can’t entirely agree with Billy on is sound.
The directional speakers at the top from the 2019 version are gone, but the audio sounds just as good. It’s also noticeably better than what I heard on the Echo Studio during my review, which is to be expected for a tradeshow demo.
Having listened to the speaker multiple times at CES, I was never one impressed. For a small speaker, they certainly did their job to fill the room, where you could walk in any given direction and hear the audio presented to you at the same volume and quality. But beyond that, as someone with four HomePods in the house, the entire thing sounded a bit flat to me. Audio is highly subjective, and this unit is clearly not the final product if there ever is one, and yet, I wasn’t impressed. Then again, people are apparently satisfied with listening to music through their phone or $50 Bluetooth speakers, so what do I know?
Would you like to see Sony bring a wireless speaker to market that incorporates 360 Reality Audio?
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