Rumor: Sonos is preparing “Fury”, its first budget soundbar

Sonos is a company known mainly for its premium products, but lately it has expanded into more affordable price areas. After the Beam soundbars and Roam portable speakers, the American company seems to be preparing another soundbar, but this time at a significantly more affordable price for the general public. The product is named in an article published in The Verge as “Sonos Fury” and promises basic capabilities at half the price of Beam.

The new soundbar will provide basic functionality

With the launch of Sonos Fury, the company will offer soundbars at three price thresholds. The Arc model, for those who want the best listening experience, as well as advanced support for Dolby Atmos, the Beam model for those with more limited budgets, but who still want premium features, while Fury will offer the basic experience.

The Verge claims that Sonos Fury (code name) will be available for sale at a price of 250 US dollars. Thus, certain capabilities of Sonos speakers and soundbars so far will be absent. First of all, Fury will not allow use with a TV via HDMI ARC (audio return channel) technology because it will not integrate an HDMI port. As a result, it can only be connected to a TV via an optical port. This means that the sound will be limited to “standard” Dolby Digital playback without Atmos.

Sonos Fury will be both a budget soundbar and a satellite for more expensive surround systems

The soundbar will also be delivered without microphones, so you won’t be able to order through a virtual music playback assistant. However, the Wi-Fi connection will remain, which means you’ll be able to play music on the soundbar without a TV or smartphone. Although without a microphone, you will be dependent on the application to choose the songs.

However, it seems that Sonos’ plan is to make this soundbar for two purposes. One would be to serve as a budget solution for TV users. The second is to use two such soundbars to create a Dolby Atmos sound system with an Arc or Beam as surround back channels. Sonos Fury will also be able to be mounted on the wall and vertically for this use case.

Along with the Fury (or S36), Sonos is also preparing a budget woofer, which will offer a cheaper alternative to the Sonos Sub.

source: The Verge