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For S$849, you might find other options, say, from Sonos or Bowers & Wilkins, that offer a more engaging experience without the promise of immersive audio.Chrome OS is Google's Linux-based operating system built around the Chrome web browser that can run Android apps. That said, the high price is also a sticking point. If this had been pitched as a regular speaker, instead of one promising an “immersive” audio experience, you might look at it less critically. Perhaps that’s also the problem with living up to the promise of 360 Reality Audio.
So, is the SRS-RA5000 worth buying? As an audio geek, I’ll be honest that I’m a little disappointed it doesn’t project sound more realistically. A quick test involves a few loud beeps, rather like other calibration technologies used in home theatre receivers, such as Audessey. Sony has also included a room calibration tool, which is expected to improve your sound by detecting the shape and size of your surroundings. This is similar to many sound bars today.
The speaker itself can be connected to your home Wi-Fi network so you can stream your Tidal and Spotify tracks directly from it, instead of via Bluetooth from your phone (which is of poorer quality). The Music Center mobile app lets you control the speaker, adjust equaliser settings and also select music codecs to use.
In terms of interface, Sony has made things easy to use. How well these are integrated, of course, determines if they sound great together. There are actually seven speakers here in the Sony setup – three up-firing, three mid-firing and one woofer – to produce the highs, mids and lows. The SRS-RA5000, which I call a “speaker” for simplicity’s sake, is actually made up of several speakers, packed together in an array, much like how Sonos has done so well over the years. No issues for me, though this could be a hit-or-miss appearance for a market segment where looks are important. In terms of design, the speaker itself has a cylinder shape that is eye-catching. However, you don’t get that on the Sony SRS-RA5000. A clear soundstage and precise audio imaging define a great-sounding pair of speakers or a single speaker. The power cable gets tucked in neatly among the speakers. Everyone will be happy to have that background, non-intrusive music while they fire away e-mails on their screens. In the same way, if you are working from home, you can fire up a non-360 Reality Audio playlist from Brain FM, for example. It literally travels to the corners of each room, so everyone can enjoy. So, if you have a living room and adjoining dining room as is common in Singapore homes, you don’t have to worry about the sound sorely pointed towards the sofa. What it does well as is a party piece for a bit of background music, since it is supposed to provide room-filling ambient sound. Perhaps that’s not the purpose of the speaker. In a typical stereo setup, you can often hear a lead singer and other musicians, but with the Sony speaker, you struggle to pinpoint where everyone is on stage. Indeed, in an effort to fill a room, which the speaker promises, the presentation comes across as a little hollow and unfocused. Unfortunately, on many other tracks, the audio comes across as diffused and atomised. A non-360 Reality Audio recording of a live Keane performance, for example, has a bit more body and fullness than others. Most of the time, live performances sound better. Here, you can hear the bass clearly as well as a fair bit of separation in terms of the sound sources. One of 360 Reality Audio’s headline artistes, Zara Larsson, for example, has a decent album specially recorded in the format. However, here, with the limitations in size of the speaker array in a plastic enclosure, the inconsistencies can be amplified. The experience is somewhat similar to what I got on supported Sony headphones and earphones. On others, it sounds rather hollow and unable to project a clear image of the musicians on stage.
With some 360 Reality Audio tracks on Tidal, the SRS-RA5000 shows some of the promise of a more expansive soundstage. The word I’d use is “inconsistent” when it comes to delivering the promise of immersive sound generated from a relatively compact speaker. The product, unfortunately, seems less awe-inspiring than the original technology. I first listened to Sony’s 360 Reality Audio demo at CES 2019, so when I heard that new speakers sporting the immersive audio technology, such as the SRS-RA5000, are coming to Singapore, I couldn’t wait to see them. The cylinder-shaped speaker is wrapped in fabric.