Sony SRS-RA5000 360 Speaker Review: An Expensive Experiment
"A fascinating but expensive speaker that doesn't quite live up to the hype."
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Easy adjustment
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Crystal clear sound
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Chromecast support
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Works with Google Assistant / Amazon Alexa
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Expensive
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Polarizing design
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Difficult placement requirements
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Overwhelming 360 RA effects
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No hi-fi bluetooth codecs
When Sony unveiled its 360 Reality Audio (360 RA) music technology – a stunning 3D format designed to restore listening to live music – the only way to hear it was through headphones.
Starting in March, you can now listen to 360 RA tracks aloud through two models of wireless speakers: The Small Room for $ 300 Sony SRS-RA3000 and the much larger $ 700 SRS-RA5000.
They're both designed to optimize 360 RA playback, but also have the ability to make regular stereo tracks an even more immersive experience if you so choose.
Sony was kind enough to send Digital Trends a RA5000 to try out. So we tested the unusual looking speaker to see if it actually offered a listening experience worth investing in.
What's in the box?
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Sony keeps things simple with the RA5000. In the fully recyclable box you will find the speaker, its power supply and a collection of printed materials such as a quick start guide, safety information and warranty documentation. It's a bit of a surprise – especially considering the $ 700 price tag – that Sony didn't use a 3.5mm cable or two, but you might be expected to buy one when you need it.
With its copper-grilled speakers; curvy body wrapped in cloth; and tall stature, it will be controversial.
design
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In recent years, Sony has been enthusiastic about black or anthracite-colored devices with copper accents. You can find this color scheme on the WH-1000XM4 wireless headphones and the excellent WF-1000XM3 wireless earphones, but the most bombastic display comes with the RA5000.
With his trio of copper-grilled step-up speakers; his curvy body wrapped in cloth; I suspect it will be a controversial purchase. I really like the way it looks, but my family members are divided about the aesthetics.
If a speaker isn't your cup of tea in terms of design, you can usually just stick it in a bookcase or in a corner behind a plant. That won't fly with the RA5000.
Although it can fill a room with sound from almost any position, the closer you get to it in a central location, the better able it is to accomplish its mission of true 360-degree sound.
However, this raises two questions: How can you supply a central location with electricity (there is no on-board battery) and how do you disguise the enormous power supply module?
Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to either question. For my assessment, I simply placed the RA5000 on a coffee table and let the power cord dangle over the edge. A nearby extension cord under my couch served as a power source, but the trip hazard it created (not to mention how unsightly it looked) means it would never work as a permanent place.
There are a total of six touch-sensitive buttons along the top edges that allow you to access the most frequently used functions such as playback, volume, source, Bluetooth on / off / pairing and sound calibration.
Sony does not include a remote control, presumably because a phone is required to use the RA5000.
Another difficult aspect of the RA5000 design is the use of metal grids over the three high-boosting drivers. These thin shields are eye-catching, but seem to be very easy to dent. Our test device arrived with a very noticeable and a slightly smaller bruise. This is something to keep in mind if you want to put the speaker in a very central location (exactly where Sony suggests it).
Setup and configuration
The Sony Music Center app serves as a guide for configuring the RA5000 and gives you access to settings such as EQ and turning the speaker’s Immersive Audio Enhancement mode on and off. You can also use it to trigger the speaker's automatic sound calibration. However, this can also be done using the touch-sensitive controls that line the upper edge of the housing.
Using the SRS-RA5000 as a Bluetooth speaker is a breeze. Just long press the power button to enter pairing mode, then select the speaker from your phone's Bluetooth device list.
To get the most of it, we recommend that you take the extra step of adding it to the Google Home app so that you can enjoy Chromecast audio.
This opens up all the functions that make the RA5000 unique: It enables 360 RA streaming, which is not supported via Bluetooth. This allows you to stream stereo tracks with much higher quality (up to CD quality), which is also not possible via Bluetooth. Finally, if you have other Chromecast-enabled devices, you can manage the speaker as part of a larger multiroom audio system. If you have a Google Assistant smart speaker, you can use your voice to control the RA5000.
Amazon Alexa users can also control the speaker using voice commands by adding the RA5000 as a device in the Amazon Alexa app.
Sound quality
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The SRS-RA5000 is a speaker with a mission: to enable people to listen to Sony 360 RA music without headphones, while “upgrading” their non-360 RA sources for an even more immersive sound experience. Given the high price tag, these two scenarios should better be fantastic. Otherwise it will be difficult to give the RA5000 our recommendation.
I just don't appreciate what 360 RA brings to the noisy listening experience.
To really get a feel for how it handles these tasks, I created several playlists in the Tidal app. I started by searching through Tidal's 360 RA track library for songs I'd heard countless times before – Heart's Barracuda, Billy Joel's Big Shot, Pharrell Williams' Happy, and Dave Brubeck's Take Five. Then I added the standard HiFi stereo versions of these tracks so I could easily switch back and forth between the two formats.
I also listened to these stereo versions with and without Sony's Immersive Audio Enhancement feature.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
The judgment? The RA5000 does a good job rendering 360 RA tracks with its signature open-air ambient sound. The up and side firing drivers add both width and height to these songs, making for an even more immersive experience than listening to the stereo version, even when using Immersive Audio Enhancement. Not sure if you are actually hearing 360 RA audio? An LED indicator light under the speaker glows cyan when the format is recognized.
But as noticeable as the effect is, I just don't appreciate what 360 RA brings to the loud listening experience. I find that opening up and “stretching” the music to fill the room with sound tends to hollow out the recordings. Intimate details in the mids that I know own these tracks are harder to spot. Lushness and immediacy give way to the ambience, and I think a lot of the songs don't survive this transition intact. Then there is the question of consistency. It turns out that not all 360 RA tracks are the same.
The upward and side fire drivers give these songs both breadth and height, making for an even more immersive experience.
Fire up the 360 RA version of Heart's Barracuda, and the RA5000 does an excellent job of making the iconic rapid-fire guitar licks fill the room. But Ann Wilson's normally soul-piercing vocals sound like she's singing with her back to the audience.
Big Shot loses much of the deep bass thrumming that gives this song so much of its nuance, which is very strange given that the RA5000 is more than capable of producing excellent bass response.
Pharrell Williams' Happy 360 RA is a much better mix, and on the RA5000 at least, it's more fun to listen to than the stereo version. But I still prefer the way this song sounds when played on a traditional stereo pair of speakers. Only Dave Brubeck's Take Five sounded much better in its 360 RA version.
Is this an inherent problem with the 360 RA format? I do not believe that. Some of the above issues can also be heard when listening with headphones. With headphones, however, the spatial rendering is much better controlled and can better convince your brain that the songs are being played by a band on stage in an open space.
The RA5000, despite its 360 degree driver suite, still acts as a very identifiable sound source, reducing the effectiveness of the 360 RA spatial audio effect.
Now, if you gave me a choice between the 360 RA tracks that play on the $ 700 RA5000 and Dolby Atmos Music tracks that play on the $ 800 Sonos Arc soundbar, I'd be Atmos take on the arc every day.
One thing that particularly confused me about the RA5000 is the Bluetooth capabilities. According to Sony, the speaker is designed for high resolution audio, which means it can accurately reproduce frequencies from 20 Hz to 40 kHz. The problem is that only SBC and AAC bluetooth codecs are supported, neither of which can carry high resolution audio.
That would be a bit understandable if there wasn't a better Bluetooth codec. But there is and Sony invented it. LDAC is one of only two Bluetooth codecs recognized as high definition by the Japan Audio Society. However, for reasons known only to Sony, the RA5000's LDAC was not supported.
More than music?
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Comparing it to the Sonos Arc soundbar raises another consideration: for $ 700, can this $ 700 spatial audio speaker do anything other than let you listen to streaming music?
The answer: it depends. You can connect the RA5000 to a newer Sony Bravia TV via Bluetooth. According to Sony, a signal is delivered with very low latency, which means that the audio and video remain well synchronized. However, Bluetooth doesn't allow for multi-channel audio like 5.1 or 7.1, and it definitely lacks the bandwidth required for Dolby Atmos, which is a huge missed opportunity given the RA5000's upstream drivers.
The TV connection feels like an afterthought. It is not officially endorsed by any other TV brand. Since the RA5000 has neither an HDMI port nor an optical port, it is pretty clear that Sony would prefer to use this speaker primarily for listening to music.
Our opinion
The $ 700 Sony SRS-RA5000 is a bold experiment – an eye-catching design that aims to bring immersive live music sound to rooms of all sizes. However, this experiment is not entirely successful, making the RA5000 difficult to recommend.
Is there a better alternative?
For a lot less money the $ 200 Amazon Echo Studio uses a similar multidirectional driver setup to support 3D sound formats like Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 RA. Plus, it can be connected via WiFi to select Fire TV streaming devices for home theater sound, and it's a full-fledged smart speaker from Amazon Alexa. It can't match the overall clarity and depth of the RA5000, but it's pretty impressive for the price.
For a traditional wireless speaker that's $ 700 Denon Home 350 has many of the same features (other than spatial audio) and offers bigger, bolder, more powerful sound, as well as decent stereo separation.
How long it will take?
Sony builds high quality products and the SRS-RA5000 is no exception. Since there is no internal battery to worry about and an additional analog input is no longer available, it should function without any problems for many years as long as you take care not to damage it (e.g. by accidentally pulling the power cord).
Should you buy it?
No. With the SRS-RA5000's unique design, cumbersome placement requirements, and high price tag, only those who want to experiment deeply with Sony's 360 Reality Audio should take the plunge.
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