The Sonos Ray is one of the best budget soundbars, and thanks to a new update, this little speaker is now an even better choice for your cheap audio needs.
Some Sonos Ray owners have reported hearing a strange hum when playing low-frequency audio. This issue was also detected in testing by our friends at What Hi-Fi (opens in new tab)and while it doesn’t affect all Sonos Rays ( was lucky to avoid it with our review model), for some users this audible vibration can be a nuisance.
After the What HiFi report, Sonos was able to recreate the problem and has now released a fix via the latest Ray firmware update.
According to the company, the problem was caused by the speaker playing tones around 55Hz. Due to its design, this is the resonant frequency of the speaker’s bass port, so playing audio in this tone can cause noise; essentially large amounts of air were moving through the ports when they shouldn’t be causing the annoying tone.
Sonos says this issue has now been mitigated by tweaking the system’s low-end response, which means the hum caused by chuffing should be a much smaller issue.
Considering the company’s previous suggestion – grab the Sonos Sub sub, currently priced at $749 / £749 / AU$1,099 – this free upgrade will be welcomed by those who have been drawn to the Ray’s affordable price. A cheap Sonos sound system isn’t that cheap if you’re paying more than $1,000 for it.