Sonos smart speakers are known for their ease of use and audio quality, not their affordability. That’s especially true for Sonos’ home theater products like soundbars, which only address the midrange and high-end markets.

That’s about to change, according to recent reporting by The Verge. The site claims to have seen photos of and gained access to information about a new soundbar codenamed the Sonos Fury, which has the model number S36. The new soundbar will retail for $249, according to the report.

There are still cheaper competing products from other brands, of course, but this would be Sonos’ least expensive soundbar—the Beam retails for $449, and the Arc sells for $899.

The Fury (that may not be the final name) is reportedly slated for a June 7 release date, and like many of Sonos’ other products, it will be available in either black or white.

It will be smaller than the second-generation Sonos Beam, at 550×69×100 mm. (The Beam measures 651×68.6×100 mm.) It will lack several features found in the Arc or Beam—most notably, it won’t support Dolby Atmos, and it will have only an optical audio port instead of an eARC-ready HDMI port. It will also lack built-in microphones and voice assistant support.

On the other hand, it looks like Sonos wants the product to be more flexible than the Beam or Arc in some ways. The Beam and Arc are intended to be used only as soundbars beneath a TV, and the Fury will work that way, too, but The Verge claims the soundbar will also function as a rear speaker alongside the Arc. In that situation, the Fury would be oriented vertically, and it might offer more immersive surround sound than the Sonos One in that role.

Home theater seems like it will be a major focus for Sonos, which has historically been more focused on music playback than TV, film, or video game audio. A few weeks ago, Sonos posted several job listings that referenced plans to develop a “Home Theater OS” for future living room products.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1849791