Sony SRS-RA3000 Reality Audio Wi-Fi/ Bluetooth Speaker
The Sony SRS-RA3000 is one of the most attractive speakers on the market, but its usual retail price is anything but at $400. For $198, though, this speaker is much sweeter for all your Google Assistant, Google Cast, Spotify, and Bluetooth needs. It even has a 3.5mm line-in to hook up your old turntable or CD player.
Sony is a force to be reckoned with in the hi-fi space, having produced some of themost superb wireless headphonesandbest-in-class wireless earbudsavailable today. While its mobile audio products are super popular, don’t let those overshadow its larger speaker offerings, like the Sony SRS-RA3000, the more compact version of theSony SRS-RA5000. This $400 home wireless and Bluetooth speaker might not normally make your shortlist, but at $200, it’s an entirely different story.
Why is the Sony SRS-RA3000 worth buying?
Great speakers excel at really “taking you there,” whether that’s recreating the intensity of Taylor Swift singing through all her eras to a packed stadium, or just nailing the low-key vibe of your favorite coffee house.
That’s exactly what the RA3000 promises, with its capability to deliver ambient-filling sound that shakes up the atmosphere at home. And to be fair, it can produce high-quality, room-filling sound, but the 360-degree audio that Sony’s so quick to tout in the specs and in the Sony Music Center app should only be engaged with apps that have specific spatial audio catalogs, like Amazon Music and Tidal. Using the Immersive Audio Enhancement setting can be a bit offputting when used with music not tailored for 360 sound.
As far as aesthetics goes, the RA3000 doesn’t disappoint. It looks every bit the brainchild of an engineer and an interior designer, so it will bode well with all your other fancy decor. It’s also developed to be humidity resistant, allowing you to place it in just about any room, including the kitchen and the bathroom. Steam baths, anyone?
Perhaps its biggest drawback is that it isn’t primarily designed to function as asmart speaker. It doesn’t have a built-in microphone or direct voice control, but you can easily bypass that by connecting it to Alexa and Google Nest/Home products. Set it up with your existing smart assistant in the companion app — an Echo device is required for Alexa, but Google Assistant/Google Cast just needs to be set up in the Google Home app — and you can control it easily with your other devices. With Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, you’ll also find streaming your favorite playlists a breeze, and auxiliary input can let you enjoy the speaker even when the network is down or you want to break out your old CD collection from the early 00s.
You probably won’t spare this speaker a second glance when it’s at regular price, but now that it’s half off, why deny yourself — and your home — a premium speaker that delivers surround sound? A deep discount on an otherwise exorbitant speaker isn’t something you see every day. $198 doesn’t sound too bad for a speaker that makes you feel as if you’re in a concert hall.
Alternatively, if you feel like splurging even more, this speaker’s bigger, more flamboyant brother, the RA5000, is also on sale for half off — now only $398 from the usual $800. The discounted price still isn’t pretty, but the speaker itself? Totally.
