Japanese tech company Sony has tried its hand in many gadgets and appliances. The products have generally been meeting success, often launching to glowing reviews. But the sales have not been as impressive. Cases in point are the company's line of Xperia smartphones, which have failed to garner a solid customer base in the global smartphone scene. The company's Vaio brand has been sold to Lenovo last year, following sales that drag behind leading tech names such as Apple and Dell.
This time around, with Sony focusing on making hardware, the company has added the new multi-room sound system to its variety of products. The device, comprised of three wireless speakers of varying sizes, is able to play music in many areas of one place. The device is ideal for house parties, and the speakers are wireless, coordinating with one another via internet connection.
According to a report from The Sydney Morning Herald, the three-speaker audio system will be able to play different music from different areas of one place simultaneously. The speakers have rechargeable batteries which make them handy for outdoor activities. Apart from that, all of them also support Bluetooth for direct music streaming. The system may also work hand in hand with Sony's music playing app, SongPal, through which the speakers can be controlled.
Price for the new system is steep, however, as each speaker already costs a couple of hundred dollars on its own. Individually, the SRS-X77 is priced at $449. The SRS-X88 speaker costs $599 and the SRS-X99 is a steep $899. Apart from the speakers, there is also a soundbar, a sound plate, an AV receiver and a hi-fi shelf. Because of this, Sony may not likely be the first brand in mind when buying a multi-room sound system. There are, after all, more compact and affordable rival brands.
Sonos is touted as the brand to beat when it comes to audio technology, and while Sony has edged out the brand in some aspects, like its support for hi-res audio, the company has not been able to address some flaws that have already been taken cared of by Sonos. Adam Turner, an award-winning freelance tech writer who wrote the article for Sydney Morning Herald, said he will not spend a huge sum of money for Sony's sound system.
He further added that the speakers do not sync very well, making the sounds register differently for each area where they are being played. The choice for audio systems, however, still lies on the customers' preferences. This new technology from Sony appears to be getting some underwhelming responses, but how it performs in sales still leaves much to be seen. After all, the sound system has just been released on Aug 17.
