The Sonos Ray is one of the best budget speakers out there, and thanks to a new update, this little speaker is now a better choice for your cheap audio needs.
However, some Sonos Ray owners have reported hearing an odd hum while playing a low-pitched sound through it. This issue was also picked by our friends at what’s heavy (Opens in a new tab) In their testing, and while it doesn’t affect every Sonos Ray (we were lucky enough to avoid it with our review sample), that sonic vibration could be an annoyance for some users.
Following the What HiFi report, Sonos was reportedly able to recreate the issue, and has now released a fix via the latest Ray firmware update.
According to Sonos, the problem was caused by the speaker playing tones around 55Hz. Due to its design, this is the resonant frequency of the amplifier’s bass port, so playing sound at that pitch could result in choking – large amounts of air were moving through the ports when they shouldn’t be causing the annoying tone.
Sonos says that this issue has now been mitigated by adjusting the system’s low response, which means the noise caused by throttling should be much less of an issue.
Given that the previous suggested fix was to opt for a Sonos Sub subwoofer – currently priced at $749/£749/AU$1,099 – this free update will be welcomed by those drawn to Ray’s budget-friendly price; A cheap Sonos sound system isn’t really cheap if you’re paying over $1,000 for it.
