Sony's latest neckband speaker supports Dolby Atmos
The $300 SRS-NS7 can also stream 360 Reality Audio from your phone.
Sony has revealed its first wireless neckband speaker with Dolby Atmos support. The company says the SRS-NS7 offers "an immersive home theater experience" without the need for a surround sound speaker system or having headphones clamped around your head.
For the full Dolby Atmos effect, you'll need a Sony Bravia XR TV and the included wireless transmitter. After you hook up the adapter and pair it with the neckband over Bluetooth, you can use the 360 Spatial Sound Personalizer app to take a photo of your ear. The app will estimate the shape of your ear and optimize the arrangement of virtual Dolby Atmos speakers for you.
The company says the transmitter also will minimize audio lag to precisely match up the audio and images. You can buy the WLA-NS7 wireless transmitter separately and use it with some Sony headphones for the same effect.
Along with watching their TV with the neckband, users can connect it to other devices. Pair the SRS-NS7 with a smartphone and you can listen to 360 Reality Audio from supported music streaming services such as Deezer and Tidal. Customers can link the device with a PC or tablet too.
Sony notes the flexibly designed SRS-NS7 includes multipoint connection, meaning it can link to two devices simultaneously. So if you're listening to music from your computer and a call comes in on your phone, you can answer with a press of a button and use the built-in microphone. In addition, the SRS-NS7 has an IPX4 rating, meaning it's splash-proof.
As for the battery life, you'll get up to 12 hours of use out of a single charge, Sony says, and up to five hours of playback at maximum volume. You'll get up to an hour of use after 10 minutes of charging.
The SRS-NS7 neckband costs $300 and the TV transmitter is $60. Pre-orders are open now and the devices will ship on October 27th.
