Update: Sony has revealed the SRS-NS7, 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.”
The Dolby Atmos is delivered via the included wireless transmitter (WLA-NS7) and a Sony Bravia XR TV. 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 using a technology that was first announced two years ago. The app will estimate the shape of your ear and optimize the arrangement of virtual Dolby Atmos speakers for you. Here’s the full text of the release:
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 4, 2021—Sony Electronics Inc. today announced the new SRS-NS7 wireless neckband speaker, the latest addition to its wearable speaker lineup, and the WLA-NS7 wireless transmitter. The SRS-NS7 provides an immersive home theater experience and when paired with the supplied wireless transmitter, customers can experience tailored sound for a new way of listening. The WLA-NS7 wireless transmitter is also sold separately so customers can enjoy the same cinematic audio when using select Sony headphones.
“The SRS-NS7 transforms the way customers experience their favorite Dolby Atmos movies thanks to Sony’s unique 360 Spatial Sound Personalizer,” said Tyler Ishida, Deputy President for Consumer Business Group, Sony Electronics Inc. “With powerful audio, long-lasting battery and an extremely comfortable design, this product is made for non-stop entertainment.”
Ultimate Immersion with 360 Spatial Sound Personalizer
The SRS-NS7 is the world’s first wireless neckband speaker that delivers Dolby Atmos when paired with Sony’s BRAVIA XR television models. It offers Sony’s unique 360 Spatial Sound, which delivers a perfectly optimized cinematic experience with the 360 Spatial Sound Personalizer app. When the SRS-NS7 is paired via Bluetooth technology with the supplied wireless transmitter and connected to a BRAVIA XR TV, the 360 Spatial Sound Personalizer app can take a photo of the user’s ear and analyze their hearing characteristics by estimating the ear’s 3D shape. This creates the ideal arrangement of virtual Dolby Atmos speakers around the user.
In addition to enjoying Dolby Atmos on a BRAVIA XR TV, SRS-NS7 users can also experience 360 Reality Audio music when using their smartphone. 360 Reality Audio immerses users in music as if they were right in front of their favorite artist, and is available when using compatible music services like Deezer, nugs.net and TIDAL.
Thrilling Personal Sound Experiences
Using Sony’s renowned audio technologies, the SRS-NS7 delivers crystal clear acoustics and powerful sound pressure for the ultimate personal cinema experience. To achieve this, an X-Balanced Speaker Unit provides the optimum speaker size in a compact body and increases sound pressure and reduces distortion for clear music and vocals. Alongside this, the upward facing speaker delivers crisp sound directly to the user without disturbing others, so customer can enjoy movies and music even at midnight. Plus, the passive radiator increases low frequency response for clearer bass sound to deliver thumping music sound effects and deep beats.
Pictures and Sound, Perfectly in Sync
The supplied wireless transmitter helps minimize audio delay for the SRS-NS7 when connected with BRAVIA XR TVs, so users can be fully immersed in Dolby Atmos movies with sound and pictures precisely matched.
Comfortable Fit for Non-stop Entertainment
The SRS-NS7 is the perfect companion for all-night movie marathons or binge-watching favorite TV shows. It provides hours of comfortable viewing for all types of content thanks to its flexible and ergonomic design that fits securely around the neck.
There’s no need to worry about battery life with the SRS-NS7’s up to 12 hours of power and up to 5 hours at maximum volume, so even the longest movies and TV shows can keep on playing. Even when the battery is low, a 10-minute quick charge provides up to 60 minutes of extra play time.
The SRS-NS7 is also great for working from home with easy hands-free calling. Optimal microphone placement allows the SRS-NS7 to capture and deliver voice in excellent quality, while an X-Balanced Speaker Unit reproduces colleagues’ voices clearly. Plus, with echo cancelling minimizing feedback, everyone on the call can hear and be heard clearly.
Designed with total convenience in mind, the SRS-NS7 also features Multipoint Connection9, which enables users to connect two devices at the same time10. So, if a business call comes in on a laptop while customers are listening to music on their smartphone, they can take the call with just one click of the Play/Call button on the left side of the neckband. Once the call is over, it automatically reconnects to the smartphone playlist.
With an IPX411 splash-proof design, the SRS-NS7 lets users enjoy their favorite shows and tunes anywhere in the house without worry, even while doing daily chores like washing dishes. Plus, the open-ear style lets customers watch and listen while still being aware of what’s going on around them.
Premium and Practical Design
With a fabric surface and a silicone neckband, the SRS-NS7 is perfect for everyday use and is easy to clean.
The SRS-NS7 is not only designed to be stylish, but also with the environment in mind. Less than 5% of the SRS-NS7 packaging is plastic, reflecting Sony’s commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its products and practices.
WLA-NS7 Transmitter for Select Sony Headphones
Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound experience on BRAVIA XR TVs2 will also be available on select Sony headphones12 when paired with the WLA-NS7 wireless transmitter13. The WLA-NS7 works with select Sony headphones to create atmospheric personal cinema that surrounds users for a new way of listening.
Pricing and Availability:
The SRS-NS7 has a suggested retail price of $299.99 and is available to pre-order today at Sony Electronics, Best Buy and Amazon. For a full list of specs and information, please visit: https://electronics.sony.com/audio/headphones/wearable-speakers/p/srsns7
The WLA-NS7 has a suggested retail price of $59.99 and is available to pre-order today at Sony Electronics, Best Buy and Amazon. For a full list of specs and information, please visit: https://electronics.sony.com/audio/headphones/wearable-speakers/p/wlans7
Update July 6, 2021. It wasn’t enough to have one super weird Sony immersive wearable speaker. Now comes the the SRS-NB10 a sleeker version of weird that looks like a cross between a nunchuck and those bean bag warmer collars you heat in the microwave. Or maybe like wearing Maleficent’s horns upside down around your neck.
Sony says it designed with remote workers in mind. Set to cost $150 when it goes on sale later this year, the NB10 promises up to 20 hours of audio playback “optimized for your ears alone” with drivers that are angled upward. So apparently you can cook and work at the same time.
As long as you’re listening to something at a relatively low volume, Sony says you “don’t need to worry about distracting colleagues, roommates or family.” Umm. Ok.
Unlike it’s predecessor, it is Bluetooth compatible and designed in theory for voice and video calls. Thanks to two beamforming microphones and its built-in voice processing technology, Sony claims the NB10 will make it easy for people on the other end of a call to hear you. The “open-ear” design makes it so that you can hear what’s going on around you. The NB10 can connect to two Bluetooth-capable devices simultaneously, allowing you to switch between them as needed.
Inexplicably they are also IPX4-certified water-resistant–for working from inside the pool? And thanks to USB-C charging, you can get an additional hour of playback after 10 minutes at the outlet.
The SRS-NB10 will be available in two colors — charcoal grey and white — when it goes on sale in September.
November 2019 — The Sony Immersive Wearable Speaker (SRS-WS1) launched in Japan back in 2017 (and was previewed during SXSW they year before). Now it’s going to be here in time to be a stocking stuffer. Preorder by December 1st at $250, and $300 afterwards.
It’s not just weird looking. The Sony Immersive Wearable Speaker is also not Bluetooth compatible. It manually plugs into its wireless receiver via 3.5mm or optical cables. Minimal playback controls include volume adjustment, vibration controls (for low-end) and power. It will also plug into a tablet or device via USB-C.
Sony wants you to connect to your TV for late night viewing. But headsets work much better for that than wearing a vibrating soundbar around your neck that everyone else in the room/house can hear. Speaking of vibrating…
For more: Mashable reviews it and so does Digital Trends
