By the time Sony's first 360 Reality Audio speakers were available to the masses, it had been over two years since the company first introduced the platform. Although the immersive audio format has been part of streaming libraries since fall 2019, Sony initially relied on third-party speakers to evangelize the public. The company eventually added 360RA supports to its headphones, but until this spring, it didn't have any compatible speakers. At CES 2021, the company officially announced the SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000 (after two years of teasing). The SRS-RA5000 is the larger and more powerful of the duo -- and it's the more expensive.

Sony debuted its immersive 360 Reality Audio music format in 2019. But until now, if you wanted to tap into the limited content library, you had to rely on another company's speakers to do so -- like Amazon's Echo Studio. As part of its plans to expand 360 Reality Audio, Sony revealed that two speaker models of its own would go on sale this spring: the SRS-RA3000 and SRS-RA5000. We didn't have to wait long for details. During CES, the company's UK site posted full specs on both speakers.

Earlier today, Sony announced plans to expand its 360 Reality Audio platform. The key updates were a two-fold approach for expanding the limited content library, licensing tech to other companies and -- most importantly -- news that it would ship its own speakers built for the immersive sound this spring. At the time, the company said it didn't have any info beyond a few vague details, but that's wasn't entirely true. Sony's UK website has already posted full details for both the SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000 "premium wireless speakers." If you've been following our 360 Reality Audio coverage since 2019, you'll recognize the designs.