Lumio Aura 5 Challenges the Soundbar Status Quo With a Different Approach to Home Audio

Lumio has spent the last few years building its name around Smart TV and projectors, but its third category takes the company into a very different and much more crowded part of the market. The Aura 5 is a pair of powered Hi-Fi bookshelf speakers, priced at Rs. 24,999 in India, with an introductory price of Rs. 19,999. It is also a deliberate decision not to make another soundbar. That choice is central to how Lumio sees the Aura 5. The company believes soundbars won consumers largely because they made home audio simpler, rather than because people necessarily preferred the form factor.

With the Aura 5, Lumio is trying to make a stereo speaker setup similarly convenient while bringing back some of the characteristics it associates with traditional Hi-Fi systems. Speaking with Gadgets 360 ahead of the Aura 5 launch, Kailash S, COO at Circuit House, and Sudeep Sahu, Head of Product, explained why Lumio chose this route, how it plans to convince consumers to consider a different kind of home audio system, and where the company sees opportunities beyond India's biggest cities.

Lumio Aura 5: Why It Chose Bookshelf Speakers Over a Soundbar

For Lumio, the decision to build a speaker system was not simply about adding another product category. The company says it started with what it considered a problem with existing formats.

“When we create any of these products, for example, just take a TV example, we just didn't go and add more colours. We actually solved the pain point,” Kailash said.

He said the same thinking went into the Aura 5. According to Kailash, Lumio felt the prevailing form factor in home audio came with its own compromises, and a different design could address some of those issues.

“We felt that form factor doesn't solve a lot of things. It actually has a lot of pain points. So we were trying to address that, and the way to address that was this differentiated form factor,” he added.

That puts the Aura 5 in an interesting position. It is not trying to recreate the complexity of a traditional Hi-Fi setup, which often involves separate amplifiers and components, but it also isn't following the increasingly familiar soundbar formula.

Lumio argues that the convenience of soundbars and the experience of a more traditional stereo setup don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Raghu Reddy, CEO, Circuit House Technologies and Kailash S, COO, Circuit House Technologies with the new Aura 5 speaker

'Soundbars Won Because of Convenience'

Sudeep believes the rise of soundbars over the last decade had as much to do with simplicity as it did with sound. “The last 10 years, I would say a decade, the black bars got that convenience and simplicity through the ARC cable. That's why they got hooked on soundbars. Not necessarily; they like the form factor. It is the simplicity, you know. So with that one cable...," explained Sudeep.

That convenience is something the Aura 5 also tries to retain, while using two separate speaker cabinets to create a wider stereo presentation. Sudeep further said that Lumio tested the product with around 60 to 70 people before launch, using movies, trailers, YouTube and Spotify as part of the listening sessions. One of the recurring comments, he said, was about the sense of scale.

“One of the key things that came out in every single user survey was: this is room-filling,” Sudeep added.

He added that users specifically described the presentation as surround-like because the soundstage extended beyond the physical position of the speakers. For Lumio, that listening experience is ultimately more important than a specification sheet.

“There was a time when soundbars came in because of that convenience. With HDMI ARC and high-fidelity Hi-Fi speakers, it will slowly start coming back because, at the end of the day, nobody remembers specs. They remember a feeling: how it felt when you first heard,” Sudeep said.

The company is also encouraging potential buyers to try the speakers before deciding. “We would encourage all of the customers: go and compare it. I mean, I keep saying, please compare,” Kailash said.

Sudeep Sahu, Head of Product at Lumio, during the Aura 5 keynote, compared the company's speakers with the competition

Lumio Knows the Audio Market Is Already Crowded

Lumio's challenge is that audio isn't the relatively open category projectors once represented for the company. The speaker market has everything from inexpensive Bluetooth speakers to soundbars and premium Hi-Fi systems. That makes the Aura 5 a different proposition from Lumio's earlier category expansions. The company is effectively asking consumers who may already have a soundbar to consider moving to a pair of bookshelf speakers instead.

Kailash acknowledged that the company is not approaching the category with the idea of simply trying to “break the market”. Instead, Lumio believes the product needs to find its audience gradually.

The company plans to place the Aura 5 in Urban Ladder stores across cities where its televisions are already displayed, giving consumers a chance to listen to the speakers before buying. Lumio also plans to take the product to its community through a series of events.

That matters because the company knows the Aura 5 is easier to understand when heard than when explained through specifications.

Lumio's Community Is Part of Its Product Development

The company's community also plays a larger role than word-of-mouth marketing. Lumio says it has used its Luminati community to test products and features, and executives see those users as an extension of the product team.

“I know how important these guys [are] because they are way more critical even than you guys. Honestly, they are so critical,” Kailash said.

“There are a lot of bugs that you will find from them rather than from us.”

He cited instances where community feedback uncovered problems after a product or update had been rolled out.

“We have found bugs after we have rolled out to those people. We are like, ‘We have stopped, pause the update, let's fix this, then we'll roll the update.' We have done that also. So yeah, they're very important,” Sudeep added.

The company says this engagement is already happening around the Aura 5 as well. Sudeep mentioned a Bangalore blind-testing exercise for which more than 450 people applied, although Lumio could only invite those who were able to attend locally. For a company entering an established category, that kind of direct feedback could also help Lumio understand how consumers respond to a format that is less familiar than a soundbar.

Lumio Sees More Growth Beyond India's Metros

Another important point that came up during the interaction was where Lumio expects its next wave of customers to come from. The company says its business is already seeing significant demand from Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.

Kailash estimated the current split at roughly 35 percent from metros and 65 percent from the rest, with the metro share potentially reaching around 40 percent in the best-case scenario.

“Customers today are as educated, as informed, and also have the buying power in T2/T3 markets,” he said.

The company also sees a practical advantage in these markets: larger homes can make products such as large TVs, projectors and speakers easier to accommodate.

Sudeep recalled that even in Lumio's earlier days, the company noticed customers from smaller cities buying its products despite its initial focus on larger markets.

“They have the buying power, and they have the space. 55 inches, not necessarily available in every Bombay home, but it's available easily in a Tier 3 home because they have way bigger space than buying power,” Sudeep added.

Lumio says Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets will therefore be an area of greater focus going forward.

Flix Is Lumio's Answer to Endless Scrolling

Beyond Aura 5, Lumio is also working to expand the software experience around its hardware, including its Flix content-discovery feature.

Kailash explained that the idea comes from a problem Lumio sees in how people discover content today. Some users know exactly what they want to watch, while others use trending lists or top-10 rankings. But another large group simply keeps scrolling.

“For that, we believe that just looking at thumbnails is not a good enough experience,” Sudeep said.

The company's answer is to use short clips, trailers and scenes as a discovery layer rather than relying entirely on static posters and thumbnails.

“Flix will be a curated set of feeds,” he said, adding that recommendations could come from creators and publishing houses, with the feed adapting based on what a user engages with.

Importantly, Lumio does not see Flix as another open video platform.

“It's not open for all. It is a curated feed. We believe in sort of taste-making. That's where our skills lie as well, and our interests lie as well,” Kailash further stressed.

The larger philosophy is consistent with Lumio's approach to its other software features. “The whole TLDR premise is: find what you want to watch as quickly as possible. As quickly as possible. I think that is the key for us," Kailash added.

Lumio Is Still Expanding Neo AI

The company's AI efforts are also evolving, particularly around language support. Sudeep said Lumio has made backend improvements to Neo AI and that it now works better across several local languages.

“We've done a tonne of improvement in the backend. Now it actually works much better for a lot of local languages. A lot of these features... are actually from needs and pain points where we know we have to build this because it's solving this particular pain point,” Sudeep said.

A Future Aura 5-Type Product Is Not Off the Table

During the conversation, the company also touched on its existing product range and whether it plans to refresh products such as the Aura 5's lower-priced counterpart.

Sudeep said Lumio is constantly looking ahead, but developing certain hardware components takes time.

“When we built the R5, the light engine that we had to make... there was nothing like that in the entire world. We had to build that first for us,” added Sudeep.

He added that the company is not ruling out future products at different price points.

“We are actively looking at what's next. Obviously we are a tech company. We will always look to build better and better and better and fill in price points and fill in the ladder,” Sudeep added.

For now, though, Lumio's focus is on establishing its latest category. The Aura 5 gives the company a product that sits somewhere between the simplicity of a soundbar and the traditional appeal of a stereo speaker setup. Whether that approach can persuade consumers to look beyond the increasingly familiar soundbar remains to be seen. But Lumio is clearly betting that there is still room in the living room for a different kind of speaker.