Following a leak late last year that Sonos is developing a successor to its ultra-premium Sonos Arc soundbar codenamed ‘Lasso’, we recently had another leak from The edge which reveals images of the new speaker and confirms that it could feature advanced audio technology when it launches.
Design-wise, the Lasso doesn’t seem to change much from the original Arc. It’s a long, black sound system in a plastic casing with a single HDMI port and an Ethernet port, which give this Wi-Fi speaker a more reliable internet connection.
That said, one interesting touch is the addition of a button with a Bluetooth logo above it, suggesting that the Lasso supports Bluetooth audio playback – something we’ve not seen before on a Sonos soundbar. There’s also a physical switch to enable or disable the built-in microphone if you want to be a little more confident that the smart speaker isn’t listening in on you.
Things will get really special when The Verge confirms rumors that the Lasso is the first Sonos speaker with Mayht technology.
Sonos acquired speaker manufacturer Mayht Holding BV in April 2022, and we’ve been waiting a long time for that purchase to bear fruit. That’s because it allows smaller speakers to deliver the same power as something much larger – Mayht previously explained that you can get the power of a Sonos Five from something the size of a Sonos One (via T3).
This same technology allows manufacturers to cram a subwoofer into a much smaller speaker, with Mayht explaining that even without a subwoofer, a mid-sized soundbar can still deliver real bass (down to around 30Hz) using its audio gadgets. This means you might be able to get away with just the Lasso, without needing to buy a Sonos Sub – but we’ll have to wait and see.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the Lasso – while we think it’ll officially be called the Arc 2, that might not be the case. We also don’t know how much it’ll cost, though rumours point to it being around the $1,200 mark (so likely around £1,200 / AU$1,800 based on Sonos’ previous global pricing strategies and exchange rates) rather than the Arc’s $899 / £899 / AU$1,499. Finally, we don’t know for sure whether it’ll come out in 2024 or if we’ll have to wait a while longer.
We should take the rumors with a grain of salt for now, but it certainly seems like Sonos has something in the works. Let’s hope the next speaker update doesn’t suffer the same fate as the recent problematic app update.