Any way you look at it, Sonos isn’t your average wireless home audio kit manufacturer. Apart from launching its own internal Sonos Black Friday deals November 17 – 27 Sticking with the major online retailers (Apple, maybe you could check that out?) we recently reported the strongest indication yet that the company is finally planning to launch its long-awaited headphones.
But this is Sonos, so that’s not all. In fact, if you can imagine it, says one verse Bloomberg report Sonos probably plans to do this in 2024 or 2025.
Plans mentioned in the bulletin include a set-top box that can compete with Roku or Apple TV, an update to the Sonos Era 100, a fresh Sonos Roam version, a new Sub alongside the Sub Mini, in-ceiling speakers and a high-end soundbar, according to “sources familiar with the matter.”
Bloomberg’s report reads: “A sound barcode called ‘Lasso’ will be coming later in 2024, with better bass and improved audio quality over the existing Arc model.”
And apparently the company plans to raise the price to “approximately $1,200,” which is a pretty steep increase over the $899 asking price for the current (and only) Sonos Arc – Sonos’ flagship, standalone soundbar – option.
Where does all this improved bass and audio quality come from? That will be the long-awaited harvest from Sonos’ acquisition of speaker manufacturer Mayht Holding BV in April 2022, as Matt Bolton, Ny Breaking’s Managing Editor of Entertainment, explains in an interview with Brandon Holley, Product Creation Lead at Sonos last year.
Oh and finally, Sonos is planning a new high-end amplifier in the second half of 2024 – codenamed ‘Premier’ – aimed at professional home theater installations (approximately $3,000 and $4,000 per unit), new 8-inch in-ceiling speakers and a subwoofer with the codenamed ‘Lotus’ (which will most likely be known as the Sonos Sub Gen 4) with “updated capabilities such as support for Wi-Fi 6,” according to the post.
Yes, it’s a lot.
Opinion: Sonos went affordable, now it’s getting uber premium – and it’s risky
Let’s take a look at the Sonos Ray. It’s Sonos’ most affordable soundbar, released on June 7, 2022, priced at $279 / £279 / AU$399 and is the proud owner of a very positive Ny Breaking review where we called it “The little soundbar that would can”.
Now the alleged $1,200 Arc update. If the information from the Bloomberg report comes to fruition, you can buy four Rays and still be left with $84 for the same price as the new ‘Lasso’ Sonos Arc update.
Of course, a great product with Dolby Atmos and HDMI eARC support (which the Ray doesn’t have) should be priced accordingly, but in this challenging market – and Sonos has recently cut jobs, recognizing that 2023 was a ‘challenging year’ – working hard in the higher segment is a gamble.
That’s not to say a high-end Sonos product isn’t viable – just look at the Devialet Dione, a $2,400 / £1,990 / AU$3,990 behemoth of a soundbar for the home cinema elite.
It’s just that, at a time when many audio outfits are heading into more budget-friendly waters (see the September 2023 Sennheiser Ambeo Mini, yours for $799 / £699 / AU$1,299), Sonos is once again showing why it… is different.
Could such a proposal go straight into our best soundbar guide? Watch this space.