Sonos Open House: Live updates from the company's September 2026 product launch

I love it when my headphones match my speaker(s). 

I do like the gold accents on that pair of headphones, though. The Sonos Play is also now available in a matching Sand color as well. 

Technically, this "sand" color is another option. But... if you're a fan of bold colors, it's likely not doing much for you. 

These are lovely. Ace Ultra is $50 more than the original Ace ($449 vs. $399).

Any additional headphone colors would be a welcome change. The company never added any to the Ace beyond the black and white options at launch. 

The standard Beam only does virtualized Atmos, so this is definitely a step up in that department —with a corresponding price increase, as well. $699 for the Beam Ultra, $499 for the older Beam. I was surprised to realize the old Beam really is getting old — it came out way back in 2021.

The background music here at the event just stopped, which led me to think things are kicking off, but it's resumed. We should be just about 12 minutes away, folks.

Back to the comments section for a moment, user "No One" said this about the subtitle (or dek) of our liveblog: What do you mean "unfortunately"? What's wrong with AI? That's like saying "a company is coming out with a smart phone unfortunately". You don't even know how well it performs. If it performs poorly, then yeah, their AI would be unfortunate. If it does well, then that's great.

I think there's a slightly fair point there in that judgement can be held till we actually see the AI in action. But as the person responsible for that dek, I was more tired of seeing the word AI over and over, especially when it's often a misused term. That's what "unfortunately" was referring to, and I thank you for leaving your thoughts! :) 

Best I can tell the Beam Ultra looks identical to the older Beam, but it has a completely new speaker array, including two upward-firing drivers for true Dolby Atmos.

Hah! So, as expected, there's a new set of headphones (Ace Ultra) and a new soundbar (Beam Ultra). I was drooling over the "agave" color of the headphones, subtle but very nice!

I got you, Nate!

Well, if you want a head start, the Beam Ultra and Ace Ultra are indeed up on the Sonos website. That's it for new hardware though (at least for now?). Obviously, we'll probably get more info during the event than what's on the product pages.

Nate is busy scouring the Sonos website now looking at the new gear and drooling over new colors. TELL US ABOUT IT HERE, NATE!

Re: Alexa, I think we'll hear mostly about Sonos' own approach to a voice assistant today rather than integrations with others. But, hopefully whatever platform upgrades are coming can fix that issue if the company keeps Alexa around. 

Uhm, commenter "Sonos" said the products are already on the website and Nate has just gone to look. He said "Oh my god..."

Reader "RaxCentral" asked: I'd like to know when Google Assistant/Gemini integration is making a comeback. The Ray soundbar has also been neglected. So hopefully they have a lot to show here.

I agree!

Oh I see we have three comments! Let's start with "SonosUser," who said we should ask the company about when it might fix the Alexa integration of its speakers. I didn't know this but according to SonosUser, the assistant "talks through the start of media, and can't even play a simple flash briefing without having to ask multiple Times. It's embarrassing how everyone but Sonos can get this right. Great product overall, but Alexa really needs to be fixed."

Well we'll certainly ask about this when we get to talk to company reps later, but Nate, Billy, what do you both think?

Good shout, Billy. That's always the concern with these sorts of things. Hopefully it'll be useful, but also easy to ignore if that's your preference.

We're probably going to hear about AI today, and I'm worried about Sonos' strategy in that regard. It seems like every company is racing to shoehorn AI into its products in some way, even when it doesn't make sense to do so. Perhaps the company has found a way to leverage the technology in a way that enhances its platform, but I'm not entirely sure what that would be. Let's hope it's more than just checking a box. 

More MCM vibes here at the open house. 

Hi yall, I'm back from figuring out the Wi-Fi situation, the coffee and pastries selection and making sure you can all find this blog. So, no, I do not have lower back pain yet. But I have settled into this cube stool and yea it's not going to be great. I will persevere however!

So what about potential surprises? I'd love to see Sonos cram its Sound Motion tech in more devices. It would be a way to add additional bass without a separate subwoofer thanks to some novel component design. Here's a Sound Motion explainer I wrote back in 2024.

I still love the Sonos 5, even though it hasn't been updated in forever. It just sounds great, but I have a feeling it's going to quietly disappear sooner or later. 

Doing some at-home investigation of Cher's photo, that definitely looks like a small soundbar in a living room setup on the right. Obviously, too far away to tell for sure, but that could be the new Beam. 

Hashtag office goals. 

Hey all, Cherlynn's assessment of the space is spot on. I can't say this is what I expected to walk into first thing in the morning, but it definitely has an immersive vibe. 

RIP your lower back, Cher. 

We've walked in and Nate just exclaimed "It's like we've walked into the Sonos website." The vibe here is really interesting. The room is dark, and a round stage takes up the middle of the room. Around is are stools and couches spread out in concentric circles. It's certainly different!

Speaking of FCC filings, a new Sonos soundbar also popped up on the commission's website last month. First spotted by Bloomberg, this device appears to be an updated version of the compact Beam soundbar. I expect we'll see a full reveal of this speaker today as well, and that both the new Beam and revamped Ace headphones will serve as the first two devices to support whatever software upgrades Sonos has planned for this year. 

We've arrived at the Sonos event and doors just opened!

We're also likely to see new headphones. The Sonos Ace Ultra already popped up in an FCC filing in August, spotted by What Hi-Fi. The only additional info, besides colors, is that the new version could support Wi-Fi pairing straight to a home network and that it could work with a revamped voice assistant. Of course, neither of these are confirmed, just details gleaned from the filing documents. 

Of course, Sonos has spent the last two years recovering from a massively botched app launch around its first headphones, the Sonos Ace. The company released its latest update in July, and I expect software and platform news will be a big part of today's event.

News of today's event first broke in the company's third quarter earnings call. In an interview with Janko Roettgers, Sonos CEO Tom Conrad explained (albeit vaguely) what the company had planned for the AI age. He said the company had already spent 20 years preparing for this phase, or has he called it, "hardware that can converse with quality across every room." 

Morning! Let's do a quick rundown of what we might see later this morning from Sonos, shall we?

Good morning everyone! I wanted to say "surprise!" but I'm not sure how much of a surprise this liveblog is to most people. We're on our way to the Sonos event, and will share tidbits from the scene soon. Meanwhile, are there any hardcore Sonos fans here? What are you hoping for later today?