Sonos Ace Ultra headphones arrive in September with AI voice control and five new colors

Sonos Ace Ultra over-ear headphones show up in FCC filing - Engadget

During Sonos' third quarter financial call, the company said that it was planning a product launch in September. Based on a new FCC filing spotted by Lowpass, one of the products it's unveiling at the event could be a pair of headphones called the "Ace Ultra." While the filing is heavily redacted, the Ace Ultra seems to have an over-ear design, similar to the original Sonos Ace launched in 2024. But it will be available in five colors instead of just two, namely Greige (or light gray), Shadow Black, Agave, Blush and Sand. (The headphones in the image above are the Sonos Ace, and not the upcoming model.) The FCC filing also hinted that the device will support Sonos Voice Control, the company's voice assistant. As Bloomberg notes, support for voice is critical for a device without a screen to be able to interact with AI assistants and chatbots. Sonos CEO Thomas Conrad said during the earnings call that the company was gearing up to make AI a core part of its business strategy, so it's possible that the Ace Ultra would be able to tap into some of Sonos' current (and future) AI features. Sonos Ace's launch was marred by the issues that plagued the company's app in 2024 following a faulty upgrade. The app was broken and missing key functionality. Sonos later admitted that it released the redesign too soon, because Ace was incompatible with the older version. The company didn't even release the headphones' TrueCinema spatial audio enhancement feature until a year after launch, even though it was supposed to be one of the product's key features. TrueCinema takes a room's acoustics into account when one of Sonos' soundbars is inside. Based on the information it gets from the soundbar, it creates spatial audio for the headphones. Ace Ultra will likely be just one of the many AI-enabled products Sonos will unveil in the future. Conrad believes his company has a big advantage when it comes to AI in the home, as it offers audio devices for the whole house that can communicate with each other and work together as a system.

Sonos Plans September Launch Event and Deeper Push Into Home AI

Tom Conrad is betting the models will converge and the hardware will decide it, starting with a September launch and a second attempt at headphones Sonos chief executive Tom Conrad says model quality will converge and the advantage will sit with hardware that already knows a home. An FCC filing names the first product of that push, the Ace Ultra headphones, expected at a September launch event. Sonos is betting that the value of AI in the home sits in the hardware rather than the model. "Much of the industry conversation about AI in the home is about who has the best model," chief executive Tom Conrad told analysts. "We think that's the wrong question." Access to strong models "is going to be everywhere, and the differences between them will narrow," he said. What lasts instead, in his telling, is "the hardware that can converse with quality across every room, the system that already knows the shape of a home and the way a family lives in it." The company has some ground to make that argument from. Sonos counts 53 million connected devices across 17 million homes, and posted third-quarter revenue of $375mn, up 9%. Conrad said it has been "competing with the biggest of big tech for customers in the home for nearly a decade." The first hardware of that push arrives next month. A Federal Communications Commission filing published Monday, first reported by Lowpass, names the Sonos Ace Ultra, a sequel to the 2024 headphones, in as many as five colours against the original's two. Technical details in the filing suggest it supports voice commands, which the first Ace did not. That original landed badly. It shipped alongside a 2024 app rewrite that broke the platform, cut sales and forced Sonos to pause new hardware releases. The headphones were part of why the app went out early, having been built for the new software and left incompatible with the old. Reviewers liked the industrial design but found little connection to the rest of the system beyond private TV listening through a soundbar. Buyers who expected to hand music from their speakers to their headphones on the way out did not get it. Conrad has since said shipping without that integration was a mistake. The do-over falls to a thinner team. Sonos cut senior design and product staff in July, around 3% of the company, in a move Conrad framed as buying speed rather than saving money. He has also pitched Sonos as a home for third-party AI models, though that has been slow going. Amazon's Alexa+ is still absent from Sonos hardware nearly a year after the company appeared on a partner slide, while Amazon has moved on to putting Alexa in the search bar. A marketing campaign under Colleen DeCourcy, who joined as chief marketing officer in January, lands this autumn. Conrad has called it "the clearest expression in a decade of what makes Sonos singular in the world."

Sonos is planning Ace Ultra headphones with a big AI push, report says

Two years ago, Sonos made the leap from wireless speakers to over-ear headphones. Now it sounds like Sonos is preparing a more premium, AI-infused encore. Sonos Ace Ultra headphones are on the way Chris Welch reports for Bloomberg that Sonos is developing the Sonos Ace Ultra, a higher-end follow-up to its 2024 Ace headphones. An FCC filing spotted Monday names the product and points to as many as five color options, up from the black and white finishes offered on the original model. Sonos has a September product launch planned, and the timing of the filing suggests the Ace Ultra could be part of that event. The filing also contains technical clues that the new headphones may support voice commands. Bloomberg reports that CEO Tom Conrad has acknowledged that the original headphones arrived without enough whole-home integration or differentiation in a crowded category. This time, Sonos appears to be tying the hardware more directly to its broader AI ambitions. Conrad has described the company's opportunity as conversational computing and predictive intelligence in the home, with Sonos devices serving as hardware that can work across rooms and understand how a household lives. The company has already expanded Sonos Voice Control with Philips Hue and Lutron Caseta controls. Meanwhile, Apple's upgraded AirPods Max 2 arrived in March with the H2 chip, stronger noise cancellation, and Live Translation. Siri AI will extend to AirPods as part of iOS 27 as well. For more on the upcoming Sonos Ace Ultra headphones, check out the Bloomberg report in full here.

Sonos Preparing AirPods Max Rival With Voice Assistant Support

Sonos is working on an upgraded version of its Ace headphones that will support AI, reports Bloomberg. The Sonos Ace Ultra showed up in an FCC filing earlier this week, with the product likely set to debut in September. Sonos debuted the original Sonos Ace in 2024. Reviews praised the sound quality and active noise cancellation, but the headphone market is crowded, and Sonos' product launched shortly after its disastrous app redesign. The headphones also didn't fully integrate with the rest of the Sonos ecosystem, making them unappealing to Sonos users. Sonos ended up selling around 200,000 units, well below the internal one-million target it set. Bloomberg suggests the new model will kick off Sonos' push into artificial intelligence. The headphones could support voice commands based on info in the filing, allowing them to be used with AI chatbots from third-party companies. Sonos CEO Tom Conrad said last month that AI will be an area of focus, with "conversational computing and predictive intelligence moving into the home." The headphones will come in Greige, Shadow Black, Agave, Blush, and Sand, according to the FCC filing, but little else is known about them because most of the filing was redacted. The original Sonos Ace were priced at $449 at launch and were competitive with the AirPods Max. The headphones had an over-ear design similar to the AirPods Max, and the same general feature set. Apple does not have a new version of the AirPods Max coming anytime soon, so the second-generation Sonos Ace headphones will still be pitted against the original AirPods Max design.

Sonos could make its next headphones smarter with built-in voice controls

Sonos is readying new Ace Ultra headphones with a bigger AI bet Sonos is preparing to launch a new pair of wireless headphones called the Sonos Ace Ultra, and this time the company appears to be taking a much more serious swing at AI. The headphones were revealed through an FCC filing, first reported by Lowpass, with much of the filing redacted. The documents nevertheless confirm the Ace Ultra name and indicate that the headphones could be offered in up to five colours, a notable change from the original Ace, which launched in 2024 only in black and white. Recommended Videos The timing also lines up with Sonos' plans for a September product launch. According to a report by Bloomberg, CEO Tom Conrad announced the event during the company's recent earnings call, making the FCC filing a fairly strong indication that the Ace Ultra will be among the products unveiled next month. The Ace Ultra could finally make AI useful on Sonos hardware. The more interesting part of the story is not the extra colours. Technical details in the FCC filing suggest the new headphones could support voice commands, potentially allowing users to interact with AI assistants directly through the headset. Bloomberg reports that this would address a major omission from the first-generation Ace, which lacked support for voice interactions with AI chatbots. That fits neatly into the broader strategy Sonos is now describing for its products. Conrad has said the company sees AI as a way to bring "conversational computing and predictive intelligence" into the home, rather than simply adding another chatbot to an existing device. Sonos already has its own Sonos Voice Control assistant, and the company has expanded it with controls for products such as Philips Hue lights and Lutron Caséta accessories. Conrad's ambition is for voice interactions to feel natural rather than something users have to deliberately activate and operate. The company is also pitching its whole-home audio system as an advantage when AI becomes more embedded in everyday devices. Instead of an assistant living inside one gadget, Sonos wants its hardware to understand the layout of a home and how people use different rooms. Sonos has more to prove with its second attempt. The Ace Ultra is also something of a do-over for Sonos. The original Ace was a decent piece with its industrial design, but limited integration with the wider Sonos ecosystem was a pain point. Online reports showed users could privately listen to TV audio through Sonos soundbars, but they could not seamlessly move music between their home speakers and headphones. That launch was followed by the company's disastrous 2024 mobile-app update, which hurt sales and contributed to Sonos pausing new hardware launches. CEO Conrad has since acknowledged that bringing the Ace to market without deeper system integration was a mistake. Now Sonos gets another chance. The Ace Ultra appears to combine a more mature headphone strategy with the company's broader push into AI and connected-home experiences. For Sonos, the challenge is no longer simply making a good pair of headphones. It needs to make headphones that give people a reason to choose Sonos over Apple, Sony, or Bose, and the company's AI ambitions may be its best shot at doing that.