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Music Technology

Sonos Teases Plans To Enter Headphones Product Category (macrumors.com) 25

Sonos announced plans to expand into a new "multi-billion dollar" product category next year. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence declined to give specific details, but it's widely expected to be headphones. He said the new product will "complement" current Sonos devices and will "delight customers and drive immediate revenue." MacRumors reports: Spence said that Sonos believes it will generate more than $100 million from new products in 2024, and the new product will account for a "large portion" of this revenue in the second half of the year. There have been rumors for years now that Sonos intends to enter the headphone market with a pair of wireless headphones that could be similar in design to over-ear headphones like the AirPods Max.

Sonos has never confirmed its work on headphones, but a leaked internal memo that was obtained by Bloomberg earlier today confirmed that the company does indeed have a headphone division. [...] Bloomberg in 2019 said that Sonos was targeting a $300 price point and was focusing on features like audio quality and multi-service interoperability, but it has been several years since new details emerged.

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Sonos Teases Plans To Enter Headphones Product Category

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  • I have two Sonos loudspeakers. They work great. Except that the Sonos application and firmware constantly require me to update them for "enhancements". Which sometimes work, and sometimes not (the Mac app i snow dead to me).

    I dread the day that an upgrade bricks one of my out-of-warranty device.

    Hence, I will never buy Sonos products again. Even more : I would like Sonos (the company) to die, and leave my devices and applications as is.
    • by jddj ( 1085169 )

      Twice, thanks.

      Eat sh*t, die, go to Hell, eat some more sh*t and die all over again, Sonos.

      Screwed me by removing my ability to play the 20,000 songs on my Android phone over my $1000 or so of speakers.

      'Oh, that's OK, you can play anything with Amazon Music!'

      Not quite: Amazon doesn't have all the music I have, and it's just TFB if I want to play the song I own and am looking at.

      Also: "Someone else is streaming your Amazon Music. Sign out of that account to stream on your Sonos".

      Up yours, Sonos. With Brillo.

      • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

        LOL, you blaming Sonos for "you problems". Sonos isn't the streamer.

        Sonos is pretty simple to use, but not simple enough for some dolts.

        • It's no matter of simplicity.

          It's a matter of removing a key feature after the purchase.

          Amazon streaming would be no issue had they not removed Android connectivity.

          Die, Sonos.

        • LOL, you blaming Sonos for "you problems". Sonos isn't the streamer.

          Sonos is pretty simple to use, but not simple enough for some dolts.

          After one update, all radios stations that I had configured in the Sonos system were lost. I had to do it again.

          This is especially annoying when it is a forced update.

          The Sonos system is indeed pretty nice and simple to use. It is the update process that is a shame.

      • I have a bunch of Sonos Amps for zonal speakers and this really pissed me off too. I read that it has something to do with some upcoming changes to Android, but as a programmer I can't understand how this would be hard to support.

        For my amp I bought a WiiM Pro, which is basically a Sonos Port clone (the app and hardware are nearly identical), but with with TOSLINK support, and at 2/5 the price. It still seems to still manage supporting playing local files on my phone. Maybe Android 15 will break this, bu

    • by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Friday November 17, 2023 @10:25AM (#64012115)

      You can update the Mac app by simply deleting it and reinstalling. It will auto-discover once it starts. It's stupid, I've had to do it more than once. Their updater is terrible, there product is not.

      And updates "bricking" Sonos devices is pure FUD, Sonos did that deliberately once...to devices that they bought back from customers. Bad PR move, but not a mistake.

      Sonos is probably better off without dishonest customers, though.

      • You can update the Mac app by simply deleting it and reinstalling. It will auto-discover once it starts.

        Thanks, it worked. Ugly, but it did.

        It's stupid, I've had to do it more than once. Their updater is terrible, there product is not.

        Sorry, but the updater is part of the product, especially when it refuses to start until the update is performed. And they also forced me to upgrade to the S2 Controller, although all my devices could still work with the S1 version.

        It could be worse, though : I pity the poor customer who have a mix of devices that require both the S1 and S2, see https://support.sonos.com/en-u... [sonos.com].

        And updates "bricking" Sonos devices is pure FUD, Sonos did that deliberately once...to devices that they bought back from customers. Bad PR move, but not a mistake.

        Yes, I fear it. They have become so bad at software that nobody knows what they might do.

      • I don't know about FUD, but certainly the Sonos software is one of the worst I've ever come across. Do you want to listen to music now? Nope, we aren't playing anything until you update, buster, we don't care about you, only about pushing our last update. Do you want to change your wifi network? Not this speaker, not from the Windows app, only from the Android app, aaaaand... it doesn't work, after tens of trials. They recommend resetting the speaker to factory settings, but I'm too scared of never being ab

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They also tried to brick out of support devices, and used devices sent for recycling as part of some trade-in programme that required the owner to destroy their old product.

      Now they have lost their patent battle with Google, hopefully there will be better alternatives on the market soon.

  • Hardly a surprise given that they bought RHA Audio. https://www.whathifi.com/news/... [whathifi.com]
  • Try normalspeak.

    We know you can do it.
  • What the world needs most is more garbage from a vendor with a long history of sleazy anti-consumer behavior.

  • ...we get another vendor of "brand conscious" headphones in the $200-$500 price range and up.

  • Replaceable batteries
    Compatibility with all devices
    No subscription or "cloud" crap

    If these are met, I might like it

  • But does he realize that by trying to use the Sonos brand to bootstrap other products, he's eroding it?

    I did want to do business with the pre-lawsuit, pre-S2, frankly pre-voice control Sonos. I don't anymore. Their focus is not on my business. Hell, I would have paid for software support if I could have gotten a company actually focused on keeping my hardware running over the years.

Ummm, well, OK. The network's the network, the computer's the computer. Sorry for the confusion. -- Sun Microsystems

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