Sonos is working on an improved version of its Ace headphones that will support AI, reports Bloomberg. The Sonos Ace Ultra appeared in an FCC filing earlier this week, with the product likely to debut in September.
Sonos launched the original Sonos Ace in 2024. Reviewers 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 don’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 short of the internal goal of one million it had set.
Bloomberg suggests that the new model will kick off Sonos in the field of artificial intelligence. The headphones could support voice commands based on information in the file, allowing them to be used with AI chatbots from third-party companies. Sonos CEO Tom Conrad said last month that AI would be an area of focus, with “conversational computing and predictive intelligence moving into the home.”
The headphones will be available in Greige, Shadow Black, Agave, Blush and Sand, according to the FCC filing, but little is known about them as most of the filing has been redacted.
The original Sonos Ace was priced at $449 at launch and was competitive with the AirPods Max. The earbuds had a similar over-ear design to the AirPods Max and the same general feature set. Apple isn’t releasing a new version of the AirPods Max anytime soon, so the second-generation Sonos Ace earbuds will still be pitted against the original AirPods Max design.
