New hardware coming? August 27 & 28 Press events


Interesting tease here:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/08/08/sonos-fall-event-IFA-2019/

Seems odd that no FCC popups have occurred yet, but I'm not one to be looking for those kinds of things, I count on others in our community for that 🙂

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https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/cr8hd2/picture_of_sonos_sl_leaks_rumored_to_be_a_micless/

Leaked via photoshop 😂

I'm sure there's a market for this if it's real, people buying 2 to pair together and people with no interest in voice control.
Thanks @chicks. I'm a little less inclined to believe reddit, but there is some logic to it. We shall see.
Plenty of logic for Sonos. If all but the top cover are identical between the One and SL, production costs should be lower vs Play:1; marketing confusion goes away; AirPlay support on both makes the Apple fanboys and fanzines very happy. Hopefully the One and SL will be pairable, as only one of a stereo pair needs the microphone array.
Plenty of logic for Sonos. If all but the top cover are identical between the One and SL, production costs should be lower vs Play:1

Possibly so. It would not be as cheap as not creating that version at all though. Hence why I think such a move would signify Sonos believes there is a strong market for it, vs just keeping the regular Sonos One.

; marketing confusion goes away;


It goes away by simply stopping production of play:1 too.

AirPlay support on both makes the Apple fanboys and fanzines very happy.


Does it? The Apple folks already have the Sonos One as an option.

Hopefully the One and SL will be pairable, as only one of a stereo pair needs the microphone array.


Yes, but that's not helpful to folks who already have a play:1. It helps new customers only.

Really, I think it all boils down to the question of whether there is a market for people who want Sonos One quality, but don't want mics, or believe that mics are worth the extra $50 (or whatever it ends up being). The rest of the reasons really wouldn't matter since this new SL won't do anything that the Sonos One doesn't already do.
For those who (beats me why) still want to use AirPlay, they’ll have three options: $99 for the IKEA, albeit with inferior sound, $149 for the SL, or $199 for the One. Lots of examples of these stair step product offerings out there. Look at cars, for example. People love choices.
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If you have audio apps on your iDevices that don’t have a native Sonos streaming app, then Airplay is very useful.
For those who (beats me why) still want to use AirPlay, they’ll have three options: $99 for the IKEA, albeit with inferior sound, $149 for the SL, or $199 for the One. Lots of examples of these stair step product offerings out there. Look at cars, for example. People love choices.

True...along with the lamp and others.

I wonder if Sonos considered this SL product when Sonos One was released, but worried it would impact Sonos One sales negatively and wanted to give it a couple years to establish. Does that also possibly mean that the Sonos Move can possibly be considered a play:3 replacement? And then, assuming the Connect is being replaced, that means play:5, playbar, sub and possibly playbase are all that remains of the 'old line' of products. Does that mean they are next?

play:5 may actually be up to date enough. It has the black/white color scheme, airplay 2 compatibility. What it lacks is voice assistant and auto true play, if that becomes available. Perhaps not enough to warrant an upgrade, but also seems rather important for your best speaker.

playbar, it could use an upgrade for sure, but it feels like it should get more than just colors, hdmi-arc, airplay, and voice control...if atmos or some other advancement is in the near future. I'd say the playbar needs more than just getting the bar up to date, it needs new features.

sub...nothing really to change excpet maybe the finish.

playbase. It's pretty similar to the play:5 really.
I'd assume if there's anything that they need to update in the PLAYBAR, it would include a processor update. Being designed so many years ago, I suspect you could get multiples of the speed of that processor, at a cheaper price these days. If they're going to add any of those things you mentioned, it will certainly need that additional update.
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playbar, it could use an upgrade for sure, but it feels like it should get more than just colors, hdmi-arc, airplay, and voice control...if atmos or some other advancement is in the near future. I'd say the playbar needs more than just getting the bar up to date, it needs new features.

We all know that's not gonna happen, but that was said 12 months ago about a wireless speaker so who knows.

Maybe the Sonos Move is the first step to creating a Damson wireless home cinema competitor?
https://www.damsonglobal.com/homecinemav2

playbar, it could use an upgrade for sure, but it feels like it should get more than just colors, hdmi-arc, airplay, and voice control...if atmos or some other advancement is in the near future. I'd say the playbar needs more than just getting the bar up to date, it needs new features.We all know that's not gonna happen, but that was said 12 months ago about a wireless speaker so who knows.


Several months ago, it was leaked that Sonos had sent out customer questionnaire's, under NDA, whether or not they would be interested in atmos. That's not a definitive yes, but certainly not a no either.

I think maybe one could make the argument that Sonos is patient. They don't want to release a product before the technology is ready and then have to put out another product.Going with this theory, it makes sense that they waited to produce a portable speaker until they could 'do it right'. They wanted battery tech to advance enough, they want USB-C cables to establish to transfer enough power, and they wanted bluetooth specs to improve in sound quality. Likewise, you could argue that Sonos wants/wanted to be patient with the playbar till they could do a sound system they felt was good enough. But I speculate.

Maybe the Sonos Move is the first step to creating a Damson wireless home cinema competitor?
https://www.damsonglobal.com/homecinemav2


I've heard of that product before. Looks interesting. No wifi, all bluetooth. I don't know if Sonos really looks at them as competition just yet, since they don't seem to be well known, and have a very different price range. I have no idea what these speakers sound like, so can't comment on that. And I'd say it's very, very unlikely Sonos is going to start doing HT with bluetooth instead of wifi. None of their existing speakers would be compatible with the system, and the HT stream wouldn't be shareable with the rest of the speakers in your home. Maybe some sort of hybrid between 5G and bluetooth is possible, but I doubt it.
Interesting that it’s going to be a two day event. Sonos must have a lot of new stuff to show. One day for the two channel audio, another for sound bars?
Or one for the S17, and one for the S23? Does seem odd, why two days? More press across a longer time period?
I thought this event was also a shareholder's conference of sorts? I was thinking there would be a new product press event, a public shareholder's event, and maybe a private shareholder/board member meeting or two. So I'm thinking will hear about the two new products, get some hints at future products/directions, as well as numbers on the companies numbers since going public and projections.
That would certainly be contrary to the “press only” part of the original reporting.
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Looks familiar....

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/bose-bluetooth-portable-smart-speaker/
If people are willing to buy Bose after they abandoned their entire multi-room music line after less than 5 years because they couldn't make it work with Alexa, then they get what they deserve.
Looks familiar....

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/bose-bluetooth-portable-smart-speaker/



They should have wrapped some LEDs around the top so it can be used as a lantern.
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Looks familiar....

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/bose-bluetooth-portable-smart-speaker/

They should have wrapped some LEDs around the top so it can be used as a lantern.


Now all Sonos need to do is price the Move lower, not long to wait now!
If people are willing to buy Bose after they abandoned their entire multi-room music line after less than 5 years because they couldn't make it work with Alexa, then they get what they deserve.

Yea, I noticed that article said wifi, but mentioned nothing about multiroom audio. I checked a Verge article and it does state:

Bose is also promising some smart connectivity features with its app: using it, you’ll be able to link up a multiroom sound system with other Bose smart speakers. Later this year, the company is also promising an Ultimate Ears-style setup that will let users pair the Portable Home Speaker with older products like Micro, Color, Mini, and Revolve. Next year, it’ll offer stereo pairing for two Portable Home Speakers.

So it sounds like it will be multiroom, but not necessarily at release date?

As far as Sonos having to match price, not necessarily. All else being equal, that may be true, but they won't be equal. We don't yet know about build quality, battery life, sound quality, tuning, use case in multiroom, stereo pairing, and other features. I would say though that the competing products will likely prevent Bose/Sonos lovers from trying out the other brand.
I am fascinated by the battery life, which leads me to think that the Sonos will be roughly equivalent, given that they're probably both using similar tech.

Not terribly aesthetically pleasing to me, with that handle, I think Sonos did the design better. But perhaps more mobile for those who want to grab and go to the beach? I don't know.

I suspect that for many it will boil down to which ecosystem means more to you. There are lots of BOSE lovers out there (and in fact, I'm very fond of their noise cancelling headphones, but not their speakers), all of which will probably be happy about this, and then there's us, who will buy in to the Sonos ecosystem, because it's better.

Puts me in mind of when we released EQII, just two weeks before World of Warcraft was released. We got a good share of the market, but nothing like Blizzard did. 🙂
Not terribly aesthetically pleasing to me, with that handle, I think Sonos did the design better. But perhaps more mobile for those who want to grab and go to the beach? I don't know.

Both can be picked up with one hand, however, you can't really carry anything else in that hand with Sonos. You certainly can't hold two of these in one hand. Since the Bose is strap, you can hold other items that also have a strap/ exterior handle, like a second speaker, beach bag, cooler, etc. Although the 'problem is easily solved for Sonos if it comes with a carrying case with a strap. Or if you put it in the beach bag.

My first thought when I saw the Bose was that if the power goes out, I might accidentally that up instead of a lantern. However, speakers that look like other objects seem to be popular these days.

Echo Dot/Google Mini - hockey puck
Google Home - air freshner
Sonos Lamp speaker - lamp
Very early prototype of the Move?

https://capstone.engineering.ucsb.edu/projects/sonos-move

https://capstone.engineering.ucsb.edu/sites/capstone.engineering.ucsb.edu/files/projects/sonos_move_poster.pdf
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Any news? I haven’t heard anything so far
I'm pretty sure this was strictly for the press. The public will have to wait until an official announcement.
Yea, if it’s strictly for press, there is likely an embargo on release until X date, so the folks who attend on day one can’t “scoop” the folks who have to wait for day 2.

We will need to exhibit patience....something I am not known for 😉