While Sonos continues to work out the bugs and improve the performance of the poorly received mobile app redesign, the company also remains focused on some new hardware products. Among them is an ultrapremium soundbar that will serve as a successor to the current Sonos Arc — and likely at a higher price. Codenamed Lasso, the device is currently in limited beta testing, and today I can share the first images of it.
The exterior of the Lasso soundbar bears a strong resemblance to the Arc, which Sonos introduced four years ago. But inside, the components and speaker drivers have been completely overhauled and redesigned, and this is expected to result in a cost of over $1,200. Sonos aims to ship the Lasso later this year, though the timeline could change.
Whenever it arrives, the Lasso (hardware model S45) will be the first Sonos product to integrate technology from Mayht, a Netherlands-based startup that the company acquired in 2022 for $100 million in cash. At the time, Sonos praised Mayht for “inventing a new, revolutionary approach to audio transducers.” CEO Patrick Spence said the deal would give Sonos “more incredible people, technology and intellectual property that will further differentiate the Sonos experience, enhance our competitive advantage and accelerate our future roadmap.”
But it took quite some time to get Mayht’s ideas into a transportation product. Sonos has released several small speakers over the past couple of years—the Era 100, Move 2, and Roam 2 among them—that could have benefited from Mayht’s innovative transducers, which it says “enable smaller, lighter form factors.” form without compromising quality.. But it’s the soundbar that will provide the first taste of what the acquisition has been a challenge to make Mayht’s system more cost-effective, as it partially uses “expensive” neodymium magnets.
Bloomberg previously reported the codename Lasso, its rumored price and the inclusion of Mayht’s technology. The end-user brand of the product is not yet known, but for now, Sonos is getting involved with games Ted Lasso font in beta units.
The Arc is already a very impressive Dolby Atmos soundbar, and you can expect even greater immersion from the Lasso and its revamped internals. Additionally, according to sources, the upcoming soundbar should offer substantially better bass performance than its predecessor. With the Arc, you really need to add a Sub or Sub Mini to get the most out of it. Sonos could probably solve this with an $899 product, but if it’s going to charge over $1,000 for the Lasso, the device needs to deliver home theater audio without any extra help.
The images also reveal a dedicated Bluetooth button, suggesting that the Lasso may support Bluetooth audio playback. This feature has been missing from all previous Sonos bars. And similar to the company’s other recent products, there will be a physical switch to disable the built-in microphones.
Like the Arc, the Lasso is designed to work with the recently released Sonos Ace headphones for private listening with spatial audio. The company has committed to extending Ace compatibility to its more affordable Beam and Ray bars by late summer or early fall.
As for the immediate future, Sonos continues to release updates to its mobile app at a frequent rate as it tries to address customer frustrations and remove the negative sentiment that has gripped the company’s community since May.
It’s clear to me that Sonos is listening and moving fast, but a lot of damage has already been done: the Android version of the Sonos app currently has a brutal average rating of 1.2 stars. The rating on Apple’s App Store isn’t that bad, as the older reviews are still balancing the string of complaints that came with the redesign.