Sonos unveils Ace Ultra headphones, Beam Ultra soundbar with AI-powered Sonos 27 OS
Sonos introduces Ace Ultra headphones and Beam Ultra soundbar, along with the AI-driven Sonos 27 operating system, according to Engadget.
In a hands-on session, the Beam Ultra delivered loud, powerful and clear audio with impressive bass even without a subwoofer. The soundbar’s upward- and side-firing drivers contributed to a sense of immersion, though the effect was harder to gauge in an open space. Sonos Fabric, a technology that gives products context about their surroundings, automatically connected a pair of Play speakers placed behind the listening area as rear surrounds, noticeably enhancing the audio experience.
The Ace Ultra headphones retain the ability to grab audio from the soundbar and route it to the headphones, allowing private listening of TV shows and movies.
On the software side, Sonos 27 includes an updated voice assistant with natural-language understanding. In a demo, asking the speaker to “play that acoustic live Nirvana album” correctly started MTV Unplugged in New York, and requesting a different version of a song switched seamlessly. The assistant has deep music knowledge and can also answer general queries.
Sonos 27 also supports an open model context protocol, making it easy to connect speakers to AI models like ChatGPT and Claude. Engadget saw a demo where natural-language commands to play music, adjust volume and move tunes between rooms worked as expected. Custom agents for Sonos were also previewed.