They could come with voice control support.
During Sonos’ third quarter financial call, the company said that it was planning a product launch in September. Based on a new FCC filing spotted by Lowpass, one of the products it’s unveiling at the event could be a pair of headphones called the “Ace Ultra.” While the filing is heavily redacted, the Ace Ultra seems to have an over-ear design, similar to the original Sonos Ace launched in 2024. But it will be available in five colors instead of just two, namely Greige (or light gray), Shadow Black, Agave, Blush and Sand. (The headphones in the image above are the Sonos Ace, and not the upcoming model.)
The FCC filing also hinted that the device will support Sonos Voice Control, the company’s voice assistant. As Bloomberg notes, support for voice is critical for a device without a screen to be able to interact with AI assistants and chatbots. Sonos CEO Thomas Conrad said during the earnings call that the company was gearing up to make AI a core part of its business strategy, so it’s possible that the Ace Ultra would be able to tap into some of Sonos’ current (and future) AI features.
Sonos Ace’s launch was marred by the issues that plagued the company’s app in 2024 following a faulty upgrade. The app was broken and missing key functionality. Sonos later admitted that it released the redesign too soon, because Ace was incompatible with the older version. The company didn’t even release the headphones’ TrueCinema spatial audio enhancement feature until a year after launch, even though it was supposed to be one of the product’s key features. TrueCinema takes a room’s acoustics into account when one of Sonos’ soundbars is inside. Based on the information it gets from the soundbar, it creates spatial audio for the headphones.
Ace Ultra will likely be just one of the many AI-enabled products Sonos will unveil in the future. Conrad believes his company has a big advantage when it comes to AI in the home, as it offers audio devices for the whole house that can communicate with each other and work together as a system.