After spending 2022 focused on midrange products like the Ray and the rollout of its own voice service, Sonos is about to shift its attention back to upscale devices. Aside from the upcoming, delayed Sub Mini, the company is also at work on a completely new high-end speaker codenamed Optimo 2.

The Verge has viewed early, work-in-progress images of Optimo 2, and it marks a substantial evolution in design compared to Sonos’ existing products, such as the Sonos One, Five, Arc, Beam, and Roam. Encased in a funky, dual-angled shell, the new device will be positioned as the best-sounding speaker that Sonos has ever produced. It includes an arsenal of drivers, including several that fire in different directions from beneath the shell between the front speaker grille and backplate. The 3D recreation above is bronze-colored, but Optimo 2 will likely stick to Sonos’ traditional white and black color choices. The device’s frontside is shown in our image, with the vertical rectangle indicating where the Sonos logo will be.

Size-wise, it looks to resemble something like the Sonos Five / Play:5. According to people familiar with the product, Optimo 2 includes twice as much RAM and as much as eight times more flash memory than any previous Sonos speaker. It’s a powerhouse clearly designed with a long road of software support ahead.

If current plans stay on track, Optimo 2 will become the swiss army knife of Sonos speakers. It’ll support music playback over Wi-Fi like all of the company’s products but also Bluetooth audio. So far, Bluetooth playback has been limited to portable hardware like the Move and Roam. Intriguingly, the company is also considering USB-C line-in playback for the device. That would make it the only other modern Sonos speaker aside from the Five to offer line-in capabilities. (The Sonos Five has a more traditional 3.5mm aux input.) With the help of built-in microphones, Optimo 2 will feature automatic sound tuning to optimize its performance in various settings. Those mics will also support Sonos Voice Control. As always, some of these features may be scrapped and absent from the final, shipping product.

With its array of drivers (including one that appears to be upward-firing), Optimo 2 will be a showcase for Dolby Atmos audio. But it’s just one piece of the puzzle. The Verge can report that Optimo 2 is the lead product in a trio of in-the-works devices, which will also include an Optimo 1 and Optimo 1 SL. “SL” designates that the latter will not include built-in microphones. The three products are intertwined with a major forthcoming update to Sonos’ software platform that will unlock new functionality.

Mics aside, specific differences between the three Optimo devices could not yet be learned. Theoretically, Optimo 2 could serve as a successor to the Sonos Five, which hasn’t seen a meaningful redesign in years. That would leave Optimo 1 and 1 SL to fill the role of smaller smart speakers or satellite speakers in Sonos surround sound systems. Home theater has become a critical part of the company’s business.

Earlier this month, Sonos reported rocky third-quarter earnings, blaming rampant inflation and the dollar’s appreciation for a miss on revenue. The company also revealed that it had pushed back the planned release of a new product — almost certainly the Sub Mini — until the first fiscal quarter of 2023, which falls between October and December of this calendar year.

“Softening consumer demand across our product categories had an outsized impact on Roam,” CEO Patrick Spence said on the quarterly investor call, also noting that the $279.99 Sonos Ray soundbar “is significantly missing our expectations for the year” due to the same weakened demand.

But Spence maintained an optimistic outlook. “We’re focusing on what we can control at this point. We are investing in a tremendous amount of new innovation and new products that we think are going to help us come out of these macroeconomic headwinds in an even stronger position.” Optimo 2, Optimo 1, and Optimo 1 SL will be central to that innovation and steady product pipeline.

During its fiscal 2022, Sonos released the second-gen Beam, Roam SL (plus new Roam colors), the Sonos Ray, and Sonos Voice Control. It also made acquisitions, including that of Mayht Holding BV, a company that Sonos claims “has invented a new, revolutionary approach to audio transducers” that allows them to be smaller and lighter without affecting quality.

The Verge has reached out to Sonos for comment.

Sonos announced its most affordable soundbar to date last week. But some of the company’s loyal customers were disappointed by the lack of a less expensive subwoofer to go along with the new Sonos Ray. It felt like the perfect opportunity to announce a product that’s been rumored for months. The only subwoofer that Sonos currently sells is the $749 Sub, which costs more than both the Ray and Beam — so it’s hard to justify as an accessory at those terms.

But despite no announcement last week, The Verge can confirm that Sonos is coming closer to releasing a smaller, less costly subwoofer that will be able to wirelessly pair with the Sonos Ray, Beam, and Arc. Rumors about such a device popped up a few months ago after Sonos accidentally spilled some early details in its mobile app. At the time, screenshots revealed the product’s name — the Sub Mini — and The Verge is now able to further corroborate this branding.

More importantly, for the first time, after seeing an image of the upcoming product, I’m able to share a preview of the Sub Mini’s general design. In the earlier leak, Sonos described it as a “smaller, cylindrical subwoofer,” and The Verge’s 3D render matches that. The Sub Mini is Sonos model S37, coming directly after S36, which ended up being the $279 Ray.

Ask any Sub owner and they’ll likely vouch for what a huge difference the subwoofer makes when watching movies or even listening to music. When Sonos soundbars recognize a linked Sub, they adjust audio output to focus on higher frequencies, leaving the low rumble and floor-rattling bass to the dedicated subwoofer.

The main thing that distinguishes the Sub Mini hardware is an elongated, pill-shaped vertical cutout right in the middle of the device. It just so happens that the regular Sub has a rectangular cutout, so Sonos seems to have settled on this both for functionality and as a design trait of sorts. In the case of the Sub, there are acoustic ports on both sides, so it would follow that the Sub Mini will have a similar internal layout — albeit with smaller, less powerful components.

Features, specific release timing, and pricing details for the Sub Mini could not yet be learned, and the same goes for the hardware’s actual size and dimensions. But the broad strokes design seen here should mostly resemble whatever Sonos announces in the coming months. The Verge has reached out to the company for comment.

Image: Sonos

During a February call with investors, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said, “In fiscal 2022, we are focused on launching new products in our existing product categories.” Like the Sonos Ray, the Sub Mini would meet those criteria and fit into the company’s home theater lineup.

Sonos’ fiscal year runs through September 2022, so any announcements in a completely new product category (like wireless headphones) will have to wait until the fall. Sonos has carried out five product launches so far in 2022, according to chief financial officer Brittany Bagley. That count apparently includes the second-gen Beam (released last September) in addition to the newer Sonos Roam SL, Sonos Ray soundbar, new colors of the standard Roam, and Sonos Voice Control.

Spence has recently expressed frustration internally with Sonos staff over a rise in leaks, according to people familiar with the matter. Aside from revealing the Ray’s design weeks before its official introduction, The Verge also spoiled Sonos’ announcement of its own voice control service, which will roll out to customers in the US on June 1st.

“I know it’s hard for all of you but … we want to make sure that when we actually have it ready, we bring it out to the world, and that’s when we talk about it,” he said on last week’s earnings call when asked how a recent acquisition might factor into future Sonos products.

Sonos is preparing to introduce its own voice assistant service within the next few weeks, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. The voice functionality will let customers play and control music on Sonos’ whole-home audio platform.

It will be part of a forthcoming software update set to arrive first to customers in the US on June 1st, with an international rollout to follow. Sonos Voice will serve as an alternative to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, which Sonos already supports on its smart speakers and voice-enabled soundbars. All Sonos products that run the company’s S2 software will support Sonos Voice Control.

Sonos has recently posted job openings related to the “Sonos Voice Experience,” with the company saying its ambition is to “make voice interactions fully private, more personal, and more natural.” The debut of Sonos Voice will mark a pivotal moment in Sonos’ expansion into services as the company seeks to augment its hardware business. (Sonos Radio and the paid, higher quality Sonos Radio HD were the first such forays into services.) The offering will provide core conveniences that are similar to existing competitors, allowing Sonos product owners to play specific songs, artists, or playlists with voice commands, among other functions.

At launch, Sonos Voice will work with Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, Deezer, and the company’s own Sonos Radio. Spotify and Google’s YouTube Music aren’t yet on board. In keeping with Sonos’ interest in privacy, the feature will not record user audio commands or relay them to the cloud for processing. “Hey Sonos” will be the wake word for Sonos Voice Control, and the company’s internal tests show it to be quicker than competing assistant services at core music tasks.

Sonos declined to comment for this story, citing its policy of not commenting on rumors or speculation. But through various job listings for the voice product and an as-yet-unannounced “Home Theater OS,” the company has offered a glimpse at a future where it will put a much greater emphasis on software and try to establish itself as a central hub for streaming entertainment — potentially moving beyond audio to incorporate video as well. Patrick Spence, Sonos’ chief executive officer, has hinted at those objectives in interviews. “You’re always investing ahead of the curve,” he said on the Decoder podcast. “We’re hiring people in software to go into new areas that we’re not in today. It’s easier in hindsight to understand that a company has been working on all of these great things. We just didn’t see it at that moment in time.”

Voice services have been a point of contention in Sonos’ rift with large tech companies including Google and Amazon. Two years ago, Spence told US lawmakers that Google refused to allow its Assistant service to operate simultaneously with Amazon’s competing product on the same device. Amazon wasn’t as restrictive, Spence has said. Sonos, Google, and Amazon continue to work together as partners despite Sonos publicly accusing both of unfair pricing tactics and patent infringement; it successfully sued Google over the latter, forcing minor changes to multi-room audio playback and volume controls in some Google software.

Sonos’ development of its own voice feature hasn’t exactly been a well-kept secret. The company has signaled its interest with customer surveys, and, last year, early details about the service were discovered in the Sonos mobile app (as noted here by Protocol). At the time, screenshots indicated that it would be possible to use the Sonos voice service alongside Alexa, with customers able to use either one by saying the respective wake word. But the images showed that Google Assistant and Sonos’ voice offering cannot be paired in the same way — another sign of Google’s tight control over how and where its services can be used. Blogger Carsten Knobloch recently published some additional screenshots of Sonos Voice, but its launch date and supported services have not been previously reported.

The Sonos Voice Experience will stick to the fundamentals at launch. But if people are able to use Alexa at the same time — Sonos calls this feature “voice concurrency” — they’ll be able to give the Sonos offering a shot without sacrificing smart home integrations or other more varied features that the Sonos voice service may lack.

Sonos’ stated goal of making voice “fully private” could be another key way of differentiating itself from Alexa and Google Assistant, both of which heavily rely on cloud computing. Amazon says Alexa is designed with “multiple layers of privacy and security,” and Google offers similar assurances. But some consumers remain inherently wary of voice technologies and Big Tech using voice interactions for advertising purposes.

Last month, The Verge reported that the next new hardware product coming from Sonos is a budget soundbar to be priced around $250. That device, the Sonos Ray, will also be announced in the coming weeks. Unlike the company’s more expensive Arc and Beam soundbars, however, it will not have integrated mics for voice controls.

Sonos is nearing the release of a new entry-level soundbar, and you’re looking at it. Codenamed “Fury” and officially known as model S36, the new device is yet another soundbar that will join the company’s lineup beneath the $449 Beam and flagship $899 Arc.

It appears that Sonos is no longer willing to cede the lower-cost soundbar market to Vizio and other competitors, as I can reveal that the new product is expected to sell for around $249. That’s substantially less expensive than any Sonos soundbar to date. It’s currently penciled in for release just a few weeks from now on June 7th.

I’ve seen genuine photos of the new soundbar, and The Verge has used them to create the 3D renders for this article. It’s not an exact match but more than enough to give you the gist. (You can trust me, I think.) Like the Arc and Beam, Sonos’ budget soundbar will be offered in both black and white.

3D product render by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

The device is even more compact than the Sonos Beam — not a surprise given that it contains significantly fewer drivers.

• Sonos model S36 “Fury”: 550mm (width) x 69mm (depth) x 100mm (height)
• Sonos Beam (gen 2): 651mm (width) x 68.6mm (depth) x 100mm (height)

As is to be expected at a lower price, the new Sonos soundbar will omit certain features like Dolby Atmos, and it lacks built-in mics for voice assistant functionality. Sonos will position this as a soundbar for TV and music, leaving the smarts to its pricier siblings. In fact, internal specifications suggest there’s not even an HDMI port on this product (only an optical cable comes in the box). That limits the new soundbar to Dolby Digital surround sound. You’re still able to expand it to a 5.1 system if you own other compatible Sonos speakers.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: Sonos anticipates that a fair number of customers will use the new soundbar as paired surrounds for the high-end Sonos Arc. And so, for that reason, the company has created a wall mount that will allow Fury — again, that’s just the codename and I’m unsure of its final branding — to be mounted vertically in addition to the standard horizontal orientation. If you’re wondering why anyone would do that, look closer at the drivers to the sides: they’re slightly angled and theoretically, when positioned vertically, they might do a better job at routing Atmos height audio towards the ceiling than something like a Sonos One SL.

Sonos has not yet announced its upcoming soundbar. So while I’m more than happy to do so for them, I’d expect we’ll all be hearing more details about model S36 and the company’s broadening home theater ambitions in the weeks to come. Reached by email about this story, a Sonos spokesperson said “we don’t comment on rumor or speculation.”

Other products that remain under development at Sonos include a smaller, cheaper subwoofer (model S37) and the company’s long-rumored wireless headphones. The latter will usher Sonos into a new product category for the first time since it expanded into portable speakers with the Move and Roam.

Update April 21st, 2:40PM ET: The article has been updated for clarity and to include comment from Sonos.